Auscultating : Course Take in Semester 10

Finally had the mood to sit(or rather lie) down to complete this post!

Completing the first clinical year was somewhat an instant swoosh, but definitely one year which is very much enjoyable. The second semester took our journey towards a much more medicine based curriculum, which we focused a lot more on seeing cases, diagnosing, treating, controlling and preventing them.

1) Veterinary Epidemiology

The course took us a little more on knowing how to look at disease pattern affecting a population more than an individual; and how statistics would help us in knowing efficacy of various testing methods in the market in confirming a disease. An example would be how positive a HIV test kit can be? All tests man made are subjected to errors, and the tests some way or another would have a high false positive or high false negative. Would HIV test kits be a better tool in ruling in or ruling out the disease? If the test has a much higher false positive; would be it more beneficial than it being with a higher false negative? Having higher false positive would give a false sense of infection in a person, while for those who can't really take the blow might just commit suicide upon testing. Having higher false negative would on the other hand give a false sense of security, for those who are more promiscuous and active in sexual lifestyle might not pay too much attention in safety precaution. So yes, apart from animal disease we too study a lot on human diseases this way too.

2) Public Health

This course was orientated a lot by the OiE(Officio Internationale Epizootic) for which veterinary graduates should or need to know about the food safety delivered to the public. It is an inevitable fact that our work encompasses providing viable protein sources to the population, in this case animal protein source which comes under our jurisdiction. We need to know protocols from pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest safety of the food we produce, including all animal products like meat, offal, milk, cheese, seafood, eggs, basically anything made from animals. Pre-harvest would include the disease status of the animals providing products like raw milk; harvest would be the procedures and equipments in collecting the milk, while post-harvest includes the protocols and procedures in transporting and storage of milk up till processing; for which pasteurized, sterilized and ultra high temperature treated milk are 3 of different kind of milk available by law. It was a heavy subject, but an interesting one too. On top of that, we were too exposed to a lot of one health concept, to combine the idea of medicine as a huge umbrella with human, veterinary, environment and plant medicine as one.

3) Swine medicine

A species specific course, we learn about most of the common diseases affecting the pigs in the market, from newborn piglets, weaned pigs, growing pigs, sows and boars; how these diseases affect the production and economy; how we need to diagnose them from the clinical signs and post mortem lesions or even lab tests, treating them and prevention using various commodities. You'll be surprised on the type of disease affecting these little piggies; as well as the disease which they are able to transmit to us as well such as Nipah virus.

4) Equine medicine

Another species specific course, we learn more about the common diseases affecting the horses from reproduction, respiratory, musculoskeletal and neurological diseases. Most problems horses have are respiratory or musculoskeletal related due to their working nature as race horses or show horses; while sadly most retired horses who aren't able to perform usually will be put down due to the cost they inflict on the farm. Nevertheless, it was great to know more about the diseases which affect these majestic giants.

5) Population medicine

As cool as the course sounded, basically this course encompassed on managing how a disease outbreak in a population would look like; as well as the common diseases would require aggressive control within the country. Various issues on how the immune belt in borders should be managed, quarantine protocols, control measures to prevent or suppress an emerging or re-emerging disease in the country.

6) Feline Canine Medicine

Taking about 50% of the bulk of notes in the semester, I paid extra attention to this subject because of its infamous reputation of high failure rate. To my surprise, I've managed to secure a safe A throughout the 2 tests; let's hope it stays that way in the finals. The course is also a species specific course, targeting the common diseases affecting companion animals like dogs and cats; ranging much to very human-like diseases which are lifestyle related such as hormonal diseases-diabetes mellitus; cardiovascular diseases- congestive heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy as well as various cancers from prostate to bone. I thoroughly enjoy this course because I could apply the most in the wards and surgery rotation course in my cases and patients; unlike other courses which barely touched any of the cases or patients in large animal wards or even during rotation. The course brings us on a trip down on relevant history, physical examination, clinical signs, appropriate diagnostic tools, treatment symptomatically, supportive, and long term management of the disease. I guess I am much more inclined to practice companion animal medicine than farm animal medicine?

7) Rotations

Everyone would be wondering how on earth I can be this busy. Well, when you need to attend to warded cases everyday at 7am and be at home only at 9 or 10pm; you barely have the time to even go for gym to look great to fit into clothes or get a date. The rotation pushed us through 12 different departments in 12 weeks, including ruminant 1 and 2, equine, theriogenology, avian and lab animal; then small animal clinics, small animal medicine, small animal surgery, pathology, radiology and last but not least ICU. I've definitely learned a lot from the rotation; it's the only gateway for us to have hands on and learn how to do stuffs under supervision. It's somewhat like a Housemanship for vet students, just that we do it while needing to study and take tests plus joining events like Vetsport or M.Silaturrahim. The last week of rotation was rather most memorable because of us having the whole ward for ourselves without any seniors guiding us while we get the privilege to do most of the treatment and procedures to the vets' disposal. The experience allowed us to do more and learn more for sure.

Now that I've completed the 2nd semester for DVM 4, I'm officially a final year student. Man, that was a long ride wasn't it? It didn't feel like just yesterday I've stepped in as a first year, but it sure didn't feel that long till it come to the day I say I have one more year till I pop into the market. MY family is probably counting the years, but hey why bother when I've only just spent RM17,000 in my 5 years education right?

For now, Finals call!

Auscultating: Majlis Silaturahim 2016

If you don't know already or new to this blog, Majlis Silaturahim(MS) is  annual drama competition held by our faculty to initiate and instill skills apart from that of veterinary related to the students. In fact, it was initiated by one of the retired lecturer long time ago, for which the wining cup was named as Ali Rajion Cup after his name.

So our faculty literally drilled us all to excel not just in studies, skills, even in sports, managing of events heck and even drama skills.

This year, the theme was Bollywood. While originally we were all skeptical with the theme, but the organizers did a great job; from the trailers to the setting up of the background in the auditorium.

It was exceptionally hard for us the DVM 5 because we had to write up scripts, get outfits, create props, practicing and perfecting the whole performance while being in the final semester with our intensive rotation course. But we all do enjoy these out of the classroom get together sessions anyway so it was just another reason for us to spend more time before we, or actually they graduate.

While my preview snippet suggested me to be the milkman, but I was just a villager lurking around to dance and act as an extra; which I enjoyed thoroughly.

Here are few snippets of what other DVMs have had:

A little out of the norm from previous year, this time round we had our lecturers sportingly sang on the stage with very fun performance as well! It's definitely something different from the clinical department which all students would appreciate!

A common trend within the lower DVMs was the element of cross-dressing. While our DVM have too tried it in our lower DVMs, we have only used it during first year; while we progressively trying to incorporate everything else apart from cross-dressing in the subsequent years.

My academic batch definitely have put out a different kind of approach; putting Titani and Bollywood elements in their performance; with the title Titanus(any biological science background people would get the joke!)

Our DVM's performance came in as the last one in line to perform, with a high load of pressure because everyone had a high expectation from us; the consecutive winner for 2 years. With our reputation from cheerleading, we really couldn't imagine the type of expectation the audience have.

We have our stressful moments, but generally we just try to have fun on stage; trying to get into our characters and put more smiles on our dances.

The highlight of our performance is probably our snake genie who have managed to impressively grossed out everyone in the auditorium. His twists, twerks or whatever body language definitely have increased the odds of us winning.

Thankfully, we managed to nab the Ali Rajion cup one last time before we graduate; successfully being the first DVM is striking the champion for 3 consecutive years. I would say we really worked hard, because throwing performance and creating jokes for an audience are our forte; and MS is one of the few events we know we have the best chances to win. 

I'm really happy I did participate in the last MS with DVM 2016. It was a relief that my small animal ward rotation only have started a week after MS so I could have more time and energy for the practice. All in all, the event was a success and it's definitely a great memory in my DVM life!

PS: Here's something to look at if you wanna see how good our tech team is!

Auscultating : Vet Sport 2016

I was literally too busy to be bothered about posting for the past 2 months, but I'm just gld I cna make one entry today.

So Vet Sport in the final year! Not exactly the last one for me, but it was the last one with my favorite batch of vet students.

This year, I've finally make my way into sports other than Basketball; because everyone else was too busy with rotations in the hospital wards.

Participating in the Footsal and Bola Baling events was quite a rewarding experience. Everyone was happy for me to be the goal keeper for both games, simply because I have the longest limbs and highest surface area in the batch. Being said, I'm proud to keep our record at only losing to 2 batches; when we were looking at losing all.

Had a lot of fun sweating and playing with my ex-roommate as well, not to forget the enthusiasm and teamwork we had within our batchmates for the great games we had.

Fast forward to another weekend, Basketball totally thrashed my body. I had to play for 2 batches, DVM 2016 and 17 because both batches didn't have enough players. Well, I'm not exactly the best asset among both teams; I was needed to fill in the blanks as well as being the tanker to knock down opponents. Nevertheless, the games were good.

Think Basketball was the end of that weekend? Apparently not. The organizers have decided to put 2 of the most energy draining sports in one day; making only 3 hours for us to recuperate from the damage done in the morning. 

Tug-o-war have been DVM2016's favorite sport simply because we KNOW we can win. It's like OUR game, despite it being brute force with minimal strategy or skill requirement. Saying that, it was as expected that we won with a breeze. It took us probably an average of 2 minutes *I think* to take down all other DVMs. Some suggested that the juniors were giving way to seniors, but I'm sure our weight and strength weren't to be underestimated. Well, we got first place, at least for this sport.

On the finale of Vet Sport 2016, I took part also in the last Cheerleading performance in the faculty. We literally aimed for the 1st place for this event as well; because we know its OUR event. We had the best choreographer, best music, best dance moves and well, the best enthusiasm. One of the lecturer too said that he was glad he made it because our performance literally cheer people up. 

I am proud to be in this team because everyone put in effort despite being busy in rotation; our choreographer had to come in every night to guide us after 12 hours in the wards, just to keep us pushed and motivated. 

Well, Vet Sport has always been the platform to pull people closer, between batches as well as within batches. For this last vet sport, we definitely have seen more than stronger bonds than we ever had before; and I'm really glad I was there throughout the 1 month long event.

Next up, Majlis Silaturahim 2016!

Auscultating: Vet Dinner 2016

Supposedly my last Vet Dinner but since I'm going to graduate a year later; it's the last one with my favorite batch.

As per usual, the theme comes in for Vet Dinner every year; while 2016 we collectively voted "Be Your Self".

Well me being me, guess what I've decided to pull off?

One of my lecturer who came back from Japan said she wanted to pull off her Yukata as well, but it was a little show off so she didn't. Guess who is the crazier attention seeker? *point at me*

The dinner over the 5 years were fun, and I missed out the one in 2015 simply because "Pastel" wasn't my cup of tea to dwell in for dressing up. 

Let's have a recap on the previous Vet Dinners should we?

2012:

Young and naive, boy I missed my body when I was at this age. The theme was Masquerade. But, I honestly couldn't feel the whole theme simply because the ballroom dancing didn't happen.

2013:

Finally it became my batch's turn to host the Vet Dinner 2013 with the theme of "Atlantis". It was supposed to be "Poseidon's Paradise" until some religious twarp said that we are worshiping another god. Well, the dinner turned out to be fine anyway, even had me performing on stage. 

2014:

It was my current batch's turn to host instead, with the theme of  Retro 80's dinner. Finally sometime for me to chill down and not do anything during events. The dinner was okay, honestly I went because I wanted to support a good friend who directed the dinner, as well as my need to be staged to get my certificate as Dogathon 2013 co-director.

Well in 2016, we pretty much did the same thing like previous years do; the speeches, the performances, overpriced food.

But the point was to celebrate with our own batch's perseverance in hitting the 5th year. Man it was a long ride from the first, and it wasn't easy to stay on board and not sink throughout the crazy curriculum

A little surprise this year, for I became too much of a showoff, I got myself the Best Dressed Male among the participants. It's an honor, provided I did not slip or drop any of my yukata pieces along the way to get the little plastic trophy.

All and all, it was a great night with extremely good company. The only pity was my current batch turn up population was, 0. A big fat ZERO.

Even my lecturer asked if my current batch boycotted my original batch together.

I don't know. Honestly. The only answer they had was, test is coming up.

one of my favorite pictures. Why? Because you have crazy lecturers like them makes vet life awesome.

But hey, I turned up.

Auscultating : Ending 2015

I can't believe this is the last day of the year already! One more year's ending to welcome another year's beginning; by the time this happens in another 365 days I would be in my last year of undergraduate vet school! Hopefully by that time I would be able to secure a good post-graduate program.

Yet, as they say, keep your hopes there but never too high.

Let's see what 2015 have been all about:

January 2015:

Most of the time was actually spent on practicals and gaining weight I would say. The mediocre week in Penang for equine rotation and 2 awesome weeks of small animal rotation in Healing Rooms went by extremely fast, I barely have had enough time to digest everything. With finals end and stepping into immediate extra-mural practicals, I have little to no space for any personal development. Yet, time was indeed well spent.

February 2015:

I finally fulfilled one of my teenage dream to step into Japan as a conference participant of Vet Youth Summit Japan. It was literally the best decision I've made in my life, as the whole trip there literally opened up my horizon of views, thoughts, perception and decisions; allowing myself to actually feel it in my blood that the road I've paved for myself up till today was worth while. Meeting new friends from all over the world and making a point that I'm pretty much a natural attention seeker wherever I go, I fell in lover over and over again in Japan when I had the short 10 days stay. While spending the first Chinese New Year away from home and alone was a different type of undertaking, I'd thoroughly enjoyed my walk down the different path.

March 2015:

Stepping into the clinical years of veterinary school surely have taken its toll on me. The subjects now require extensive understanding and much more memorization of details and bits which I've not dealt with before. Plenty of skill-related development was also required throughout the attainment of knowledge at this phase, but I sure have enjoyed all the moments, despite the late night sleep and tiredness after a whole day of lecture or surgery class.


April 2015:

While we have had intensive classes back to back, the best thing about our faculty is that we make the effort to put ourselves into the whole "Holistic" category kinda thing. I'm pretty sure we are the only medicine or science based faculty which organizes annual sports and drama event to instill the organizational abilities, sportsmanship and creativity skills in all our faculty members, including the lecturers. Majilis Silatrahim this year was all about Crime and Justice, and all I need to dress up as was my dad's retired police uniform. While most seniors complained that I was the fattest and most corrupted policeman they've seen; I sure have had fun in getting the attention I needed


May 2015:

While most people died trying to stay in the class, I died trying to get out of the class. This time of the year marked the 2nd time for me to fly out of the country to Bangkok as a volunteer under IVSA in the 2015 WSAVA Congress. My semester results might have screwed up big time because of this, but I did not once regretted my decision to do this because I've met so many people and veterinarians all over the world, not to mention make a huge declaration to the Malaysian community that I exist.

On the other hand I've finally stepped down as my last stint of organizational position as the PEC President of the university, not like I've done anything great, and continued with my studies full time.

June 2015:

June marks the end of the 2nd academic semester of the year and one step close to nightmares like practical tests, oral tests and finals. I totally went through a nightmare this semester because of all the extra-faculty activities I put myself through. Despite my results turning out to be pretty much the worst in my whole DVM life, I'd still say I've survived the semester well. All I wanted was the semester to end fast and for me to continue with my practicals I've been dying for in Thailand and Japan.


July 2015:

Stepping into another country for practical for the 2nd time and my 3rd flight of the year, Mahidol University in Kanchanaburi was the bomb. I had the chance to be part of the wildlife rescue team to go into the forest reserve, had great time over the weekend in the natural forest, draw blood from elephants, monitor the anesthesia of a tiger, draw blood from a horse, vaccinate 100 to 200 sheep and goats, deworming flocks of chicken and geese, explore Kanchanaburi a little bit more in the Tham Ma Sae gorge and railway station, and the best of all; made friends with so many Thai friends plus a Spanish or two. Mahidol University have offered one of the best rotations I've ever had. I'm forever lucky like that. The only downside I had throughout the placement here was the weakness I gave in to hope for a 2nd chance with T; only to know that in fact T and I were just over for real. I was so done with the answers T have given then. T unfriended me on the social media once to allow both of us to move on at one point, only to readd me again later on while we have yet to spoke to each other since then. On the other hand, N began to have advances when I was shown to have a few Mahidol acquaintances.

August 2015:


Do I have to say more? This was the BEST month of my life this year. Why? Japan, JAPAN, JAPAAAANNNNNN. I've spent 6 months planning the whole up to 30 days stay in Japan with budget of RM6K, and experienced Japan throughout the whole Island.

Before my practical, I went to Osaka again to finish up my unfinished trip back in February.

After that,  I've managed to conquer the South Japan Island;  Yamaguchi for 3 weeks as I was having my laboratory practicals there. I've learned a lot on lab skills including first hand PCR, immunostaining, immunoblotting, ELISA test kit using, anatomical slides staining, post mortem on a horse as well as first hand experience of clinic consultation plus surgery practices in Yamaguchi University.

Apart from that, I was extremely luck to have great friends to bring me to Hiroshima, Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu, while I explored Hagi, Tsuwano and Yamaguchi myself.

With a good ride to Ube-Yamaguchi, I again had great friends in the North Japan Island; Hokkaido for 5 days around Sapporo, Arakwa and Otaru.

Before I end my trip; I had a great 6 days tour around Central Japan of Tokyo with a bit of help of Tokyo friends around Tokyo vicinity and relived all my childhood dreams with Digimon.


September 2015:

Finally the real clinical years have begun! Stepping into the faculty again at this point was super exciting because it simply was just so fun! New subjects with a combination of old ones plus complete freedom to practice our skills and knowledge on veterinary medicine at this point was just simply amazing! Stepping into DVM 4 was definitely what all vet students have been waiting for in their lives. I've not been enjoying studies as crazy as this since STPM!

October 2015:

I finally stepped into small animal rotations in the wards! I've never had so much fun before, despite the fact that I need to wake up at 6 am in the morning and reach home only about 10pm at night; I thoroughly enjoyed my rotation in wards learning about the medicine and surgical protocols I will be using in the future to treat my patients! Despite all odds of having my original last Course Night in my last day of rotations, I've managed to make it to the course night with my Yukata piece I got from Osaka!


November 2015:

The whole November just went on and on with numerous numbers of tests which I do sulk a lot about, but still adamantly enjoyed the torture my lecturers put me through. While maintaining a considerable busy life schedule and sufficiently standard in my academics, I'm pretty happy I've managed my time well and not stumbled in my academics like I did in my previous semester. Being more attentive and high in attendance in class do have its perks in getting better results.


December 2015:

As the year mark its end with my semester ending as well, I've finally settled down with my new home with certain tolerable amount of furniture to throw a small welcoming party in the last day of the semester. People from my both academic years turned out and they enjoyed each others' company very well, I have never been more blessed to get the best of both worlds from Vetsouls and Kakijalan. I might have been cursed with the split identity, but I'm definitely blessed with different pots of good soup for the soul.

Stepping into 2015 means, stepping into another year of reality and adulthood. I will begin taking in tenants for my new home while I continue to hone skills to be a full-fledged veterinarian.

It's somewhat exciting yet intimidating, but I'm sure my bold and brawns will conquer all.

On the other note, thanks to Alex and Jboy's recommendation I've finally got myself hooked up with one of those apps they have for dating. I guess I need to broaden my horizons, despite a few surprises of faces I've seen around.

Have great new year people.