Back on the Farm

Today we had our first Physical Diagnosis II lab. This semester is all about horses and large animal medicine, so naturally today's lab was out on the farm with the horses. This week we covered advanced equine physical exam skills and next week we'll be working with cows for advanced large animal physical exam skills.

It is mighty hot and humid here (though I shouldn't complain too much because I suspect it is much hotter and more humid in parts of the US right now!) and being outside in scrubs or coveralls for two hours is a bit of a recipe for becoming caked in sweat and dirt! Ew, my favorite. Thankfully, there is a nice cool breeze that drifts through the farm, so while you're standing around working with the animals, you're not melting. I also have to remember that I would rather be melting any day over freezing to death in some of the chillier climates!

The four clinicians and seven horses we worked with were excellent. We had four stations to rotate through in groups, where we discussed exam techniques, cranial nerves, and applied the physical exam to a case. I enjoyed practicing the exam skills, going through the cranial nerve exam, and impressing myself with how much I remembered both from studying and of the medical terminology we've learned over the last year (it still feels incredibly strange to write the word year, how can that much time have possibly passed already?!).

At the end of the lab, I raced home to take a lovely shower where I rid myself of dirt, sweat, and horse snot. Yes, one of the horses kept spraying us with this lovely opaque-colored snot. Yum. Gotta remember to put some of that in a spray bottle - cologne anyone??