Life, study milestone and Turtle

It felt like only yesterday when I received an offer letter from the vet school. Oh, how much time has passed. Passing through the first year as a naive science student, then having a little family dramatic turmoil which was related to parental disapproval of studying to be a vet. It led to a gap year away from uni, and spending solid quality time at home with parents.

After all these years of studying abroad, and only getting to see them once or twice a year for a short period, my parents were like strangers to me. It took me by surprise when I actually realised this fact. Perhaps, the feeling is not dissimilar catching up with your lost long close friends. Something remain nostalgically the same, but some change with time. Now I'm getting really for some quality time at home with family, and maybe coming out to them is about due at the end of this year after graduation.

Finally, I have reached the promised year of lecture-free. Relaxing as it may sound, it has turned out to be rather mentally and physically draining in a different way compared to attending 8 lectures in a day. We have been rotating through different aspects of veterinary medicine each week - general practice, small animal medicine, anaesthesia, small animal, diagnostic imaging ie. radiology, pathology woot!, production animal ie. sheep, cows, alpacas, critical care and emergency medicine, and public health, etc. Also not to mentioned self-organised extramural placements in veterinary practices, and a 6500 words literature review to be submitted for journal publication. Sometimes, life can be uncertain, but I'm pretty sure that I will be having a holiday-free year, Gahhhh. Many of us have adopted to survive on a weekly basis due to information overload, the steep learning curve and sleep deprivation.

Clinical-wise, I have done bits of everything including castrations, spaying, and seen lots of blood and gore. That's alright til I went for dairy farm visits on a stormy Melbournian weather. We did pregnancy testing on 80 cows ie. shoving one whole arm up the cow's rectum. The weather was being unfriendly, and we were soaked as well as got pooed on our face, because some cows decided to shoot some organic projectile to us. Large animal vet - Nah, I'm sure it's not my thing.

Not the one I saw, but similar clinical presentation

My highlight as a veterinary pathologist wannabe was figuring how to humanely euthanise a run-over turtle. After consulting a book on exotic pet medicine and website (have a look for pictures and more detail if you're curious), I proceeded through the steps. It was rather brutal visually, but at least pain was minimal. Then I took every opportunity to learn from the dead, therefore a post-mortem examination was performed, and it was the right decision to euthanise the turtle since its pelvis was broken in pieces, in addition to cracks and fistulas (holes) in its carapace, which exposed the organs to the environment. It's similar to having holes in the tummy, and the intestines poke out to say a greeting. The turtle was beyond the stage that it could be saved.

Another way to swiftly kill an turtle is blunt trauma to the head, especially if it is found in the middle of no where and can't be transported to a vet - find a big boulder (bigger than the turtle's head obviously) and smash the head forcefully. This is even more barbaric to see, but it is more humane than leaving the turtle to dry off and die in heat. The method was recommended by a wildlife research fellow.

Anyway, it is quite scary that I am going to be a vet in roughly 8 months! Where has my time gone?