Full circle

Many may not know (or remember), but 7 years ago in my first lab rotation in grad school I was in a lab that used a pigs as a model for skin infection. The first time that I went out to see the pigs, I was admittedly overwhelmed by a combination of heat, no breakfast, the deafening loudness of pig squeals and the force with which pigs need to be handled (a bit different than lab mice). Finally, when the floppy ears reminded me of my brand new puppy’s ears, it was the closest I ever came to fainting (I managed to hold out) and I thought that I was destined to never work with animals.

Although pigs remain my least favorite species to work with (if you are asking yourself why right now you have never been in a pig barn), this week was the first time that I engaged in an activity (pic 1) that had to be correctly performed for the animals to make it out of the procedure. (That went so well that I was invited out to a farm to perform it on 250 pigs – no thanks!) And, after a semester of vet school I have figured out the difference between a Yorkie ear and a pig ear and am OK handling those too (pic 2, 3). So, I guess from year 1 of grad school to year 1 of vet school, I have come full circle.