What I learned from my bacteriology labs

There are three mains things I learned from my bacteriology labs:

1.  Growing pure cultures of bacteria is a pain.  It takes a long time and it can be very finicky.
2.  Growing bacterial cultures smell.  A lot.
3.  When trying to identify an unknown bacteria, even if you follow all the steps right, you can still get the answer wrong.

Two weeks ago we had a series of 4 bacteriology labs.  The theme running through the 4 labs was to identify unknown bacteria from a urine sample, mastitic milk and an abscess. We were given a "road map" of tests we could run and a clue that one sample had two bacteria, giving a total of 4 bacteria to identify.  After culturing the samples over night after the first lab, we started on to the tests on day two.  The first problem was sorting out which culture had two bacterial species.  After much confusion and discussion with the lovely lab assistant we discovered that the culture plate which was supposed to have two bacterial species was overrun with one bacteria, leaving one sole bacterial colony about the size of a pen tip of the second type.  After incredible luck (and my lab partners very steady hands) we were able to culture the two species onto two different plates for the next lab.

The next incident occurred when we ran a test called a microbat test.  Essentially you read off colours to be either positive or negative from a bunch of reaction wells.  You enter those results into a computer and voila!  The computer spits out the genus and species of your bacteria.  The lab assistant looked at our results and suggested we run the microbat again (so essentially telling us our results were wrong).  My partner had run the first one, so I ran the second one.  Guess what?  We got the same results!  When it came time to discuss our results with the professor, we had identified three of four species correctly.  We explained our dilemma with the microbat test and he told us "That's bacteriology for you!  Even if you follow all the steps and perform them correctly it doesn't always work."  There was a prize to be won if you got all your bacterial species correct.  Although we didn't get them all right, the professor took pity on us and gave us a prize anyways.

Not a bad prize split between two people!

Although I ultimately did enjoy the bacteriology labs, I don't think veterinary bacteriologist will be high on my career list.

Passed Animal Body 1 :)

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

I got to spend my day in two bacteriology lectures and a bacteriology lab, while seeing all my friends at home post pictures of their turkeys on Facebook...  I guess that's the price I have to pay for wanting to go to vet school abroad.

I officially passed my first unit of vet school!  When I saw my mark I honestly thought it was a mistake.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever hope to achieve a mark like that.  I think the only reason I did so well was because I had covered a lot of the material in my undergrad at Guelph.  I set the bar pretty high for future exams, but realistically that kind of mark was probably a one time thing.  I'll definitely strive to do well in the next units but I also like taking some time for myself and doing some fun stuff.  I think to continue achieving marks like that I would have to become a hermit studying every waking moment that I am not in lectures.

Last week we got introduced to our "Mummies and Daddies".  The vet school groups all new students with students in the year above.  I have three "Mummies" who were GEPs last year and 4 sisters who are in my GEP class (since vet med is so female dominated most people had multiple Mummies). We went to one of their flats where they cooked dinner for us.  The dinner was fantastic, including cheese biscuits, pasta, chicken, potatoes, salad and brownies for dessert.  After spending some time talking and getting to know one another we played Cards Against Humanity for a good couple hours.  It was a very nice break on a Tuesday night.

[Side note:  GEP stands for Graduate Entry Program.  Everyone in my class has completed a university degree previously.  In the UK, unlike at home, you can go to vet school straight out of high school and it is a five year program.  Since we all have degrees, our first year is accelerated covering all the material that the five year program covers their first two years.  This allows us to complete our degree in 4 years and join up with the five year program in their third year and our second.]

I have started to play field hockey again which has been so much fun.  I played field hockey all throughout middle and high school but gave it up during my time at Guelph.  Since I hadn't played in four years, and given how heavy the course load is supposed to be this year, I thought playing on the second team would be the way to go.  About half of that team has never played hockey before so it makes for some interesting matches.  Last Friday we played the First Team from the Med School.  To say we lost would be an understatement.  We were annihilated.  But I still had a great time.  Since I am one of the more experienced players I get to be a pretty impactful player which is fun.

Sorry there weren't any pretty pictures this post.  The past couple weeks have been kind of lacking any "exciting things"