All done with Anatomy

I've just done (and passed) my Anatomy II Final!

We finished Anatomy I last Christmas so this was a year long module covering splanchnology (internal organs), blood, lymph and the nervous system as well as birds and lab animals, with credit tests every week.

It's been really interesting and nice to see how everything comes together - blood vessels and nerves were much harder than the bones in that we have to learn all the branches, interspecies differences and sometimes you can't even see the vessels!

Lena, a friend from Norway, and I studied for nearly two weeks in the study room, writing out and reciting various parts of the body, branches of this and that and watching videos we'd made in class.

The written part of the exam was the toughest bit as we can be questioned on any minute detail from the books. After we'd passed that we moved to the anatomy dissection labs for the practical exam.

On each of the four tables was a different system with fresh, dried and models of various organs and systems.
Luckily we passed! I didn't get top marks but I did better than I expected to and was really pleased to have got it done. Nerves got in the way but I think after studying so hard we deserved to pass!


Now we move on to Pathological Anatomy...

Anatomy Dissections

We've moved on from Splanchnology to Blood Vessels in Anatomy for the past few weeks which seems more logical but tricky learning where all the blood vessels come from, lead to and the inter species differences.

Group photo around the thoracic limb pre-credit test!

Maxime and I dissecting the hind limb of a goat

Blood Vessels of the Head

This week we have been looking at the arteries and veins which supply the head.

We were warned that it was one of the hard weeks but I thought it was actually really logical and the names made sense according to the parts of the skull we learnt last year

And a view of the aorta and head

Anatomy of Domestic Birds

In Anatomy this week we learnt about the anatomy of domestic birds; pigeons, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.

It was interesting seeing the differences and I knew most of the parts and organs in English but obviously not Latin. 

I guess it helps because I've prepared a lot of dinner chickens and we prepare pigeons for Falconry every day.

We then had chickens to dissect, my group know I like (am obsessed with) chickens so I did most of the dissection...

Diseases of Fish

We had an extra long practical for Diseases of Fish today as we learnt all about the anatomy of fish and did lots of dissections.

I may have been slightly drunk as I had friends visiting from home and we were out until a couple house before the practical.

Anyway, the dissections...

We even had a sting ray which was pretty awesome...

Anatomy II; Splanchnology

We have Anatomy 2 this semester, starting with Splanchnology (study of visceral organs) which has been much more interesting.

We have credit tests every Wednesday instead of Thursday but I keep forgetting it's changed and still leave revision until Tuesday night.

I got an A in Abdominal Cavity of the pig and ruminants last week and a C in the Liver and Intestines of the horse this week.

Next week we move on to the Urinary System and Kidneys...

Do Hamsters Fart?

I've just been asked by a friends 7 year old, Do hamsters fart?

Bob, their hamster, loved Brussels Sprouts which is the reason for the question...

To be honest I have no idea if hamsters fart or not but thinking about it, I guess they do.
Hamsters are monogastric omnivores like humans and dogs and they have a very similar digestive system to us, only much smaller!

I've been using my Bargain Books as a laptop tray but now I can actually use it for reference!

The text is in Slovak and Latin (we learn all our anatomy in Latin here) and you can see hamster have a cecum;
labels 20-21 (29 is the back leg) in the first image and 16-18 in the second image (27 is the back leg).

The cecum is a blind ended sac for microbial fermentation, a bit like a cul-de-sac, in which bacteria help enzymes break down plant matter such as cellulose.

A byproduct of this reaction is gas, which I guess means, Yes... Hamsters do fart!

If anyone reading this has any thoughts, please feel free to comment!

Anatomy Final Revision

Anatomy; Muscles of the Thoracic Limb

We've moved on from bones to muscles this week, starting with muscles of the thoracic limb.

In last weeks practical we dissected the legs of a cow and goat and we've just had the credit test on all the muscles, origins, insertions and functions.

 I got a B so really happy with that :)

Next week we're tested on Muscles of the Pelvic Limb!

Anatomy; Muscles of the Limbs

Anatomy; Bones of the Face

Got an A in Anatomy again this week; bones of the face.

Very happy with that and now (in theory) we know all the bones of 5 species! :)

We move from bones on to muscles next week - muscles of the thoracic limb!

This week has flown by...

This week seems to have flown by!

I spent most of the weekend revising Anatomy and went to Self Study on Tues and Weds so I was more confident on Thursday after I freaked out last week and felt like I worked really hard for 5 days.

I volunteered to go first and get my oral exam over with this week and although I was still a bit nervous I didn't freak out and stayed calm!

She handed me a Lumbar vertebrae so I started explaining this is Lumbar vertebrae of a horse and this is the caput as the processus spinosus point caudally... she looked at me confused and I pointed towards my head... cranially! I knew what I meant but got my words mixed up.

Anyway, carried on and explained all the points of it and didn't miss any out. She asked me how many Thoracic vertebrae are in each animal (18 in horses, 13 in ruminants, 14 in pigs and 13 in carnivores - which was fine) then lumbar which threw me but I eventually got there after an awkward silence; 6 in all, 7 in carnivores.

She then handed me a bone and asked what it was, I said 6th cervical as it had foramen transversarium and (what I thought were) lamina ventralis which are absent in the 7th cervical; she interrupted with "it's a C".

I was relieved to have passed but a bit disappointed that I'd worked hard for 5 days and only got a C which is about 75% - I'm now thinking it could have been a wierd looking 3rd, 4th or 5th cervical - we'll never know!

English teaching went well last night and much better than a Wednesday night, we had a lie in til 8:30am this morning, getting up to go Falconry.
Was soo tired but Brigid and Lucy showed us how to do Faecal Worm Egg Counts (FWEC) and luckily after a week of treatment they were all clear!

We have Latin and Physiology practical this afternoon then going back to Falconry tonight to try and get Clarence the kestrel flying Glove to Glove!

Long week of Vet School!

This week has been quite hard and think we deserve a decent weekend!

I passed my Histology exam which we had on Monday, I got 72% which is a C and also had an anatomy credit on Wednesday...
I thought I'd revised it well and went tested ourselves the night before and I was ok but when I got in there I freaked out. She asked me to pick up a Tibia from a pile of bones which I did but when I got a quarter of the way through naming parts of it, I just went blank. She tried to help me through it by asking questions but I just couldn't think straight.
Next she handed me a small bone and asked me to name it and I had no idea what it was called! I knew all the parts of it basis phalangis mediae, corpus phalangis mediae, caput phalanges mediae, tuberositas extensorius, fovea articularis but was completely plank on the name of the bone... the Medial Phalanx! Still, I managed to get a D which is about 65% and most importantly enough to pass!

I've been doing my adults English lessons on a Wednesday but was finding it too hard with Anatomy credit test on Thursday morning so have moved them to a Thursday. It worked really well this week 'cos I went straight from Uni to Didacticus for the kids lessons at 2 and my adults lessons don't start til 5 so I had an hour to kill in the middle to managed to get some anatomy notes written up for next week.
It means I was out the house 6.45am-7.30pm but when I got home there was a packet of M&S chocolate digestives waiting in my room as a present from Sian!

The girls stayed in last night but I went out with Niall and some of the older years to Jazz Club and had a really good night. Anthony is in second year and went to Leeds Uni with George my best friend from home - small world!

Sian and I spent 3 hours down at Falconry club today working with Clarence the Kestrel.
We flew him from his perch to a glove with a creance (long cord) which he was really good and and then tried glove to glove which was less successful - think he was getting confused with why 2 people were working him and probably getting a bit full up too!

Then tonight we've been out for Niamh's birthday; we went to Passage to India for a curry and the food was decent but we waited ages!
We got there at 7 and out food came out at 8.45, there was a big group of us but still it was getting ridiculous. The food was really tasty but the curry was tiny considering it was €7!

PASSED ANATOMY

I've never been so relieved to have an exam over and done with - I passed with a C (just under 80%) so am pretty pleased with that!

We had a pointless Latin lesson this afternoon - the teacher tried telling us how all English words are either Masculine, Feminine or Neuter like they are in Latin and didn't understand why we said they weren't.

She also tried telling us the English translation of Skeleton was Skelet...

Got the bus straight into town from Uni to go and teach my Didacticus kids lesson.

They were so much better behaved this week compared to last and most of them participated in the lesson really well.

Now to start Anatomy all again ready for the Pelvic Limb next week...

Revising bones of the Thoracic Limb

We have Anatomy credit tests at the start of our practical every week and this week our topic is Bones of the Thoracic (fore) Limb.

There's enough detail to remember as it is and then they throw in the added complication of having to know all the names in Latin!

I drew and labeled all the bones up over the weekend and have been trying to learn them and not really got anywhere.

I managed to get some actual bones to have a look at and it made it SO much easier to learn!

Really not looking forward to the oral exam tomorrow - I'll be happy if I just pass!

Life of a Vet Student

Revising bones of the Thoracic Limb...

Dissection: Mare Reproductive Tract

Last semester we dissected a Mare's reproductive tract, which was interesting because she was on oestrus.
As with all the dissections, we had to write it up but this time we couldn't just use the photos, we had to draw what we saw in the dissections and put them in the assignment ... was actually quite hard to draw them so had to try + trace it, esp in the proper scientific style! Looking at them now I think they look quite good once they were scanned in, didn't think so at the time!

So we started off with the tract, cut away the fat and bits we didn't need and got:

Dissected the vulva and vagina distally to see the interior + the cervix which is a folded smooth muscle with an interior cervical canal down the middle!

Dissected Mare reproductive tract:

 Cervix:

Then, moving proximally (up!) we found the oviducts and the utero-tubal junction + infundibulum:

Then we get to the ovaries, there were 2, one in oestrus and one in anoestrus.

So first the outside of the ovary:

Then a cross section of an ovary in oestrus (reproductively active mare) - you can see the follicles and corpus luteum: