Bovine Handling And End Of Week 4

This is me trying to get a pulse rate on a cow by palpating the coccygeal artery, on the underside of the tail-- I'm counting and watching the second hand on my watch, which is why I look so intent on what I am doing. So far it's been a lot easier to find a coccygeal pulse on a cow or horse than on a dog (which I was sometimes forced, by unusual circumstances, to do in small animal emergency medicine).

This is me listening to the heart. I've been getting all kinds of practice lately at ausculting heart and lung sounds in different species. I also got some practice at 'pinging' the cow's side to ascertain the location of air in the abdomen. And finally, I got to strip some milk (I think that is the right way of saying it).

I really like working with cows so far. They are gentle and curious. It is amazing how much you can do from their back end-- in fact, they don't care to have their faces touched but you can practically do an entire physical exam without having to go near the head (well, not quite, but you can get a whole lot of information just from the rear end-- pulse and temperature as well as hydration and capillary refill time from the mucosa of the labia).

Week four of vet school is almost over. I've heard the fire hydrant analogy for medical/veterinary school (it's like trying to drink from a fire hydrant instead of a water fountain or something similar about the amount of information one has to ingest). My best description would be that it is like running on a treadmill that is constantly being turned up. (Those of you who know me well know that I love running, albeit not on a treadmill). This summer I watched horses running on a treadmill (for research) at 80%, 90% and 100% of their maximum effort (based on prior data gathered for their baseline heart rate etc). I've felt since about the end of the second week like I was running at maximum effort. Yet at the end of each week I feel like the speed is turned up a notch. I'm running harder than I've ever run before. Just when I think I've hit my stride and caught my breath and adjusted to the new pace, which feels like all I can handle, they throw a whole bunch more at us. This weekend is the beginning of our comparative anatomy labs, which they set up and we teach ourselves on our free time. I know where I'll be all weekend if anyone is looking for me...