Monday, April 20, 2009

My first day in Large Animal Land

I've been dreading this day since I arrived in September. While I toiled away in the bowels of the windowless small animal hospital, I would relish the fact that my schedule contained ALL small animal rotations for 7 months. It was what I wanted to do! Hurray! Learning my new job! To the back of my mind stayed the summer of large animal my schedule handed me. 4 weeks of Large Animal Medicine, 4 weeks of Large Animal Surgery, 2 weeks of Large Animal Theriogenology(fancy term for breeding horses. Artifically. Where you have to wear bike helmets, and someone holds an artificial....well it's called an AV, so you can fill in the blank)Sick.
Today was my first day of Large Animal Medicine. We have an orientation that includes a 16 minute video on how to treat a horse in the isolation barn. My solution is to not take a horse that needs to go in the isolation barn.

We go to meet the resident and clinican, and I watch an ultrasound, and provide the rubbing alcohol when needed. I feel somewhat useful.
I feel my skills are not meant for large animals. When the horse runs, I run. That's apparently the wrong thing to do. I re-learn diseases and facts that were shoved to the back of my mind for 8 months. I curse my schedule for not having this rotation sooner to get it out of the way, and also for not having it before my national boards, which I take on Saturday.
I meet my patient. He seems to know I don't know what I am doing. He disregards me trying to give him an injection and goes back to his hay while swinging his back to me.I try not to get shoved to the back of the stall, but somehow that dosen't happen. He bobs his head, and I am filled with panic. Did I do something wrong? Why when the animal weighs 50 times more than my average patient does it seem more delicate to me?
One day down, 59 more to go.(That's weekdays. Forget the weekends, I can't count them too, or I'll be depressed.)

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