First Large Animal Anatomy Exam... Ug.

Anatomy lab is the biggest class that first year Vet students have – over 9 credit hours over the span of the year.  There is a learning curve for the learning curve.  One of the hardest parts is figuring out what you need to know and how to make the material stick in your head.  Small animal anatomy was 3 days a week for 17 weeks in the fall, and large animal anatomy is for 4 days a week for 10 weeks.  A point for those who think a vet is not a real doctor,  their human doctor only had to do the anatomy of one species and only for one semester. (I’m really just jealous.)

Lab is an assault on the senses.  Your nose and eyes burn and tears stream down your face.  Your eyes feels like you are cutting a chemical onion.  Your mucous membranes feel pickled by the end of the first week.  Your skin on your face looks dimpled after a long lab.  It smells terrible, and that smell gets into everything – your bag, your clothes, your hair, and your shoes.  Upperclassmen can tell who is a first year by the way we smell.  The floor gets extremely slippery.  It is all pretty unpleasant.

Last semester the large animals arrived before we were done with the small animals.  During the final exam practical there were 20 dead horses and cows in the corner of the room.  Because of the fumes coming off them, they opened all the doors to the lab…  in mid-December.  So to recap, stress of a cumulative timed, lab practical final, a freezing, smelly, chemical filled room, and 20 large animals in the corner.

Also, the anatomy lab is separate from the rest of the school in a temporary building… a “temporary” building that was built 30 years ago.  If there is a severe weather warning we actually have to leave the building and go outside. As in, if there is a tornado or even a thunder storm, they think that we are safer in the parking lot than in the lab building.

Despite all of this, I really like anatomy.  It feels like the one class we take in first year that really matters, that will have practical application to actually treating animals. I am genuinely interested in knowing what and where everything is.  Working with your hands is also a nice change. 

Yesterday was our first Large Animal Anatomy exam.  It was a little rough, especially for those of us who have never really worked with horse or cow extensively.  This is going to be a different beast from small animal anatomy. I am completely exhausted.

I am looking forward to getting some sleep soon.