October Goals

So... At the beginning of October all of us 'questers' set five goals that had to do with our internship.

1. Learn how to express the anal glands on a dog
ACCOMPLISHED. Indeed, my very own dog needed her glands expressed so my mother brought her. Kathy drew me a picture of a simple dog's butt anatomy and gave me lube and gloves. She put her finger into my dogs butt and told me to feel where her thumb was. I felt a bunch of tension and she told me to stick my finger in and do what she did. I did, but I couldn't seem to actually squeeze the crap out. I let her do the work and nasty stuff came out. She told me that my dog's left gland didn't seem to express when she was going to the potty and that her right gland was fine so if I needed to, I just needed to empty the left. I'm sure I'll try eventually, but the stench was terrible!

2. Learn the differences of a cat and dog exam
ACCOMPLISHED. I've been to a few cat exams and a lot of dog exams. They don't stick out as much to me as the problem situations, but I'm almost 90% sure there is no difference. Heart rate, stomach palpitations, teeth check, range of motion, eyes, ears, temperature.  I think my next big goal would be to remember the bpm difference between dogs and cats. I think dog's can range from 90-140 but I'll need to double check.

3. Figure out how to learn more about this field outside of the internship
FORGOTTEN. I totally forgot about this. I go into my internship and focus on that and when I leave I'm exhausted. I just absorb everything that happens and I tell it to a whole bunch of people and sleep it off. I will most definitely continue to work on this mainly because I'm going to UC Davis this weekend and my friend will be able to show me the facilities they have and talk to people who are in the field.

4. Talk to Dr. Codner to see if I can look at skin diseases under the 'scope
ACCOMPLISHED. I didn't need to ask Dr. Codner because Dr. Dowd showed me some cool stuff. I saw eggs of a worm that a dog pooped out and I looked at a malignant tumor sample. The eggs with worms looked like hard boiled eggs and the malignant tumor looked like a whole bunch of scrunched together circles.

5. Learn all the Friday vet tech names
ACCOMPLISHED. The ones who are very open to me: Receptionist- Tammy. Vet techs- Kristin, Stacy, and Kathy. I know one other girl but for some reason her name is slipping my mind. It will come back to me!

Mid October Update

So yesterday was about a month into my internship. Mrs. Sekera asked me how I was doing and made me realize that HEY I wasn't doing much. I was simply shadowing my mentor for 4 hours, nothing else.

I think my mentor must be some other-worldly creature though. Yesterday I learned lots. I walked in on Cathy (head vet tech) teaching Jennifer (college vet tech earning hours to graduate) how to get the bpm off a dog. I also learned the differences between sub Q and IM (inter muscular), and learned that almost nothing is ever injected into the vein. Even the shots we get at the doctors are inter muscular. The vet techs showed me how to identify the bladder on the ultrasound and they explained how a male dog's doggy parts worked.

Dr. Dowd let me go off and HELP for the first time. It's almost as if she knew about my conversation. Instead of her running out to ask for help, she let me run out and ask. It's not a lot but it made me feel so much more helpful. Another reason why I think Dr. Dowd is a miracle worker is the fact that I asked her how to help me with my chickens bald spot. My chicken has had a bald spot on her butt for a good 6 months. I'd been treating her with blu kote for two months but the feathers didn't start growing in until a few days after I asked her. It could be a coincidence, but.... I'd like to think otherwise. I'm so happy my chicken's growing back her feathers.

Update on hooping? I've also learned a lot. I went to decompression SF last week and made small arm hoops that are practically child arm hoops. They're made of poly-pro material and feel so nice when I'm just hooping on my hands. The smallest body hoop I've made now feels like lead. I'm dying to get a body poly pro hoop. I haven't put the lead hoop to waste though, I've learned how to do rising suns, some cross vertical arm trick, double hand isolations, reverse and regular escalators, and I'm practicing on my left shoulder hooping and vertical cat eyes. I'm just counting the days to Christmas!

Song of the last two weeks: Dreams

Ethics

Out of the six pillars of important characteristics, fairness is my number one. Fairness is described as playing by the rules, taking turns and sharing, being open minded and listening, and not blaming others.  Although all six are important, treating all people fairly is the foundation of a good relationship. Relationships help open up all the doors to our future.

If we were biased and dove into any budding relationship with that attitude, we would not have an accurate idea of who the person was. In respect to my internship, I go into every appointment with no judgment to the case. If a situation looks bad, the owner will prove to me through his/her explanations that it was or wasn't their fault. I should keep an open and positive mind towards everyone I meet.

If fairness did not exist, we would all be self-absorbed nit-wits. We would wage wars and solving problems would not be easy. Fairness is compromise and without compromise we wouldn’t be able to get the things we needed. 

Strictly IQuest

For IQuest, I am interning at Tassajara Vet in Blackhawk every Friday from 1:30 to 5:30. My mentor is Dr. Dowd, a very smart woman who actually owns the veterinary clinic. I decided to work in this field because it's devoted to something that has been prevalent in my life since I was little- a love for animals. This internship should show me whether I have the guts to go through vet school to become a veterinarian.

POSITIVE POLLYS

• Tassajara Vet is in close proximity to where I live
• Dr. Dowd and ALL the vet techs are nice to me! There's no drama!
• I see a whole array of different medical cases every 20 minutes
• Everyone's patient with me
• I can watch anyone do anything and they will explain what they are doing!

NEGATIVE NANCYS

• There's not much I can do outside of the clinic in terms of learning
• I'm not quite sure how to act when I'm around clients/ when my mentor goes out to formally address an issue
• Long amounts of walking and standing in an upright professional manner hurts my back
• When there's nothing to do, I still don't know what to work on and who to ask for work from

I have learned that I have a lot of patience and willpower when it comes to being professional. When drawing blood, one will stick a needle through the vein in a dog's neck, not it's arm. The arm vein is needed when the dog is older and might need fluids or surgical work that requires arm needles.