Where is november going?

Had a nice weekend. On saturday went out to the barn. Rode Classy in the outdoor arena and she was pretty hot so it took a while to get her going calmly with nice rythm. After she settled down we headed out to the fields. The barn is owner by a couple who trains thoroughbreds but are from England so hack them out the british way, not round and round in circles on a dirt track but on all these wonderfully groomed trails over the surrounding quarter sections. Classy and I went for a nice controlled gallop and good god that girly can move! Ended up by the south saskatchewan river which runs near the barn. Beautiful set of trails along the river valley edge. Lots of dog though but Classy was a very good girl with all the dogs. ALl in all rode over 2 hours which was a little long for Classy, but she wasn't hot or sweated up, just tired. DIdn't even want to eat when she got back, just wanted to sleep in the sun.

Trail ride by the river!!

Some photos from last week in the indoor



I keep trudgin away at the studying, December is going to be a rough month at school so I am trying to get as far ahead as I can.

My mom is coming for a short visit and I am so excited!! It has been so long since I got to see my family. Thusday we head home for a 3 day weekend and will be partaking of the fun known as Bar None with all my friends from undergrad.

Will post when I get back!

Best Day EVER!!

So yesterday there was a really cool surgery in. Last year they attemptd to fix a wry- nosed colt and it actually turned out really well. Now they had to do further surgery to remove a nasal septum in order to allow better air flow. I was running down to large animal surgery between every class to check on the progress. After class was over I went down to the equine ward and was asking one of the surgeons a bunch of questions about the surgery when a degloving laceration came in. De-gloving is when the horse lacerates around a point in its leg and peels all the fascia off down to a lower point. this horses entire leg from its elbow to its carpus was exposed with the huge skin flap hanging off it. The accident happened within an hour ago so It was repairable. Decided to take the horse to table top surgery. I was hanging around outside the surgery doors watching them prep when the surgeon I was talking to previously asked if I would like to come in on the repair. Of course I said yes! Hadn't been in on a surgery yet at school being only in second year. Surgeon lent me some greens so I didn't have to go down to laundry to find a pair and then I was in the surgery suite!!! Interns and residents were super cool, quizzing me on suture patterns, drugs, etc. I had an absolute blast!!

Boarding barn etiquette

Been busy catching up with all my class work that put off during mid terms. Gah there is so much to catch up on.
Classy has been going really well. She has muscled up so much all ready she looks like a different horse. We have been cantering lately and have also been going on trail rides. She has been so good. Learned what a half halt and is learning how to step up underneath herself more and carry herself instead of making me do it. I am sore! Its been a while since I have ridden such a big moving horse with regularity. We had a little accident on Saturday. It was nice out and the pony club was in the indoor arena so we were in the outdoor. She was cross firing into a corner a lost her balance and fell. We were both fine so I got back on and we continued on with our ride.
I have never really ridden in a big boarding facility, I have always ridden at Fern's place. Some of the crazy stupid neurotic things I have seen completely blow my mind. There is one crazy women with 3 very gorgeous horses all super well broke who lunges each of them for an hour every night (right when I am always there riding, and you aren't supposed to lunge when others are in the arena). I have never seen her ride them even though she talks as if she's won every ribbon available in the area. Strangeness number 2 is the electric heating pad under the saddle on the horse for an hour before riding every night which another girl is a fan of.
One last night takes the cake. The barn where we saddle up in is an old Mennonite barn with a fairly low ceiling. I am saddling up in one stall and hear a girl sacking out a young horses with the saddle in a neighboring stall. Okay cool, working with a young horse. She then proceeded to GET ON the horse in the small box stall with the ceiling so low that she couldn't even sit up fully. WTF! She was so proud of herself for getting on this horse for the 2nd time ever. I didn't say anything as I am the new person and don't want to come off as an ass or be somehow liable if she got hurt.
Should I say something?? what is proper boarding barn etiquette?

Camera is not working :( sorry, no pictures yet.

Sleep

Midterms are finally over. FINALLY! Wrote the last one yesterday. It was microbiology and went a lot better then expected but I still managed to get all the silly swine organisms mixed up by then end of the exam as they all end in suis and parasuis! Room mates and I celebrated by going to a nearby all you can eat chinese buffet. YUM!
Then tried to go out riding but forgot that the arena is booked tuesday nights by a dog agility group. So Classy and I just visited and had a snack.
Been getting some grades back. Got 81% in pathology. We have had lots of students falling ill with H1N1 and so it will be a long wait for marks as we have to wait untill everyone has written the exam to know our marks.

Time off??? never!

Well although I made it through the tough week of exams, there were still a couple more to go so I have been hiding out and digging in deep to get through. Write the last one on Tuesday which is Microbiology. It has suffered from "last exam" syndrome up to this point, that is it has been completely ignored so I am a little bit worried. Oh well, we will prevail!
Friday night was the first happy hour of the school of which I was one of the organizers for. Of course it was in celebration of Halloween. It was followed with a pub crawl of which we will say no more.
I went as Dorothy from the wizard of oz...



Spent Saturday recovering and went riding in the evening after pony club was finished. Classy was super distracted by the fact that there were other horses in the arena. Couldn't go more than 5 steps without stopping and when she doesn't want to move she is adamant about it!! Well the other horses eventually left and then it was a 180 degree flip. All of a sudden all she wanted to do was MOVE and do so at a very fast very disorganized trot. not good for hungover rider. No more sweet feed for her!!
Sunday morning went again to the barn. Took a crop with me just in case we had to "i don't want to move argument" again. it was good thinking on my part. We spent this morning ride just working on listening to leg signals and giving to the legs. After a short time with some stick reinforcement she caught onto the idea and we had a great ride. Lots of transition work to get her listening and more responsive.
Then went home and studied all day for microbiology.
I took my camera to the barn to get some pictures but unfortunately it died before I got on...

I'm a survivor!!

I made it through the week of hell!!! Still 2 midterms to go but they are quite spread out over the next couple weeks.
Went riding yesterday afternoon after the last exam, it did wonders to help clear my head. Then some friends and I went out for a celebratory dinner to a really good local mexican restaurant. yumm!

A breath of fresh air

Been out riding sunday and tuesday and again today! Classy has been doing really well, everyone at the barn thinks she is just stunning and can't get over how well behaved she is!!
Here is a video from today, everyone was busy so I set the camera on the mounting block so just fast forward through the horse-less parts. The weird background noise isn't be saying whoah a hundred times a minute, its pigeons.
I had SUCH a fun time this afternoon, back to the parasitology books though now for me!

exams, again

Well it is semester turnaround week. Had a pharmacology midterm today that invovled verabtum memorization of 98 different drugs along with their method of actions, contraindications, etc along with a bunch of theory.
tomorrow is a virology final
Friday is a parasitology midterm
Its a rough week from our standpoint!

Day one:

Woke up early this mmorning, and by early I mean 8 o'clock as I wanted to get to the barn early before anyone else started riding in the arena as I wanted to lunge Classy out good before I got on her. Got to the barn and gtrabbed Classy, saddled her up in the barn then headed over to the arena. We lunged for about 20 minutes and at first she was a little heads up and crazy but she eventually settled down. She had never been in an indoor arena and everything was a little spooky at first. After lunging I grabbed one of the girls doing morning chores to give me a hand getting up the first time as I was a little nervous. Clasy though was a doll, it was like she never had any time off and she sure works better when she has some room to move. We did a lot of walking, serpentines, circles and whoahs and ended with a good 5 minute trot doing similar. We then went back to the barn and untacked, she got her goodies and then I turned her back out.
So I have a horse, and indoor arena, other girls to ride with, but you know what was missing: my mom. Mom has always gone riding with me ever since I was born, she was the person to spark my love of horses and even though she may not always ride, she is always there to debeif with after riding and be my ground man when things are a little iffy.
Sorry, no pictures.No riding till wedndsday but will probably drive out to check on her tomorrow night.

A horse of course!!

Classy arrived in fine style this afternoon!! She seemed no worse for wear after her 7 hour trailer ride from Alberta other then a little stocked up.
Met the barn manager Liz, she showed me around the place before Classy arrived! It is a really nice place you can see here at E and J stables It was pony club day so there were a lot of moms and younger girls around. Everyone was so helpful! The barn is an old Mennonite barn with stalls and feed storage on the main floor with tack storage in the loft above and its kind of a free for all, claim a space and utilize it as you see fit. That has me a little worried but I will survive. There is a nice indoor and an outdoor ring with riding from 6am to 11pm. Tons of trails maintained throughout the winter in the neighboring fields as well as a 1 km ride to the river valley with lots of trails.
Once Classy arrived we walked around for a while to stretch her legs and get used to the sites and sounds of the place. She's not used to a busy stable but she will certainly be bomb proof after a little time there(as well as pigeon proof, she thought they were terrifying!) After about an hour of walking and rubbing her legs down I put her in her pasture. Large pasture with about 10 other mares. Classy was a little bit shy and got pushed around at first but eventually buddied up with a big paint and dark bay and managed to get in at a hay bale.
Tomorrow I am heading there early in the morning to get a good lunging session in the arena before it gets busy and then hop on up and get the filly and myself back working! I am so excited I don't think I'll be able to sleep.


A gelding at the barn my mom will drool over

Classy and her buddies

All she wanted to do was eat

More eating

and a picture of Louie helping mom study...

catch-up

Last weekend was thanksgiving up here in Canada which meant a long weekend for me!!
Got off of school mid day Friday and drove my truck back to Alberta. My grandparents were visiting from Manitoba for the weekend and it was really nice to see them. Spent most of Saturday helping Fernvalley with weaning, holding horses for the farrier and freezing in general. Sunday we set up panels for the winter pen for Eurus and Phoenix and went and got bales for the babies. Mom and I even got out for a ride in a short burst of sunshine! We then went home and ate turkey(which I got the majority of the leftovers from!)
Monday was pretty much clean up and get ready to make tracks back to Saskatoon. The weather had been iffy for the past week, but I was an hour out of Edmonton when I ran into a huge snow squall with zero visibility and very icy roads. Truckie and I ended up in the ditch at one point and luckily I have 4x4 low on it so we were able to climb back out. Then later in the drive an hour away from Saskatoon I stopped for gas and managed to lock my keys in the truck. So 2 hours later someone finally comes to unlock the truck for me. It was a very long and eventful drive back!
I did absolutely zero studying over the weekend so really had to buckle down last week as midterm season is upon us! I wrote a general pathology exam on Thursday and am spending the weekend studying pharmacology, parasitology and virology for exams next week and.....

CLASSY IS COMING TODAY!!!!! I am so excited!! I will post pics once she arrives.....


Digger and I

Mom on Blue

Deer in the field

Tossing bales

vetavision

Its been super busy here but not a lot interesting has gone on. It turned very cold and has done nothing but rain for the last 2 weeks. It was-6 when I woke up this morning!!
Last week, thursday--> sunday was a huge open house at the vet college that is put on every 3 years known as vetavision. All students work at a booth (I worked at the dairy booth). There are things like large animal surgery, small animal surgery, clinical pathology, gross pathology, bugs and worms, wildlife medicine, exotic medicine, etc. there are over 30 exhibits!! all students also had to volunteer at admissions, concession, gift shop, etc. all in all it was about an 8 hour commitment all 4 days for me. Here is a clip from the local news on vetavision if you want a peek at what went on! There are also live animal demos such as the dairy booth, petting zoo, poultry, beef, horses, llamas,sheep, alpacas, exotic animals, fistulated cow that you could stick you hand into, etc. All in all it was a success but left me tired and a very unproductive weekend homework wise. It was fun setting up though as we had to move about 200 bales and I love moving bales. It was a fun alternative to class :)
click here to see a clip on vetavision
I am super excited for the upcoming thanksgiving long weekend. Can't wait to go home, see the family, the horses, and just forget about studying for 3 days! Grandparents will be down from Winnipeg who I have not seen in a very long time.
I've also had to get a new lap top as my old girl finally died on me and classes have been going so fast I can no longer keep up with pen and paper! The 1st laptop I bought was a dud so I am now on new lap top #2. Hopefully its a keeper!

the first is always the worst

Well, as i posted earlier, i wrote my first exam of the new school year last week. The first is always the worst. I always find myself wondering if I will still stack up with everyone else? am I still good enough? will I survive this year? At least this year it was a fairly easy midterm that I managed to get 95% on! That is a lovely little confidence booster!
Will post again later this weekend about vetavision, the vet school open house that is going on over the next 4 days(which = no real school!!!)

and so the "just in time" scenario begins!!

It's hard to believe it is the first day of fall, and was also the day of my first midterm!!! It was a relatively slack course and the midterm was very easy, but we'll see what the verdict is in a couple weeks when the grades arrive. The course is called evidence based medicine and currently has been teaching us about the science of trashing research papers. Very scintilating
Second midterm is Thursday and is Virology. Pretty self explanatory there, but we still have crazy long days and are starting to drown in the memorization piles. Between the different viruses, bacteria, parasites, and drugs we have thousands of things to memorize. Big thanks to who ever invented the flash card!!
I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of fernvalley's mare Classy, it will make being out here so much more bearable and give me an incentive to get the homework done in a timely fashion and not waste time on certain websites.....
peace out!
Angela
I leave you with my boy Digger...

the weekend

Well, not a lot of studying went on to say the least.
Friday night was the annual "round - up" event which consists of dinner, silent auction, and a huge dance. We were lucky this year in the fact that the first graduating class of wcvm, the class of 1969, came to party with us! Room mates and I started out at a friends house "predrinking", in order to save money once at the party. We play a drinking came known as sociables which is quite fun. We then walked to the hall where the dinner and dance was at.
The wcvm has a tradition known as "skits", where the class hosting the upcoming event does 5 short 5-8 min skits to advertise the upcoming event to the other classes every day. Here are a couple examples. They can either be digitally done or live.

skit examples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4K7wiu9FBo

Room mates and I dressed up for the party! (I am in green)

So partied hard Friday night.

Saturday was the annual softball tournament. I have never played softball before so figured I would give it a shot! There were about 30 students who crawled out of bed hung over and got to the field. Had a lot of fun, actually managed to hit the ball as well as get hit by the ball (I have a few bruises). There was also a lot of beer drinking going on! It was a beautiful sunny day around 26 degrees so It was a lovely way to spend the day.

my first attempt at hitting the ball, I not only managed to hit the ball but also get hit by the ball in the course of the day.

That's hard work!! Refueling between matches

Look alive!

Pets had fun too!

Sunday I did the dreaded landry now that our machine was fixed. Also caught up on homework by studying in the backyard and enjoying the lovely hot weather. Roomies and I ate lots of icecream too ;)

click!

Have you ever had a day when everything just "clicks"? I finally did!! Had a lot of general pathology today which is a very interesting course as it is the first time we are learning the science of how things go wrong.

We have an amazing professor who uses great analogies to help us get the concepts and is a big supporter of jumping right in and getting in there, "you learn nothing from the sidelines and we are all here to learn from every ones mistakes" are his famous quotes. He expects a lot of us and ensures everyone gets a chance to practice.

So far we have been learning how to describe lesions, come up with morphological diagnoses and learning the pathology behind things like the different kinds of abscess', cell death, organ change, etc.

The class really comes into its own though during the labs. The labs are held in the pathology seminar room, and 24 students from the class head down and working in pairs diagnose a lesion. The rest of the class then enters the bleachers and the 24 students take turns going through their specimens with the prof correcting them at the end of their presentation, I unfortunately was in the first group of students to have to do this.....

So I have a brain covered with these little black spots. Description: random multifocal to coalescing black round lesions 2mm to 5 mm in size. The lesions are invasive into the cortex and not well demarcated. morphological diagnosis: multifocal melanosarcoma of the brain. Sounds impressive right? after only 1 lecture? AmAZING! (fortunately the profs other favorite quote is "you are allowed to remember" and I remembered the brain from a photo in the previous lecture ;) ) This is never the less a harrowing experience as you stand in front of your peers blowing smoke out your you know what and preparing to get a lecture from the prof on how everything you just said is wrong.

And yet I am amazed at how much we have learned. We actually sound like doctors!! Another component of the class is a seminar at 430-530 Tuesdays and Thursdays as the clinical pathologists from the schools diagnostics center for the public presents interesting cases from during the week. Not only did I understand everything in seminar today but I actually was able to clarify some lingering questions from a case I saw this summer!!!

It is so nice to be learning something that comes off as being so relevant to our future careers, but also that I understand it!! This is reassuring....

Pathology lab during open house:

the room has an amazing video and live streaming televisions so no matter where you sit you always can see the good parts!

Whirlwind weeks!

Wow! Busy first couple of weeks.

The first week of class went really well. Lots of parties as we now second years welcome the new batch of firsties to the program. Welcome bbq Monday, Tuesday recovery, Wednesday night was hurricane party(where we have house parties, get our first year buddies tipsy, dress them up in silly costumes and take them to the bar), and the list goes on. Lots of fun.

The jello shots for hurricane party that I hosted

The start of the party

The costumes

The end of the party, oh dear!!! At least it wasn' me this year!

First weekend was pretty slow, not a lot of homework yet so went for ice cream, to a nice pub called Winston's, and spent Sunday sun tanning down at cranberry flats, a local beach along the south Saskatchewan river (it was +30!) Also biked over 35km till i got a flat tire.

The second week we buckled down to class. We are currently taking general pathology, virology, evidence based medicine, micro biology, pharmacology, medical imaging, pain and analgesia, and parasitology (enough with the _ologies!) It was a long 3 day weekend this last weekend so my room mate from last year who house jumped with me came home with me for the weekend. We had fun riding horses, playing badminton, and enjoying my moms fabulous cooking!! I sure makes me miss living rural though.

What biking in Saskatoon looks like!

Sun tanning by the river

Swimming in the river!

Sydney and I our for a ride at Fernvalleys place on Greymares horse Blue and my gelding Digger!

Go Sydney!

Reloaded and ready for action!!

Here is a recap of the summer.

Work was amazing. I got to work with alpacas, bot belly pigs, dogs, cats, chickens, horses, bovines, and everything in between. After meeting up with classmates for a bbq Saturday and swapping summer tales I got to do an unbelievable am out of hands on at the clinic I worked at. I did everything including: monitoring anesthesia, all iv injections on every species, intubating surgical patients and prepping for surgery, geldings, lots of palpating and ultra sounding, AI, and the list goes on. I was very sad to leave there and come back to Saskatoon but am reassured as they have offered me work post graduating as well as other potential opportunities!

Pics

ultra sounding dairy cattle, see the fetus on the monitor?

A truly shit eating grin for fern...

Alpaca baby(called "cria")

Ultra sounding horses

Elk herd surveys and counts for CWD

Lived out at the farm and spent every waking moment with the horses. Diggers was a saint after an initial period of him being super crazy excited about working. Got the barrel pattern down flat, jumped over 3' with the nice standards I built, got flying changes down and just had fun!

Worked with Eurus a lot. He is such a big boy but is such a gentle giant. He is willing to do anything as long as he knows there will be a snack involved. He long lines like a pro, takes a saddle(and a rider!!!) Only got on him once as he is only two but is all ready nearing 16hh!!

we've come a long way from here.....

to here!

Also been riding a young mare of Fernvalley's Classy. She went to a trainers for 30 days(the future vets new rule about riding young horses that are not hers). She has been a real sweet heart and I can't wait for her to get here. Yep that's right! I will have a horse while at school!!!! Sanity will be that much closer this year.

And had lots of fun in between

Went to watch Lipizzaner's and cried they were so beautiful

Hiked to the top of a mountain with my bro

Got very drunk at an outside concert with my lil sis so badly that fernvalley had to come peel me off the side of the highway puking.

Bought my first vehicle!!

and took in lots of the beautiful Alberta scenery

All in all it was a fabulous summer, but I am still excited to be back at school. This first week is pretty hectic with us 2nd years throwing many parties for the 1st years but there is some real class.

Will post as the ride gets going for the 2nd time around!

I have not perished!

I am still alive, work at the vet clinic is keeping me super busy but I will try to update everyone. I absolutely love my job and it confirms that I am definetly on the corect career path. There are two doctors at the clinic, one the owner and the other a part timer. Part timer is so much fun to work with and she lets me do so much! With her I have done some power floats on horses, tons of IV drugging of horses, repaired an aural hematoma on a dog, and neutered countless cats to name a few things. I guess owner heard all I was doing and was feeling a little, put out out maybe? Anywho he says one day to me "Angela, I bet you're having way more fun with (part timer) then you are with me". What do you say?!?!? Yes? the truth? So we are out later that day on a gelding call and he says to me, "I bet (part timer) never let you geld a horse yet, want to give it a shot?" I was elated!! To date I removed 3 testicles out of horses as the 2nd horse I tried to do was an inguinal crypt so Owner had to help. Absolutely makes my summer.

I also do a lot of veterinary nurse work at the clinic, doing x-rays, surgical prepping, and so on.



Outside of work I have been busy with my horses. I built some lovely white jump standards and after convincing the silly 9 year old appy that they were not going to eat him have been having a lot of fun over those. At a local show last year we had to leave the ring of the jumper class as he spooked at the white standards so badly. All we had at home were Milk Crates to build jumps out of! He is also doing fabulous around the barrel pattern and has flying changes down. All the things on my to do list for the summer with him have been completed so He is down to part time work.


I have started riding a filly of my auntie sherry's who has recently came back from the trainers. She is a very tall brilliant 3 year old and an absolute doll to ride. She is coming to Saskatoon for the winter with me as my riding horse. I hope to have her ready for a couple shows next spring.

Eurus is monstrous! Sticked him at 15.3hh last week and he just turned 2! I work him once a week in the arena. He takes any saddle western or English like an old pro and long lines like a master. Can do serpentine, figure eights, you name it. A couple weeks ago he had the western saddle on and I grabbed the horn and just hung off the saddle with my feet off the ground. He didn't flinch an inch!! Will be sitting on him before the summer is out just to say I did.

Thats pretty much what I've been up to other then work, I have also been helping Sherry to get the mares bred.
Will try to post once more before school is back in!

Sorry for the wait!

WOW, has it ever been a busy summer, and I do not have Internet in the place I am staying in for the summer and although I told myself I could use the Internet at work over my lunch hour, I never seem to get a lunch hour!
I am back in Alberta now and living out by fernvalleys place while working at the local mixed animal veterinary practice. The practice I work at handles everything from horses and cattle (beef and dairy) to pot belly pigs, cats, dogs, ferrets, budgies, goats, llamas, alpacas and so on... It has been a fabulous experience so far, I even got to do my first surgery last week, a cat neuter, but I can't complain! I am currently pulling the graveyard shift on monitoring a group of critical care patients in the clinic that include a scouring calf, a dog with liver disease, a dog that came in at midnight with a huge bite wound, as well as another dog fight wound victim. Liver dog enjoys pulling his IV out every half hour or so and needs constant monitoring. I swear that's one of the hardest things about vet med, your patients don't always realize that what you are trying to do is actually helping!
I have been really enjoying getting to see my horses every day after work, though some days I don't get off work till late and then am too tired to do anything more than pet noses. I have tons of photos but Don't have them here at the clinic unfortunately.
I will try to update again soon!

I have reached the beer at the end of the tunnel!

I am done!! 25% DVM (barring i have passed all my finals which i am sure I have). I am currently inebriated so I will post more tomorrow, but I have learned so much and have had such an awesome time here its kind of sad to leave. But this summer is well deserved and I am so excited to not have to study 8 hours a night!
talk to you later!!
Angela

The end of the tunnel is in sight!!

Tomorrow is our last day of class and it is only a half day with 3 classes! YAY!!! So hard to believe how fast the year has gone. I unfortunately have some huge exams til the 29th so will be digging in deep to get though the next couple of weeks, so sorry, but I will be on a blogger hiatus till the end
Saw some neat immuno suppressed foals in the equine ward at the moment, makes studying immunology easier when the evidence of its importance is right in front of you and its life is hanging in the balance.
Talk to you all soon! Wish me luck!
Ill leave you with some pictures of Louie helping mommy study

HORSESHORSESHORSES

Had an anatomy lab today on horse heads. worked in pairs that each got a horses head that had been sawn saggitly in half down the mid line. It is a 2 week dissection but we did a pretty good job today on it. It was awesome to see some things like the guttural pouch (out pocket of the Eustachian tube) so prone to pathology but that is never seen unless by endoscopy. Really helps with the understanding of the horse in general. Our poor beasty had a nasty upper respiratory infection as when we cut into the nasal concha stinky smelly goopy puss pored out. I <3 it but my hands still reek of puss even though I wore gloves.
After lab I went to the equine clubs year end banquet and watched presentation by some 3rd year students who went on the annual AAEP (American association of equine practitioners) student conference back in august. It is fully funded by the AAEP so 15 3rd year students get to attend for free from our school every year. They toured some of the most amazing clinics and farms in Kentucky. It looked like a blast and I cant wait till it is my turn to go. Some students rented a car and extended their trip to include keeneland, lots of other clinics and farms as well as the horse park where the 2010 equestrian games is going to be held. SO cool.
Afterwards I came home and moped about my lack of horse out here so while looking at pictures of my boys on my laptop I stumbled across this video from a trip home in October. mind the turbulence part way through, forgot I had to keep the camera pointed on the road! Start off at a canter but get up to a pretty good gallop. Completely private road on fernvalleys place so no need to worry about traffic! God I miss my boys so badly! I can't wait to see them again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXJzuBR704

First C section!

So I traded 24 hrs of studying for a bio chem final that was on Monday for the chance to do my first c-section!!!! I headed out to a rural vet clinic 2 hrs away with 2 3rd year students as well as a second year student with the hopes of getting some calving experience. Groups before us didn't have much luck but we were hopeful! We got there and the wife of the vet(lets call him dr. bob) we were with,who has over 30 years experience, fed us a wonderful dinner. Just as we were finishing tea the first call came in. Big calf small hole scenario so one of the third years was asked to step in and perform the c section. I prepped cows and got to do some epidurals and nerve blocks. The second one came in right after and the other 3rd year got to perform that one. We finally got done around 130 in the morning and headed home to bed. Got another call around 7 in the morning, another difficult calving with a torn uterus so the 2nd year got to help on that one! We went home for lunch and Dr. Bob says to me, Angela, if we get one more its yours! So I was very impatiently waiting for the phone to ring as we ate lunch, had tea, watched a c section video, so on and so forth. Finally the phone rings! I almost wet myself with excitement. A C section is something a lot of 3rd years don't always get a chance to do! Sure enough it was another c section so I scrubbed in and got to perform the surgery! Dr. Bob was amazing. So patient and awesome at instructing what needed to be done. I can not even begin to describe what an awesome feeling it was getting to cut into a live living breathing animal. The calf was long dead, but stitching up was so fun! I was so slow compared to Dr. Bob,goes to show what experience does for one!
Dr. Bob also showed us some really cool "things" he has accumulated over the years and keeps in his freezer at the clinic. I was able to diagnose a huge hydroencephalic foals head that he has us palpate through a plastic bag.
It was an amazing weekend that ended too quickly. Too soon I was back in Saskatoon cramming for biochemistry. The exam went pretty well, but even if I don't do as well as I would like it will have been totally worth it!

nothing thrilling

Well, as the title suggests nothing thrilling is happening in this piece of the world. Been studying like mad. Have another final Monday(bio chem) and a midterm in immunology this Thursday. pretty much just trying to hang in till the end. only 36 days till I am finished for the summer. Its hard to believe that in 36 days there will also be green grass. Its been snowing and blowing and raining here but at least the temperature is nice. makes me wish for ponies.....
Went to a really good farrier clinic on Saturday at the school. worked on basic skills such as trimming,pulling shoes, etc. stuff that may come in useful as a vet. brought up a really good point about x rays, useless if there is a bad trim job! all your angles will be off and it will have nothing to do with the pathology of the foot. Also learned ways that a good skilled trained farrier can help an vet get the best treatments for patients such as laminitis or navicular.
Hmmm, what else....... went to a keg party hosted by the winner of the annual "back row boys" scholarship. was a lot of fun! Going to a steak dinner for the bovine club wrap up party tomorrow.
Oh! I was interviewed for a profile in the equine health research fund newsletter for my involvement previously as well as future plans with horses. look for me this summer!
Well, that was a dyslexic post but that's all I've got for now!

finally!

many apologies for the foul mood yesterday. I have had enough of the incessant exams and am excited for the week and a half break from exams.So glad thatparticular course is out of the way. There wererecord numbers of my classmates at the campus watering holefollowing that exam. After a break we had to go back for 3 more classes. All the profs felt so sorry for us they kept them short and sweet. Tonight I am relaxing and enjoying enjoying a night watching some tv.
To top off an allready foul day,i believe i have lost my bus pass and forogot i had a reserve copy of a book signed out of the library and now owe 48$ yikes! 1$ an hour for 2 days.
Snuck home for the weekend to attend my olderbrothers graduation banquet and dance. Partied with all my undergrad friends who i hadnt seen in a while. Also attend the initiation ceremonies for Ceres womens fraternity that I was president of before leaving for vet school as well as our brother fraternity farm house. Lots ofdriving, little studying, and a whole lot of fun left me a lot less prepared for that exam then i hoped, but it was definetly worth it.

Is tired

4 hour exam tomorrow, histology, cant wait for it to be over.
I am sick of exams.

and another one bites the dust!

Wrote an embryology final exam today. Went pretty well! 2 finals down 7 to go plus 2 months classes plus 2 midterms plus 1 project...... its going to be a busy 7 week drive to the finish line! Its so hard to believe that in 7 weeks I will be done my first year. where does the time go!
Been hitting the gym trying to loose some of the weight gained by sitting on my behind all year studying. I have actually been able to run on a treadmill! This is amazing as I haven't been able to run without pain for 3 years. I had torsion of my left tibia (twisted about70 degrees between my knee and foot) growing up that caused me to walk turned out on that side and lead to countless popped kneecaps, dislocated knees, and other ouches. my horse was also not very appreciative of the constant left "leg on" signal. In grade 12 (3 years ago) doctors broke the tibia surgically and but my fut on straight and voila! no knee troubles! but it was quite painful to impact and due to hardware in there still it gets sore in cold weather, tendon rubbing, etc. I found to my delight that I could run without impact pain! the hardware gets sore at night but it does with any sort of activity,i just don't have the time to go get it taken out right now.
So YAY!! Have gotten up to 4 km on the treadmill and enjoy my half hour break after school to release some energy and stress! Gotta fit back into my cruel girl jeans for the summer!
I ambackto the books now..... the exams never end!

more reading week

Spent the rest of reading week at the local vet clinic as well as riding and working with Eurus. Footing was great in in the roundpen so I set up a little free jumping chute. Underestimated my big yearlings stride but it still worked out okay! Just did up to 2'6 but he loved it. Kept going back over it even when I left him alone in the roundpen! Also line drove him for the first time and he did amazing. Perfect halts and turns,I can't wait for my surcingle to come that I ordered for working with him this summer.




Video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfW3iOVlcjw

Rode Digger a fair bit too. This is a picture heading down our hay road after the snowstorm.


.
Sunday mom and littlesis drove me back to Saskatoon. Wrote exam monday and tuesday and now amstudying for a final next monday in embryology. It is plus 5 today and I wish I had a horse to go ride as we have the afternoon off. A walk will have to suffice. Also spent some time customizing my binders. Not always the most organized person but every now and then I get off my butt and get it done

Reading week catch up

What a busy last week! I swear the day I wake up without a busy schedule I know I'll be dead! The last week of school flew by. Had a huge anatomy exam on Tuesday that went pretty well, though missed a few things for sure (how important could the coagulating gland on a chicken be that is has to be on the lab identification portion?) Had a nutrition FINAL on Friday that studying for kept me on my toes. So hard to get in a studying mode when all you can think of is home. It did not go well. Was told to study general concepts but got tested on [icky details.... we'll see how the mark comes in but I have low expectations of that one, and I LOVE nutrition, oh well.
Drove home Friday afternoon after playing hookey from afternoon histology class. Saturday came out to the lake. Spent the day Saturday getting the low down from Aunty Sherry (FernValley01) how was headed to Mexico Sunday who I was going to be farm sitting for! Snuck in a couple rides too, one with my mom and one with a younger girls who boards her cushings affected mare for the winter. The rode out to our hayfield was freshly plowed and so the footing was great and we had a fabulous ride.
Digger, my 9 year old gelding, has always had very sensitive mouth issues and I am a super driving rider so I always had a lot of trouble collecting him up. It been 4 months since Ive really ridden, but in that time I have been doing equilates, a Pilate's form for riders, as well as studying as much as possible on some of older dressage masters tips and techniques. Well, I gently cued digger with the reins to bring his head down, and lightened my seat by lifting my core muscles and shoulders and low and behold Digger picked up the bit and rounded his back up to meet me. Lovely collection, something I have only ever dreamed about with him, but more on that for another time.
Sunday Aunty Sherry left. Did morning chores then went ski dooing with my brother as well as we went for a ride together, since then I've Been Feeding and studying and going into the local vet clinic for some hands on. Got to help IM pin a dogs leg today which was really cool.
Monday it started snowing, and its been snowing and blowing ever since. Over 1ft of fresh powder, which is stunningly beautiful but sure hard to slug through, but onto the pictures!


snow storm

digger and I

my brother and I out for a ride

mom out for her 2nd ride post accident


stallion cactus looking for his share of the grain

The "kids" getting their taste of grain so that the mare in the background with cushings can get her meds in peace.

Andee waiting for her grain

Fix and Arse very excited for their grain

The boys looking pathetic in the snow

Cows waiting to be fed

Filling up the mares stock tank

Feeding the steers

Digger coming up for the fork feeding hay

An overveiw with the geldings in the foregorund and the cows watching me in the background.

Sunday in pictures

As something different I figured I would take you along for a boring Sunday of studying at school, seeing as I do nothing but study on my time "off".
So the room mates cat woke me up at 8 as she had spent the night At friends and he was lonely. Got up and had breakfast then headed off to school at around 930. Got to school



and first went to the anatomy lab for a study session.
This is the anatomy lab all setup for reviewing for our Tuesday exam on GI tract and reproduction.




At about 1130 I was finished going though all the specimens and so decided to go meet my friend venti vanilla americano with milk at Starbucks. Starbucks is a 15 min walk from the vet school and it was -25 out, so it was a nice refreshing walk.
Here is Starbucks and I back in the locker room at school after our walk back.

Stopped to nuke the now chilled coffee in the microwaves before heading up to the library that opened at noon.
This is the atrium of the library and my favorite place to study as it has such nice natural lightfrom the sky lights and I like the smell of all the plants

You can see the checkout desk, computers, and functional part of the library behind the atrium. The vet med library is always super quiet and has 1000's of reference books that make studying all that more interesting.

Here is Starbucks and me studying.

Sat here till 3 when I decided to go hit up the lab again.Lots more people in there this time. This is the anatomy cooler where we keep all the formaldehyded specimens including a complete horse, cow,calf,sheep, and about 45 dogs between my class and the animal science students.


Random hamster in formalin in a box.... looks like he water skiing or something..




Penis's!!! Now that we got that out of the way........




So at about 5pm realized I was exhausted so decided it was time to head home.





This is the agriculture building across the street from vet med, can you tell we're in Saskatchewan where Agriculture is king??

Tomorrow I will be posting pics of all the things about horses you wish to have seen but never have.....



Oh, and I didn't study all weekend, Friday night was our valentines happy hour, had a date auction and someone made a beer bong to auction off.....


But it somehow never made it on the bus for the drink a small town dry pub crawl so being the clever resourceful vet students that we are someone brought clean palpation sleeves to have beer drinking contests out of....



oh dear, gotta have a little fun though right?

Quick update..caution, gross pictures!

Got my physiology midterm back,89%!!!! 2nd highest mark, (first was 89.5) Feels good to be the youngest in the class and still kick butt! Went to a few lunch hours talks this week, the first one conditioning the equine athlete. This talk was given by a professor who rides endurance and runs marathons, and shes over50! She and her horse had qualified for the last world equestrian games but being in Dubai during the school year was out of the option. Has her sights set on Kentucky 2010! Awesome presentation and some really cool gadgets such as an on board heart rate monitor etc showed how to apply and modify ideas across disciplines too. 2nd was by the top equine surgeon in the school who presented on equine emergency care. Was really cool and learned a lot.
Anatomy midterm Tuesday on repro and GI as we have Monday off for the family day long weekend. Have a nutrition final Friday. Tomorrow is my classes happy hour follow by a pub crawl and I am so excited to go out and let loose for a bit!
Give you the details Saturday!
Angela


Here are some pics from our equine digestion lab. This old mare was donated to the school by her owners when they decided to euthanize her due to old age, poor condition, and she was very lame. She was euthanized and then we got the awesome privilege of using her to further our knowledge.
First one of the equine internal medicine specialist came in and did a mock laparotomy, like they would for exploratory colic surgery and I got to be his assistant. Was super cool for a horse vet wanna be. We then spent 3 hours dissecting every inch, as its not very often you get the chance to do something like this.

Poor old thing was also pregnant, 90 day old fetus

What a horses gastro intestinal tract looks like spreadout

Every body pretending to be a surgeon!


Note: Horse was euthanized before any of this occured! Was allready set on the surgical denno board when we arrived

Party planning as the social life goes down the toilet??

It is my classes turn to host a happy hour this Friday, and although I am not on the committee it has somehow turned into my project. Have a lot of experience from planning big dances and parties in undergrad at the U of A and i guess word leaked out. I really enjoy this kind of thing, when it is me who is supposed to be doing it. needless to say I will be spending tomorrow afternoon out shopping for all the supplies and alcohol. Organizers hadn't even thought of getting plates and cups!!!! I want to make sure we do Good job on this as it really reflects on our classes capabilities to the rest of the school. After the happy hour we will be going on a "drink a small town dry" pub crawl, where we take school buses to a small town, undisclosed location, bar and attempt to drink the bar dry. Did this a lot in undergrad with the agriculture students and its always a blast as everyone in the bar is from your group and I LOVE country music.
Unfortunately after this weekend we have major exams every week till the end of the school year. I guess this year over reading week I will actually being doing a lot of reading!!!!

Just for fun here some more artwork from my highschool years.

THIS IS WHY I Am IN VET SCHOOL!!!

What a fabulous night!!! It is lambing time and all the first year vet students along with agriculture students have the joy of night lambing watch. Each person is assigner a 4 hour shift, mine being from 8p-12a. I was partnered with friend Taryn from class and 4 wonderful ag students. The group before us had 0 births so we were expecting a slow night when 2nd check out there was a lamb!! Brought it into the indoor pens with mom to give them some one on one time to cement the maternal bond. There are about 50 pens, almost all full! We continued our outdoor checks and made sure all the indoor lambs were nursing when we noticed around 9p that a ewe had a fluid bag indicating birth approaching. we gave her an hour but still no lamb and she was pretty agitated so we brought her indoors to get a closer look. So I glove up to explore her uterus(thank god for smallish hands, those ladies are narrow!) and to my dismay find back legs, lots of back legs, too many for 1 lamb. Everyone took a turn exploring and then we two vet students set to work! we got the first lamb extracted breech, as Taryn resuscitated it I went in and pulled out a second! As that one was being resuscitated I explore once more and pull out a third! They were pretty cold and shaky so we put them under a heat lamp but their awesome mom quickly set to work drying them. we then took them and weighed them, they were all hefty 5kg boys. dipped their umbilicus in iodine to prevent infection and put them back with mom. The next rotation would be arriving soon by this point so we helped all 3 suckle to make sure they got that necessary colostrum vital for their immunity and when we left all 3 babies were doing awesome!
This was such an awesome experience as for the first time we were completely in charge. We vet students were the highest authority around and were to make all the calls. There has always been a relative, vet,or older/senior student around and I am used to being relegated to watching. It was awesome to get hands on and my little ego swelled just a little when the agriculture kids asked " if there is problem can you deal with it?" and I could say YES!! I may be young, but I know my stuff and loved the opportunity to prove that to myself.
It was an awesome night that ended way too soon, but it just makes all those ours of class and the long road to get here that much more worth it!
Pictures



getting nursing started

triplets

the delivery team

lamb mom surfing

cute!

Late is better than never!

Well last weekend I did manage to sneak home for a self declared 3 day weekend. I left right after class Friday and returned at midnight Monday night. Got home to Edmonton around 6pm on Friday, just in time to have a nice sit down dinner with the family.... something that never occurs out here! Its always dinner in front of the lap top or tv for me. There was an Agriculture formal at the U of A so after dinner my brother and I got dressed up nicely and went to the formal. It was so nice to get to see my friends, and also to see everyone dressed up nicely for a change!
Saturday morning we headed out to the farm. I spent the early part of the day working with Eurus. It is so hard not being able to keep consistent work hours with him! We pretty much had to start from the basics. WHOAH and personal space. He is over 15hh as a yearling and can be intimidating behind you when you know he has no breaks and no discretion for knocking you over! We managed to get that fixed though with a little help from Aunty Sherry (FernValley01). He was very good though about picking up his feet and the bit.
Later in the afternoon my future employer, Dr. David Cliplef cam out to Preg Check some cows. I have been doing a lot of repor studies at school and getting a lot of practice with the ultrasound so he brought the portable monitor for his ultrasound system so I could follow along. Dave has a really neat ultrasound. He carries the machine in a small backpack on his back and the image is put onto a pair of sungalss's type eye wear. Makes preg checking a breeze! It was so cool to apply what I am learning to a real life situation!
Didn't ride Digger as it was way to icey outside and no ride is worth either of us getting hurt.
On Sunday I started off the morning by going for a ski doo ride with my dad, bro and sister. We headed out to a spot that we always went to when we were little kids and had a hotdog and fire just like when we were kids. It was so nice and quiet out there. Poor Dad, had to feign wanting another hotdog just so the moment wouldn't end so fast.
That afternoon my mom, who had a bad riding accident in October, got on a horse again for the first time! I was so proud of her. She was terrified, so I jumped up on her horse blue first for her. This is not the horse that threw here. Blue is the steady eddy of the place, the horse you can trust anyone of any skill on, and he proved his worth that afternoon! Mom was smiling fron ear to ear with happiness. The Aunty Sherry hopped on Blue for a quick spin too with me, though unfortuenatly had to learn the downsides of riding in baggy sweats.... Digger was a good boy for me, a little revvy to get out but can you blame him? went from weekly riding to not being ridden in 4 months! Worked again with Eurus as well.
On Monday mom and I spent the morning on the farm both working with our young horses, me with my yearling Eurus and here with her 4 yr old mare Pepsi. We then headed into Edmonton.
Had another nice Dinner at home before all too soon we had to head to the airport so I could fly back to Saskatoon. My room mate picked me up at the airport on this end and we headed home. Got a few hours of sleep before the dream of a weekend was over and I had to head back to school!
Was met with an 830 to 530 day and had a ton of catching up to do for missing class on Monday, but it was worth it! I had a fabulous trip home and can't wait for the next 3 weeks to be over before reading week is here and I can head home once again.


Me and Mom out Riding

Heading out sledding

Me and the machine....

Me!

PregChecking Cows

Me and my boy Digger

Riding with Aunty Sherry and Skeeter

Working with Eurus in the round pen, was free lunging him till he made two attempts to jump the fence........

A good productive study break!

Seeing as I am horseless out here in flat-lander land (aka Saskatchewan) I am becoming creative in ways to take a mental break and get some physical activity. Went tonight and played innertube basketball in the co-rec intermural league at school. Play on the vet school "lame ducks" team and was the only first year to show, guess everybody else thought studying was a better idea for our exam at 8am tomorrow, guess we'll find out! I had a blast though. You sit in an inner tube and paddle around with your arms and legs tossing a waterpolo ball around and trying to score in the little basketball nets. It is really just a tons of fun, lots of splashing and knocking the other team out of their tubes.... the funny part is then watching them try to get back in! Its a great cardio work out and your arms and abs hurt pretty bad by the end! We ended up winning 8-5 and now with the endorphin rush I think I'll be up past midnight studying.... wish me luck! Only 6 more sleeps till I get to go visit the ponies!

A method of procrastination

Decided to make cinnamon buns this morning as the studying was just not happening all that productively. Will post some pictures of the reults in a few hours, they are currently rising and then thye need to bake....
Does feeding yourself count as procrastination?

Attack of the group projects!!

So every professor has decided to assign a rather large group project worth a substantial proportion of our grades. Every group wants to meet at the same time, or different times, argh! Group work is really the pits as everyone tries to be the boss of the situation. I am pretty okay with someone else doing the majority of the work, but all I ask is that my ideas be given an open ear. We also have a midterm Monday on top of it. 5 groups projects....... eek. Oh, and I never updated on the last couple of exams I wrote last semester, ended up with an 89 in histology (3rd highest) and an 84% in cardiac physiology. Go team me! Classes could be going worse, we have very long days currently of nothing but lecture, We currently have a really interesting class called survey of veterinary medicine, where we get keynote members from and we sit in the same classroom for all 8 hours of it. I am an outside person so sitting in a lecture theatre without even any windows really gets me down, if it wasn't so cold I would go skating again, but -34 is TOO cold. We have a neat course right now called Survey of Veterinary Medicine featuring keynote members of all different facets of the profession in to speak to us about what is unique about their job. Had a really good one yesterday on learning to talk to the press. Learned some neat tricks as well as how to prepare, and according to the wonderful prof speaking, if you have a British accent, you are automatically trust able (he is from Cambridge). Also had a neat one called The Unexpected Consequences of Purposeful Social Action. The vet speaking was the head of the animal welfare department of Manitoba. Really interesting lecture, though I have never had a prof swear so much or call us "young bastards" so often. Was rather refreshing. He brought up some really interesting points though, such as an animals inability to time travel. No, I don't mean physically, but mentally. Think about it, your dogs greats you the same whether you have been gone 3 minutes or 3 hours or 3 days. Animals live in the present. He also talked about how this makes an animal not value its life. We all know all animals want to survive, its just instinct, but that relates back to the living in the moment thing. but do they value living the way we do? If animals can't comprehend time travel then they will not understand death as we do. Interesting stuff. An animal doesn't conceive pain like we do as they do not understand the how or why behind it, only that they want it to end. This brings up other ethical debates such cancer treatment in pets, or prosthetic legs in horses. They don't understand why they are in pain, or that the pain will help them in some near future (remember, no time travel), they only know that they are willing to do anything to make it stop. His main example was the horse slaughter debaucle in the US. Anyways, enough deep talk. Good news is I get to go home next weekend! YAY! The weather should be decent and I am dieing to get outside and get some fresh air and not think of school for a few days. I leave you with a few pictures of my boys! Will get some news one of them in their furry wonder next weekend.
My Main Man Digger

My boy Eurus, not sure who got the best of that bath......

The result of a weekend party...

I think I have been sub-clinically sick for a bit, just tired and sore throat, but I believe my partying this weekend pushed my immune system over the edge. Spent all last night coughing my brains out and had to leave lecture too many times to have a coughing fit in the hallway instead of annoying my classmates. Walked to the pharmacy on campus over my lovely warm weather lunch hour and stocked up on drugs to get me through the next few days. With the 5 group projects I suddenly have been loaded down with and a midterm next week I can not afford to be sick! Miss my mom tons, but especially when I am not feeling well. It was so nice to have a sympathetic ear and caring hand to force cough syrup down my throat as I stubbornly try to refuse it.

manitoba and back

some fellow classmates and Agriculture friends and I headed to Winnipeg Thursday night for a intercollegiate multi species judging competition(Sorry Aunty Sherry, no coats!) We rented a 15 seater van dubbed the hutterite wagon and loaded it with 12 people (4 girls, 8 boys) Had a couple of DD's and the rest of us partied all the way to Winnipeg. Had a blast. Got into our hotel at 3 in the morning then up at 7 to head to the competition. It was -30 and we were in an un heated riding arena for most of the competition. We were pretty bummed that all of the cattle classes backed out at the last minute, but we still had horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, canola, forages, a species animal and plant ID quiz, and a wine tasting/judging class as the mystery class. Was soooo much fun. That ended around 1 so while the boys went to Cabello's us girls went to the hotel to shower and nap. Went to the judging banquet and had an awesome dinner of perogies, meat balls, and so on and won a ton of ribbons at the awards ceremony. We then went back to the hotel and got ready and partied till we went to the Eat your Hat social hosted by the U of M aggies. There was a great live band,1000 people, We did tons of two stepping, and yes ate hats (5$ got you a cheap hat, you took bites out then spit it on the floor, that much fibre is bad for us monogastrics!) Partied there till they kicked us out then went back to the hotel. 11 people in 2 hotel rooms = 3 people per bed so at least we were warm! Woke up and left Winnipeg around 10 am and headed back to Saskatoon. It was such a fun weekend and great to get away from the estrogen loaded environment that is the vet school and hang with the guys. I then spent Saturday night and all day today doing homework and catching up from the missed day on Friday. It was worth playing hooky. Onto another week! Gosh being a student is hard..... jk. I so love what I am doing and loving school.

The Bus ride down
Cleaning up at the judging competition

Eat your hat social!

The quiet before the storm

Well, one week down! Had a quiet weekend, the roomies and I decided to have a star wars marathon and watch all 6 (I know, geeks!). It was a slow weekend school work wise, a little eerie as we know in a couple weeks the shit will hit the fan and we will once again be swamped, but we'll enjoy the quiet while it lasts. Had a beer night at our favorite bar on Friday. $2 for all the beer you can drink. My one room mate Sydney and I went and drank a lil more then $2 worth of beer, the other room mate picked us up at 11 when the beer ran out and said we were quite comical and the highlight of her night..... we had fun and the best part is its over at 11 so you still get a good nights sleep! Watched Stars Wars episode 4 that night....

On Saturday we watched number 5, then I headed out skating. There is a lovely little rink just outside our condo, I can see it from the porch. I had the entire rink to myself and the snow was falling, closed my eyes and pretended I was at home skating on our rink on Lac Ste. Anne, it was lovely. I have never been much of a skater due to leg problems, that's a story for another time, but its resolved enough now that I can enjoy skating, but I strained my lateral collateral ligament in my usually dependable right knee back in October that was later further aggravated by a well placed kick by Eurus so I only managed a half hour before it protested, but enjoyed it none the less. Ordered pizza and watched 6 and 1 Saturday night with some more friends who came over. Received this lovely photo of Eurus being silly and standing in his feeder, sure keeps Aunty Sherry on her toes with his antics!

Sunday, woke up and did the dreaded laundry and watch 2 and 3, which I always end up balling through the entire thing. blush. Later in the evening talked to the folks back home and did homework.

As I watched the movies decided to do some artwork, I did a ton of artwork back in high school and took a lot of classes but Its so hard to find time to indulge in it now. and of course my subject matter is always horses:) I drew my gelding Digger, who I miss tons while here in Saskatoon, I know to some it appears he gets pushed aside for Eurus, but Digger will always be my buddy. He got me through the toughest years of my life, as I was the nerd/outcast/ random cowgirl in the middle of the city that always got picked on and was the brunt of all the cruel mind games young girls like to play. Digger buddy, this is for you!

Happy Ukrainian Christmas!

To all the Ukrainians out there, merry Christmas! We vet students are always looking for a reason to party. We had a large potluck at a friends house with copious volumes of wine. Had awesome food that included perogies, meat balls, roast, potatoes, salads, chutney, and so on! It was great to relax with a few good friends. We then played a little wii before heading to the nearby pub for some karaoke. It was a great night.
As for school, they are putting us through the grinder. 8 hr days of nothing but lectures. We have started a great new course though called Survey of Veterinary Medicine. A veterinary degree gives a person so may options as to careers, and what you do when you first graduate isn't what you have to do your entire life. This class is presentations by keynote members of areas of veterinary medicine. Today Dr. Jerry Haigh, author of the the book series "A Glascow Vet in Africa" and wildlife veterinarian spoke and WOW what an amazing speaker. No props, and after an entire days of lectures kept us all riveted on the edges of our seats as he told us about his adventures in Africa. He has been in numerous facets as a veterinarian, but spent the majority of this life in Africa and Mongolia. Amazing, can't wait for the next class!

2 weeks of awesomeness!

Well, as you can all see I've let this sit for 2 weeks due to the fact that exams were over and i got to go HOME! My bro drove out Thursday the 18th and after my exam was finished at 10am the 19th we headed for home. Full van load, my roommate caught a ride to Edmonton with us as well as my bird Louis and all my belongings. Louis traveled well, i was worried with the -20 temps but covered him well and blasted the heat all the way home. Drove through a horrible blizzard but we took our time, making it was more important than getting there on a time budget.
Spent a couple nice days at home, freezing temps, -30!, so although I was at the farm I did nothing but pet noses. My horse would look at me and say " you nuts mah?" if I tried to ride. Left the family golden retriever Rosey with Aunty Sherry for the week she always has a good time at the farm chasing vehicles, cats, and eating the odd horse turd........ deworming when I get home!
left Rosey with Sherry as my family and I headed to Cuba for a week! What an awesome vacation, all inclusive so i could eat all i wanted and drink all i wanted....... it was so nice not to have to think about meal planning for a change. Went riding for 2 hours in Rocazul national park on what appeared to be a small thin crooked legged horse as seen everywhere on the roads and was a bit worried, but was rather impressed at the surefootedness and stamina the little beasts had. Went snorkeling, SCUBA diving and just relaxed. Managed to be on a first name basis with the bartender at the swim up bar, not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Spent the week after getting home relaxing, we had our little Christmas and I got tons of coffee, and other caffeine related products including an awesome little espresso maker complete with milk frothier so I can finally make a good cup of coffee and survive the next semester. Also gots some books, movies, and a Winchester pellet gun complete with scope, awesome.

Aunty Sherry picked me up on the 30th after dropping Rosy off at the house in the city and I spent the night at the farm. Winston and Skeeter, my doggy buddies at the farm, were very happy to have auntie Angela spend the night. I worked with Eurus the next morning, saddle, bridle, lunging etc. have come to the conclusion that I have a broke yearling so will spend the next semester thinking up things to do with him over the summer. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Have been studying long lining and driving in hand and might give it a go....
It was snowy like crazy and very cold still, but helped treat Rocky, a little colt we are taking care of, for his pulled stifle and also went to get hay. I love going for hay and the falling snow made it such a pretty trip! Most of the horses get rounds, but we buy squares for the little guys so there is less wastage and we can keep a better eye on the amount they are eating. I love climbing high up on the stacked hay to chuck down bales, as long as its hay, not straw, as straw is too slippery and I always feel like falling!
Got back from hay and brought my girl-hood gelding digger up to the barn for some love and treats, and decided to go for a ride in -30! I was a human Popsicle when I was finished but enjoyed every minute of it and apparently so did Digger, as he jigged and pranced the entire ride. I love that horse to pieces.
Spent new years at the farm and then came back into town, down to 1 vehicle due to an accident so didn't have a choice otherwise I would have stayed out at the farm. Did some shopping saw a movie, Australia (awesome!) and chilled.

Came back to Saskatoon today, caught a ride with a room mate. it was too funny as we had her cat ( in a crate) and my bird Louie side by side on the back seat. We had that little car loaded to the nines. Now I am busy prepping for class tomorrow, printing notes, organizing etc. Louie is sitting on my arm watching the computer screen.

Back to the books tomorrow, I am now 12.5% a veterinarian, time to earn the next 12.5%!



Out riding, my horse was the pinto and was named "pinto", my sis inappropriately wore shorts and suffered later for it.

Bro and I at out favorite spot, the swim up bar

Bro, sis, and I

Hobie Cating with my sis

Burning wrists

Well, I just got out of my histology exam. It was an open book exam, but never have I felt less prepared for an exam! There was so much writing that you didn't have time to open a book otherwise you wouldn't finish. I wrote my little butt off and now my wrist feels likes its on fire! Oh well, I feel better about the lab portion thats occurs tomorrow, hopefully it will go bettter.
On the other hand I got the mark back from my last anatomy exam and......
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I GOT THE TOP MARK IN THE CLASS! WHOOT! 88% baby!

The little parts of life

HISTOLOGY!!!
How can things so small be so complicated? Love the lab part of this class. Looking at the cells and using skills of visual interpretation is SO much fun, but the lecture material is ARGH! Too many little cells with too many individul differences. Spent all day at school studying for this exam monday and tuesday.

Can you tell I don't get out much... I have never once mentioned the weather! Well it is -30 with a severe wind chill warning overnight. AKA COLD so yours truly will be hiding out at home tomorrow studying and catching up on laundry.

It is so hard being a student around christmas as we are so busy with exams that we don't get to partake in the christmas festivities. Bought a poinsetta this week and its our one christmas decoration in our apartment. I thought it was bad in undergrad, but at least then we didn't have classes, but vet school has full classes, labs, and exams right till christmas. Bought a Reba McIntyre christmas CD o try to get me in the mood while studying. Maybe I'll start seeing christmas trees and reindeer in the mass of cells to interpret... wonder how that would go over if I wrote it on the exam for an answer....

Got a genetics exam back too on firday 85%! YAY! Maybe starting to hit my stride with this whole vet school thing. Though as you can probably tell I am still mark obsessed, need somewhere to brag as its definetly not kosher to do so in school ;)

Want to check out what I am doing then head to http://education.vetmed.vt.edu/Curriculum/VM8054/Labs/labtoc.htm for a taster.

5 days, 3 exams, and 12 classes till I get to go home!

Into the deep freeze

Winter has seemed to come out of no where these past few days. It is really windy here in Saskatoon and with -20 +snow + wind = miserable. Makes studying a little more bearable though. I got 95% on my last embryology quiz, just the pre-exam boost I needed! I write anatomy tomorrow, histology Monday and Tuesday, and cardiac/pulmonary physiology next Friday so I am digging in deep with the studying. I love anatomy, has to be my favorite course. I am a super visual learner, all my notes a are drawings, and the current anatomy professor is really big on you being able to recreate the relevant anatomy on paper so I am really looking forward to this exam. Histology Lab I really like for the same reasons, its super visual but the class part is so hard to pay attention in as it is really not interesting at all.
I head to Cuba on the 21st, and have been going to tanning in preparation. Its my little me time every second day and I feel so good when I am done. Nothing like a little vitamin D to brighten up your day!
Louie is doing really well too. He gets his flight feathers trimmed this weekend to make training a little easier. Right now when I do something he doesn't like he just flys away. He is becoming more habituated to handling though. He was always happy to sit on your finger, shoulder, or head, but you had to put him there and heaven forbid you try to tough him. He also never liked landing on your hand, he had to land on his treat stick. now he happily lands on your finger, loves to sit on my shoulder for hours and play with my hair, and is letting my rub his keel. We have also learned NO when it comes to biting. He gets so excited when I come home, I walk in my room and re starts chirping away at me and if I don't move to let him out he hangs form the cage above the door begging to be let out. He is also getting more adult feathers and is starting to get a nice blue rump!

An awe-inspiring experience

Well, as you can see the busier I get the less I post! Last week I had quite the experience that I feel I should share. As many of you know most veterinary colleges utilize terminal labs as a way of demonstrating principles to students that otherwise would not be seen first hand till it occur ed when in the clinics and the animal had to be saved. This week we had a 12 hr hemorrhage and transfusion lab to see the effects that schock and severe hemorrhage have on the body and its normal responses. To do this lab we used retired sled dogs from up north that are not re-home able due to behaviour. We worked in groups of 5 or 6 with many vets and lab TA's floating around helping everyone. This was all of us students first time "operating" and working with live animals. Each group had an anesthetized dog and it was our responsibility to monitor and maintain the anesthesia throughout the lab. I was in charge of anesthesia for my group. Our dog had breathing problems throughout the lab due to the chemical agent used to induce the dog and the poor health status of our dog. We had to surgically access the femoral artery and vein along with the carotid artery and cannulate all with catheters. I got to do the femoral artery and felt so proud of myself for accomplishing that small task. Wonder what it will feel like the first time I do a spay? We also had to expose a loop of gut. Through out the day we monitored, pulse, resp rate, blood pressure, ecg, as well as anesthetic monitoring signs. We gave doses of nor epinephrine to see the bodies res pone to a stimulus. We induced severe hemorrhage by draining blood through the cannula's to ~ 44 mmmHG, while normal is 120. While draining the artery catheter popped out spraying blood everywhere, though we clamped the artery off so quickly and managed to recannulate fast enough to barely even note a change in blood pressure even though it seemed to loose a lot of blood. We then recovered our animals using first ringers solution then whole blood and noted changed in nor-epi responses. I know this doesn't seem like it would take a long time but it took over 5 hours to just get to the blood draining part and another 5 to recover the animal. at this point we opened accessed the chest cavity. The thoracic cavity once pierced required us to manually ventilate the lungs. I got to hold beating heart in my hands, which is possibly the most awe inspiring experience I have ever had. We then simulated hardware disease by filling the membranous sac around the heart with fluid. WE then shocked the heart into fibrillation and the then schock it back into rhythm. At this point we euthanized the dogs with KCl.
There was a lot of debate going into this lab about the ethics of using animals in terminal labs. I for one found the experience very rewarding, not only for the greater understanding of the principles being demonstrated but it was also a great confidence booster to work with live animals and under the same conditions that recovery surgeries will later be held. It was the sacrifice of one for the good of the many.

Back to the grind

After two lovely weeks of no exams we are back at them in full force! Wrote 2 this week: genetics and an embryology and I think both went well. 4 more to go till christmas!
It was my birthday on Sunday. Went out friday night to the WCVM christmas formal and happy hour. Was a lot of fun to party in a nice dress! Spent the entire weekend studying. Got some nice western clothes for my birthday along with some nice jewelery, a mug, and other assorted things. Best gift of all though was the video my mom and aunty Sherry made of my horses. I miss them so much and It was awesome to get such a great video of them. 3 long weeks till i get to see them and my family again..........
video


The horses arent really that short backed and fat..... issue i hear with the new video camera

Cadavers

I just had the most fabulous evening. As a 1st year member of the Pathology club I got to attend a suturing lab this evening. About 15 students were in attendance with one of the small animal surgeons and a couple interns. Every student got a cat cadaver from the local SPCA. We learned how to perform laparotomy's (exploratory gut surgery), spays, neuters bladder stone removals. We then got to stitch up our cadavers to our hearts content. This was the first time practicing on real tissue and it so different then our Styrofoam. Real tissue is so elastic, and all the different layers are so near how they vary in texture and density. Learning how to sew each individual layer and the preferential stitch pattern was amazing! Unfortunately this was held in the pathology lab which is a bio secure area so I couldn't bring in my camera but wow! I can't wait till 3rd year and we learn how to do these kind of things for real on live animals!
Got all my midterms back finally, marks ranged from 69 to 85. Never failed and was only below average on 2 out of 6. Survived round 1, round 2 is knocking.....

What time is it??

BAR NONE TIME!
Now that that is out of my system........

Went home early Friday for the biggest party of the year, Bar None on the weekend. Hit up the warm up dance Friday night. Got to see all my friends as the Aggie's were there to party, the U of S Agros came down, and the pre-vetters were hosting the party. All my favorite 200 some people all rolled into one big night. Danced with more guys than I can count and had a blast!
Saturday went to Ceres Pancake Breakfast. Ceres is a Women's Agricultural Fraternity that I used to be the president of before coming to Saskatoon and I miss the girls so much. I then had a Ceres alumni association meeting that went fairly well and we had a record number of alumni present seeing as it was bar none weekend and most were in town. Pre-Drank and partied it up with some friends on campus before a very fun train ride to the agricom that involved beer and chanting dirty Aggi songs.
Bar None itself was amazing. Brett Kissel opened and was amazing, had a beautiful 9 min rendition of Amarillo by Morning. Gord Bamford was the head liner and also did an amazing job.
Spent Sunday recovering from the party before being picked up by my fellow vet-school Bar None Junkies and came back to Saskatoon.

Awesome weekend, miss my friends tons, and now down to the books.

Pictures!

My "creativeness" for the weekend

The angry colt just minutes before I got kicked......

Out for a battery recharging with my buddy

All dressed up for the CFR!



*** Plus just found out I got 85% on my anatomy mid term. Who Hoo!

Gotta love a holiday and money!

It was a 4 day weekend this weekend so I flew home for the weekend! Saw my horses Saturday. Worked with my yearling Eurus and after not seeing him for a month could not believe the size of him! He is bigger now than my 8 year old gelding. He had a brain-fart moment though and I wound up getting kicked. Nice bruise now as a reminder of his love..... Rode my gelding too on a nice trail ride. Riding completely recharges my batteries and I miss it so much when I am away.
Went to the CFR Saturday night with my aunt and uncle and my mom. Had fun shopping and the perf was awesome! Went Sunday as well as I was a recipient of the Bill Kehler Memorial Scholarship and was awarded it during the performance. Sunday night headed back out to the farm.
Spent Monday at Onoway Vet. Reminds me why I am in vet school. I did a pile of blood work and was amazed when I could not only analyze but also understand all the results. What a great feeling.
Woke up Tuesday to snow and headed off early to the airport for my flight home. Have not studied 1 second over the last four days for my physiology midterm this week so it will definitely be time to buckle down to work when I get home.
Will add some pictures later.....

What year is it?

What the kitty thinks of the birdie

Nah Nah!


Who Hoo! Embryology down, only physiology left to go! Spent the afternoon in lab learning how to work a horribly outdated ECG machine that we will never encounter outside of the college. The results is the same, but man do I thank god for technology, those things we use are using are beasts!
Between outdated profs and machines I feel like I spent the day in the 80's.
Another picture of Louie! Convinced him to sit on my hand.....

Meet my new room mate Louie!

Well I finally bought a lovebird! I had been wanting one for quite a while and had been waiting for just the right one, and I think Ive found as close as I am going to get. I am sick of only ever handling dead animals and need a companion, so meet Louie! Louie is a 6 week old fischer love bird who has taken up residence in the far corner of my bedroom. He is a shy little fellow, but I caught him sneaking a peek at himself in the mirror and head bobbing along the Garth brooks all ready. He still has his juvenile down on his back and his colours will really birghten up with time.

Attack of the midterms!

Arghhh! Midterms! What I first thought would be a nice midterm schedule has turned into hell. 1 midterm a week for 5 weeks in a row is not so nice as 5 midterms in 2 weeks as you have that much more time to stress and worry about them. The attack started with animal behaviour which I though I had done well on, however after receiving my mark Thursday I didn't do so well. This professor is very fanatical and not really forgiving of how things have been done historically or in a private practice when it comes to things like dehorning and castrating calves. we kind of butted heads a bit over some things so I think our difference of opinion led to my sub standard mark. 2nd was biochemistry, a subject I really detest, though I found out today that I didn't do as poorly as I had thought I would. Yay for one good mark. Last week we had anatomy. The amount of material on that exam was astronomical and I think I stressed myself out too much for that one. I did fine I think on the lab poriton, but I misread a question on the written and drew the stay apparatus of the equine forelimb instead of the support apparatus of the fetlock. I have embryology this week and physiology the week after. Then I believe we get a 2 week break before they start again before Christmas.

On to better news, we had a great Halloween party. The 2nd years put on the Halloween happy hour in our buffeteria and sold alcohol and supplied a potluck dinner for everyone. Lots of faculty were out and tons of students with amazing costumes. I went as a peacock, which turned out really well. We then all crammed into the lecture hall and watched all the 2nd years skits again which are even funnier when you have been drinking. We then proceeded to a big pup-crawl for the rest of the night. It was great fun.

It has been 4 weeks since I have been home and I am so excited to fly out this Friday and visit. I miss my horses tons as well as my family and auntie sherry. and my fish, and dog and birds, and so on and so forth......... I better get back to studying embryology, wish me luck!

Well its been a while. School is keeping me pretty busy! I've been busy keeping up with midterms lately, and then my beloved Nana passed away on Oct 14th. I flew to Winnipeg for the funeral and hung with the relatives for a while. It was really good to see everyone and realize the support of your family in situations like that.
I've been trying to escape the vet students. Its really hard spending everyday with the same 76 people, and even worse when you live with two of them. I have been hanging with the Agros (Agriculture students) and really enjoy having a way to just leave school alone for a lil while. Spent last night out with them though and am definitely a little under the weather today.
School is getting more interesting though, as they are really trying to give you as much clinical and practical experience as possible early on. We are currently in a course, called biomedical rounds, where you work in teams and are slowly given more and more information about a case. You discuss daily as a group the progress or what you have found out, and on your own you research the topic of your case. I really like it and was pleased when my first case was equine related and about bog spavin. Being the only person in my group who knew what a bog spavin was nicely head swelling.
I won't be back in Edmonton now till the second week of November, which will be a very long horsey dry spell for me. I recently received some scholarships and am being awarded one at the Sunday performance of the Canadian Finals Rodeo very exciting...... what to wear what to wear.....
"Catch you on the flip flop"
Angela

Hello

Hello everyone! This is my initial post- very exciting. I am currently about 1 month into my first year of vet school. I slept in this morning instead of goingon large animal rounds. This is very bad of me but I desperately needed the sleep. I spent about 3 hours in the dissection lab working on my dead formaldehyde dog and just about died from the fumes. I dispise working with all that chemical residue. This afternoon I had a cattle handing lab out at one o the university farms. I ended up with all of the greenhorns in my group which made for an interesting afternoon. I couldn't help laughing at their complete lack of knowledge about our animals used in industry. Simple things like why we need feedlots and just can't just raise our cattle on pasture. I guess I take for granted all the previous experience I have with industry but a simple thing like moving a cow through a chute could be hard for a lot of the kids who have never worked around cattle before. We took blood both jugualr and tail vein. It is still hard to shake all the nerves even though I have done this countless of times. I hope that will dissapear now that I am in vet school and the selection committee is confident in my skills and that I can do everything.
This evening I attended a lecture from one of the premiere equine facilites in Canada, Morsan Co. out of Calgary on nuclear scintigraphy. God it looks like such a great career and I would love nothing more than to be one of western Canadas top horse vets, I only worry that the economy and fuel prices may drive the equine industry out of buisness. Horse vets are also looked at as the snobs of the industry. I think though that it is time to do what I want for me, and for no one else.