Last Week of Externship

This past weekend, I went to the park to do some more animal encounters.

This week we experienced a goat necropsy, eland necropsy, radiographed a lethargic red roughed lemur,a limping gemsbock, and a cheetah pregnancy check. I had the privilege of doing a rabbit castration as well!
The vet students all went to downtown Roseburg for a wine tasting event. Some of the little bouquets set up wine for local wineries for tasting.  In one of the stores, three of us ended up buying the same owl ring because it we all loved it so much.

I have to say thank you again to Benji and Kirsten; this has been my favorite rotation so far.  It's going to be very hard to leave on Saturday morning and travel back to school for my next rotation of ophthalmology.

Oregon coast

This past weekend, I took in some Vitamin Sea as I traveled to the Oregon coast. There is an unexplainable feeling that my soul reaches when I rest my eyes upon the ocean horizon, hear the ocean waves, smell of the salt water, and feel the sand beneath me. I become elated, wild, and free, and my soul is restored again.

This week we unfortunately did another cheetah necropsy, radiographs and ultrasound on ring-tail lemur, a rhino necropsy (incredibly sad but such an amazing privilege), radiographs on a cheetah who was limping, radiographs on a lion cub that has been coughing, and radiographs on a wilderbeast that has been intermittently limping.

The Real Reason Your Wait At The Vets Office Is So Long

Giraffes, Tigers, and Bears

This past weekend, I did the public animal encounters with giraffes, elephants, bears, and tigers that the park offers.

This week we did biopsies on some elephants, a physical exam on a bald eagle, gave fluids to a cheetah, checked on some coughing lion cubs, and unfortunately did have a necropsy on a cheetah as well. I've been relishing every thing about this park and the work I've been able to do!

I have been nervously searching and applying for a jobs every night. This is all getting very real!
This weekend I am planning on going to the coast for the weekend in honor of the snow back home!

All Creatures Great And Small

Wildlife Safari Externship

I started my final externship this week at the Wildlife Safari in Oregon which took nearly 12 hours of traveling.

I am staying in an intern house with 10 other people most of whom are 7 years younger than me, while sharing a room with two others (so no personal space), and sleeping on a cot for the next month.

This externship so closely reminds me of Africa and it's the most I've been able to participate in an externship setting this year. This week, we already anesthetized a Sika deer for a hoof trim, wound checked a ring tailed Lemer, did bloodwork and gave fluids to a rhino, received a call about a distressed oryx who unfortunately we did a necropsy on the next day, anesthetized a cheetah that ended up having an intestinal obstruction.  I obviously cannot post any pictures of the medical procedures, but I can share some pictures from around the park.  Highlight of the week: I did the anesthesia monitoring on the cheetah, who did wake up during, and was able to to pick her up and carry her in order to weigh her. Insanity!

New York State Of Mind

New York State of Mind

Central Park zoo

The New York Public Library

Gyro from The Halal Guys

Serendipity frozen hot chocolate

66 Perry Street (aka Carrie Bradshaw's apartment)

Grimaldi's pizza

Magnolia Bakery's famous banana bread pudding

NY Cosmo

Strolling down the streets of the upper east side, I love wondering about the story's of the people I pass (I had also had just finished a fairly strong cosmopolitan): The business man arguing for his next deal, the elderly couple hobbling hand in hand, the jogger annoyed by the individuals in his way, the young guys trying to prove who is "more tough", the two girlfriends laughing about a horrible date, the mother eagerly checking her phone while her young daughter recklessly swings her shopping bag fantasizing about make believe, the doorman staring longingly out the window hoping of bigger dreams, the group of teenage girls trying to be older than they are, and the excited woman on her phone exclaiming about her new job offer.  So much life and so much to do! I have tried to do as much as I can these past two weeks, but there will always be somewhere more to explore.  Most days I leave my externship with a plan of where I want to have dinner and I almost always end up choosing a different place that I end up passing by on my way.  That's the fun and mystery of this place.  Who knows what the rest of my weekend will have in store?!

My adventure of traveling is done for a few months until after the NAVLE (national licensing exam).  I have some of the most demanding rotations coming up so I need to be on top of my game as well as find time to study.

Check out my beautiful friend's blog: VetAndReady

ASPCA Externship

New York, New York

As I am channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw writing from a cafe down the street from the place I am staying, I can't help but wonder if you ended up guessing that my next externship was in NYC! (The 92 Questions from Sex and The City) Helping out where I have always wanted to, I am doing an externship at the ASPCA.  The facility works differently than most animal clinics because it's an adoption center, emergency clinic, forensics center, and specialty practice all in one.  A wide variety of medical issues are seen; I have seen electrical cord burns on a tongue (the tongue sloughed off when we examined it), icteric pets (they were so icteric that their skin was yellow as well as the typical yellow serum presentation), multiple high rise syndrome cats, several hit-by-cars, several fractures and amputations, toxicities, several foreign bodies, malnourishment, urinary obstructions, and heart failure.
Check out all of their adoptable pets! Since spending time with a lot of them, I know they are great pets! I just wish I could take one home myself!

I am loving every moment in NYC.  Every day I take a different street to my externship (2 miles one way) in order to explore something new.  I have been to NY a few times before, but this time I can really immerse myself in it, after all this is the city that never sleeps.  Particularly, I love that everyone is happy to do their own thing; I saw many singles out to dinner alone or grabbing a drink alone.  I was delighted to be able to catch up with friends while here as well. So far on this trip I ventured to Dylan's Candy Bar, the 9/11 memorial, Le District, the Charging Bull, Katz's (where you can have what she's having), Eataly (this store needs to be near me), Times Square, the M&M shop, Baked by Melissa cupcakes, walked along Madison Avenue on the upper east side for the designer shops, Sprinkles, Serendipity, Uva, and a few other little street places.

Since we are summoning my inner Carrie Bradshaw these next two weeks, here are some of my favorite Sex and the City quotes:

-"Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with" -Carrie

-"The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.  And if you find someone to love the you that you love, well that's just fabulous." -Carrie

-"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other-love." -Carrie

-"I've been dating since I was fifteen, I'm exhausted! Where is he?" -Charlotte

-"Absofuckinlutely" -Mr Big

-"I'd like a cheeseburger, please, large fries, and a cosmopolitan" -Carrie

-"Single and fabulous, exclamation point." -Carrie