End of Neuro

So my Neurology rotation has come to an end and I have to say I'm sad because I really, really enjoyed this rotation.  I learned a lot and got to see some cool things. So I'm glad that I have this rotation again in October/November. My last patient was an 18 year old dog who had, for all purposes, a stroke. It was cool to see him slowly improve as he was in the hospital. Romeo was a very sweet boy and even though he's 18, I still hope he lives for many years to come :) My next rotation is in Wisconsin. I'm going with another friend for 2 weeks to a primarily dairy practice to get lots of hands on cattle experience. I'm excited about doing something different for awhile and getting away from the hospital and not having to do as much paperwork :) I'm sure we'll work our butts off the next two weeks, but hopefully it'll be worth it!

All Things Neurologic

So my new rotation now is Neurology and I am loving it. I always found the subject fascinating and getting to put together pieces of a puzzle to solve a patient's problem is very interesting. Tomorrow I get to scrub in on a surgery to remove two herniated discs from a Jack Russell's back. Not your everyday run of the mill surgery in private practice. And Dr. da Costa has kept us students on our toes, firing questions at us and probing the depths of our knowledge. Some days my brain feels more like a kiddy pool than the ocean that they expect from us. But we learn new things every day and hopefully things stick long enough for us to put them into practice after graduation.

Wrangler Rachel Riding Through...Shelter Medicine?

So last week started my shelter medicine rotation. I spent last week on the surgery section and next week I will see the medicine side of the shelter. We got to do spays and neuters on cats and dogs all week and we also observed an enucleation and two cherry eye procedures. Overall it was a very fun week and I was able to get my cat spay time down to 40 minutes after it took me over an hour the first day. I'd say that's a success! I'm on this rotation with several good friends of mine and they've taken to teasing me a bit, calling me the fastest cat neuter in the west and a cat wrangler. Neutering cats is pretty similar to neutering pigs--and I've had a lot of practice at that. It gave me a bit of an upper hand when it came to efficiency in the cat neutering world. And as for cat wrangler, I chalk it up to luck and just being in the right place at the right time, but one of the kittens got loose from another girl and I snatched him up as he attempted to make a running exit down the hallway. Nevertheless, I think I'd prefer to wrangle horses over cats any day.