Capstone Project

Academic Year 2018-2019

Internship at Prasuarthon Hospital

Nicha Petporee Grade 11 section 1104

Capstone mentor : Ms.Charlene Cunningham
 WORK REFLECTION

There are multiple reasons for this internship at a veterinary hospital. First and foremost,
As an animal lover, I have dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. However, in order to assure
myself whether becoming a veterinarian is the right career for me, it is critical that I know all the
potential obstacles that I might experience and figure out the implications. Having internship at
where all the process and procedure occur is the massive opportunity and the easiest way to
understand this job as it allows me to directly see the real-time work, observe the possible daily
challenges and responsibility that I need to have to work in this path.
Secondly, I want to learn about the hospital structure and branches of veterinary
specialize. This is because it will make me deeply understand the procedure in the hospital and
know what type of work fits me the most. Finally, the internship will help me ensure my
understanding that being a veterinarian will help me avoid working behind a desk every single
day, instead, I will be able to work in a different environment and also, being my own boss as I
can make my own schedule at a clinic. According to this, I choose to do the internship at
Prasuarthon hospital, which located at veterinary faculty, Mahidol University, where I plan to
study in the future. My internship consists of three departments which are Veterinary medicine
department, Operation Department and Exotic animal Medical department.
The first department that I got to observe was the Veterinary medicine department,
where the sick animal will be initially sent to diagnose the disease before further treatment. After
seven days of observation, I could see that most of the patient are mainly cats and dogs. For cats,
most of them suffer from their habits of climbing and being too adventurous. This habits usually
lead them to have a serious wound on their legs. In one of the case, the cat comes with necrosis
on its leg or other words, the death of cell tissue from infection. I consider this as one of the
toughest challenges that I have faced on the entire internship because the necrosis causes a very
strong smell that almost unbearable and the lesion was tough to look at. I was surprised by how
calm the veterinarian was. Even though they experience the same thing as me, but they still able
to tolerate the smell and look at the wound closely. This indicates this career require high
endurance and need to control their emotion at all time. On the other side, dogs usually suffer
from their age, which leads to kidney disease and corneal ulcer. Dogs with kidney disease will be
cured by regular infusion to feed nutrition directly to the body, while the treatment for corneal
ulcer is more complex as it can be hard to detect the area of ulcer. As the result, the vet needs to
use the special strain named Fluorescein to indicate the wound and then use the lights to enhance
the ulcer before given dog the antibiotic drop and ointment to ensure that the dog’s eye will not
become too dry to create the ulcer again. Another important procedure that I aware is that it is
critical that the vet needs to carefully observe the blood test result and concurrently, collaborate
with Radiologist to assure that the disease is correctly identified.
The second department was Operation department. Here is where all the surgery takes
place, including all the dental work and sterilization. From what I can see, this department
mainly divided into three categories, the bones and muscle surgery, soft tissue surgery and
finally the dental surgery. I have a chance to observe all of those three categories and I found that
the bones surgical procedure impresses me the most because the operation was so complex with
a lot of equipment and require a lot of patience from the surgeons. From one of the cases that I
witness, the dog broke its tail and the surgeons try every way they could to save its tail, however,
in the end, the tail needs to be amputated in order to avoid chronic injury. This case makes me
realize that the unexpected incident happens all the time in the operation room. In this case, the
dog almost wakes up during the operation because the pain it felt is excessive. In addition, the
dog also excretes and make a waste on the area.
The Final department was Exotic animal Medical department. This department takes
care of sick birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small companion animals such as sugar gliders,
guinea pigs, rabbits, and ferrets. They offer wellness examinations as well as treatment and
hospitalization. The treatment here is completely different from the other two departments as
most animals are small, making it difficult for the vet to weight them and diagnose the disease.
For instance, Rabbits and squirrel are very sensitive to stranger touch. Their heart could stop at
any time if they feel too much stress. Another example is the bird, which is difficult to weight,
therefore it quite challenging for the vet to calculate the appropriate amount of dose that the bird
needed.
Becoming a veterinarian is not an easy task to accomplish. It takes a great deal of
schooling and many hours put into becoming a veterinarian. Veterinarians have to know how to
diagnose and treat disorders of animals and need to do the research at all time because the new
disease always appears. I have an opportunity to ask the question to the professor in the
veterinary faculty and found the shocking fact that the duties that all vets have to know include:
performing surgeries on sick animals, prescribing or administering drugs, medicines, and
vaccines even these skills might not often need in their department. From my point of view,
being a vet require more than technical skill and the love of an animal, but also require skill in
solving an immediate problem and ability to make a sharp decision. Most of them devote their
lives to help the animals and the owner of the animals. Majority of them are one of the kindest
people I have met.
 r
k
Date/location Time l
Activities Pictures

8:30 -I arrived at the hospital. I noticed that

8 April 2018 more than half of sick animals were
dogs.Most of the dogs were small breed
dog such as French Bulldog, Chihuahua,
Pug, Pomeranian and poodle. Nonetheless,
there were large breed dog too. The most
common breed that I found are golden
retriever and Bangkaew.

8:40-12:30 - Staff assigned the room in medical

department, which I will do internship in
for 1 day. I noticed that the room was full
of equipment and solution that needed to do
the culture germs from the blood, including
the microscope that allow the doctor to
detect the disease directly from the blood
but what I found interesting is there were a
lots of towels in all sizes unlike regular
hospital and in each room, there were
doctor assistant.The first case that I have
witness is the regular health check for dog.
The dog aged around 12 years old.Firstly,
the vet generally l check its body condition,
skin, dryness of the eyes and ears .I also
noticed that the vet feel around the body,
limbs and tail to check potential issues. In
addition, they look for the parasites
administer vaccinations.

12:30-13:30 -Lunch Break

13:30-16:30 -Observe the case.Mostly the dog came in

for regular health check.Some suffer from
Kennel Cough that come from the
respiratory infections.The vet suggested the
owner to do regular Nebulization to
decrease chronic pain. The vet also put the
cuttonbud inside the dog’s sinus to take the
remaining fluid to the lab in order to define
type of bacteria.One of the most interesting
case of the day is the cat with necrosis on
its leg. The wound is very serious that the
vet need to inject antibiotic vaccine to
prevent bloodstream infection.Moreover,
the vet also cut out the dead tissue as it
cause a disturbing smell. The cat might not
survived.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

9 April 2018 8:30 -Arrived at the hospital and headed to
medicine department.

8:45-9:30 -The owner of the puppy claimed that it

did not eat food and became inanimate.The
vet predicted that the puppy might catch a
cold and check its body temperature using
Thermometer.I carefully observe the
method and found that the thermometer
needed to be insert deep into the dog’s
reptum and hold it there for about two
minutes .A normal dog temperature is
between 37.5–39.2 °C.In this case, the
puppy temperature is 38 degree, which still
considered as a normal temperature. As the
result, the pet need to draw blood example
and sent to the lab to figure out the reason
why the dog has not been eating. To draw
the blood, I noticed that the dog needed the
vet draw the blood from the area below the
elbow and if the there was a small amount
of blood in the tip of the syringe, it’s mean
that the needle have entered the vein
correctly.

10:00-11:00 - Dog with kidney disease received the

infusion. I helped to expose the dog’s skin
to make it easier for the assistant to insert
needle.I learned that there is a layer below
the dog’s skin that allow needle to go in
without hurting the dog.
11:00-12:30 -Witness the case of constipation. The
owner found out that the dog hasn’t been
drinking and eating. The vet immediately
sent the dog to X-ray department. I
followed to observe the procedure.Inside
the room, the x-ray equipment is usually on
a mechanical arm and will be placed over
the problem area. The challenging part is to
make the dog stays still during the x-ray,
which can make the process take a lot of
time.

12:30-13:45 -lunch break

14:00-16:30 -Watch the X-ray film. The vet said that the
grey area represent ​feces in dog’s
intestine.To solve the problem, the vet gave
l​axative to the dog.Later, ​I observe regular
health check.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

10 April 2018 8:30-10:00 -Arrived at surgery department and listen to
the rule in surgery room.Firstly, we need to
change our clothes, shoes and wear surgical
hat to prevent hair and sweat from
contaminating an open surgical site.
I observe the vet assistant in the operating
room and found that it is very important
that the surgery equipments only be
touched by the surgeons to prevent hand
transmission. The surgeons are allowed to
touch because they have scrub their hands
and arms with antimicrobial soap.

11:00-12:30 -Lunch break

12:30-14:30 -Observe first surgery process.The cat

broke its leg and needed a splint. Before the
surgery, the surgery team gave cat narcotic
and ointment in its eyes to prevent dryness.
After that they shave its leg and clean it
multiple time with alcohol and betadine to
ensure that all germs were killed.During the
surgery, I noticed that the metal splint were
boiled before using.

15:00-16:30 -Watched second surgery.In this case, the

dog has a condition called ​Dermoid sinus,
which cause multiple lumps and very
dangerous because it can create infection
and nerve damage that later lead to death.
This surgery is very complex and
interesting.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

11 April 2018 8:30-8:45 -Arrived and change clothes.

9:10-11:00 -First surgery, the dog has severe spleen

injury, so its body create tissue to cover the
wound, causing the spleen to grow bigger
than usual. The vet decided that the spleen
need to be remove. After removing the
spleen, the dog need a lot of blood
transfusion as spleen is where red blood
cell store.

- The cat got hit by the car and breath

heavily.During the surgery, the surgeon
found out that its diaphragm, which
separates the abdomen from the chest.
11:00-13:00 When it was broken, the organs from the
bottom half of the cat’s body will be push
against the cat’s lungs, making breathing
very difficult for the cat.

13:00-14:30 -Lunch break

14:30-16:30 -I have an opportunity to observe the dental

surgery.The puppy’s milk tooth did not
come out and the surgeons need to remove
it so that the real teeth could come out.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

17 April 2018 8:30-9:00 -Arrived at the hospital and changed
department from operation to Exotic animal
Medical department.

-Observed different type of animals such as

9:00-12:30 birds, rabbit, mouse, ferret, squirrel.I found
that most of these animals suffer from lack
of nutrition and dental problem.

12:30-13:30 -lunch break

14:00-16:30 -Observe sprayer room that use for animal

with respiratory problem and flea.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

18 April 2018 8:30-12:30 -Arrived at the hospital and return to
medical department. Today, I mainly focus
on the reception area. I found that the
hospital need to check all the medical
history that the pet have receive from other
clinic before the treatment.Later, I
witnessed the regular health check.

12:30-14:00 -Lunch Break

14:00-16:30 -Observe special cancer department. The

pitbull diagnosed from cancer and received
chemotherapy.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho

19 April 2018 8:30-8:40 -Arrived at the hospital and change clothes.

9:00-10:00 Observed the sterilization surgery in female

pug.The vet’s first plan is to open the
dog’s abdomen and remove the ovaries,
However, the vet found out that the dog has
neither ovaries nor uterus because it has
already been sterilized by the farm.

10:20-12:00 -Watch the surgery performed by the

professor.In this operation, the dog injured
its back and the bone were broken. It was
very complex surgery. I noticed that the
professor first remove some pieces of the
bone that were broken out and pick the
some of the large pieces back in.

Supervisor: Dr. Panithi Sukho