Spring Semester 2019/ 50%

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on. Let’s start with school.

This spring semester was a whirlwind. Myself and many of my classmates were feeling the burnout for sure! I had a hard time making myself study when I could just watch Teddy roll around on the floor instead. I thought maybe it was all the oxytocin keeping me from feeling motivated, but I talked to several others who just couldn’t muster up the motivation to continue the rigorous study schedules we had made for ourselves back in the first year. Luckily, it didn’t hurt me too badly (in the academic sense) I still passed all my classes and I finally found some school-life balance which was obviously needed. Now I am on summer break and just have to do the online cases before classes start up and prep for an exam.

Teddy is doing amazing, he is now almost 7 months old, crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture already! He wants to be involved in everything and goes through phases of being extremely attached to myself or Scott. He also seems to have a bottomless appetite occasionally, so he’s growing quickly!

Sassy, my mare that was due to foal in may did indeed do so. Unfortunately, she had a stillborn which wrecked us. We were so excited for the perfect black colt that never got to take his first breath. Now we are trying again, she was rebred and hopefully settles and stays in foal. This time we plan to have her over at the CSU equine reproduction lab to foal out, mostly so I won’t be neurotic while I’m on clinics about my mare. Our veterinarian said it was a complete fluke and he wouldn’t expect a repeat performance buuuut I don’t want to worry about it so hopefully she takes, and we can deal with putting her at CSU later. We are still waiting for 2 calves this year! One is due any day and the other is due mid-July. We are eagerly awaiting them as well and are hoping for no issues, we do worry about dystocia as they are both heifers. We bred them to a low birth weight Angus bull last year, so hopefully they will calve easily on their own. Luckily we have many people on standby in the event that something goes wrong.

This spring, besides passing classes I bred my paint mare Bambi to our stallion Drift (Ole Driftin Cowboy) and I got to ultrasound and confirm her in foal with a single embryo at 13 days. Unfortunately, I had to return the ultrasound and so haven’t seen our little blob since then. Unlike Sassy, Bambi will be foaling out here at home sometime in April. This foal will be for sale as I can barely keep up with the one colt I am trying to sell now (Lynx) so I can’t imagine keeping up with the (hopefully) two babies. That’s what it’s all about though, when breeding horses, I can’t wait to see who buys the foal and their journey with them!

Earlier this summer I got to go to the US Beef Academy, hosted by New Mexico State University. I had a blast and learned a lot about the industry, got to palpate some heifers and do a breeding soundness exam on some yearling bulls. I then came home for two weeks before jetting off for another two weeks to do vaccination clinics in the Navajo Nation. It was a great experience and I learned all about the US Public Health Services which is a uniformed commissioned corps that I didn’t even know existed. It is overseen by the surgeon general. It was pretty interesting!

Well, that’s all for now! I am unofficially 50% a doctor! I cannot wait to start morning rotations in the fall.

2 years down

SO its been a while since I’ve added anything to this page, sorry for that! As Erika mentioned, vet school is HECTIC!

I am officially 50% a doctor, its quite hard to believe but I know I’ve put the work in.. we all have. My non vet student best friend gets to hear all the struggles and complaints through the weeks and semesters, she tells people who ask that vet school is like boot camp.. we are required to take 26 ish credits per semester and maintain a ‘work-life balance’ while also having relationships, managing money, taking care of our own pets (I have 6 dogs, 4 horses, a cat), and somehow balancing clubs and activities.. I think I’m part of four clubs? I’m the president for the small ruminant club, secretary for the bovine practitioners club, member of the equine practitioners club, member of the holistic medicine club.

I don’t know where to start regarding life and struggles since its been so long since I’ve added to this page. I’ll start by reminding you all that imposters syndrome is real, I don’t feel like I belong in vet school and I don’t know when/if I will feel like I really am a doctor.. or on track to be a doctor (as the case may be). Last Spring, I failed a class. That was a hit to my ego and I struggled thereafter with how difficult school was and whether I could pass any tests ever again. We took capstone, which I barely passed! But then second year seemed to go better for me and here I am, finished with it and moving forward with this education. I’ve heard third and fourth year are better! So looking forward to that.

Now, bringing things to current times.. I am in Arizona for the summer (where I call home). I spent most of the last week on the San Carlos Reservation with the Apache Tribe on a R.A.V.S. (rural area veterinary service) trip. It was epic and sad and wonderful and tiring and crazy! I met vet students from across the nation including from Alabama, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida. I made friends and learned about cases I might not see in general practice, off the reservation. I can perform a decent physical exam in only a few minutes and identify enlarged lymph nodes.

The next two weeks I will be at a local dairy then the remainder of the summer I’ll be at a rural mixed practice an hour and a half from my hometown, where the vet is well known and well loved.

My advice, although its not deep or extremely thoughtful, is to just keep going. Keep doing the homework, keep going to class. Starting and stopping is harder.. just keep pumping out those annoying papers and assignments and taking those exams. Eventually, you’ll be handed a degree.