Student Case Presentation, Et. Al.

Yesterday morning started the student case competition, and despite how nervous we all felt about talking in front of a crowd, in a foreign country, in a language that not everyone in the room understands, on a case that we first saw a week ago, the presentations went REALLY well. I think we are all proud of our accomplishments, and are very glad to have it behind us. I had the joy of going first of the six of us, but it felt good to have it over. Sorry I don't have a better picture. I think Dr. Subbiah was really proud of us, too. Last year's group was to nervous to participate. And even though we mainly did it because we are terrible at saying "no," we still did it!

Presenting my case

In the afternoon, Ruby (Dr. Subbiah's wife) took us shopping for material for sarees and other traditional Indian clothes. There are some BEAUTIFUL sarees here, and if I thought for a  minute I would ever wear one once at home, I'd buy one. But alas, I just went along for the ride and enjoyed looking at the pretty sets. After dinner, a tailor came to our room and the girls that bought material were measured to have their clothes hand crafted!

Check out all the pots on the ceiling!

Chennai (part of it) at night.

This morning was spent in the large animal barns again. I have enjoyed my time in the clinics there and have learned a lot about large animal management in India. I feel like I have enough of a background now to know what a case is and how it is being treated, and can even make some decisions about how I would personally treat a few of the cases, and what I may do differently.

Someone put on his fancy pants today!

We popped in on the conference for a minute today to see the Michigan kids present (they all did large animal cases, the topic for today), and when we came back we were greeted by two brand-new-to-the-world faces!!! A doe had just given birth to two ram lambs, and they were so fresh that they were still damp! We spent about an hour just watching them, trying to stand and trying to figure out this whole nursing thing. It was absolutely the highlight of my day!

AND THEN!!!.........We had PIZZA for lunch! Dr. Nathan has been promising it to us for the last two days, and every time we think it's on it's way, we get the horrible news that it isn't coming. So we were very excited to have pizza for lunch, and devoured it like a pack of hyenas.

This afternoon we went back to the conference for the closing address and awards. We wanted to be there, even though we were not eligible to win any prizes. After the awards were given out (and before the closing was done), the professor from Michigan (a graduate from the vet school here, like Dr. Subbiah) came over and told us not to be offended that we didn't win because we were in a different pool. We totally weren't at all, but he did ask us to write down our names to give us certificates of appreciation for participating.

So, knowing we would receive those, we were expecting to hear our names called at the end.

What I was NOT expecting though, was to hear the title of MY presentation get called up for the "Best Student Clinical Case Presentation Award for Companion Animal." Dr. Subbiah was so proud that he hugged me. Totally unexpected, and I feel a little guilty that we just got here, and some of the students have worked a long time on those presentations.

This evening I bought peanut butter at Spencer's, something I didn't even realize I missed. But diving in head first with a spoon was delicious!

Tomorrow is our last day in clinics here, and then we will be working on day trips. So, that's all for now!

I like the shell. 

Yet another interesting mode of transporting animals!