Auscultating : Course Taken in Sem 11

Wow, I have not written for, man 4 freaking months.

That must have been a record since my STPM days.

Well, I really have to admit, 5th year is VERY tiring. No wonder the seniors back then had to stop blogging after stepping into clinical years.

Before I go for the drama I have, let's have a good recap on what we had this semester :

1- Problem based learning in veterinary problem solving:

This course basically allows us to put our knowledge into situational problems and try our best to get a good timeline of how things happened, why they happened, what are the mechanism involved, who are the ones will be involved, where the problem actually arose and what can we do about it as veterinarians. It was an interesting course, I had to say that it was even more because I was the course rep; we had a fair share of fun with the highlight of us even writing and putting up a play as a presentation with a little coaxing from our group facilitator. The play was on Melioidosis, a zoonotic disease (disease transmitted from animals to humans) usually exposed to farmers and veterinarians alike. Animals usually only experience abortion or certain neurological symptoms; but humans get more extensive problems like undulating fever, pneumonia, joint pains and etc.

2- Exotic and wildlife medicine:

As the name suggested, its medicine of the exotics and wildlife. I personally think that I've learned more practical medicine in raptor medicine as compared to other kind of species like reptiles, amphibians, rodents or rabbits. This most probably was due to the fact that the latter species involved little to none exposure or practice during our rotations for which we can not even begin to apply what we have learned, let alone to actually take interest. The past year papers did have subjects on primate, elephant and deer medicine which I'd actually have interest, but the lecturer is on his study leave, so yea it got anticlimactic over there. I would consider raptor medicine if I have the chance, because raptors are just so cool! PS: The dude above is a Jambut Fruit Dove, native to Malaysia and usually reside in tropical rain forest. It was confirmed a male because females are not usually so handsome, only in green feathers. Sexual dimorphism at its best by nature!

3- Ruminant medicine:

For those who do not know what ruminants are; they are the animals with 4 stomach chambers. Does that ring any bells? Yea, the cattle(cows if you don't know), goats, sheep, camelids, and some times even deer. But we focused a lot on cattle and goat because they are more common as compared to their other counterparts. We focused a lot on infectious and management diseases because the traumatic or anatomical related diseases were covered in surgery. I always thought I would actually pay a lot of attention on this subject, because I loved them since I stepped into vet school. To my horror I had little to no will to pay attention in class, for which most of the time I was struggling to pay attention. In the back of my mind I seriously think that our curriculum and rotation probably have created some form of aversion of me towards the ruminant industry, but I really do try to keep my head in the game in learning about how the diseases come about, their pathogenesis, ways to know that its the disease for sure as well as the treatment and prevention methods. It's basically the same as other medicine subjects, but really, I thought I would love it more though.

3- Aquatic medicine

It was literally all about fishes and prawns. Like literally. I would say this is the subject everyone struggled, apart from those who had immense interest in aquatic medicine. I wouldn't say I struggled, because I actually do enjoy the classes, and only dozed off because I was too tired from night duties in rotation. Basically we learn about the anatomy and physiology of fishes and prawns, their management, the basic diseases we faced in Malaysia and how to overcome them, as well as some anaesthesia about aquatic lifeforms. We did not have marine mammals in this picture, probably because marine mammals are probably, not in the class of fishes to begin with. I actually digg this subject, but I wouldn't say I love it to the max. I'd actually enjoy most of the lectures when they made sense; probably about 20% didn't.

4- Veterinary Business

Despite everyone loathing about this subject, I would say the exposure to economical terms actually made sense. The whole subject went underrated because we had to make classes from 5 to 8pm ridiculously to make time for those who wish to have electives where lecturers are of high priority. Talk about monarchy? Anyways, this course is pretty damn underrated as well because I feel like the disease economy simply wasn't taught. I mean, when disease outbreak occurs I wouldn't know how to calculate the compensatory sum to the farmers involved! We are supposed to know this but the course doesn't provide the knowledge to; probably I should go to the lecturer and learn about it. On top of everything else, the lecturer who is coordinating the course is just too new to the curriculum, or rather our curriculum to make adjustments to the academical and practical needs from the course. I know everyone disliked the lecturer, but I would say she tried her best. What did I learn most from this course? Well, the most practical one would be the Marginal Physical Product. Which I need to get back in studying ASAP.

5- Clinical Rotations 3.0

Finally we are seniors in the rotations with juniors! Man I love it when I can get juniors to do the dirty work for me while I work on the medicine! That aside, 13 weeks of rotations were no joke. The rotations literally squeezed every little bit of our brain and body in getting out the reports, the patients, the files, the medications and man, the rounds. We had rotations for small animal surgery, small animal medicine, ruminant rotation 1 and 2, equine rotation, avian and exotics, pathology, clinical pathology, bacteriology, small animal clinics, radiology, theriogeniology, and last but never the least, swine. I thoroughly enjoyed all rotations because they all required us to put our learned veterinary knowledge into use for our patients, its just that we only put them into use in discussions because the veterinary officers are usually the ones prescribing and deciding what to do for the patients; apart from a visit to a farm with the lecturer who had no qualms in allowing us to make treatment decisions because he treated us as interns instead of students. Talk about cool.

So basically the first semester in year 5 went by really quickly, with a lot of things went on in between like clinical conference presentations and hosting,

class presentations, assignments, rotation reports and rounds,

secret santa, course night,

and my little trip to Japan for 10 hefty days.

Now you know why I didn't post.

On the side note, I don't think I would be able to post until my comprehensive examinations are over in July 2017 simple because I will be facing my Final Year Project beginning next Saturday, then continued by my FYP presentation, the thesis, then my second clinical conference, ongoing rotations, and then my CE.

It's going to be crazy, but I foresee it going to be fast as well.

2017 resolution? Ain't got nobody have time for that.

Maybe trying to get fitter and looking good in my own graduation.

Auscultating : Courses taken on Sem 9

Finally, the 14 weeks of craziness came to an end!

No more waking up at 7 or 6.30am,
No more ending classes at 7pm on Tuesdays,
No more weekly tests!

I'd swear I have had the most test in this semester compared to any other before. Literally every week we have had tests waiting.

While it was extremely tiring to anticipate all the tests, I have to say I've enjoyed the semester thoroughly.

The subjects taken this semester were:

1- Clinical Medicine
2- Avian Medicine
3- Applied Statistics
4- Theriogenology
5- Surgery of the body systems
6- Clinical rotation

1-Clinical Medicine:

Clinical medicine basically was a sequel to Clinical Skills we had last semester, by its name on clinical medicine, we dabbled a lot on various body systems and the common diseases which had high prevalence in our country. From cardiovascular to ocular system, we take a basic tour on what clinical signs we could see, the way to diagnose and confirm the disease as well as the first line management and treatment to improve the quality of life of the patient. I loved this subject a lot because its very medicine based, and I could relate a lot more. I wouldn't say I was the best scoring student, but I'm sure I will be able to make wise judgement in various approaches to the medicine.

2- Avian Medicine:

Among all subjects, I would say I have the least affinity for this subject. Probably because I knew I wouldn't be venturing into the avian industry in the future. Nevertheless, my marks for the subject turn out to be pretty much a huge surprise, despite the fact that I put the least effort in it. Avian medicine covers all infectious and non-infectious diseases affecting the domestic birds like chicken, ducks, pheasants, geese and turkey, with a little touch and go on the pet and wild birds like humming birds, parrots, cockatoos and love birds. The diseases in birds are intimidatingly vast with much in depth research explored thanks to the effort of various industry players all over the world. Let's see if I can score an A for this subject after the finals

3- Applied Statistics.

Everyone literally was dumbfounded when they saw this subject in the list. Why on earth would veterinarians need to learn about statistics? Does medical students actually have a course in this as well? Apparently, statistics is indeed important, in so many ways I couldn't have imagined before taking the course. From comparing effects of treatment between sample groups to the epidemiological status of a disease, the application of statistics is just limitless. I enjoyed the subject throughout, though I would say I should have invested a bit more time on it

4- Theriogenology

I'm not too certain if human medicine does this, but basically this course encompasses the reproductive cycle in various domestic animals. The estrus cycle, the gestation period, hormonal cycle, methods in inducing and maintaining the pregnancy, care post-partum as well as various ideas in improving reproduction efficiency of domestic animals. Plenty would probably think that we are playing god, but we are actually optimizing reproductive cylcles, which even human medicine can employ. I enjoyed this subject basically because it dealt a lot with ruminants, which I have had a lot of chances to relate to.

5- Surgery of the body systems:

A continuity from the surgery and anesthesia course last semester, the surgery this semester focused more on different body systems. There are usually diseases which indicate the surgeries' necessity, which we will need to look into the clinical signs, make a conclusive diagnosis of the diseases and employ the approaches towards the surgery. Surgery indeed is an art, literally. We were anesthetists, tailors, carpenters and veterinarians all in the same package; because everything we do in the surgery affects the outcome of the surgery and the subsequent lifespan on the patient. I would say surgery is probably not my turf, but I indeed enjoyed the part as anesthetist a lot.

6- Clinical rotation

This is probably the best among the bunch. Clinical rotation marked as the most taxing subject and the closest we can get to practicing as a veterinarian. Entering different departments in the faculty, we participate either a whole week's course or a one day course in the designated rotated department from small animal medicine, surgery, diagnostic imaging, clinical pathology, small animal clinic, parasitology, virology, bacteriology, post mortem, ruminant and equine rotation to learn on various cases and practice what we have learned in class. Plenty of the seniors said that rotation is extremely tiring and stressful, but I would say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process , despite the ups and downs in each rotation. In fact, I would say its the most fruitful course.


Basically, I loved the semester and I am looking forward to the next! I'm doing so many clinical work right now I feel like I'm one step closer in becoming a full-fledged vet. However, I still lack many important skills, which I strongly think I should get more experience. I am still torn between going to Mahidol again for placement or Hokkaido University for good 10 weeks to know for sure if I'm really into small animal medicine for now.

So much have happened this semester, good stuffs and bad stuffs. Supposingly this was my 2nd last semester if I didn't go to med school, but thanks to that I have ample time to build my skills where I need them most.

I'll probably post a little on the drama I dealt with lately, and I should do that tomorrow after I've met one of the drama queens.