missing post...

Sorry, this one was supposed to go after the last wildlife post but before the emergency post.....

9.12.08

I’m sad to leave the wildlife clinic I’ve had a BLAST the entire time and loved every minute of the long hours. Besides learning a lot and enjoying myself, I’m glad I came out here because it solidified my desire to go into wildlife medicine. I definitely want to be a wildlife rehabilitation veterinarian. Now the only standing in my path is the shortage of jobs (less than a dozen full-time wildlife vets in the country…..it’s going to be a waiting game). But I’m going to apply to a couple wildlife medicine internships and a couple exotics/small animal practices and maybe some emergency practices for back-up. I’m crossing my fingers I get one I want!!!

The last two weeks I was back at the vet school on the small animal internal medicine rotation. I had some great cases and some sad cases. Since it’s a vet school (ie well-known referral center) we see extremes; I learned enough but the pace was a bit slow—or rather less efficient than I was used to. But it was a good rotation. I saw some sad cancer cases, some good immune-mediated disease cases that we were able to treat and some cases we never figured out. Good learning lessons.

So now I’m at a small animal emergency center. It is great! Everyone here is incredibly helpful and nice. Last shift, I got to place some intravenous catheters, watch a splenectomy surgery (taking the spleen out of a dog who had hemangiosarcoma), and suture up a wound by myself. Good times

Well I’ve got a long weekend of work ahead of me so I better get some sleep