Pigs stink, so I stink

If anyone ever thought that vet students act like a stuck-up, hoity toity bunch, I would recommend the following therapy: visit the vet students at their weekly pig prac class. The only thing that would be stuck-up is the thermometer the students each have up the pigs' asses, while they waddle around on crouched legs in a desperate attempt to keep the thermometer up there. Honestly, there is no dignity left. Maybe there is a reason why there are not many accounts written by students on their vet school life. Sheer embarassment probably?

I'm not putting down the activities that we have to do for our pig prac today, however. I think it's kind of fun, in a way, if not for the time constraints. And of course it is absolutely necessary to learn how to draw blood from the pigs both from the veins in their big flappy ears and the jugular vein. Now if only they would stop screaming the shed down. It sounds just like Jurassic Park whenever they do that. Someone should seriously think about changing what most people deem to be the sound that pigs make - pigs don't OINK. They SCREAM. They GRUNT and SNORT, if they're in a more accomodating mood. There is absolutely nothing in their "speech" that remotely resemble an OINK. When I see and hear them screaming, I feel like doing the same myself.

There came a point this afternoon when we had to draw the blood from the vena cava of the weaners. Horrors never cease, when I felt my needle hitting something SOLID within the chest cavity. The initial conversation that followed:

me (to K): Did you hit something hard before you drew blood just now?
K: Yeah, I think so. At first.
me: Oh my gosh, it's disgusting....ew..Is that supposed to happen?
K is unsure. and I continued piercing the needle into something that had the feel of "cartilage".

Later did we realise, upon finally mastering the right angle at which to insert the needle, that I was probably hitting the spine or something ( hopefully it's not the trachea), and no it was not supposed to happen. I hope I haven't punctured anything serious in that little pig. I'm definitely not proud of this, but my point is that I felt we are clueless, partly because there was only one ole' Buddle guy walking around. Maybe the whole point of the exercise is to learn by trial and error. But still, couldn't the learning process be less painful for the pigs if we were given clearer instructions at least?