Monday, January 24, 2005

 

Second Year, Second Semester
UIUC DVM Curriculum

Here we are, folks! I'm currently at 24 credit hours, as long as I don't drop or add any more electives.


* * Companion Animal Medicine * * * * *

This class meets every day and we cover specific areas of clinical medicine, starting with a few weeks of ophthalmology, then neurology, and so on. It seems like this will be more of a problem-based learning experince, so we'll get to apply a bunch of stuff we've already learned.

Instructor: Vets from the Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Text: Special notes and photos compiled by the clinicians
Meets: 5 hours/week


* * Special Pathology (and lab) * * * * *

a.k.a. Necropsy 102--More fun for the visual learners! In General Pathology, we learned how several body processes can go awry, wheterh it due to trauma, infection, inhertited diseases and what not. This semester we apply all that information to studying specific diseases and their etiologies (causes).

We'll be assessed as we were last semester--with exams that present cases with pictures, patient history and maybe some lab test results, and we have to use our poweres of deductions to figure out the disease and its cause.

Instructor: James F. Zachary (looks and sounds a little like a younger, shinier John Madden)
Text: Thompson's Special Veterinary Pathology, 3rd Edition
Meets: 3 hrs/week lecture, 5 hrs/week lab


* * Veterinary Clinical Procedures * * * * *

All the hands on stuff! This is when we get to learn about handling animals and the basics of hands on medicine, starting with the general nose-to-tail examination and continuing to specific procedures like intubation. Some weeks we each spend time in clinics in lieu of lecture to get our hands on some patients.

Instructor: Clinical staff of Vet Teaching Hospital
Text: None; the experiential demonstrations by our clinicians
Meets: 3 hrs/week


* * Clinical Pathology * * * * *

I'm getting the impression it's all about diagnostics, how to use them, how to evaluate their effectiveness and how to interpret their results. Not the most exciting, fun-filled topic in the worls, but useful, nonetheless--especially for anyone interested in epidemiology or in patenting their own diagnostic assays. (I recently talked to a former professor who's developed a blood test that can detect a feline heart disease before it happens--and if things work out, he may be able to retire off its returns.)

Instructor: Some guy who looks like Ed Begely, Jr.(Philip Solter)
Text: Duncan and Prasse: Veterinary Laboratory Medicine: Clinical Pathology
Meets: 4hrs/week


* * Veterinary Pharmacology II * * * * *

Just more of the same--more specific classes of drugs and how they work, how to use them, et cetera.

Instructor: Tomas Martin-Jimenez, Joan Jorgernson, Kurt Grimm
Text: Notes written by the professors
Meets: 3hrs/week


* * Veterinary Virology (and lab) * * * * *

Much like bacteriology, except with a much simpler group of microbes, and without the mile-long lists of antibiotics to learn. I guess the only things effective against viruses is natural immunity and vaccines (artificial immunity.)

Instructor: Gail Scherba
Text: Murphy and Gibbs: Veterinary Virology, 3rd Edition
Meets: 2 hrs/week lecture, 2 hrs/week lab


* * Food Safety and Public Health * * * * *

The class that makes you never ever want to eat meat, potato salad, dairy products, go to a retaurant, or use a public washroom--we learn all about all the icky stuff that lingers everywhere, and food poisoning, and more fun stuff.

Instructor: Yvette Johnson
Text: Zoonotic Diseases, handouts, the FDA "Bad Bug Book"
Meets: 2 times/week


And then there's the electives:

* * Veterinary Rehabilitation * * * * *

We get to wath the little doggies use the underwater treadmills! We leaern all about rehab (in humam med terms, physical therapy) and how they use it post-surgery and for vertebral problems.

Instructor: Dianne Dunning
Text: none
Meets: 1 hour/week


* * Epidemiology and the Media * * * * *

The public image of diseases and "outbreaks" is often determined by the media, and I guess we health professionals need to know how to communicate with the media so false info doesn;t get out to the public. We don't want any hyped up paranoid masses!

Instructor: Uriel Kitron
Text: none, just lotsa newspaper and magazine articles from the popular press
Meets: 1 hour/week



Electives I'm not taking:

- Canine and Feline Behavior
- Regulatory Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Lab Animal Medicine
- Orthopedic Biomechanics

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