In my last week of internships, I am feeling more motivated than ever. I find myself motivated to eat better, I am working out more, and I am studying hardcore for the SAT’s! Maybe this is because I want to push myself to be the best I can be? Working alongside people who went to school specifically for the job they have now, was a bit intimidating at first because I had no prior experience in the logistics of a vet clinic. I walked in to my internship with a few dog handling skills and a love for animals, now I am walking out with the knowledge of how to properly hold a dog when blood needs to be drawn, how to hold for injections both sub-q and I-M, how to draw up vaccinations, how to put in an IV catheter, the different methods of sedation, and how to just be there to help.
Most of the time I felt like a vet tech to the vet techs. I was throwing away the trash from the injections or I was preparing the tools they needed to prepare a dog for the veterinarian. To be honest, I still loved every second of it. Just being able to watch and belong behind the scenes made it worthwhile. I really wish that I could continue working full time at Eastlake Village Vet Clinic so I could continue to improve my skills and become as knowledgeable as possible going into college and veterinary school. I cannot stress enough how kind and willing everyone was to teach me new skills and let me help in any way I could. I see myself using my experiences from my internship during college applications and even throughout my college career. I am so grateful that Dr. Bischel allowed me to do my internship at Eastlake Village, and I hope to make her proud!
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This week I have finally gotten into the groove of my day to day responsibilities as an intern, and they honestly don’t even feel like responsibilities! I typically clean exam rooms, or any part of the clinic that needs sanitization, and shadow the vet techs. I am really enjoying my internship, can you tell? The most memorable thing that has happened so far would have to be Sake. Sake is a 6 month old puppy who was found in TJ by “The Mutt Scouts”, a rescue that Eastlake Village Vet Clinic partners with. Sake came in with two healthy brothers and one sister. She, on the other hand, was found with a huge gash in her jaw and a part of her jawbone sticking out. She was in terrible shape, covered in ticks and fleas which earned her the nickname “Tickers”. She also had rickets, which made her bones weak and prevented her from being able to stand up. Once she got to the clinic, She was put under IV fluids and immediate surgery for her jaw. She recovered amazingly. She was the bouncy, happy puppy that she should have been in the first place. The rescue then placed her with a foster home on account of how well she recovered. A few days later, Sake came back to the clinic worse than she started out. She was lethargic and not eating, she could barely stand up, and would cry when someone would try to pick her up. The only thing we could do was put her back on IV fluids and hope for the best. The next day though, Sake was sent to an animal hospital in Irvine, California for a blood transfusion. After this, the founder of The Mutt Scouts, Nikki, took Sake home and cared for her herself. Dr.Bishel assumed that Sake recessed in the first place because the foster was not giving her her medications once Sake improved. Under Nikki’s care, Sake was able to increase her platelet and red blood cell production levels, but she was still unable to walk. Sake went back to the clinic in Irvine for another blood transfusion as well as a spinal tap to see why she was not walking. Turns out, she has an infection that is preventing her Cerebellum from functioning properly, resulting in the poor control of her body movements, on top of the rickets that had already made her bones weak. The clinic placed her back on IV fluids and a bit of a steroid. She was immobile for a day, getting up only to urinate. Nikki took Sake back after 24 hours of being hooked up to the IV, and as fate would have it, Sake came back into the clinic for an assessment three days later, a whole different dog. She was wagging her tail, and figured out how to walk! As of this week, Sake is boarding with the clinic, and we are able to monitor her bathroom breaks and medications. She loves walking around the clinic and giving little puppy kisses to all of the people that will pet her. She has two people waiting to foster her, and her future is looking bright. It’s cases like this that make me want to be a veterinarian. I can’t help but be excited about making a real change in an animal's life. Doing my internship in a vet clinic has set my career path in stone. I love every aspect of it, and I would not want to pursue anything else. Throughout my first and second week at my internship site, I have been able to adjust very quickly to how things run at Eastlake Village Vet Clinic. I have slowly been gaining responsibility in my role at the clinic, and I am learning more and more every day, from both Dr. Bischel and the vet techs. Giovanna has been so amazing teaching me how to draw up medications, administering injections, more advanced techniques on how to hold dogs and cats. I was even able to take a cat’s weight by myself! If there is one skill that I would like to develop in myself, it would definitely be the ability to dive deeper into the field of veterinary science. I did not realize how much I love learning about the different medications we give to the dogs and cats, I find myself asking Giovanna more than 5 times a day “What’s this medication for?”. She is so gracious and always tries to answer my questions. As a result of my curiosity, I try my best to always be around Dr. Bischel when she is doing surgeries and to watch the vet techs when they are doing technical things such as, putting the catheter in to prepare for anesthesia. Before my internship, I was really conflicted between my passion for animals and the realistic probability of me becoming a veterinarian, I was struggling to figure out if I should pursue my other passions and go down a different path. I was weighing out the time it would take to become an esthetician or interior designer, versus a small animal veterinarian. I knew that going to school with a veterinarian as an end goal, that I would end up in debt and it would be a lot more mentally rigorous than going through just four years of college. I was even contemplating not interning at a vet clinic and going somewhere else with animals. In the long term though, I see myself regretting not becoming a veterinarian because of my natural curiosity for this field.
I am so glad that I ended up with the internship I did. If I was to intern somewhere else, I know that I would have regret it immediately. I know that it is only the second week but I would not trade it for the world. I do wish that Dr. Bischel would not be so amazing at baking because I cannot resist her peanut butter cookies! The thing that strikes me most about my workplace is how skilled all of the employees are. This week, I have been shadowing Giovanna, one of the vet techs in the morning, and being an extra hand to all of the other employees in the afternoon. Giovanna is the most recent addition to the team at Eastlake Village Vet Clinic, and she has taught me so much about the ins and outs of being a vet tech. So far, I have drawn up vaccinations, administered them both orally and through an injection, and I have learned how to prep a catheter for surgery. I have also been able to sit in on a couple surgeries. I have seen three neuters and one spay so far. Oddly enough, it doesn't freak me out as much as I thought it would.If anything, I am excited to learn more about the procedures! Watching the vet techs prep for the neuters or sedate dogs for X rays, has shown me how much technical skill goes in to being a veterinarian. All of the vet techs are able to come up with a dosage of medication on the fly, and administer it to the animal seamlessly. It makes me want to step my game up and learn as much as I can in the few short weeks left of my internship. I have actually found myself going home and researching what medicines are used for what. At the start of this week, I had no idea what vaccines dogs and cats were supposed to get, and now I know exactly what they need and what it helps prevent. The typical vaccines for dogs are PV, which prevents parainfluenza a respiratory disease in dogs, CV an immune system booster that helps prevent the Corona virus, the Rabies vaccine, and BORD which is short for bordetella bronchiseptica, another respiratory disease commonly known as Kennel Cough. Cats typically get the rabies vaccination as well as, FVRCP, which protects from three highly contagious respiratory diseases, and LV a vaccination that prevents a fatal infection in cats that is similar to leukemia but it has no cure. Everyone has been so nice and willing to teach me the ins and outs of the clinic. I have already learned so much about how a vet clinic runs, what vaccinations are for what, more technical animal handling skills, and how to spay and neuter. I am really grateful that I am able to spend my internship here because I love how gracious everyone is to teach me new things each day. I am excited to learn more and be fully immersed in a perfectly run vet clinic! For as long as I can remember, my passion for animals has guided me. I cannot begin to explain the love I have for animals of all species. In a sense, I have always known that a career that revolves around animals and doing something good for them, was in my future. Becoming a veterinarian is a happy medium that suits both my passion for animals and science, but it’s hard not to think about all of the other opportunities I could pursue.
During spring break, I was on an interior design kick and I was going to research more information about interior designers and what the average income looks like, but I ended up clicking on a Huffington Post article entitled “An Open Letter To My Shelter Dog’s First Owner”. Three paragraphs in, and I was already crying. I quickly realized that my passion lies within the animals that don't have the voice to ask for help. I hope that my contribution to my community is positive, and ultimately I don't want anything to get in the way of finding the best possible solution to helping a hurt or sick animal. Veterinarians are the people that animal owners go to when their family member with four legs gets ill or injured. Veterinarians have the knowledge and the tools to help the animals that can't ask for help firsthand. I want to be one of these people. In my life, I need to change how I motivate myself, because this could help me me with procrastination and setting myself up for success in the future. I notice I put off tasks until the last minute and I tend to get things done right on time. For example, I waited the whole week to format the group’s zine and then I was unable to print on the day it was due, and I was printing it in the morning. It was really stressful and I wish I would have been more on top of the work before it came to the last minute. I want to be the kind of person that completes things way ahead of time and does it to the best of my ability. This will allow me more time to revise if needed and make sure that I am producing quality work. I am really excited heading into internship because I would love to see what a veterinarian does on a daily basis and see if this is really the career path that I want. I imagine my internship to be a lot of learning and hopefully a lot of hands on work with the animals and what a veterinarian does on a daily basis. I like to consider myself to be a very adaptable person. I am able to thrive in chaos, and do so in an orderly fashion. Working at a dog groomers has allowed me to hone this skill more than I ever expected it to. There are times when there are 5 dogs waiting to be bathed, a customer just walked in needing their dogs nails to be cut and dremeled, one of the dogs on the floor just peed, there are two dogs being groomed simultaneously, and the only thing running through my mind is a checklist of the fastest way to get everything done. I can apply this to my internship because as an incoming intern and the only person in the building that is not well versed in how a veterinary clinic runs on a daily basis, I need to be on top of my game at all times. This means being available to clean kennels, take customers back into exam rooms, clean exam rooms, take notes, or go grab a medical utensil for one of the vet techs at the drop of a hat.
I would love to gain the knowledge of how a vet clinic runs on a daily basis. I am so excited to watch what goes on behind the scenes and to really figure out if this is the career I want to pursue for the rest of my life. I have been going back and forth with the idea of actually becoming a veterinarian even though my heart lives with animals. From this internship experience, I also want to gain more animal handling and veterinary skills through this internship. I think that being a part of a team that consists of experts in the field of veterinary science will definitely help me. Honestly, I don’t know where to start in planning my internship project. I would love to just be fully immersed in the vet clinic and learn as much as possible in the short four weeks we have to intern, but since it is a requirement, I think that reaching out to the community or students that want to become veterinarians like I do, could play a big part in creating a meaningful project. Connecting with students could be a great way to peak interest in the veterinary science field. I think that talking with my mentor and seeing what she believes would be the best idea for a project would benefit both the clinic and myself. |
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