Wanna be a Vet When You Grow Up? Almost every kid in America has wanted to be a veterinarian at one .time or another, but do they really know what they are yearning for? I was lucky enough to attend a summer course for middle school students at Tufts University that showed kids what it really means to be a vet. One of the things that we learned is that there are lots of different types of vets and frankly, most kids don't think about this. They just assume a vet is a vet; so the fact that there are many different fields came as a bit of a shock for some of us. If you take an interest in a veterinary career then you should think about what it is exactly you want to do and what types of animals you would like to work with. Another thing that was unexpected is just how dirty it is working with animals. When we were working with cows a vet taught us how to get a urine sample by stimulating the bladder. The vet said that we should all try to make a cow pee. There were several girlish squeals, several eye rolls and many kids’ vet dreams flying in the air that day. Only about two thirds of the people even came close to the cows, even after we had moved on to checking vitals.
Fall '11
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Later in that lecture the veterinarian taught us how to tell if a cow is pregnant by sticking your arm up to your elbow in the cow’s anus and feeling the uterus. In order to do this the vet needs to first clear out 34 all of the feces. At this point most of the girls were completely spun around and looking nauseous. After the vet had shown us what to do he
offered to allow two people a chance to try feeling the uterus. There were only five volunteers (myself included) and only one guy in the group. All of the other kids looked at the few who were raising their hands with shock, horror, disgust and awe.
On a different less eventful day the squeamish were proven again for a more common procedure of taking a dogs temperature - in the dog’s butt. It is very simple, but what is required is that you must take a thermometer and actually hold it in a dog’s anus. Once again there were very few people who even looked at the example. The point of this information is that if you think that you may be interested in being a vet, you should make sure that you’re not too squeamish, because in order to do even the most basic tasks, like taking a temperature, it can be an interesting experience. Once I got back home, a friend was nice enough to let me help give their horse immunizations. This can be a vet’s job or just a regular owner's, so I thought it would be a good experience. A horse has a very thick hide so in order to properly inject
the immunizations you need to stab the needle in. Emphasis on STAB. So because of this violent motion it is kinder to the animal to lightly punch the injection site before you, well, inject the immunization. So after punching the horse’s neck a few times you need to take the prepared needle into the neck by literally making a fist, punching it into the horse’s neck and pushing down on the syringe. This may not seem very bad, but the fact of the matter is that it is a sickening thud noise and the thought of even doing it is hard. So in order to be a vet you have to be able to do things that seem hard, and you need to be sure of what you are doing because if you have even a moment of hesitation, you may not get the injection in deep enough under the skin. I hope that now if you are thinking about being a vet you are a bit more informed, not simply hoping for an unknown dream.
Jackie Olivas Jackie Olivas is a 14 year old girl living in Brookfield where she attends Brookfield East High School. She has never been published before, so she is thrilled about the opportunity to write for Fetch.
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