August Post - Eye-Opening Experience

Today was my 5th day volunteering at the Loma Linda Animal Hospital and I have seen and learned so many things in these past few days. I work in the back with the nurses preparing animals for surgery, preparing dogs to go back with their owners, cleaning kennels, doing treatments for animals and several more things. I enjoy volunteering at the hospital because I get to interact with the nurses there and with the animals. I have seen many things at the animal hospital that I have never experienced before, including some that were unpleasant. I honestly thought that being a veterinarian was going to be playing with cats and dogs all day, feeding them and taking care of them, but I was completely wrong.

CAUTION DO NOT KEEP READING IF SQUEAMISH.

The worst thing that I have probably seen there was a dog's intestines hanging out of his body because he bit off his stitches after the surgery. The reason this happened was because the owners did not put a dog cone on him after the surgery was performed. Another thing that I have experienced that disgusted me was a dog's eye popping out of its head. I don't know how this could have happened because the dog came into the hospital when I was leaving. Other things I have seen include a cat's spine broken, deep wounds on a dog, and a dog's paw partially ripped off with deep wounds all over his body. The saddest experience I've had at the hospital was helping one of the nurses euthanize a dog due to aggression. I am surprised that I didn't react disgusted in front of the nurses or started crying when I saw those things.

DISTURBING PART DONE

On the other hand I saw many different animals that I didn't expect to see at the animal hospital. I saw a ferret, a tiger, a goat, and a rabbit. I am so glad I got to experience what it's like to be a veterinarian and I hope to learn more in the future. I was not allowed to take pictures inside of the hospital due to having to get the permission from the animals' owners to take the pictures ,but here is a picture of the outside of the Loma Linda Animal Hospital.

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. I plan to interview my mentor, Dr. Leonard Sigdestad from the Loma Linda Animal Hospital. I want to interview him first because I want to get closer to my mentor because right now we don't really talk much and also because I want to see how he feels about being veterinarian. I want to see his point of view of what being a veterinarian is really like.

2. Other questions I plan to ask:

• What college/university did you graduate from?
• Why did you want to become a veterinarian?
• What helped you deal with stressful patients and what you encountered(euthanasia, extremely hurt animals, stress overall at work)?
• How is your point of view now different from what it was when you first worked at an animal hospital/clinic?
• How much money do you earn?
• What is some advice you can give to students who want to become veterinarians or who barely graduated college/university as veterinarians?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. My topic is Veterinary Medicine.

2. How can a veterinarian best prepare himself or herself for the struggles in the field including euthanasia and stress?

3. Working Bibliography under links.

Summer Mentorship Component

1.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19cDoCC0asDlcs6fP18MtP1GywRD5Eqx_dxg_jEK7tHo/edit#gid=0
2. Montclair Clinica Medica Familiar
    Phone number: (909)626-4020
3. What level of education do you need to have (minimum) to be a nurse at a clinic or an assistant at the front desk?
4. The most important thing I gained from this experience is having everything organized from paperwork to files because in the office organization is key to getting everything done neatly and fast. I like office work and it was important for me to gain more experience of this, which I got from the clinic I worked at.
5. My senior topic is going to be veterinary medicine. What I did is a lot different from what my senior topic is going to be and the reason why is because I don't want to do office work all of the time. I want to do something that is hands on and I actually get to interact with people and animals. I really want to volunteer at an animal hospital or a shelter and I plan to do that for my senior topic. Volunteering at this clinic helped me realized that I don't want to pursue a topic in this area.