The Check's in the Mail

By: Lana Chumney

Texas A&M University, Class of 2011

In the summer, just before I started vet school, I went home to visit my parents for the weekend.  They owned a small family operated dairy, and by family operated, I mean anyone who happened to be around when the work was taking place.  This particular weekend, my neighbor was having an appreciation party for the customers at his mechanic shop.  He had bar-b-q and even a band with dancing.  My parents were still in the hay field working and unable to attend so, being the ever wonderful daughter that I am, I thought it might be nice to take them some food. 

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Veterinary Students Take on Washington, D.C.

By : Susan Dugat

Class of 2011, Texas A&M University

Over 60 veterinary students representing 24 veterinary schools gathered at the Dupont Hotel in Washington, D.C. February 1-2, 2010 for the 2^nd annual Veterinary Student Legislative Day.  The program is organized by the Student AVMA Governmental Affairs Committee and the AVMA Governmental Relations Division (GRD) as an interactive discussion and educational program about advocacy and the legislative process.  Students flew from all across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada, many taking time over the weekend to tour the nation’s capital as a snowstorm covered the city under inches of white.

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That's Pathognomonic

By: Lana Chumney

Texas A&M University, Class of 2011

In our first year curriculum of vet school, we have a class called clinical correlates.  In this class we tour different production facilities to get a feel of how livestock are raised and what the producers, that will soon be our clients, do everyday.  This particular day we were touring the Beef Production Center.  It was cold and windy and was one of the few days in vet school that I can remember wishing I was sitting in a classroom. 

While looking at some cattle, our professor started quizzing us on Redwater Disease (Bacillary Hemoglobinuria).  He asked, “Now what sign is virtually pathognomonic for this disease?”  As our first year minds were still swarming with terms from anatomy and histology, we were perplexed.  After several seconds, he asked, “Does everyone know what pathognomonic means?”  I nodded a yes with the rest of my classmates.  Of course I knew this term; it seemed that I had heard it a million times just that week in microbiology.  I was also a master of root words, thanks to our anatomy class.  To my surprise his next question was, “Lana, please tell us what that means!”  As I flipped through my mental rolodex of medical terms I thought, “Patho= pathology.”  Yes, that’s correct.  And “pneumo = lung”.  This is too easy.  “Of course Dr. Smith, pathognomonic means pathology of the lungs.”  After learning the correct definition, I decided that this might just be pathognomonic of failure of correlates class!