It's been quite a while.

The semester is coming to an end and it has been my busiest yet. I finally finished my research project after overcoming some difficulties. I found through this detail oriented task how mistakes can be made to jeopardize your research, but also how to overcome those mistakes and continue on. Our forage samples were all sent to the lab for analysis at the same time. When we received the data back from the lab, we noticed that they failed to analyze one of the main things we were calculating: dry matter. That completely threw off that part of our research. The samples were disposed of and we were unable to account for the three months of collections we did over the summer months. I did, however, continue on with my forage cover research and found that we had extensive differences in weed and brush cover, despite the drought we suffered from this summer. Yay, us!

Enough of that for now, though. I'm edging closer and closer to starting the vet school application process. I will be applying this coming fall and have been trying to compile all my experience. I have to log about 200 more hours, but I'm getting there. I will be shadowing a veterinarian here soon which should help me build up some hours. My GPA is good to go and I'm hoping my GRE scores are the same. Perhaps I will start using this blog to log my experiences. Dr. Mills told me to keep a strong record so I know exactly what I did and how I went about accomplishing it.

So why not start now:

Small Animal

Venipuncture:

• Draw blood from the cephalic vein in dogs in order to perform heartworm tests using Abaxis VetScan Canine Heartworm Rapid Test

Animal Handling:

• Animals of all sizes (cats,dogs, cattle, equine, etc.)
• Restraining companion animals in a clinic environment

Other:

• Palpation of prostate gland

Total hours: ~50 hrs

Large Animal


Reproduction:

• Implantation of Eazi-Breed™ CIDR® for estrus sycronization
• Rectal palpation (open, 30 day pregnancy, 60 day pregnancy, and 90 day pregnancy)
• Artificial insemination of Belted Galloway cattle on farm and at the Nashville Zoo
• Knowledge of maintaining an efficient breeding program
• Research on herd Estimated Progeny Differences 

Animal Handling:

• Restraining cattle in order to draw blood from the jugular vein
• Knowledgeable about how to use cattle restraint systems
• Knowledge of restraining and halter breaking cattle.

Venipuncture:

• Collect blood samples from cattle via caudal and jugular veins in order to test for anaplasmosis.

Total hours: ~75 hrs