Mummies

Well it's snowing here, so I figured I would go ahead and update from my adventures yesterday. I headed out to Dr. C.'s around  8 am and we got out on the road shortly thereafter. He is always waiting for me to get there, with the truck warmed up and everything, but I am always there when he wishes me to be. He is one of the few vets I have met who is extremely timely, which I really love. We only had two calls on the schedule. The first was a herd check at a Menonite farm. The set up there was really nice. I felt a little uncomfortable at first (which was rather naive of me), since I know that women in their community normally keep their hair covered, and mine was it's usual messy self, though tamed slightly into a ponytail. But the two sons and the father were just as humorous and nice as every other farmer we have run into. We did some pregnancy and heat checks, then some podiatry work on a heifer that had an ulcer. Dr. C. had done some work on her last week, but she had actually gotten worse. He cleaned out another area of the hoof, found the beginnings of some hoof rot between her toes, and put her on a new regiment of medication to treat that. We also did some more dehorning, and some cattle vaccination. With the vaccinations that we gave, the calves also got an ear tag and a tattoo in their ear.

The next farm we headed to was for castrations. Three angus meat calves needed to be vaccinated and castrated. I've seen plenty of horse geldings, and neuters on dogs, but that was far from what happened with the calves. Instead of the sedation, clamping, tie offs and re-closure I am used to, the cattle castrations were quick and dirty. The calves were put in a head gate, and Dr. C. vaccinated them. He then pulled out a wicked-looking tool from his sanitized bucket and solution. He checked to make sure the calves had both testicles descended, and then took the tool and slit open the scrotum sac, exposing the testicles. He then reached in, broke the ligaments with his fingers, clamped on the arteries and pulled the testicles out. Literally just cut a few strands, including the vas deferens, and then sprayed liquid bandage on it and the calf was done. It took about 30 seconds to a minute for the whole procedure. Dr. C. explained to me that if the blood vessels weren't properly clamped down upon (which he did with his fingers alone), then you could cause the calf to bleed out in a matter of seconds. With all that he did, I didn't see a drop of blood come out. It was very interesting.

By this time it was around noon, and he had gotten a whole pile of phone calls while we were on the farm. We had three emergency calls. The first was for a downed beef cow. In a whole pasture of cows, this lone girl was down in the mud, steaming and shaking. She was able to get up a few steps, but then laid right back down, clearly weak. After looking her over, Dr. C. determined that she most likely had toxic ingestion. He gave her a bottle of some sort of calcium fluid IV in the neck to help balance her out, as well as some banamine and another IM injection which I can't remember the name of (oops). The cow was also pregnant, so he had to be careful what he gave her so that she didn't abort. He left the farmer with instructions to get her up and isolated via hip slings or tractor bucket so that she could have time to rest and regain her strength without the other cows bothering her.

The second emergency call was for three sick cows. All were heifers, and all had different uterus problems. One had chunks left over in her uterus from her most recent calf, one was slightly pussy (indicating infection), and one had a mild case of mastitis on top of having a infection in her uterus. All had been off their feed and down in milk production, the usual indicators of disease for farmers.

The third emergency call was much more bizarre. A pregnant heifer had gone down in the field about a month before, and the farmers thought she must have had or aborted a calf, but couldn't find it. The cow appeared healthy and had no problems, so they continued to milk her without an issue. About two days ago, she had been losing "cleanings" from her vagina, which the farmers had been pulling out. Today, however, they found a tail sticking out, and called Dr. C. He was a little puzzled by the whole thing, but as soon as he examined the cow, what had happened became evident. When the cow had gone down a month ago, she had halfway aborted her backwards calf. It had left the uterus, passed the cervix, and stopped in the vagina. It was still able to survive however, since the placenta was still attached and functioning, and it did. It continued to grow, though much stunted by space. It had recently died, a day or two ago, which is when the cow had started to pass bits of her placenta, and was trying to push the calf out. The calf in the meantime, began to mummify slightly. So Dr. C. pulled out a partly mummified, backwards, very small calf. The cow, I swear, let out a sigh of relief when it came out. She was slightly damaged and stretched out from the odd calf placement, but would probably be able to be bred again in a month or so. Dr. C. said that was the first time he had ever seen this happen, and remarked on how bizarre it was!

I ended up getting home around 4:30 and immediately jumped in the shower (I can't tell you how hard it is to get the smell of calf dehorning out of your hair and skin). Jared and I headed out to dinner and a movie, which was really fun since we hadn't been out on a date in months.

I am heading out with Doc (the equine vet) on Monday, am riding along with Dr. C. on Wednesday and Friday,  and am going in to the small animal hospital on Thursday. So it should be a busy week!

~Melissa

It's Liquid! It's Pus! No it's... Inky Black Fluid?

First of all, I hope everyone's holidays went wonderfully, whatever they were and whomever they were held with. Mine involved a great deal of driving around, and included some interesting highlights, which I will refrain from truly extrapolating on. I had some very generous and wonderful family members (and not yet family members), who gave me some awesome presents this year. I got gift cards to TSC (chicken food), Rue 21 (my favorite store which I haven't shopped in in months due to lack of excess money), Sheetz (gas!!), Kennies Market for groceries and Outback Steakhouse so Jer and I can go out. I also got some beautiful and much needed sweaters, a pair of gorgeous cowboy boots, and two books by my favorite author (Iris Johansen). I was blown away by the amazing generosity of my family this year, as well as of Jared's family. All the things I got were very appreciated and more than I have ever received on a holiday.

The favorite gifts that I gave were two tiles I painted for my mom.

Her cat, Oreo

Her horse, Blossom

We also got snow on Christmas Eve (which I can tell you was a pain to drive home through). It was very pretty and all, but I really am not the biggest fan of snow. Remi
(or Rem-Dog as we have taken to calling her) absolutely LOVES snow more than anything else. If you can imagine a lab's normal enthusiasm and multiply it by about 3, you would have it right.  She belly-slides across the snow, burrows in and on it and under it, and would do it for hours and hours. That in itself is enough to almost make me like snow :)

Yesterday I  had a terrible migraine and my stomach was acting up. So I ended up calling Dr. C. and not going in to shadow. About an hour after I called him the snow and sleet started, and I was very glad that I had stayed home. I'm a bad driver at the best of times, and in snow I basically become a death trap. So I stayed home and played on the XBox that Jared got me for X-mas (breaking our pact of no gifts! > ( ), and let him take care of me. I've never had my own game system before (discounting the hand-me-down PS1), so it is pretty fun to be able to do what I want on it.

And that brings me to today (which I know you really want to hear about after the title of my post!). I shadowed at the small animal hospital starting at nine. I saw a spay and a neuter, and the usual vaccines for cats and dogs, skin allergies to fleas, cats with bad teeth, cats with dandruff and hair loss, etc. Under close supervision of a vet and a tech, they even let me intubate a dog today. I also met my first of three different purebreeds... a borzoi, a wolfhound and an elkhound. The most interesting case to tell about was an 18 year old cat that came in, looking absolutely beautiful in coat, color, teeth, what-have-you. It hadn't seen a vet since it had been neutered at a year old. I would never have guessed this cat's age.... it looked like a 6 year old! Anyway, they had brought it in for a strange lump on it's side which had marginally increased in size over the last few months. It looked like a strange nipple on his right side, with a sac behind it. We took the cat in the back to have a look at it, and Dr. H. poked a needle in to check the fluid color (clear is good, pus and blood is bad), and out squirts (literally), this black, thick, fluid. It resembled liquid charcoal. It didn't smell, and once she poked it it all wanted to come out, and you could hardly find the cyst when it was empty. It was rather bizarre. We made slides of it (just out of curiosity sake), and couldn't identify anything much in it besides what looked like fat cells. So it will probably stay on the side of the cat and continue to make it's strange product!

I left the hospital around 4 and headed out to get horse, chicken and cat food from various stores. Now I'm all stocked up for a bit, and when the predicted storms hits this weekend, I won't have to worry about feeding all my menagerie!

I'm headed out with Dr. C. tomorrow, so check back to hear about my day with dairy.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

More Cows and Family Christmas

Yesterday I headed out with the cattle vet again. We started the day with a "nursery barn"- not the official name but that's what I call it. These are farms where farmers essentially board their calves until they go into their first pregnancy and begin producing milk. This is definitely an interesting way of handling the dairy cow production system.The young cows being raised on the farm would take up space and feed that producing cows could use, and so the calf farms are really a necessity for the volume of milk that farmers need to produce to stay  afloat. Since cows normally have their first calves at about 2 years of age, the calves leave the main farm once they are off of milk, and stay at the nursery barns until they are two. Most nursery barns also work with the young cows a lot to get them friendly and used to people and equipment, so that they are ready to "do their job" once they return home.

We were doing pregnancy checks there on the older heifers, and I got to learn to herd and cut cattle to get them one by one into the run and head gate. They tend to follow the fence and have a little more prominent "shy" zones than horses, making them much easier to herd. I felt like a sheep dog in the pen, but I had a great time, even though it was very cold. The farmer who ran the barn kept making jokes to me and encouraging me on, and Dr. C. was plenty patient with me, even when I turned them the wrong way. He and I are continuing to get to know each other, and he even gave me some small things to do (even if it was just holding things and herding cows!) which not only made me feel somewhat useful, but also helped keep me warm!

We got an emergency call shortly after we left this barn and were heading to another. It was for a cow off her feed. On the way over the farm, I picked his brain about what the first things were he looked for in cattle when evaluating them for possible sickness, and common ailments. The main thing he mentioned, which it turned out to be, was a displaced abomasum (D.A.) or twisted stomach.

When we got to the farm, it was deserted. We couldn't find a single person, though we found the sick cow and looked her over. Her temperature was low at 99. Dr. C. showed me her lymph nodes and had me feel for them, and then let me listen to the "ping" that acompanies a D.A. The D.A. is caused by gas being overproduced in the stomach, either from poor nutrition, sickness or a secondary symptom of another disease. This causes the stomach to move around inside the body cavity, getting out of place. It can move either to the right or left side of where it is supposed to be. In this case, it was the left. When a stethoscope is placed on the side of the cow, and her side is flicked, rather than the dull thud you would expect, you get a "ping." It is an almost tinny noise that occurs from the gas.


The treatment for this could have been medical or surgical; the owners (once we tracked them down via phone), opted to try for the medicinal and go with surgery if needed. The cow was put on antibiotics (since her uterus also had pus in it), and would have baking soda put in her feed for the next couple of days, as well as calcium and some banamine being given in vein. Why baking soda? Well, calves have a special pipe that transports milk directly from their mouth to the abomasum, the main compartment of the stomach. This allows it to bypass the other compartments (the rumen, reticulum and omasum) and go straight to where it will do the most good. This tube is essentially unused once the calf is weaned, but it still exists. The pH of baking soda, being similar to milk, causes the flap covering the hole to open up, and the baking soda, a bicarbonate, acts to reduce acidity and gas in the abomasum. If it doesn't after a few days, then surgery (necessitating the stomach wall being sewed to the body wall to keep it in place) becomes necessary. Really interesting to learn about.

Our last farm call was to a small dairy farm (about 40 milkers). The facilities there were really nice, though the farm was small, and you could tell that the farmer really took care of these cows. They all had fresh straw and clean bedding, with the poop being removed very quickly after it occurred. The cows were quite friendly as well, and very clean (for cows!). It almost looked as if he brushed some of them! We just did some more pregnancy and heat checks on these cows. Dr. C. explained to me what he felt for upon palpation and the main signs of pregnancy and heat in the uterine structures. He also gave me a comparative anatomy lesson between horses and cows reproductive systems, which is summarized in the diagrams below. Cows truly have uterine "horns"- they even curl under! The development of placenta is also a lot different in both species.

Horse

Enough about cows though. Today was the family X-mas party. We held it at my house this year, which was quite fun! Remi got to wear her jingle bell collar all day, and we lit a fire in the upstairs fireplace. Many of my cousins and relatives who I don't often get to see were able to make it up, which was great. We ate off of paper dishes so that there wasn't much to clean up, and my grandmother stuck around and gave me a hand afterwards, since Jared had to go to work. Made for a nice and easy day! I have so many leftovers in my fridge :)

Melissa

Dairying It Up

Today was a day for the exploration of new things. I learned so much today that I'm going to be hard-pressed to tell it all to you! I went out to meet Dr. C. at 8:30 am at his house/office. I had only spoken to him over the phone, so this was our first time meeting one another. I knocked on the door and out comes this late 60's/early 70's balding old man, lithe and spry and beaming at me over his half-moon glasses, dressed in coveralls with a collared shirt peeking from underneath it. He looked to me like a figure straight out of a James Herriot novel.

We headed out to our first call, a small dairy with about 60 milkers. The visit began in the calf barn. They had pens for the younger ones individually, then  group pens for the older calves, separated by age. There were probably 12-15 calves in the barn. They were cute as can be and very friendly. All of them had names on their tags with everything from Fuzzy to Glacinda. Dr. C. explained to me the process by which they cycle the cows through and what they feed them, etc. Cows have their first babies around 2 years of age, and aren't fully mature until about 5.

One of the pens of calves had already been "de-horned," and the next oldest pen was ready to have it done today. Dehorning is the process by which they are well... de-horned. This is for owner, worker and other cow safety, and serves to keep the herd healthy and with few wounds. The dehorner was basically a very hot metal ring that was pressed around the base of the horn nub, cauterizing and killing the cells which signal the horn to grow. The calves were put in a head gate, and a halter was placed on them, which served to hold their head to the side so that they didn't squirm too much. They were then "de-horned." I held their heads to the side while he performed the procedure, and let me tell you, that smells awful. It was really the smell of burning flesh, and it clung to my hair and clothes for the rest of the day.

We then headed to the mature cow barn and did palpations and checks. We looked at 26 cows for pregnancy, breeding cycle stage, and various wounds. We lanced a huge abscess that pumped out (no exaggeration) at least 2 cups of pus. It was awesome. I saw some progesterone implants meant to encourage the cows to go into cycle, vaccines, etc. I really learned how much it is necessary to teach the dairy farmers rather than just vet the animals. They gave all their own vaccines, fluids and the implants, and kept their own mini-pharmacies on stock from vet prescription. They knew what to look for and how to treat it. This allows them to be cost effective. They could not pay to have the vet out to vaccinate everyone and do all of this, and still allow us to get our milk for $2/gallon.

Our next visit was to do some podiatry on limping cows. Both of them had rear hoof injuries. One was an abscess, and the other an ulcer. He hoisted the leg up via pulley to work on it. One of the cows did crack him in the knee with it's hoof while he was working on it, which had to suck. Dr. C. was absolutely hilarious and ornery and let me ask him a thousand and one questions.

Our last stop of the day was to Dr. C's son's goat dairy farm. They are one of 2 producers of goat milk in PA, and have a really neat operation. They have around 20 milking goats, and a ton of bucks and young goats. They are really just getting it off the ground, but it's a cool process. They had La Mancha goats there, along with Alpines. Have you ever seen a La Mancha? They look like this:

They have no ears. And are adorable.

Good Morning Cryptorchids

So this morning I went in to the vet hospital to fully shadow during "surgery time" for the very first time. I have been in for mostly the latter half of the day for the last semester, and this is the first chance I have had to really go in before noon. It was also a bit of a test for me since I have been doing really well and have been having absolutely no problems with fainting or dizziness lately. And suprise, surprise, I did just fine today. We started out with a cryptorchid neuter on a jack russell. A cryptorchid is where the testicles never descended. The dog was two, and luckily his testes were just on either side of his penis in the abdomen, rather than up somewhere where we would really have to dig for them. It was still messier than a normal surgery, but very mild for a cryptorchid. While doing the surgery, Dr. G regaled me with stories of the worst ones he had seen, which was very fascinating.

I then watched a long dental on a flame-point persian cat that had abscessed roots, bad teeth needing extractions and a possible squamous cell carcinoma in his mouth. They biopsied the tumor, removed the teeth and drained the abscesses, removing what roots they could. I found out that cats readily reabsorb their roots and rotted teeth, leaving behind hard masses that function as a sort of grinding plate. I also learned that if you are trying to elevate the tooth with a little tool that they use and you miss... you can poke it through the soft palate and into the brain. (No, this didn't happen, but they were explaining it to me).

I also got to make up and stain slides all on my own today for cytologies, and look over them before the vet techs did and have them double-check my potential findings. I went into a couple of client rooms and saw some skin allergies, some vaccines and some sick kittens, and then headed home for the farrier visit around 1. I stopped at Doc's house (my equine vet) since his truck was in the driveway and visited with him and Ms. S (his vet tech), for a good while. I gave them a hand putting together the X-mas cards for the clients. It was great to visit with them and Doc promised to put me on emergency call for the rest of break. He lives just a few houses down from me, so it is very easy for him to pick me up on the way out without wasting any time. I very much miss equine vet med.

Speaking of large animals, tomorrow I am going out with a dairy vet for a "trial shadow." We are going to see if we like each other and then decide how often I might want to ride along, and what days. I'm super excited to get some cattle experience, especially on the dairy and herd management sides. He was recommended to me by 3 different vets, so I'm taking that as a sign that he knows his stuff! He seemed very enthusiastic about my coming by (though he was under the impression I would find it "boring"- yeah right!), which is always a good sign. I'll let you know how it goes!

Also, I got all my grades in and I will come out with a 4.0 this semester! I pulled an A- in Physics and an A+ in ES, so they balance each other out. This is only my second 4.0 semester since coming to G-burg, so it is definitely awesome. It seems like the more stress I am under, the better I do! Hopefully next semester will go as well!

~Melissa

Weekenders

One of my closest friends, Jenn, came back from Australia last week, as I previously mentioned. Friday she came up to college and then came home with me on Saturday and is staying through this (Sunday) evening before heading back home to VA. It has been wonderful to see her, and on my first full day off from school, I was more than happy to spend it on a couch, catching her up on "Once Upon a Time" the TV Show and reminiscing about the olden days and hearing about her experiences in Australia. I very much missed her and am glad to have her back, but I am also glad that she left- not only did she grow as an individual, but in her absence I was able to nurture deeper friendships with those around me, such as with Gael, a fellow possible pre-vetter and someone that makes me feel incredibly honored to be her friend due to her kindness, intelligence and humor. Gael, Jenn and I began to really get close last Spring, and I could not have been happier to be a part of such a good friendship. Having had Jenn for a full year without knowing Gael (Gael transferred in as a sophomore), it was nice to have a semester with just Gael as well, to get to know her on a deeper and more personal level, and to really develop a friendship that I hope will last much farther than college. And truly it was wonderful to have all three of us re-united on Friday night. It made my physics final seem a small thing in comparison! This coming semester promises much in the way of interesting and entertaining things with all of us back together. Gael and Jenn are also living together next semester, with a two other good friends, Amanda and Juana. Hannah, who had lived in the apartment this fall, is going to Germany for the Spring semester, so her and Jenn merely switched.

Anyway, I did go ahead and shadow yesterday morning from 8-12:30pm. There were quite a few fascinating cases. One of the most bizarre was a husky that was trying to fully chew his foot off. You could see bone and tendons where he had been chewing. He was non-weight bearing lame and was actually dragging his foot on the ground, contributing to the infection and damage it had sustained. He had a mass up at his armpit, and the vet's best guess for what was going on was that the mass had compromised his main nerve in the leg, causing it to either be tingly or not to have feeling at all. Since it felt funny, the dog was trying to make it stop... by chewing at it. Dr.R. pinched his toes in that foot and he had no response at all, which is definitely a clear indicator that something is going on. Since it was the relief vet on staff, she wanted them to come back in on Monday and see Dr. J., but we cleaned and wet bandaged the wound. The only thing that would really solve it would be amputation of the leg, because even if the wound healed up, the nerve damage was too severe. The people who brought him in were very much back-woods country folk, and I am sure that they could not afford too much in the way of vet bills. I'm curious as to what will end up happening with the husky... it was an ugly wound, and the poor boy was clearly suffering.

We also did an eye stain on an older dog (something that I had seen done many times in horses), to check for a scratch on the cornea, or infection in the eye. The dog was an older lab who had cataracts in both his eyes, diabetes, and the one eye had recently sunken into his head and turned very red, most likely due to pain from the infection/scratch that we did end up seeing on the eye. We also did an intra-cardiac euthanasia on a small, 16 year old mini poodle mix who was covered in his own filth and screaming, with explosive diarrhea everywhere. His owners had popped him into an itty bitty cat carrier, and so he didn't even have space to move, or to get away from the diarrhea that kept spurting out of him. It was very sad. We cleaned him up after sedation (and of course the carrier), and then euthanized him in a little more dignified of a state. He was so old that Dr. R. couldn't hit a vein in his leg, and so had to go for a direct injection into the heart.

In other news, yesterday I found something on Taz's chest that doesn't belong there. I don't know if it is scar tissue, a tumor, an abscess or what. It doesn't feel like liquid. I'm going to try to get him in at the hospital I shadow at (where I'm not a patient yet, but want to be) and have them look at him. Unfortunately, since I am a broke college student, I don't know what to do if it is bad news. I know from working there that the test itself to see what a mass is (cell-wise) is $150 alone. I guess we will see what they say. 

~Melissa

I got an A...

in Orgo! Super exciting :) With a 94% on the final, I am quite pleased. Now if I can only conquer physics with a similar prowess, I will be quite happy.

Speaking of physics, I went in to get my lab notebook today and was talking to my lab professor about how worried I was about the exam. She was in the middle of grading exams, and I had only bothered her to see if she could unlock the lab for me to get my notebook... She ended up putting her exams to the side, pulling out a dry erase marker and white board, and going over concepts that were confusing me. I didn't even ask her (I could see she was busy), and kept offering to leave, but she was insistent on helping me.  This is a professor I have only seen once every other week for lab, and she doesn't even teach a section of my class (she teaches calc-based), but she really truly cared about my comfort with the material and wanted to help me to succeed. This is why I love Gettysburg.

~Melissa

Cats on a Couch

I have no real updates. All I have been doing is sitting around and studying for physics. Oh how I hate that class. I also have been debating over which labs and lectures I want to attend for APVMA Symposium this year, and having everyone else in my group submit theirs to me (since I have to register everyone... compliments of living 20 minutes from the school and being able to get the credit card).  Besides that, I have truly been a bum. Eating junk food like it's my business.

BUT I do have cute photos for you...

This is Taz and Simian. They obviously could not lay anywhere else on my giant couch except on the itty bitty bit of folded up blanket. :)

And, for all you horse lovers, this is a great shot I just took of my mom's horse, Blossom.

Hope everyone else's finals/classes/lives are going well! Is anyone reading this planning on going to Symposium?

~Melissa

The Exam

I feel like I rocked my 22-page orgo exam last night. I finished it in 2-hours flat and was the first of 77 done. The rest of my group of 5 girls finished an hour- 2 hours after I did, which is kinda scary...

Chesapeake Bay Ecology is tomorrow.

Very excitingly, my good friend Jenn is flying home from her semester abroad in Australia as I type this. I am very much hoping to see her in the next couple of days!

~Melissa

Chicken Problems

Oh the things that would only happen to me...

Since I would be around pretty much all day on Thursday, I let the chickens out to free roam the property. I have to be home to do this, as the neighbor's dog will take full advantage of my absence to eat them if I am not careful. So I let them out and they had a grand ole time chasing each other around, digging in the flowerbeds and the mulch, scratching and dusting themselves. I went out around 4:30 to get them in before it got dark, called to my chickens and they came running. Tossed some bread into the coop and easy as pie, I closed the gate. And then I counted. There were 7 chickens in the coop. We have 9. Oh. Shit.

I looked in all the window wells, under the porch, in the trees, and found no chickens. I then grabbed a flashlight and really thoroughly checked everywhere they could hide... nothing. So I looked for feathers, fearing the worst. And again, came up with nothing. Not a sign of my two missing hens.

I went back out to where the chicken coop was, and, realizing how close to the woodpile it was, wondered if perhaps a hen had been messing around near it and some wood had fallen off and trapped it (I have pretty awful wood-stacking skills). So I start pulling up the tarp and looking under the logs. I walk around to the other side, and there, low and behold is a fuzzy, red, rhode-island hen's butt sticking out of the wood pile. She wasn't stuck. In fact, it appeared as if she had been digging for bugs, stuck her head under the black tarp, thought that night had fallen, and decided to take a nap then and there. She was happily snoozing until I grabbed her and tossed her back in the chicken coop. My estimation of chicken intelligence level decreased quite greatly in that moment

Well I'm still a chicken down and dark is falling fast. The chicken coop is right next to my shed, and some wildlife had dug under the shed this Summer to whelp their young, so there were some significant gaps on the backside. Before I even laid down on my side and shined my flashlight in, I knew what I would see. Sure enough, I could see a black creature that looked very much like a chicken in the light of my dim flashlight. I went to the other side of the shed and dug out the hole on that side, giving the chicken a forward escape route. I then went inside to grab some bread bait and, lo and behold, there was a chicken standing outside of my coop squawking to be let in. No digging necessary. Just to be sure, I recounted my chickens. And came up with 8.

So I look back under the shed, and sure enough, there is still a creature under it. I bang my boots on the side, trying to scare it out, hollering and calling for it. I peek back under the shed, lying amidst the dirt, wood debris and ashes, and what do I see in a much better view now that it had moved away from the noisy wall, but a rabbit, scared to high heaven at all the noise I was making and very unhappy about it's choice of a resting spot.

Well, I recounted again. I had 9 chickens.

I suppose this is why I'm not a math major.

Hit By Cars, Goats and Squirrels

My day started off with finding a drowned squirrel in my water tub. This was a new one for me. How a squirrel got in my water tub in the first place, and how it drowned in two inches of water makes no sense to me. My best guess is that it somehow got electrocuted by the nearby powerlines and fell in. I was already running late, and I then had to scrub out the water tub and give them enough water for the day. I got to school right as the bell tower rang 10 o'clock. Somehow the forces were with me and I avoided seeing any police officers on my way... I definitely pushed it. I had a presentation that was worth 20% of my grade, so I wanted to make sure it was decent and I was there to give it!

I got a whole bunch of progress reports and such back in the last couple of days. I calculated it out and to get an A- in physics I have to get about a 73, to get an A and 84 on the final. So that is not too bad at all. In orgo I have similar numbers, though I believe it may be an 84 to get an A-. They curve introductory physics here, which is very strange to me. It is the only class I have ever seen at G-burg that does that. I still have no idea what I have in my English class (though I should have a better idea on Thursday when I am getting all of my papers and work back from the entire semester). ES I am pretty much guaranteed an A. So it looks like I might have my first shot at an all-A semester (I'm being hopeful about English) since last fall, which would be awesome! My gpa would really love that.

Today I went in and shadowed for 7.5 hours, and had a really good time, as usual. I saw a ton of really interesting things today, from hygromas (cysts on the ends of the elbows) to mass cell tumors, to two hit by cars, to dog toe splints and rabbit urethra issues. And the goat again.
 It was really fascinating and I love how comfortable all the docs and techs are getting with me. They have started to accept me almost as one of their own, and I love being utilized and being taught. I now get to hold and walk animals, restrain, help with the initial exams (temps, weights, etc.), trim toenails on cats and dogs, clean kennels, check out incisions and post ops, help scrub things, assist in some small ways with minor surgeries, see all the x-rays, etc. The doctors have even started saving x-rays from earlier in the day to show to me if they think it is interesting. I have been there long enough to have seen many of the clients more than once and to have them recognize and interact with me, and I really love that as well. Since Dr. G. also has an equine practice, he loves to tell me about his equine cases, since he knows I have experience with that and am really interested in it.

Anyway, the highlight from the day was definitely the two hit by cars. The cases were bizarre and came in within  5 minutes of each other. Both were new clients. The one was a English chocolate lab who had been being humped by his brother in the driveway, and the daughter had been backing up and he couldn't get out of the way quick enough due to the... humpage. The other was a small schnauzer mix that was in heat and being chased by a chocolate lab and ran under the tires. Both were hit by their owners... and both were run over in the abdomen. And both did not break a single thing. They had bruising and road burn, and neither of their bladders showed up on x-ray (which could possibly mean they had burst, or that they were just empty), and both of them walked out the door for further monitoring by the family.

 I really enjoy the emergency stuff for some reason, and I definitely want to make sure I call in to the emergency hospital I had got permission to volunteer at and do that over break. I wish I had more time to shadow all the places I want to shadow! Sometimes I wish I had realized that I wanted to be a vet (seriously) before my freshman year of college.

~Melissa

Forgot to Mention...

Last night I ate squirrel! Jared decided it was time to try it, so he shot one, butchered it and brought it home. We then boiled it and fried it. Would you believe, it tasted just like chicken (if not better!).

Shadowing!

I really need to come up with some better titles.

Yesterday I was going to shadow, but a high schooler was in, so I instead headed up to the SPCA for a couple of hours to play with cats and dogs. In the evening we went to "my" hospital for the doctors to give the pre-vet club a tour and talk to them a little bit about the vet profession. Between the two of them they have done small animal, cattle, horse, exotics and research, so they are just really awesome people to talk to. I really hope the club enjoyed it- we got seven people out, so that was a good number at least.

Today I went in at 8 am and am glad I did! It was certainly a very busy day and I'm very happy I was around to give a hand. The very first appointment was a beagle for vaccines and a nail trim, and he was quite possibly the worst dog I have ever seen in terms of acting up. You would have thought we were cutting off his entire toes, not just trimming him. We got one foot finished and a snagged, bloody  nail (that did, I'm sure, actually hurt), before it was just no longer worth it. We returned the dog to the woman with a suggestion that she work with him on it.

That started the bad nails for the day... we had a chihuahua with a wrenched toe and toenail that couldn't come off because it wasn't loose enough, but was causing a heck of a lot of pain; a big bug-eyed pit whose owner wanted the nails "show-short" and kept sending the techs to take off more, regardless of whether or not they bled; and, strangely, a cat with ingrown toenails. The cat never shed it's nails, clawed on anything or chewed them off, and they continued to grow around and into it's paws. It wasn't too badly infected, but I'm sure that poor cat was hurting. The worst part was that she was so good for us to clip her nails... it literally would only take the woman bringing her in once every two months and getting them clipped to have this never be a problem.

We also did three euthanasias today, quite sadly. One of them was a six week old kitten that these people had brought in from the barn or somewhere outdoors. It had been at the hospital but was doing horribly due to whatever had happened to it- I'm not sure if it had gotten hit by a car or was just deathly anemic due to the fleas. It's breathing was erratic and it's eyes were goopy, it's gums a stark white. I held it for awhile while they talked to the owners, and I am sure it was a relief for that poor baby to go to heaven.

The second euthanasia was a older golden retriever who had a humongous tumor that extended all the way from her vulva down about halfway through her abdomen. It had grown quickly, and was a very hard, almost bone-like mass, that yesterday had begun seeping huge amounts of blood and puss out the dog's vulva. She was happy and  bright, but had stopped eating and drinking and was very much fighting with the cancer (or so I assume it was). There was nothing that could have been done with that extensive of a mass however, and so she as well was sent to doggy heaven.

The third one was much scarier. The dog came in and was shaking, had a low temp and had had bloody diarrhea for a day. We took him to the back and he vomited up yellow fluid, and then about a minute later squirted about half a gallon of blood out of his back end. The most solid thing in it was blood clots. They did a CBC on him, and his white blood cell count was astronomically low. Amongst all the other symptoms, it was a no-brainer that he had parvo. The official test came back positive. Amazingly, this was the second dog in two days that had come in with parvo, both from different rescues, and both which had to have come in to the rescue with the disease. So sad that such a bad disease, which can be stopped with only two fairly inexpensive vaccines given as a puppy, can be so prevalent...We then had to bleach down the entire hospital to make sure there was no contamination. As soon as I got home, I stripped and washed all my clothes and shoes with extremely hot water.

And then of course once I got home the dog peed on the carpet (not like I hadn't cleaned up enough bodily fluids today), the sink was leaking, the dishes had piled up, the carpet was covered in hair (the Rem-monster is shedding), and I still have an essay to finish writing before Monday. Oh yeah, and a lab report, and a quiz and starting to study for finals. And to think just two days ago I was thinking about how badly I need a job... I forgot about the fact that I have no time! I guess it's just one of those days where everything piles up on you.

Hope your weekend is going better than mine!

~Melissa

Ladybugs

These last few weeks are always the worst. I'm currently sitting on the top floor of the library and thanking everything lovely that I go to a small college and can actually get a free table during crunch time. I had to turn in a rough draft of a paper right before break and got it back last night... What I thought was at least a somewhat decent paper got shot down once again. The first "abstract" I turned in, she didn't like very much, as she said it lacked purpose. Now she says I have purpose but my examples lack it. UGH. So I am trying really really hard to get my ten pages. Writing normally comes really easy to me, but this paper has been a doozy.

This morning was my 3rd organic chemistry exam. It was hard as heck, but I think I did alright. I had to really think through every single question (which I know is the purpose of exams). I can take a little bit of a hit on it since I rocked the first two, but that didn't stop me stressing or studying my butt off. It does, however, help after the fact when I start obsessively worrying over the questions I felt iffy about.

On the upside, I sat down at this library table and my old friend the ladybug decided I was a good jungle gym. What one is doing on the fourth floor of the library, I have no idea. Just like red-tailed hawks, I seem to see lady bugs everywhere. I think it is secret revenge on me for collecting so many when I was a child and making them my "pets." Don't ask.

I have two more labs, two more homeworks, three write-ups, one essay and three final exams and 16 days before the semester is over. I am counting down.

~Melissa

My Christmas List

- A's (or A-'s!) in all my classes

- The new GRE study book
- Chicken food
- Friskies canned cat food
- Cat litter
- Purina Lamb and Rice dog food

- Someone to fix the broken tile in my bathroom 
- My textbooks for next semester

Yup, I'm pathetic. 

Deer Heart Dissection

My cousin Kevin shot a little doe yesterday, and the heart was still intact, so Jared saved it for me:

It was really neat to be able to look at all the different chambers and valves. Much cooler than the itty bitty piglet hearts you look at in intro bio. It went into the natural recycling after I was done with it- the wildlife won't let it go to waste.

Turkey Days

So I guess I'm getting a little behind here. Lets see... Monday was my last full day of classes, and I didn't have lab, so it was a short day. I got my Physics exam back and got a 86% on it, which is so exciting! I was expecting much, much worse. My professor was very nice with the partial credit. This means that so long as I get above an 85% on the final exam, I should be able to squeeze an A-. I will be studying my butt off for this final!

I spent Monday afternoon cleaning my house (YESSSS), and playing with my dog. Tuesday I spent the morning continuing to clean, and then went to the animal hospital from noon to 7. I am officially up to 500 hours of veterinary experience! Only 63 are with small animal, but I'm getting there. I worked with Dr. G., and I very much enjoyed him as always.

I walked in on the end of an unexpected exploratory surgery on a spay that had a tiny uterus and funny things going on with her anatomy. Both Dr's were in there, so I didn't get a coherent explanation of what they had found, just that whatever he had gone looking for wasn't all that great. It was a small greyhound with a leg deformity that had been rescued by a local organization. I also got to watch a dental on a rottweiler with awful teeth (which is an abnormality, as it's normally the smaller ones you have to watch out for). We had a ton of puppies come in for check ups and dewormer and such- I think we saw at least 6 separate clients with new puppies. The normal cats for vaccines and dogs for vaccines, and flea allergies galore.

Around 6 we got a call from someone asking if they could bring a goat in on an emergency call. Dr. G shrugged and told them to bring it in. Apparently their own vet hospital wouldn't take it, and we were the only one in the area that would. The guy came in caring a very fat, bloody pygmy goat who had been attacked by his boxer. It was his sister's goat and all he wanted to do was save it. The dog got ahold of it's throat and was giving it the death shakes when he caught sight of them. The dog let go, but the poor  goat had a huge hole in the bottom of it's throat and bite marks on it's side, face and neck. It was amazingly resilient (as goats are), and wasn't even in too much of shock when he got it to us. He had wrapped a towel around it's neck to stop the bleeding, and luckily it looked like the dog had missed all the big arteries in the neck. She was making some horrid breathing noises that made Dr. G think she must have had a crushed trachea. We gave her some banamine, wrapped her neck, and stuck her in the back in a kennel until the office visits were done. I checked on her off and on, and was really excited about the opportunity to see a goat. Dogs and cats are all well and fine, but I really do miss the farm animals.

Around 6:30 I got a call from an old friend who is in vet school in Missouri. I only get to see him about once a year or less due to his workload, and he would only be in the area until 7pm. So I left the vet hospital, and the goat, behind to go visit with him for awhile. I was quite torn about it, as I really wanted to see what they were going to do surgically with a crushed trachea on a goat, but as Dr. G. told me, there is always another goat. I still felt guilty leaving, but I ended up having a really nice time seeing my friend for the first time in a long time. Even though it was only a short visit, it was exciting to hear about the new things in his life and what he has been up to at vet school.

Wednesday I hit a deer (or rather it hit me) in Jared's care driving home from a visit with one of his old friends. We are fine, and the car survived it pretty well considering. I am trying not to think about it and the expense too much until I really have to.

The next highlight of my week was, of course, Thanksgiving. We had a great time at my grandfathers with all of my family members. We ate our traditional meal of hog maul (this is sausage and potatoes stuffed in pig stomach) and turkey, and then headed outside for a new event. See, my aunt raises chickens and turkeys and guineas, and she brought down two turkeys for Thanksgiving. Live. In the back of her car. So after dinner we went outside to take care of the turkeys. I guess this goes back to my recent point about knowing where your food comes from. These guys were hand-raised, friendly and had a wonderful life. We killed them and plucked them, then put them in the freezer for Christmas. I'm not going to say it wasn't a little sad- it was. But I know it's life was well-lived and it will be well-used. We headed to Jared's family dinners after changing and regaled them with turkey-butchering tales (Jared held the turkeys once they had been beheaded until the nerve endings stopped firing). They weren't very impressed.

This morning we headed out black Friday shopping to get cat and chicken food on sale. That was about all I got today. Jared got a really nice pair of hunting boots, as the deer season starts Saturday and the ones he wore last year were a borrowed pair 4 sizes too big. So we are all stocked up on the important things.

Happy Tails,

~Melissa

PS I got the names of about 5 different cattle and large mixed practice vets in the area. I am hoping to ride along with at least one of them this Winter break, and get some more cattle experience.

Straight From the Farm

I'm certainly feeling productive this morning. Woke up and fed all of the house animals, then went down and fed the horses, cleaned stalls, scrubbed and cleaned the watertub and cleared some pesky weeds from my fence line. Then headed back up to the house to clean out the chicken coop and house. All before 8 am! I pulled a ton of eggs this morning... as I set them in a bowl to soak I once again was struck by how removed our society is from our food sources. I know so many people who would be incredibly grossed out by my eggs in their "natural" state when I pull them from the coop after being in there overnight. Don't worry, I do soak them before I put them in the fridge, and scrub off the poop and hay. :)

But really, everything is like that nowadays. I remember when I was twelve and I first moved to Maryland from Denver and was horrified that my neighbor ran a butcher shop, and that my grandfather had a shed which was frequently used to butcher deer. I used to cry every time I saw the deer hanging (yup). Within a year I was right down there with them, curious about how they removed everything and how it all got cut up. I still love being down there with the guys when they butcher. We get a whole crowd of big, loud men with huge bellies and gray whiskered beards, taking a full deer and converting it to steaks and ribs and ground meat, laughing and joking, and quite often cooking the deer steaks right then and there over a grate on the fire. It feels so real. The smell of the blood, the heads of the deer in the buckets, it is common place to me now. They laugh when I ask to look over bits before they cut it off so I can observe muscle movement and tendons. But the deer that I eat that night for dinner is the same deer that I saw in full form, skin, head and all, hanging in the shop. The same deer I saw frolicking in the fields. I know it, I accept it, and I thank the deer for it's contribution to my life cycle by not wasting it.

How many people can do that though? We are considered "rednecks" by many in my little corner of the woods, partly for this practice of hunting and fishing and cutting your own wood. The food you buy in the store is just meat. It never had a name or a face. It is just red muscle in a plastic package. People don't care about it, where it came from, how it got there, what it's life was like, or even whether it was healthy. Instead, veterinarians and farm workers have to care for all of that instead, and the people go on buying and eating one way or the other. Maybe this is why I'm interested in food medicine and food production. I want my food to have a face. (Is that horrid?) I want to know that it had a good life, that it was healthy, that somewhere, someone along the way cared for and looked at each individual cow that ended up on your plate.

If you are a vegetarian, I sorely apologize for the above descriptions.

Melissa

Rainy Day

Pretty sure I bombed my exam yesterday. I was missing all of about 2 equations on my physics exam notecard, and we needed those 2 equations. I thought I was ready for it, but I guess I wasn't. It's almost better that I know and can expect the bad grade though. I am praying for a B and hoping for a C. It was honestly the worst exam I have taken in college as far as I can recall... But shit happens. We move on. We do better next time. Lesson learned. If I work my butt off (and depending on how bad I did), I might be able to still pull off an A- in the class due to lab grades, homework grades, etc.

Sunday we had the first painted tile workshop for the fundraiser. We had around 20 tile orders, which was really nice, and we got them all done, and then painted some extras for sale at the table this week. One of my horses sold yesterday, and I'm hoping the other ones will sell this week as well. I had almost forgotten how much I love painting- it relaxed me beyond belief and took all the stress from my body- the closest thing to riding that happens for me off of a horse. I will need to keep it up!

This afternoon I am finishing up some reservations for Florida, and then the chimney cleaners are coming, and I have Thanksgiving dinner up at the college (always a fun event). I should be sitting with the same people I have sat with (plus and minus some) for the last two years, which is really cool.

I am shadowing tomorrow! Will let you know how it goes...

Some of the results from Sunday's workshop

~Melissa

Complaining

Some days there just aren't enough hours in a day.

Sometimes I feel absolutely nuts with how much I study and worry about things. I am a bit of a perfectionist, but grades are so much more than that- for me they are part of the deciding factor on whether or not I get in to vet school to fulfill my dream of eternally being broke and doing something I love. So while my friends are out having fun, I stay at home, camp out on the floor with my books around me, and do practice problems. The class I am worried the most about is physics right now. Not because I'm failing, but because I am at the point where I could get either a B+ or an A-, and an exam grade with a couple points either way can make a huge difference. Maybe I am just crazy. I always wonder if other pre-vetters have the same problems, or if it is just me...

I don't know how to explain to people that tell me I need to loosen up and stop worrying so much. I spend my free days shadowing to gain experience and build up hours, and spend my free hours studying for the exams, etc. that seem to be every week this semester. I don't mind it so much (in fact I rather enjoy the stress), but it does sometimes cheat me of having an actual life and being able to be as involved in my friends' lives (and Jared's) as I would like. I have amazing friends who care about me so much, and sometimes I am just not there for them when they need me.

I also do screw up sometimes. Like Friday, when I left the order forms for the fundraiser in a locked office. I need them tomorrow, and I had a football game all day today (my very last!), so I didn't get a chance to retrieve them. So on top of having to get up early to get everything together for our tile-painting workshop tomorrow, I now have to track down DPS and get someone to let me in to the office. Which, as easy as it sounds, will probably turn into a mess since that is generally how things have been going these last two weeks. (I am very excited however, to spend a few hours tomorrow painting my heart out).

In other news, I should be finalizing plans for seven members of our club (including myself) to attend the APVMA national symposium in Florida (it's really cool!) for the very first time. Monday I will be sitting down with a school credit card and getting plane tickets, hotels, etc.

And now, having complained to the silent audience of the internet, I am going to go study Physics for my exam on Monday.

~Melissa

Classes Cancelled for the Morning!

Gettysburg apparently lost power last night, so I got the call that my morning class is cancelled, and the college is closed at least until noon. I have physics lab this afternoon, so I hope that they do not cancel it... they are incredibly difficult to reschedule and I need all the grades I can get in that class!

This week has flown by- between working on the pre-vet fundraiser, trying to get things ready for APMA National Symposium, getting my horses back on my property, writing an essay, shadowing and studying for two exams, I have hardly had time to do anything around the house or that I personally need to do! The chickens need their hay changed, the house needs to be cleaned, the laundry needs to be done, Remi needs a bath, the air conditioner needs to be covered... the list goes on and on. So I will be using my morning off wisely!

I have an ES exam tomorrow, and a physics exam on Monday, neither of which I have fully began to study for yet, due to the paper I had to write for class today. Things piled up rather quickly thanks to Sandy's class cancellations. In other news, I did get my orgo exam back and got a whopping 99%. I didn't even know that was attainable at Gettysburg, much less that I could get that... I am pretty stunned. I guess I did a lot of good guesswork! (PS, the answer is always resonance!).

Tuesday I shadowed for a brief 4 hours at the animal hospital, all that I could fit in this week unfortunately. We saw a lot of fleas and skin conditions, 4 puppies (a puggle, a beagle-pug, a boxer, and a really cute little shit-zu cross), two old cats (one of which was euthanized- more on this later), two big dogs, and a cockatoo.

I got to see some really cool x-rays. The first was a German Shepherd that came in from a breeder to have her joints checked. There is an incredible responsible organization that requires breeders to send in x-rays of hips and elbows, positioned a certain way, sends them out to three radiographers, and the dog gets rated as to the shape and wear on it's joints, and thus it's ability to breed. Dr. G showed me what they ideally look for and taught me a little bit about the gradient scale- it was very neat.

The second x-ray was on a pregnant golden. They wanted to see how many pups were in there, but were off on their dates a little bit, so the skeletons weren't quite mineralized enough to see the spine. You could see little round spots which were the skulls, and we counted definitely 6, possibly 7 or 8. It was incredibly cool, since you could see little bits of the spinal cord and rib cages on them.

The third was on the old cat. He was 12, and his owners were pretty old as well. They were incredibly sweet, nice people and you could tell they had been going to Dr. G forever. The handsome old cat was breathing through his mouth, and breathing completely abnormally- with his abdomen instead of his chest. He appeared to be in a great bit of discomfort. Dr. G tried to listen to his heart and lungs, as he first thought of heart failure or fluid-filled lungs, but the old man wouldn't stop purring no matter what we did. We ended taking x-rays, and his lungs were indeed full of fluid. You could hardly see any gas in them at all, just a little bit right at the top. His stomach was also filled with gas due to his mouth-breathing. In order to treat him, they would have had to do a chest-tap and all sorts of long-term care... the estimate was quite a bit of money, and the owners decided to euthanize him after a long talk with Dr. G about his age and quality of life.

The very last thing that came in before I headed out to feed some horses was a husky who appeared to be in shock. She was practically howling and stumbling around. She had gotten out of the backyard and they weren't sure whether she had gotten hit or what. She wasn't limping and she didn't appear to feel pain in any specific area, but obviously was in a lot of general pain. We gave her pain meds and sedative, took blood and gave IV fluids. They were talking about sending her to an emergency hospital, since the animal hospital doesn't have anyone there overnight, and she was not doing well.  I left shortly thereafter, though I wish that I knew what had happened to her... she was a sweet girl. I will ask after her next week when I am shadowing...

Anyway, I wanted to update for those of you who enjoy these things as much as I do!

Happy Tails and Trails,

Melissa

Feeling Sick

I woke up yesterday morning feeling awful. I mean exhausted, weak, my throat swollen halfway shut, my voice gone. I still managed to get over to my mom's property and help load up the horses and truck them back to my house for the Winter (I am super excited that they are back). They are incredibly fat, and I am amazed they haven't gone belly-up. My mom likes fat animals and I think is secretly trying to kill them.

I then tried to clean a little, but yesterday was just super stressful due to some drama and a Nancy Drew-like situation that occurred at my house Saturday night. So I was mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted, yet still could not sleep. This week is going to be hell I think.

I shadowed on Saturday morning, and the coolest thing I saw was a dog-bite wound on a Cocker Spaniel that was over 2 weeks old, and this was the first time they brought the poor girl in. The relief vet was there again, and we were short-staffed with only 2 techs, so I got to help more than usual. We cleaned away the necrotic tissue and refreshed the fringes of the wound. The pocket around it was huge. It was a wound on the right side of the neck, and the pocket extended up to her skull and about 3 inches on all sides except the bottom. We put in a drain and cleaned it up- surprisingly it looked pretty good for what it was- no infection.

I am shadowing again on Tuesday. Just trying to make it through this week and get everything I need to get done, done. Hopefully I will get my orgo exam back today or Wednesday. I don't think I did as well as the last one, but I'm hoping I didn't bomb it. Friday I have an ES exam, and the rest of the week I have various things do, including an abstract from a 10-page paper I haven't started yet. I hate when things pile up.

We are also starting the pre-vet fundraiser this week. I am sorely hoping that people buy them for family members, friends, etc. Even if we only raise a hundred bucks, that will go towards helping us all make it to Symposium without too much of a wallet-breaker.

Sincerely hoping that whatever disease is attacking me, my body fights it off.


Melissa

Back to School

We made it through the hurricane just fine- though I know plenty of folks were not as lucky. My area somehow got protected- it was like we were in a little bubble of Sandy protection. Maybe that was just the eye of the storm, but it wasn't too awful! For once we did not lose power (unbelievable on it's own), and everyone stayed warm, safe, and dry. Classes were canceled yesterday and today (for the first time since 2008), which not only saved me from missing class, but also allowed me a much-needed breather. I was not trying to drive in that mess. I did end up feeding horses for my neighbor who couldn't get home yesterday or today for the evening feeding (he works for a power company, so has had extra long days). I was only too happy to do it, but it was a pain in the wind and rain last night!

Today was my dad and Mary's last night in Maryland, as they are headed back to CO in the morning. So I spent most of the afternoon playing cards with them and just spending time together.

I did study (a little) for my second organic chemistry exam, which has now been postponed twice and is on Friday.  It is on some more difficult material than the first exam, so I really need to make sure that I fully understand it.

Not too much else to report!

Melissa

Buckling Down For the Storm

Well Sandy is supposed to be hitting this evening. I spent my morning bringing in more wood, filling up buckets with water, bringing everything inside that could blow away and generally just trying to be somewhat prepared. I got some studying in for orgo (I have an exam on Wednesday), and finished off a paper for my Radical American Women class. My dad and stepmother came over for a dinner of hamburgers prepared by the wonderful Jared, and we just sat around and had a very nice time. Dad and Mary helped me move the chicken coop to a little more protected spot, tie the pen to a tree, secure the house a little more fully and protect it by putting boards over the open chickenwire on the house. Hoping to keep them dry and somewhat warm. I will check on them as the storm progresses and make sure they are still doing alright. If need be I may employ the use of trash bags for water protection and lock them in the house to ride out the worst of it. Or move them to a dog cage in the garage, though it would be quite tight.

Gettysburg has, of course, not cancelled classes, though every other university, private or public, has conceded to the storm and shut down for at least tomorrow. I have got permission from my professors to Skype in to class if I still have power, and to move my lab to another day of the week. My professor on Tuesday said that if the weather is bad, we will not have class at all. The rest of my professors live very close to campus and will walk if need be. Considering they are now saying that being out past 2 pm will be life-threatening, I think I will choose to miss class for the first time in my life rather than get in another accident. Freshman year I was driving home in bad conditions and wrecked my pick up truck. I was very lucky to be entirely uninjured. I'm pretty sure I used all my luck up. So if I can be safe and still be a good student, I think I will do so!

Hope everyone else on the East Coast is preparing/has prepared, especially with their animals. Bring them inside if possible, and secure all horse trailers or things that could blow away!

See you on the bright side- I will let you know how we fare! 

~Melissa

It's My Birthday and I'll Post If I Want To...

Hi all! So I guess I've been a little busy....
First of all, it's my birthday! That's right, I'm 21. What am I doing tonight? Studying. Oh. Yeah.

Anyway, the last week has been a bit hectic. I don't even remember all of it... The worst day was Tuesday. We had to go through the applications and evaluate them via point system and essay to pick the seven people who would be able to go to APVMA National Symposium with the club. This would have been easy if it had been all upperclassmen, but the majority of the applicant were our first years. Many of them don't have very much experience yet, and the few that do are highly competitive with each other. We had a really hard time doing it, and I hated every second of having to choose people... luckily my committee was pretty solid about buckling down and doing it and we ended up picking them. 3 juniors, 2 sophomores and 2 first-years. The rejections letters I had to send out sucked... I personally know almost all of them and I know how much I would have hated to get that. At the same time, they do have 3 more years to attend, so it's much less heart-rendering than if they were juniors and I had to turn them away for some reason.

Then my father and stepmother were coming out for a week from Colorado, and they arrived yesterday. So Tuesday I had to clean house and get everything ready. Yesterday my brother and fiance came over and helped me finish cleaning, mow, clean the chicken coop, bathe the dog, and cook my famous marsala chicken. Yes, it's my go-to recipe. We had a really good time with everyone here, and it was so good to see my other parents- this is like my once yearly time to spend with them.

Today was another good day. Of course it was. Jared made me breakfast and my grandparents came up to enjoy it with us before I headed off to school. Jared got me a new pair of tennis shoes (desperately needed), a couple scarves, and the latest book from my favorite author. My dad and Mary gave me a huge box of Land of Lakes Hot Chocolate mix (the best, by the way), so I am in heaven right now. I had a wonderful lunch with some of my friends, and had so many people say nice things to me today... I felt incredibly loved. Gael gave me a coffee table book of my absolute favorite artist who I met the other week- Deborah Butterfield (see below). I am so thrilled to have a collection of her work. It was a very thoughtful present, from a very thoughtful best friend.

I then had lab, which I totally understood today and got finished with in two hours. I got some work done, and headed to a pre-vet meeting, which was the best-attended we have had so far. It was probably one of the best birthday gifts I got today. To have that many people come and to be so interested in what we were doing just was so gratifying and made me feel like everything I do for the club really has a purpose. We skyped with a current vet student for about an hour, picked out t-shirts, discussed the fundraiser, and took the club photo.

And then I went home to find that my mother had dropped off a pan of dark chocolate brownies for me and left me a very sweet note... I am so grateful for my amazing family and friends. I can't remember feeling quite so loved. It is so awesome knowing that my dad is right now just a town over and that I get to see him tomorrow, my mom and her husband live 20 minutes away, my brother lives 20 minutes away, my grandfather less than a minute. My family means so much to me and I am so thankful to have them around me whenever I need a network, and especially to just be able to interact with them so frequently. Life is too short and unpredictable to not spend time with those we love.

Fundraiser

Oh I forgot-
I was messing around yesterday with ceramic paints and tiles, since we are trying to arrange a fundraiser for the pre-vet club by selling painted tiles. This is what I came up with- think they will sell?

This is more likely what we will be doing- just personalized paw prints and horse shoes for people.

These were my own playing with the paints, but I might try to sell them too if anyone wants them. I'll certainly encourage any of the members interested in trying out their art potential by trying animals.

Just Being There

Today was great- I was off from classes due to pure coincidence in teacher conferences and lab dates, and so I slept in, did some cleaning, caught up on my homework  and just relaxed in the warm sun. Remi was thrilled to be in all day with me- no accidents still. She is being so good I can't even explain it. I guess at 4 she finally grew up... I checked out a neighbor's horse at noon since he had just had extensive gelding surgery yesterday (one of his testicles never descended). He was doing great and was as perky and ornery as ever. I call him Princeling because I have been half in love with him since I met him the day after he was born. There is something very wild about him, and he moves like a dream, even as a yearling. I could never afford him, but I hope that one day I might have the chance to ride him just once. He is a warmblood of some sort- I think Oldenburg and Thoroughbred, and has fantastic bloodlines. He is also over 16 hands at a year old. Yikes.

Anyway, I went in at two to the animal hospital (they had a staff meeting, otherwise I would have been in earlier), and had a really good time today with everyone. I got to draw up vaccines, restock things, etc.- they are starting to utilize me which I like quite a bit. One of the dogs in the back, a sheltie, quite took to me and I got him to eat when no one else could. We had a large variety of breeds in both cats and dogs today. Domestic shorthair and longhair cats and a Siamese, French bulldogs, bulldogs, labs, chihuahuas, shepherds, shelties and mutts all came in and out the doors in the 6 hours I was there.

The most interesting cases from today included a cat with weird facial skin lesions- they started out as small scabs, the fur peeled off, and they looked like thumprint size raw marks. He had started with one on Sunday and had at least five today. The poor boy looked perfectly healthy besides that, and wasn't itching at them at all, and they were only on his face. The vet wasn't sure exactly what it was, but suspected it was a reaction to either flea bites or something else new in the environment. He got put on an antibiotic and Frontline for now, and if it gets any worse he will be biopsied to see if it's immune-related.

The second most interesting case was a rather sad one. This big fat orange tabby cat came in on emergency. He was severely dehydrated, unresponsive, with a huge bladder, and one of the girls found he was blocked, unblocked his penis, and he started spraying blood and urine out. He had been unable to go and had gone toxic. His temperature was so low that it didn't register on a thermometer, his paws and ears were cold, his gums pale. He was in terrible condition. We put a heat pad on him, and I of course got the orders to stay with him while the vet went to talk to the family about what was going on and the options. To have the chance to save him would have taken critical care, IVs and a whole lot of time and money. I sat with him for about 20 minutes, rubbing his face and belly, talking to him, while he halfheartedly tried to stay awake and survive, his head and paw over my arm. When the family made the decision to euthanize him, I held him until he took his last breath.  I never met his family, I don't know whether it was a hard decision or an easy one, though from the talk I heard from the techs the family wasn't particularly attached to him, but I know that he was comforted at the end and he went on being surrounded by a pair of loving arms. It was very sad- but I think very important. You can't save all of them, and sometimes you can't even try.

~Melissa

Restored Faith in Humanity

I headed in to shadow at 1 today. We saw a dog that was chewing a hole in it's paw (regulated to an E-collar since steroid spray didn't work), two dogs for laser treatment for arthritis, an old dog for a check up, a dog with nasty oily skin and a yeasty smell, and only two cats. The one cat was terribly sad- it was a kitten that had been hit on the road and these people had stopped and brought it in to see if anything could be done. I walked back right as they were euthanizing the little guy. He would have fit in the palm of your hands. His eyes were crusted over and there was blood and mucous running out of his nose. But what actually made my stomach churn a little bit was when the vet tech picked him up to show me the full reason why they gifted him with eternal sleep... He looked like a rubber chicken. All the bones in his back and hips were pulverized, and he was paralyzed from the front legs down. It was fairly disturbing, but I was so glad that the people had come and taken him in to be euthanized instead of leaving him there to slowly bleed to death internally and in pain and terror.

What lifted my spirit however, was the other cat that we saw. These two people were down from the North visiting their elderly uncle who has been dying in a nursing home for the last ten months. He had been a cat collector (originally had 10), but was down to three. One of the cats was friendly enough for them to catch her, but the other two were a little more feral. The clients had built a heated house for the cats, bought food and a heated bowl for water, and prevailed upon a neighbor to feed the cats. Mind you, these are cats that won't allow anyone to touch them and that this woman and her husband have only been around a few times. Luckily her uncle had gotten all of them fixed when they were young, so that wasn't an issue. She was trying to make sure that she could take them to "No-kill shelters", and they told her that with a feLeuk test and a rabies shot they would take them and adopt them out. So she was arranging to try to get them in if she can capture them, and had taken the third cat in for an exam. This one she was going to take with her on a six hour drive, and introduce into her home with the other three cats she had.  The very first thing was a Feleuk test on the outdoor, eleven year old cat to make sure that it didn't have anything it could give to he healthy cats back home. If it came out positive, the cat would have to be put down. I think we were all praying that that test would come out alright. And it did, amazingly. The cat checked out fine besides some awful teeth, despite not having had any shots for at least 5 or 6 years, and was cleared to go to it's new home in NY with these wonderful two individuals who went above and beyond what many, many people would do. I'm sure that cat thought she had actually died and gone to heaven.

Melissa

Update

Remi is doing well with the house training. So far not a single accident. She is still staying locked on the porch or in her crate when I leave, just because I cannot trust her alone in the house yet. This definitely seems to be working for her- she has been very happy and even calmer the last couple of days. The worst problem is that she has started to get into the litterboxes!

This weekend flew by- all day on Saturday the pre-vet club came up to Doc's house for an experiential learning lab. Every person who came learned how to draw up vaccines, got to listen to a horse's heart beat, saw how vaccines and sedation were given, and got to do some equine dentistry! They seemed to really enjoy it, even though it was freezing cold. We all got to work on four horses and Doc was a great teacher as usual. He was in fine form with his rapt audience. He even showed a small animal exam and administered a rabies shot on his little ragamuffin puppy. For some of the kids, this was their first exposure to vet med, and their first five hours of experience. I think we are going to try to do it again in the Spring since it was such a hit, though with a different subject.

Sunday Jared and I headed up to the auction and went scrounging for fun items. We got a whole pile of things, including a new watch for me, a huge painting, a wood basket for practical purposes, and a new duffel bag for me with horses on it (It's a fake Ralph Lauren- thus it features the polo horse without the rider- I was a fan).

Lab took forever yesterday- we were doing a reaction and then analyzing it with Thin Layer Chromatography, and separating the compounds via Column Chromatography. Between that and marching band, I got nothing done yesterday.

Tomorrow is my second exam in Physics, so my day will be spent studying! I am shadowing on Wednesday and Thursday, so that should be another good 11 hours to add onto my SA experience. I will be posting about that of course for those of you interested.


Wish me luck tomorrow,

Melissa

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

What a busy last couple of days. Brief rundown:

Friday- class, cousin's wedding (woohoo!)

Saturday- emergency call at horse rescue, helped rescue horses. Party for a cousin turning 50.

Sunday- Homework, homework, homework, dinner out with both Jared and my families for his 21st birthday, farm sitting

Monday (I had off school)- farm sitting, went to school with Jared and did more homework, then went shopping for household necessities and groceries, dinner with my brother, farm sitting, rest of the evening in front of the wood stove enjoying Bones on Netflix with Jer

Tuesday (I had off school)- Farm sitting, Shadowing for surgeries in the morning (spay, neuter), got to see two ultrasounds and an echocardiogram, a couple clients (including a dove and a woman that didn't know what Amazon was), then went thrift store shopping with a friend in Hanover and got myself a second pair of scrubs (yay!)

Today- woke up with a migraine at six am, got up, put on sunglasses, went to farm sit, Basset hound had diarrhea-d all over the house, cleaned up. Running super late, fed horses, ran home, showered, dressed, fed my animals, ran out the door. Fell asleep in organic chemistry (first time I have ever fallen asleep in class- I blame the excedrine), then in physics my phone starts going off. I finally left class and answered after the third call- Remi somehow ignored her shocker collar or turned it off and was running down the road- a neighbor found her, called in the dog registration tag info and gave me a call. Nicest woman ever- she put her in her backyard until she talked to me and then when we discussed options of what to do, walked her over to the house and put her on the back porch for me.

It was entirely out of character for Remi- the dog never leaves the house, even if she doesn't have her collar on. She normally just waits for me to come home and greets me enthusiastically in front of the garage. Went through my last class, drove home to get Remi. Decided that she would finally become an inside dog since I can't worry about her running away and getting hit... so I have been working with her all day. So far, no accidents. We never made it past the potty training stage when she was a puppy, plus my mom didn't like dogs in the house since they brought in dirt and hair, and Remi was an especially bad chewer. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this works- I think it would be good for her, though it might take my cats forever to get used to it. I'm praying that I have the patience for this.

Anyway, that's the run down for now- more later.

Melissa

Aborted Pups

Sometimes things make no sense. Like me- I make no sense.

The first thing that happened today when I walked in the clinic and was looking over the animals in the back was that the doc on staff (Dr. K) offered to let me check out some aborted puppies from the morning spay. I had seen the little poodle looking depressed and asked what had happened to her, they said she was a pregnant spay- she had been bred by her son. Oops. Having never seen one of these before, I asked how old the pups were, etc. So Dr. K asked if I wanted to see them- of course I answered yes because I'm sick like that and I think these things are terribly fascinating.

So he dug around in the trash can, pulled up the uterus and plopped it on the table, gave me a pair of surgical scissors and told me to go to town... It was awesome- I got to look at the different layers of the uterine wall, check out the umbilical sack, the placenta (which is very differently arranged than what I am used to with horses), and the dead pups ( which I did not dissect because I thought maybe that was a little too far). It was bloody and oozey and there were dead things... and I wasn't bothered at all. Not the slightest bit of dizziness or anything else. Dr. K. explained the bits to me and showed me where everything was and talked to me about the case. It was awesome.

The rest of the day was pretty exciting- I got to see a torn ACL and the wigglage of the knee joint (which you usually cannot see at all in a healthy dog), and got an explanation of all the bits and parts. We saw a ton of puppies and kittens today- 6 kittens and 2 puppies, all from different places. All the kittens probably had worms. Everybody was flea infested (talk about getting a case of the ghost itches). We also saw two dogs with bad bacterial ear infections, and a chihuahua with the strangest skin condition I have ever seen, where just it's poor ears were peeling. Dr. K. wasn't sure if it was fungal or bacterial, but it sure was weird.

I very much enjoyed Dr. K- this is my first time shadowing with him, and he is a very personable guy. He reminds me of Doc (the equine vet) quite a bit- same extreme intelligence and teacher quality. He was also genuinely interested in my life, what I've done, who I know, that sort of thing. Turns out we know a lot of the same people and he is involved with a lot of the places I am involved with, so it was very fascinating. He also runs a multi-vet equine practice in the same town, and so I asked him about shadowing opportunities for the club- it is a bit closer than Docs, and the more practices we can get students involved with, the better. He said no one had ever asked him about it, but he would look into it to see if it would be okay and then let me know. He also was great about teaching me things today- I love when vets take the time to explain not only what it means to see a certain bacterial culture, but also how it affects the animal, the name of the disease that it causes and how to treat it. I hope one day to do the same to my interns!

Tomorrow will be pretty busy- I get out of class at noon and have to leave for my cousin's wedding at three. I am very excited though- I'm sure it will be a wonderful occasion.

~Melissa