From hatchlings to feathered fledglings: three baby cardinals timed their arrival with the writer’s Avian Anatomy and Physiology selective course.
By Sarah Blau
Sarah Blau, a member of the Class of 2017 at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, is sharing some of what she learns and experiences as a second-year veterinary student with readers of the CVM News Central Blog. Watch for these postings on a monthly basis.
First and second-year veterinary students at the NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine always look forward to the end of April. Mostly, that’s because final exams are over by then and summer is within an arm’s reach. But also, the end of each semester allows for two weeks of topic-focused selectives. These one or two week, low-pressure courses allow students to decompress after finals while exploring a chosen topic of interest in more depth.
Last year, I wrote about helping to spay and neuter feral cats on Hatteras Island and about how veterinary practices can present information to clients, two of my chosen selective topics. This semester’s selective experiences were totally different, but equally enjoyable.
Following an intense week of final exams and a long weekend consisting mostly of sleep, I found myself sitting back in the same lecture hall that had brought on the previous week’s misery. This time, however, I was leisurely soaking in slide after slide of different bird species. My first one-week selective was called Avian Anatomy and Physiology, and it encompassed a delightful exploration of basic bird taxonomy and anatomy. Dr. Ed Smallwood, a recently retired professor of anatomy, taught the course, freely sharing his love and admiration of avian species.
I had been introduced to avian medicine through a Physical Exam Skills for exotics class during the past semester, and this selective further piqued my interest in our feathered friends. As it turns out, birds have developed amazing anatomical adaptations to enable their unique lifestyles: from hollow bones that aid in flight to non-functional nostrils that keep diving birds from drowning.
A culmination of the week’s learning came in the form of a short research paper by each student on a chosen topic of interest relating avian anatomy to veterinary medicine. I chose the topic of anesthesia. Unfortunately, some of the anatomical adaptations of birds that enable them to fly so well also put them at greater risk from anesthetic procedures. Their unique lungs and air sacs, for example, are extremely efficient at gas exchange and therefore make avian patients ultra-sensitive to anesthetic gasses.
The same week I developed a newfound appreciation for bird anatomy, I also developed an appreciation of bird life-cycle through an extracurricular happenstance in my backyard. A pair of cardinals had nested in a shrub right outside my kitchen window. During the week of my avian anatomy selective, three baby cardinals hatched! I started a daily photo journal of the chicks’ progress from naked hatchlings to feathered fledglings. Dr. Smallwood supported my efforts, saying that it takes only about two weeks for newly hatched cardinals to start to fly, and the transformation I would see would be sensational. He was not wrong. This well-timed coincidence added to my pleasure in the exploration of avian anatomy through this selective.
My second one-week selective was called Small Animal Clinical Neurology, and was led by Clinical Neurologist, Dr. Chris Mariani. This course combined all the bits and pieces of veterinary neurology that students learn in various independent classes throughout the core curriculum into a more focused approach based on real-world case examples. We discussed everything from identifying the location of a nervous system lesion and developing lists of possible causes of disease, to different diagnostic procedures and treatments available for different neurologic conditions.
Building off my interest in neurology cultivated last summer working with dachshunds, I was immediately captivated by this selective. Videos of actual past neurologic patients and team-based case exercises aided our understanding of the problem-solving approach used for neurologic disorders. I ended the week much more confident in my ability to both recognize and diagnose neurologic problems in dogs and cats. Now I eagerly look forward to fourth year, when my clinical rotations will take me into the actual hospital and I can work directly with patients, especially in the neurology department.
Ironically, selective registration is determined by a lottery system within each class of students, and this year I had one of the highest lottery numbers (meaning I had near-last pick of selectives out of my class). Even being limited in my selective choices, I ended up in two quality, engaging, and educational selectives, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. As always, I am already looking forward to next year’s weeks of selectives.
