There are a few things in life I didn't expect to do, and that includes most of what happened in my cattle handling practical today. We walked out to the Veterinary Large Animal Teaching Unit (VLATU), which is a 20 minute walk from campus, in our brand new overalls and shiny gumboots. In my group of 12 we assembled near a row of cow crushes that contained - well - cows. These were tame cows that didn't really do much except occasionally get poked a prodded by vet and vet tech students once in a while, so they were pretty chilled! An awesome vet tech took us for the 3 hours, teaching us the basics of handling, restraining and controlling cows in a safe way.
A list of exciting cow activities that we got to do follows:
Grabbed her nose
Grabbed her tail and yanked it up (called a tail jack)
Put a halter on
Put a nose grip on
Grabbed mouth, tickled hard palate to cause a mouth opening reflex, grabbed tongue, shoved gag between teeth, put hand down throat.
So, yeah. The cows had fun. But they knew what was coming so they handled it pretty well. Afterwards they lead a big older jersey cow into an arena and demonstrated how to cast a cow. Essentially they tied her up (see below) and pulled on her from both ends, and she toppled over (slowly) onto her side. So cool! This is a quick video on what casting a cow actually looks like. The cow today wasn't in labour like this one but it's the same idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWPn0QuJ1ok
So I really enjoyed that today. An awesome getting my hands dirty (cow shit, cow slobber, cow ruminate, cow snot, etc) and hands on with real animals instead of studying a textbook.
One awesome thing about the vet school is that they have lots of clubs and seminars that anyone can go along to every week. I went along to the radiology club this week and man it is interesting learning how to interpret x-rays. Of course I'll be using them in my career, but there really is something so fascinating about them. Every other week the 5th (final) year students get to present pictures of cases they've recently worked on, which will be so cool to hear about. They also have a wildlife club, and an emergency response club. The other thing they do is something called "grand rounds" where students give talks about cases. I went along to that today and I learnt so much! I'm really keen to go to another one called "post-mortem rounds" where essentially you get to hang out in the post-mortem room and people dissect animals out to show you diseases or just cool stuff in general. So, not for the squeamish but I seem to be pretty desensitised already!
We have the vet ball tomorrow, themed "Bollywood", which should be fun. Unfortunately Sam is in Dunedin so I can't take him! But I've made lots of cool friends already that I can hang out with. Yay for people!
So, a good day, a good week, thus I'll get a good sleep :)
p.s. watch this video if you haven't, it's simply hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4
So.
Wow.
I've been in Palmerston North for ten days. TEN. It feels like a lifetime!
I found out about vet on the 6th July, booked my flights, packed my bags, cleaned my room, bought lots of stuff, withdrew from Otago, bought more stuff, sorted out studylink, took three bags to the airport but was only allowed two on the plane, and flew to Wellington on the 13th.
Seven crazy days of oraganisation, stress-ation and I-can't-believe-it-ation.
Then in Wellington, I stayed one night at Sam's, drove to Palmerston North the next day, moved all my stuff into Fergusson Hall, bought groceries and kitchen supplies, went out for dinner, then church the next day, Sam left, started 8am Monday, lots of introductions, then camp on Wednesday, back on Friday, dressed up and went to the mentor/mentee happy hour that night, slept in, went out to buy gumboots and overalls, church x2, then 8am Monday again and now it's the evening of the 24th July.
FAR OUT.
I have been so busy, so flat out, so overwhelmed.
But I have also: met awesome people at my hall, am learning how to cook for myself, loving animal handling lectures, continuing to dissect a dog cadavar, meeting great people in the vet programme, getting fit on the stairs up to fergusson hall, meeting more people, have a fridge and a heater in my room, got to buy all my own kitchen stuff, and get to study the awesomest degree in the world!
So it's not too bad really :P
Aside from the break-neck speed of the last couple of weeks, I have to say that I am really enjoying everything so far! The camp I went on was called VLE (Veterinary Leadership Experience) and we were taught about self-management, personality types, and how to work in a team and respect each others differences. It was so interesting and it really jump-started the meeting and getting to know-ing of everyone in first year.
This semester I have anatomy (which is super interesting, and we get to dissect a dog in the labs), physiology (which is super boring, as we're going over the basics of physiology which is the third freaking time for me in two years), biochemistry (same feelings towards this as physiology unfortunately), and animal behaviour/handling/welfare (which is awesome and new and interesting). So, with 8am starts, four times a week, I have to be really organised. I've been getting up at 6:30am (!!!!) and making my breakfast and lunch and everything! It's been great because it's teaching me to put not only study but healthy living into my daily routine.
I really miss Elim and all the people, but I really felt like I was released from there and my life is here now. I've found a new church called Lifechurch which is just as awesome and just as spiritually uplifting so I'm happy!
I'm so grateful that I have the amazing opportunity to be a vet. It's such a privilege and I can't wait to see where I'm heading, whether it's small, large, equine, wildlife or mixed practice. Also, Wellington, and thus Sam, is much more accessible than before! I've already booked a couple of bus trips down for a fraction of the price of plane tickets. So awesome!
Anyway, off to an early night for an early morning start!
xx
