Brooklyn O’Brien

Learning Log Entry #11

March 8, 2018

Time Spent: 2 hours Total time spent: 18 hours

Mentor Signature:

Today, I went to the vet and shadowed for a bit. I learned many new things and also got to

participate a few times and there were quite a few appointments. When I first got to the vet, Dr.

Pearson was viewing some X-rays for a cat in the exam room. This was to make sure the cat did

not have anything else wrong with it as it already had a heart murmur and was being kept at the

vets.

After learning about the cats heart murmur, I decided to do some more research about

heart murmurs as Dr. Pearson was talking to the owner and other tech’s. Through my research, I

learned a lot. I first learned that a heart murmur is an unusual heart sound, usually heard by

listening to the heart with a stethoscope. A murmur is often caused by turbulent blood flow

within the heart. And while sometimes a murmur is determined to be 'innocent' or 'physiologic',

other times the murmur is determined to be pathologic or caused by disease. These Pathologic

heart murmurs can be caused by a structural problem within the heart (cardiac disease), or can

be due to a problem that is 'extracardiac’, or non-heart disease related. I also learned that not all

heart murmurs sound the same. ​The loudness of a murmur reflects the amount of turbulence that

is present in the heart. However, the loudness of a heart murmur does not always correlate

directly with the severity of disease. I also that it was interesting that murmurs are graded by

their intensity, usually on a scale of I-VI. For example, a Grade I murmur is very soft or quiet,
may only be heard intermittently, and is usually only heard in one location on the chest, while a

Grade VI murmur is very loud, heard everywhere that the heart can be heard, and can be felt

when a person places their hand on the chest in the area of the heart.

After watching Dr. Pearson examine the cat with the murmur, I got to participate during a

check up with a dog. This dog had to have its temperature taken and when the tech asked for an

assistant, I asked if I would be able to help. Dr. Pearson said yes as long as the dog had a muzzle

on. I then held the dog’s head in place as the tech took its temperature. The dog barked and

growled as this was uncomfortable but I kept him as still as I possibly could. Through this I

learned that it is very often difficult working at a vet and having to deal with animals of all

different temperaments.

Overall, today I learned many new things and had many new findings. I learned that

things often get difficult in the vet’s office as many animals with different temperaments are

handled. I also learned about heart murmurs and how cloself animals need to be monitored

according to the severity. Throughout my experience shadowing, nothing really confused me

besides my wonder about what a murmur actually was. This was solved by doing research. Also,

now I have many questions that I plan to ask Dr. Pearson in the future about heart murmurs,

such as how often they appear, and the treatment. I will use this shadowing experience to reach

my goal by using the things I learned today to connect to my overall presentation. As of now, I

do not need help with anything and don’t have any logistical problems to solve. At this point, I

am working with my mentor to get more hours at the vet and learn and understand more about

the care of animals, I don’t have any questions for him currently besides ones out of curiosity.