Student Blog

Throughout undergraduate school, I never joined a single student organization and honestly, did not understand the point of them until my first semester of veterinary school. Instead I had prioritized clinical experience and studying to be able to get accepted into veterinary school. NEWS FLASH, the competition is over! So take a breather and make the time to develop yourself as a leader.

Prior to veterinary school, I never considered myself a leader. I mean, leaders are just business owners, Presidents, military officials and Oprah, right?

My name is Laura! I just finished my first year of vet school a few weeks ago and I wanted to put together a list of tips that I thought would have been helpful as an incoming veterinary student!

My final rotation at ISU CVM was Clinical Microbiology and Diagnostic Laboratory, which was perfect for me due to an overwhelming amount of swine cases. For me, the diagnostic laboratory portion was the most beneficial to read case histories, sort through submitted tissues, and develop a prioritized differential list. This experience further emphasized the importance of providing both a thorough and relevant history, along with collecting the appropriate sample, at the appropriate time, and selecting the appropriate test.

The end of April has been a wonderful time!  I have only 7 days left from the time of writing this post until I finish all of my classes!!  I have 10 years into this education post-high school, so it is a completely foreign life I am preparing to launch into in a few short days. 

Now, I absolutely love veterinary medicine, but in this last month or so I have absolutely loved diving into all of the things non-vetmed.  I have been able to learn so many new things!  

With just a few months left of veterinary school and all of my required rotations completed, I am on the downward slide to graduation. I have one two-week rotation remaining at ISU CVM and six weeks of swine preceptorships throughout the Midwest. The amount of knowledge I have gained in these past four years and the number of cases I have been exposed to has been unimaginable.

Greetings everyone!
It’s the week after spring break, and I must say, my brain has one leg in vacation mode and slowly tippy toeing its way towards study mode (but let’s be honest, my brain is mostly preferring vacation mode at this moment).

A lot has happened since we last spoke! I took the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE), rotated through my remaining small animal rotations, signed a job contract, finished my skills check-list, and received my NAVLE results.

Greeting Vet Enthusiasts,

I still cannot believe that I made it into veterinary school, much less that I will be graduating in five short months.

As I write this month’s blog, I am sitting in a hotel room in Oklahoma, where I am completing the second week of my preceptorship with Hanor, a pork production company. Since we last spoke, I have completed both the ICU and Dermatology rotations at ISU. I first transitioned from nights to days in the ICU, which was a harder adjustment for me than working nights. I had a lot of swing shifts, which are scheduled from 10 AM to 10 PM versus the standard 8 AM to 8 PM.

Most patients that come to a specialty hospital like Iowa State University come on referral from their GP (general practitioner, or "primary veterinarian"). One piece I have been able to take away from a number of my rotations is how the GP can really be a major part of the referral (specialty) team.

Hello Vet Med Enthusiasts!

The month of October has brought beautiful red and orange trees, as well as nice chilly mornings and evenings. I was pleasantly surprised by the early kiss of snow we received in the beginning of the month. It’s time to take out the warm coats and scarves!

Veterinary school demands long hours: long hours of class, long hours of studying.  It can be incredibly difficult to wake up for those 8:00 AM classes or 7:00 AM extra-curriculars -especially during Iowa Winters where you will commonly get to school, and leave school, without ever seeing the fleeting sun.

On that dreary note, I would love to share some ways to trick your body into being a morning person.

In undergraduate, you may have had time to finish your studying or projects each night, watch a little TV or read a book (for fun!), and get up each morning to go for a run.  Maybe you went dancing every Thursday night, spent weekends at a friend's place, and only ever didn't receive a full 8 hours of sleep by choice.

In veterinary school, you enter this Twilight Zone where I swear there are only like 6 hours in the day -where did the other 18 go!? 

If I had been asked to write this before my senior year, I would have said I was terrified of eyeballs. They were these mystical, fragile blobbies that are essential to both animals for sight and owners for connecting to their pets. The stress borne of the consequences if you 'mess those up' was hugely heavy to me: eyeballs were tiny face booby-traps waiting to explode (literally!), and I did not want to risk getting close to them. So, when I prepared to brave my Ophthalmology Service clinical rotation, I wished with all my wishing power… to not puke. 

Greetings everyone,

My summer filled with concerts, beaches and staying up late binge watching Netflix has come to an end, and it is that time of the year again…back to school! I arrived in Ames last weekend, after a three-day journey from Los Angeles with my cat, Maddy.

I am on break from rotation right now to regroup and intensely study for boards (anyone else catch the oxymoron there, ugh!).  However, each break I take out a day to food prep.  Whenever people hear that I food prep, they panic.  This makes me so sad!  I eat "fast food" daily for nearly all meals by eating my own home-cooked goodness.  Let me share some tips I definitely wish I knew when I was first starting at university. 

The past month of rotations has flown by! I have completed two rotations, started my VetPrep program, and have registered for the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) and with the Iowa Board of Veterinary Medicine.

So far, my rotations have provided a great opportunity to get to know classmates that I previously haven’t spent much time with. Now that everyone is closing in on a career path, it has been great to create a network of species experts that I will be able to refer to in the future. 

Hello,

My what a difference a couple weeks can make. My vet school career is now in the rear-view mirror and I am hurdling towards the real world…whether I like it or not.

My fourth year journey starts in less than 30 days at ISU CVM, meaning a new rotation every two weeks until May of 2019! Consequently, I have a lot of work to do in the upcoming month with deadlines fast approaching. Yet, my excitement is building to get out of the classroom and apply the knowledge I have gained over the past three years. That also means I have to start considering plans for after graduation.

Hello everyone!

It is mid-April, and final exams are looming closer and closer. It’s unbelievable to think that there are only 3 weeks until second year will come to a close.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to participate in the Ophthalmology enucleation lab. This wet lab was in conjunction with the Feline Club. Each student had a cadaver dog or cat to practice enucleation techniques.

I can't believe it is literally a month away until I have my last finals and I start clinics. It feels like time has flown by with all my ups and downs in vet school.

Since my last blog, I attended the 2018 AASV (American Association of Swine Veterinarians) Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. It was a great conference again this year filled with seminars, student oral and poster presentations, along with many networking opportunities. No matter who you talk to, they will attest that AASV is a very student friendly organization, especially when it comes to offering funding to students wishing to attend the conference each year. The timing of the conference unfortunately falls before spring break each year, so it can take some time to get caught up with classes upon return, but definitely worth the effort given how much the conference has to offer. I had a few exams that required rescheduling, which needed to be addressed in advanced on a per instructor basis.

The semester is now in full swing with two exams down and plenty to go before clinical rotations begin in May!

There are a lot of species-specific electives offered this semester, including poultry diseases, small ruminant production medicine, entrepreneurship, equine lameness, and equine surgery. I am enrolled in the poultry and small ruminant courses, given that these species are minimally covered in the core curriculum.

Since my last entry, midterms have been storming in non-stop this whole month of February. On average, the VM2 class has been tackling 2 exams per week this month, with quizzes and assignments sprinkled here and there.

My name is Megan Nickel and I am a third-year veterinary student from Theresa, Wisconsin. I grew up on a dairy farm and completed my bachelor’s degree in animal science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF) in 2015. During my time at UWRF, I worked in their animal welfare laboratory, at a local mixed animal practice, and at an emergency and referral center near the Twin Cities. Between my undergraduate degree and entry into veterinary school, I completed an animal welfare internship with Oscar Mayer/Kraft Foods.

I am back in Ames for round two of second semester. Winter break seemed to have gone so very fast, but it was very nice to spend time with my family and friends and take advantage of the food galore during the holidays. Now that I am back in Ames, things have been rolling and picking up speed.

It is that time of the year again, where I can rejoice and say “Yes! I did it! I crossed the finish line!” With the first semester of second year under my belt, I feel a sense of relief knowing that I gave it my best this semester and there are no more final exams to look forward to (or not look forward to).

Hello everyone! My name is Jackie Lee and I am so excited to share my experience at ISU CVM with you all. I am originally from Southern California. Moving to Iowa has become my first “out of state” schooling experience. I'm a third-year veterinary student and my focus and area of experience is with small animals. However, I plan to track mixed animal during my fourth year.

Over the last month, I have taken Swine Production Management and Consulting, as well as Microbiology/Diagnostic Lab. I am now taking a course in Small Ruminant Medicine. I enjoyed the swine course, as it involved a lot of record analysis and discussion on swine production which I found interesting. The Microbiology and Diagnostic Lab rotation was interesting as well. The mornings were devoted to microbiology, where we isolated and identified bacteria from cases submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL). The afternoons were then spent evaluating tissues and samples submitted to the VDL by veterinarians. This was a great experience, as it involved critically evaluating the submissions and making decisions regarding the best way to identify the pathogen causing disease. I am now on Small Ruminant Medicine, where we are learning about caring for goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, and whitetail deer. I would have to say that these have been three of my favorite rotations so far!

Hello everyone, my name is Brent Sexton and I’m excited to have the opportunity to share my veterinary school experience with you! As this is my first blog post, I will introduce myself before I dig into my veterinary experiences.

Wow, a month into work (post-graduation) and it has flown by! There have been way too many stories to tell, and every day seems to go by more quickly than the last.

It is that time of the year I have been waiting for … “dead week”. And no, it isn’t the week where all zombies are let loose across campus (although that would be fairly interesting). “Dead week” is the week before the week of finals. Essentially, club activities and meetings subside during dead week, giving us students more time to focus and expend every last bit of energy we can muster to get us through our official last week of lectures and labs.

Now back from break, the prospect of clinics is becoming more exciting as we only have ~40 days left in the classroom. I took this final spring break (yes, the actual last academic vacation) to relax and spend time in Los Angeles with friends. However, spring break was not just about relaxation. Los Angeles is my primary area of interest for living post-graduation, whether that be in an internship (hopefully) or working as a general practitioner. With that being said, it is important to find practices of interest for prospective internships during the third year of veterinary schoo

I just had a week off for spring break and I decided to stay in Ames and recharge by catching up on sleep, hitting the gym and watching some of my favorite Netflix shows. I also took this opportunity to catch up on a new book I started reading called “Dark Matter.” It was so important for me to recharge and give my brain a mental break so that I can be ready to tackle the remaining six weeks of the semester. As a first-year veterinary student, you learn to take mental breaks and do something fun for yourself without feeling guilty about not studying every waking hour of everyday.

It is unbelievable how quickly the month of February has gone by. This is mainly due to the fact that exams have started taking place, and time flies when you’re too busy studying and catching up in class. In the case for VM1s, we’ve had at least one exam every week since the start of February. These exams are rolling and keeping us on our toes!

Here begins my final traditional “classroom” semester of veterinary school, and with a new year comes new resolutions, so I want to write on time management in vet school. However, I’m going to briefly mention some dry material first so you can get the idea of day-to-day life– just stick with me. My core courses this semester include: cytology, toxicology, large animal medicine, infectious disease and preventative medicine, veterinary law, ophthalmology (my love), and one of the more feared courses – radiology.

Hello again! Finally, the calendar has transitioned to a year that myself, along with my class mates have waited to lay our eyes on for a very long time. In 2017 we will graduate and see ourselves move onto starting the first segment of our young careers as veterinarians. This particular time for a fourth year is generally filled with a lot of excitement, mixed with a heavy dose of nervousness and suspense. Though we are preparing to walk across the stage in five short months, along with that act comes the challenge of finding and accepting a job, or searching for that perfect internship, in addition to moving you and your belongings to a different part of the county, state, or country.

Fall semester of my third year was one of the most fulfilling, as well as busy, semesters that I have had so far at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Following the infamously challenging second year and my summer as a veterinary scholar doing Ophthalmology research here at Iowa State, this past semester integrated all the components of my education that I’ve acquired, thus far.  However, the pre-eminent experience this semester was embarking on the journey we fondly call junior surgery.  Though many may think we just perform surgery, our program offers so much more.

Hey everyone! I’m Dan Breuer, a fourth-year student from Glen Haven, Wisconsin. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse in 2013. I am half-way through my fourth-year at the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine. My focus is primarily dairy production medicine, with a general focus on mixed animal medicine. That’s a little about me and my background, so now I’ll give you a little sneak peek into what is going on. Every student has a different experience, especially during the clinical fourth year, so please realize that I may have a much different perspective at this point in my education than many of my other peers do.