Saturday, September 17, 2005

 

Third Year, Fall Semester UI DVM Curriculum

Companion Animal Medicine III and IV
This semster I think we're doing oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory disease, renal disease, and others. . .seeing that we no longer have any cardiologists on the faculty, I'm not sure we'll get to that. That's okay, because cardiology is not that important, anyway.

Ruminant Health
In one word: diarrhea. Ruminants are freaks of nature; they are 55-gallon fermentation tanks on four legs. They live to eat and poo and experince over 50 types of diarrhea.

Introduction to Surgery
How to cut, how to tie, how to sew, and how to stay sterile while doing all of the above. (I could easily make vasectomy joke here, but I won't.)

Small Animal Surgery
Basically spays and neuters.

Large Animal Surgery
Not sure what we'll be doing--probably displaced abomasums, in which one of the stomachs gets twisted about and ends up somewhere where it's not supposed to be.

Anesthesiology
Losta machines with lotsa dials, lotsa tubing, lotsa pharmacology, and some equations.

Toxicology
Basically it's pharmacology kicked up a notch.

Ecotoxicology of the Northern Hemisphere
An elective all about toxicants in the environment, mostly unnatural ones, and the impact on wild and domestic animals.

I've found that you can't talk about ecotoxicology without talking economics and politics. . .many underdeveloped countries with great natural resources are losing them to "western" companies who set up camp in countries with permissive or nonexistent environmental (and minimum wage) laws. This means unregulated pollution and low wages in underdeveloped communities.

Theriogenology (animal reproduction/obstetrics)
All I have to say is that I'm super-fond of neither peninses nor rectums that are bigger than my arm. But you do what you gotta do. . .

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