almost done!!

I'm almost done with my first year woo woo!!!! We just got back the grades for our midterms (I did very well!)..Now we have moved on to renal physiology (the kidney). It's very complex/now I realize why your kidneys are so important/it's actually very interesting. It would be really hard too but our professor is amazing!!! He teaches at the medical school as well & is very good at making sure we understand all the concepts before moving on to new ones. We have also been learning about the head in anatomy and neurobiology. I know we are supposed to do no harm to animals but it was kind of cool cutting off the heads of our cadavers and dissecting them:) My favorite part was the eyeball. I literally got to cut eyeballs in half and see all the aqueous jelly-like substance in the middle and then I held the lens in my hand!!! Ok, so that might sound disgusting to some people but I found it to be realllllly cool. The inside of the eyes in animals are really pretty too! They have blue and green iridescent colors on the inside and that's what you see when their eyes "glow" in the dark...Besides class, I have just been training for my half-marathon (which is this saturday!!). We also have a wildlife clinic at school that students can sign up to help with in the beginning of the year. I didn't do it this year because I wasn't sure how much time I would have. My friends Ashley & Kim did it though and I went with them today just to help out. We had to feed baby raccoons! They were soooooo cute. They look like cute little fuzzy puppies. I almost wanted to take one home but realized that one animal is probably enough for now, right mom and dad;) Ok well I guess that's it for now, back to studying!

busy, busy, busy

Well this has certainly been a busy week. We had class basically 8-5 everyday with a quiz Wednesday morning. Again, this stuff is basically all a review at least so it is not that difficult. I also finished training for the frog job and did it the first time by myself Friday. I started the Purina job Wednesday too so now am doing that about once or twice a week (usually people pick up their food once a week & I get a shipment in/have to put it away once a week). Then Thursday night we had our "Vetscapades" which is basically a night where vet students from all classes do skits/songs/presentations that are making fun of different things that are vet school related. It was a nice break and nice to have all the classes together (and they also served really good food!). Finally, this morning I went on a trip with the Non-Traditional Species club to the Exotic Feline Rescue in Centerpoint, Indiana. They have over 200 tigers & lions so it was really cool to see all of them (even in the rain lol). I am posting some of the pictures I took so you can see the beautiful animals! Guess that's it for now:)
Kiira

Frog job!

I got a job at the medical sciences lab working with/caring for their research jobs. I started training this week! It's actually kind of fun. I just have to change out their water and switch them over to new tanks but it is quite amusing trying to catch the little slippery suckers (they're aquatic frogs). If you google "Xenopus frogs" you can see what they look like. Also I set up my first mating with them last night, for that I had to pick out a male and female and give them both an injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). I think that part will definitely help me improve my skills in giving IV injections etc. because the space that I have to give it in is a lot smaller than on a dog or cat & like I said they are very slippery little things lol. In terms of school, we're still learning about reproduction and nutrition so it's actually been pretty easy which is nice. We also had our "Vet Med Olympics" this week. I was the coach of the tug-of-war team for the first years. I had to play today because we were short people, I don't think I really helped all that much though lol. Our team ended up getting last but it was a lot of fun (especially our match against the faculty). I think that's all about it for now! Back to studying:)

time flies..

It's crazy how quickly this year has gone by! We just finished out third quarter Friday and started our fourth quarter on Monday. In just a few short weeks i'll be done with my first year of veterinary school!! This quarter we are learning about reproduction (physiology, histology and anatomy), nutrition, and renal aka kidney (physiology, histology and anatomy). I'm actually looking forward to this quarter because it will probably be my easiest one. They said if you went to undergrad here and took reproduction (which I took two classes) then you already know everything plus more. Also, our nutrition teacher is the same teacher I had for companion animal nutrition last year and he said it's basically the exact same class. So...hopefully it will be less stressful lol. I know my dad knows, but my computer didn't work wednesday when I went to study for my final thursday and I just about lost it. Thankfully my awesome dad knew how to fix it!! Anyways...one more day of class and then spring break! Oh & Happy St. Patrick's Day:)

Kiira

Raji!!!

Hiee! So in terms of class this week we have just been learning more about the different gastrointestinal system and more about the respiratory system. We have a quiz monday that I will be studying all weekend for. We did have more interesting anatomy labs this week though. We have been doing palpation (which is feeling basically) on the resident horses and cows. Basically, we have to know where all of the organs are in the animal from the outside which makes sense when you're going to be opening them up to do different surgeries etc.. What I have been most excited about this week though is my new dog!!!!! I have been telling my friends the entire year that I want my first dog to be a tri-color collie since that was they very first dog I ever had. I also said that I wanted to adopt one though since I feel bad for all of the shelter animals that need homes. Then last week a tri-color collie came into the junior surgery!!!! (the juniors do all their spays and neuters on the shelter animals, that way they get spayed/neutered for free before they are adopted). He was perfect ad I had to have him!!! I am very thankful that my parents allowed me to get him:) If I can figure out how to post pictures on here I will. His name is Faraji which means comfort but we're calling him Raji for short. We brought him home yesterday to my friend Ashley & Kim's place, that's where he is staying. He is absolutely the sweetest dog I have ever seen and he is probably a perfect dog to have for vet school because he is very calm and just sits there while we study. So now I have a little friend to comfort me when i'm tired of studying/be a constant reminder of why I'm in vet school :-D Guess that's it for now! Back to class!

Kiira

my least favorite thing in vet school...

So I think I experienced this week what's probably going to be one of my least favorite things in vet school....the gastrointestinal track:/ Although it is interesting how complex it is and how different the cow and horse GI tract are, it is not interesting when you have to dissect the GI tracts in anatomy lab. First of all they were fresh GI tracts and they were huge!!!! Secondly, they were not cleaned out (to put it nicely). It definitely did not smell very good and we tried to get the few guys to basically do it all lol. Other than that, this week we have just been learning more about the respiratory system and then we started the histology and physiology of the GI tract to go along with what we're learning in anatomy. I know I already told my mom and dad but for whoever else is reading I got my midterm grades back! I got 103.3 on the histology part, 95 on the anatomy part and 95 on the day 1 test!!! We haven't gotten our day 2 grades yet but I'm confident I did just as well on it as I did on the other portions. It's definitely nice to know that I understand this stuff and am good at it! Now I am looking forward to the weekend because i'm pet-sitting for a third-year vet student! The CVMF offers free pet-sitting and then people just make donations towards the mission trips we take. I will be watching an australian shepherd, a black cat, and some fish! I plan to take full advantage of having a dog to play with/cuddle with haha. Guess that's it for now. Back to class!
Kiira

Study or watch the superbowl?!?

Ok, so that's not really even a question...studying it is! We have midterms this week so studying is all that i've been doing this weekend, plus i'm not realy a big fan of either of the teams in the superbowl this year so I'm not really interested in watching it lol. I know I told my dad, but for everyone else reading this I got a 95% on my quiz last week! The things we are learning about right now kind of click with me so I'm expecting to do just as well on the midterms this week! It's going to be over all of the cardiology stuff we have learned plus now we are learning about the respiratory system! I never realized how complicated breathing is haha. I find it interesting though and now I actually know what my Albuterol inhaler does (it blocks the Beta-2 receptors in my lungs which then causes dilation of the bronchioles/airways!). Plus in anatomy lab we got to take the lungs out of our cadavers and cut through them to see what the lungs look like on the inside (looks exactly like a sponge!) and then we got to hook them up to oxygen and see what it looks like when they expand! I guess it's good I am easily fascinated by these kinds of things lol. Hmm what else has happened?!.. I spent the night at my friends Ashley & Kim's apartment on tuesday night (well I got snowed in and didn't really have a choice) and then we didn't have school the next day!! They said U of I has only had 6 snow days in the last like 40 years or something and now I've been here for 3 of them!! Unfortunately, Ashley and Kim have two cats so it kind of triggered my asthma which then turned into a cold so I have been taking medicine and trying not to get too sick while i'm doing all this studying. Well I guess that's it for now..hope everyone else is enjoying their Sunday & staying warm!
Kiira