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Good luck to all you VIRMPers! My wife and I find out where we're going to live for the next three years on Monday after she (hopefully) matches. I hope you all get what you're hoping for!
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Feb 8, 2014 02:04
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I kinda hate field service. Geriatric horses with people who don't care about them until they get too sick to ignore (but still won't spend money on) makes me really really sad. VIRMP email was like that lovely NAVLE email last month. Jerks.
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Feb 8, 2014 06:53
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Anyone have advice on Vet Prep vs. Zuku vs. whatever? Did you just subscribe to something for the 90 days before the exam? Longer? I have some rotations in May and June with a fair amount of downtime, but the idea of studying that far in advance is probably just wishful thinking. I'm a horrible procrastinator/crammer in general, and I feel pretty retarded about animals that aren't dogs or cats. In other news, my schedule for 4th year is great.  Good luck on the match, everybody!
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Feb 8, 2014 17:50
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Well, I had both because I won a VetPrep subscription at an event first year, and our class did a Zuku subscription. I honestly liked VetPrep's interface better. I can't speak too much for how similar questions were to exam because I quite honestly did not complete a very high percentage of either and don't remember any of it already. I did a handful of questions in areas I wasn't good at every couple of weeks starting in June or so, bought 2 of the NBVME self-assessments (one about a month before my exam date so I knew what I really needed to concentrate on and one the weekend before to reassure myself that I was likely going to pass) and studied a little bit with enelrahc and other people who were not small animal track. I think the NBVME assessments and the couple of times I studied with other people were probably the most helpful things that I did. There were actually questions straight from the NBVME assessments that were on the exam, not that I knew whether I got them right or not on the self-assessments or exam but still. I took the exam while on small animal medicine rotation on the same day as a friend who was also on the same rotation and we did not go crazy over studying the weekend before since SA med is a really time consuming crazy rotation. The exam sucked and was like a marathon and towards the end you're just clicking the first answer that comes to your mind to finish the goddamn thing. I marked answers and wrote stuff down and poo poo for the first section or two, then progressively cared less. Pretty sure I finished the last 60 question section in like, 20 minutes because  But I passed, and it wasn't really even close. You don't have to get a very high percentage right to pass it would seem. Topoisomerase fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 8, 2014 |
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Feb 8, 2014 22:53
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I did VetPrep, and I did slog through and finish most of the questions and found them to be pretty good preparation, especially for the species I was not familiar with. It does get you in the habit of stereotyping breeds and jumping to conclusions for things with classic presentations, but as I recall, the test was actually like that, both national and CA state boards.
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Feb 8, 2014 23:43
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I thought Zuku was way easier than the actual exam. I think a lot of that may be that I've spent 3+ years doing pattern recognition to pass tests and so I did that on the Zuku quizzes too where I'd only read the first 3 words and know the answer because I had seen the question before. I think in the end either is fine. Zuku gave our class a good deal, so that's what we went with. The people who fail are mostly the people who you expect to fail (although we had one dodo pass that was a shocker to all). I don't know about anything but horses and I passed fine, so the bar is pretty low I think. I did do one of those NBVME and thought it was a decent confidence boost.
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Feb 9, 2014 00:09
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You don't necessarily need either. They didn't sound like they fit my study style, so I didn't bother. I learned plenty from my notes and just paying attention in clinics. I took two of the board's practice tests, one near the start of studying and one a week before the test. It was super helpful; I felt totally comfortable during the test because it prepared me for the type of question and how much I could get wrong while still scoring a pass. It felt awesome to see the bump in score from the first to the second and then from that to the real thing. I passed with a pretty rad cushion. 
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Feb 9, 2014 06:46
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Can I ask a dog medical question? My dog is a 4 year old, 40 lb red heeler / beagle cross. Today he started hanging his tail in an odd way, like it sticks out a couple inches as normal but then droops down. This is unusual as he tends to keep his tail up and alert, I guess. He's also not really wagging it. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and he can feel his tail below where it droops. His behavior is otherwise normal. One thing that's significant I guess is that we played in the snow a lot yesterday and he got pretty cold. I think of this as significant because it's apparently a risk for something called limber tail. But it seems like he could have just pulled something too, although he's walking fine and everything. Our vet isn't open today or I'd have just called her. Is there anything I should do with him besides wait to take him in to the vet? There's probably an animal hospital we could get him into today if we had to.
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Feb 9, 2014 17:38
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If he's not painful, eating and drinking well and seems otherwise happy, you can probably wait the day, though you should definitely take him in to see the vet on Monday. If he starts having any difficulty walking or seems to stumble or trip himself up more often then it is much more of an emergency and he should be seen ASAP. Is he able to move it at all? Does it hurt when he moves it or if you try to move it gently (up and down or side to side)?
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Feb 9, 2014 18:16
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Starting my first rotation (SA Diagnostic Imaging) in 12 hours. Here we go!
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Feb 9, 2014 22:01
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YourCreation posted:Starting my first rotation (SA Diagnostic Imaging) in 12 hours. Here we go! My favorite  I miss those days.
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Feb 10, 2014 00:02
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HelloSailorSign posted:My favorite Any tips on how to be an imaging badass like yourself? Hehe
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Feb 10, 2014 00:28
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YourCreation posted:Any tips on how to be an imaging badass like yourself? Hehe Play more video games  That's actually slightly serious. For ultrasound, it's all about hand eye coordination for finding that good image. Otherwise, just watch a ton of them. It's all about pattern recognition. The ultrasound book I posted earlier is an awesome resource. While doing a scan, when I'm sweeping around, I watch the middle of the screen. If you sweep your eyes around the screen when you are also sweeping the probe, you might miss things. When I'm near stable with the probe because I'm on a kidney or something, I do an outside-in approach and focus down. With radiographs, CT, MRI... being able to discern minor variations is the big thing. It helps if you can take in a bigger picture at once, and then be able to focus down. When I'm reading something that's symmetrical (DV rads, transverse CT/MRI) my eyes constantly dart back and forth, left to right. Pick each structure and look at the buddy. And the biggest thing - what is the drat patient history? When you hear the history presented, and when you get your differentials in your head, the next thought is "so what does this look like on imaging?" The biggest pitfalls I see are when you've got something in your head you're trying to prove OR something obviously abnormal. That's when you just need to stop yourself and check in - so what if the heart is taking up most of the chest, did you check that last rib to see if something's chewing on it?
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Feb 10, 2014 00:42
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Solis posted:If he's not painful, eating and drinking well and seems otherwise happy, you can probably wait the day, though you should definitely take him in to see the vet on Monday. If he starts having any difficulty walking or seems to stumble or trip himself up more often then it is much more of an emergency and he should be seen ASAP. Is he able to move it at all? Does it hurt when he moves it or if you try to move it gently (up and down or side to side)? He's doing fine with feeding and coordination and gait, etc. His tail seems to hurt a bit, he generally doesn't like his tail messed with but today he growled when I tried to move it around, which is more response than is characteristic for him. My wife is taking him to our vet tomorrow so hopefully everything will be fine.
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Feb 10, 2014 02:23
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YourCreation posted:Any tips on how to be an imaging badass like yourself? Hehe How good are you at making stuff up? 
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Feb 10, 2014 02:37
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Khelmar posted:How good are you at making stuff up? Can never go wrong with "There is a heterogenous area in [tubercle no one has ever heard of] that is of possible concern. Further imaging warranted if clinical signs correlate." The answer is always CT, MRI, or nuc med and never commit to anything!
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Feb 10, 2014 03:08
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Enelrahc posted:Can never go wrong with "There is a heterogenous area in [tubercle no one has ever heard of] that is of possible concern. Further imaging warranted if clinical signs correlate." The answer is always CT, MRI, or nuc med and never commit to anything! Much like clin path, "recommend biopsy and histopathologic examination for confirmation".
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Feb 10, 2014 03:26
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Khelmar posted:Much like clin path, "recommend biopsy and histopathologic examination for confirmation". Or the ever popular, "1+ protein is likely not significant with a USG of 1.035, but a UPC would be recommended if there is clinical concern."
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Feb 10, 2014 03:31
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Lately ours have been recommending PARR for anything that even whiffs of lymphoma
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Feb 10, 2014 03:36
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Speaking of radiographs, since the imaging thread disappeared, I'll just post gee whiz things here now and then because I like black and white images and dark rooms and am awkward socially  This was an Animal Control case, found by side of the road. A small amount of hemorrhage was visible in the mouth. The thoracic limbs were rigid. The pelvic limbs were mostly flaccid, though they did move a small amount once on their own. I don't really remember all that much else, Chaco may put in two cents. Ante-mortem:  Post-mortem: 
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Feb 10, 2014 07:01
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^^^tail's off! trying to figure out if there's something fucky going on with T11-T12, T12-T13, T13-L1 as well but technique and positioning make that a bit difficult. Can't say anything about the cervical column due to the positioning. Screw the thorax and abdomen who cares, no diaphragmatic hernia. Couple chips off of the pelvis as well.Enelrahc posted:Can never go wrong with "There is a heterogenous area in [tubercle no one has ever heard of] that is of possible concern. Further imaging warranted if clinical signs correlate." The answer is always CT, MRI, or nuc med and never commit to anything! Yep. "If clinically indicated" is like the best phrase ever for radiologists. When I was on the SA radiology rotation, at one of our rounds sessions we were to interpret this thoracic radiograph of a cat. Now, this was a patient of mine on SA Medicine so I said so and did not give away the punchline. The radiograph was ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC for a lung lobe torsion. Like good enough of an example in the radiologists' minds to use in rounds. Except, we had euthanized the cat, necropsied it and there was no torsion or evidence of there ever having been a torsion. The lung lobe was very necrotic with evidence of severe bronchopneumonia and the cat had massive fibrinous pleuritis and a cute lil PPDH but definitely no torsion. Path's best guess is that there was a massive embolic event. I delicately mentioned this later to the radiologist tho. Topoisomerase fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 09:13
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Got my #1. Gonna go freeze my rear end off in Pennsylvania for a year! Finally something worked out this year. Wake up, rest of you!
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Feb 10, 2014 14:20
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Didn't get any residency. Looks like me trying to be a special snowflake and do GP instead of internship was a dumb idea. Time to go the imaging internship route! Topo: I thought on the VD that it's possible that skull and C1 were luxated - skull looks to be well aligned, spine looks well aligned, but there's a strange gap. Post mortem Chaco had thought there was too much mobility there so we took the rad.
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Feb 10, 2014 14:25
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HelloSailorSign posted:Didn't get any residency. Looks like me trying to be a special snowflake and do GP instead of internship was a dumb idea. Time to go the imaging internship route! The dens is out of line with C1 on the VD view, so I'd wonder about an AO lux. I don't think C1 is, since it's positioned too perfectly in the VD, but I agree in the lateral it looks weird. Necropsy time!
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Feb 10, 2014 15:02
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Khelmar posted:The dens is out of line with C1 on the VD view, so I'd wonder about an AO lux. I don't think C1 is, since it's positioned too perfectly in the VD, but I agree in the lateral it looks weird. Now that's something I miss from academia - necropsies. We've done a few out here, but for the most part most people don't want us to, we don't have the time, and our facilities and equipment are not all that good for anything above 30-40 pounds.
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Feb 10, 2014 15:33
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Going with a classmate of mine to AVC. Kinda bummed I didn't get OVC but at least I don't have to move to the US so hooray!
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Feb 10, 2014 15:53
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I got squat but there's open positions yet. Serves me right for applying to two fields and not being super focused. One of our anaesthesiologists thinks I have a real shot at Tennessee, which is apparently a pretty good program so here goes nothing
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Feb 10, 2014 16:53
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Solis posted:I got squat but there's open positions yet. Serves me right for applying to two fields and not being super focused. One of our anaesthesiologists thinks I have a real shot at Tennessee, which is apparently a pretty good program so here goes nothing UT is in an amazing area. What are you applying for?
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Feb 10, 2014 19:29
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Khelmar posted:UT is in an amazing area. What are you applying for? Anaesthesiology. I was kind of dumb this year and split my app between ECC and anaesthesia and it probably hurt my chances quite a bit. Apparently almost everywhere I applied to ranked me, just not high enough. I guess worst case scenario next year I try again
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Feb 10, 2014 19:36
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I didn't match but I have a lot of options in the scramble as of right now, talked to 4 places and have 1 more this afternoon that I applied to and ended up not ranking because I couldn't make it there to interview when they wanted me to. They had one unfilled position so I may end up there.
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Feb 10, 2014 20:27
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So apparently University of Missouri decided to put a single email together for their rotating general internship and put everyone that didn't match (rough guess 160-180) in the send area, so now I know of at least two classmates who didn't match somewhere. I'm not sure that was the best thing to do.
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Feb 10, 2014 22:47
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HelloSailorSign posted:So apparently University of Missouri decided to put a single email together for their rotating general internship and put everyone that didn't match (rough guess 160-180) in the send area, so now I know of at least two classmates who didn't match somewhere. I'm not sure that was the best thing to do. They did that for their specialty internship too. Not really the best way to go about things IMO
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Feb 11, 2014 00:10
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I didn't get that email from Mizzou, but I did notice some other places that did that (didn't BCC the list).
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Feb 11, 2014 02:35
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So apparently at least one imaging internship I've come across in my searches - which there aren't all that many - requires a general rotating internship first. Ouch.
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Feb 11, 2014 18:33
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Just got a four week externship at Penn for July-August. Very excited! You peeps should all apply to my school for internships/residencies and enjoy the sunny British countryside 8)
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Feb 11, 2014 20:44
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HelloSailorSign posted:So apparently at least one imaging internship I've come across in my searches - which there aren't all that many - requires a general rotating internship first. Ouch. Most every specialty internship does.
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Feb 12, 2014 04:43
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We have an exotics internship that doesn't require a general rotating beforehand, and both our exotics intern and the exotics clinical associate who was an intern last year did not match to a residency this year, likely because they never did a general rotating internship.YourCreation posted:Just got a four week externship at Penn for July-August. Very excited! Congrats! I have a friend actually who does want to move to the UK but she said a lot of the internships there require a couple years of clinical experience beforehand. Braki fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 05:07
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So head tech says our supplier is suddenly out of euthanasia solution.  Proposal KCl for the... Win? Edit: and the x-ray machine just broke and the other vet in town just sent us a fax saying they'll be out for the week. 
HelloSailorSign fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 23:16
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HelloSailorSign posted:So head tech says our supplier is suddenly out of euthanasia solution. It rains, it pours? I heard there was a shortage of Pentobarbital.
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Feb 15, 2014 02:10
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There's always a shortage of something. What horrifies me is that our clinic apparently uses 150-200ml of the stuff each month so now we're stocking up with the max our suppliers will give us. That's an average of 50 pounds of pet per day. How depressing.HelloSailorSign posted:So head tech says our supplier is suddenly out of euthanasia solution. I'm going to assume you meant propofol...you could probably get away without the KCl, just keep giving it until they are apneic and keep them there until the die of hypoxia....but I still think ketamine would be way cheaper if we just want to induce anesthesia and then find a creative way to stop the heart.
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Feb 15, 2014 02:41
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