Veterinary terminology: signs and symptoms

Way back in my first year of vet school, faculty were very concerned with teaching us the basics of how to talk like vets. One of the first pieces of terminology that was explained to us was that animals don’t often have “symptoms”; they have “signs.” A symptom is something that you report. “I’m feeling nauseated.” A sign is something that someone else observes: “My dog vomited three times yesterday.” I guess Kanzi could have symptoms, but I expect all my patients to have signs.

What I did yesterday: Theriogenology midterm (cow sex, sheep/goat sex, horse sex. That class had lots of amusing photos in the powerpoints, but I didn’t feel right stealing any of them to show you guys. I considered googling for interesting replacements, but just in time realized my mistake before making a web search that I would have really regretted). Got out early enough to go to the gym. Two hours of dermatology lecture. Spent lunch running home to pick up my laptop’s power cord (oops). Two hours of anesthesia case studies (our anesthesia final is next week). One hour of large animal medicine/surgery: how milking machines work.