Weiner Party!

Tonight was Doc's "Weiner Party" as he calls it (yes he was actually serving all sorts of hot dogs- get your mind out of the gutter!) :) He invites clients, friends and family, so it is always an interesting time (his family is quite... different). I was over around noon helping with the pavilion set up, getting tables, stringing lights, that sort of thing.

 Now one of Doc's brothers reminds me of this guy:

Yeah- you remember him? Needless to say, NOT ATTRACTIVE. But, thinks he is the shit. So last year I brought in hay with Doc and the other intern, and this guy ^. He apparently went around the next day telling everyone how I was all into him and flirting with him. Um, EW. I guess asking someone's name and occupation is now being considered flirting... This is why I avoid contact with the male species within 10 years of my age! Silly boys. Anyway, I avoided him at all costs at the party this year. I don't even think he remembered me, so not too hard.

Anyway, besides that it wasn't too eventful- besides of course my mom and her husband showing up. It's that moment when you are hanging out with a bunch of adults and feel like a true adult, and then your parents come and you are re-relegated to child status. My fiance even made an appearance, and chatted with Mrs. S. I hate parties, so for me it is quite an ordeal to stay for more than an hour- but stay I did! Mrs. S. hates them as much as I do, so we hid out in the barn together for a little while, and had a good time in a side tent just chatting.

No vet stuff today (sorry to disappoint anyone who stumbles across this), and probably not for the next couple of days (I'm not riding along again until Tuesday).

~Rich With Life~

Lazy Day

It's amazing how fast money goes. Yesterday I received $100 (woohoo!!!) from my grandmother in the form of my monthly "allowance." Grandma likes to help support all of her grandchildren now when we are young and need it, instead of in her will ( I think it is a pretty cool idea). So I head out to do the things I have been avoiding until I get paid (which still hasn't happened)- get gas ($35), a haircut ($30) and FOOD ($35). Just like that- it was gone! But at least I have lunch food to take out with the vet now! My mom always offers to pay for my groceries (I live in her house scott-free on her generosity), but I hate feeling like I take advantage of her, so I try to pay for everything I can as often as I can. I'm just silly that way- you'd think I would want to take advantage of free money! Too bad I have this stinking conscience thing going on...

Homer (my buff orpington rooster) acted slightly aggressive towards me today, which is NOT good news. I have had a mean rooster before and let me tell you, that was not a fun situation. That one ended up buried in the backyard with a bullet in his head (I know, a waste of meat). I'm really hoping he was just being protective and will get past this thing after a few bouts of me shouting at him and stomping my feet. Anyone know of a way to back down a rooster?

Hoping to see my sun and stars tonight, I sorely miss him. Planning on riding Sweetheart on the morrow (though it gets a little lonely riding by yourself after awhile). Have a meeting in a few minutes with a pet-sitting client (yay more money!). Meanwhile, the country breeze is ripe with the smells of growing corn and clover flowers (luckily I'm upwind of the chicken coop!).

~Rich With Life~

The Perfect Partner

Went into the office at noon today, and then headed to lunch with one of Doc's good friends and Ms. S at Friendlys (a place I had never been). Thanks to my slightly dire financial situation (I haven't been paid for my part time job for like... oh two months now), I skipped lunch. That brownie fudge sundae sure looked good though...

Interesting conversation about the Perfect Man/Woman. The top qualities desired in a partner from the four of us were: Attractiveness (at least to us as individuals) in some way, no irrational jealousy, lack of argumentativeness (ability to talk things out logically without yelling), some selfless behavior here and then (wanting to do things for others just because it is right)- which I guess can almost be summed up as morality, and a good sense of humor. Thus, the perfect significant other. Do they really exist?? I think not... Well unless they are a horse!

The calls for today were pretty simple- a couple wellness exams (checking weight, ears, eyes, teeth, hooves, etc.) and vaccinations, a recheck on a horse that had brain surgery last weekend (the horse is like a poster child for the worst case scenario- reared up in a trailer, fractured it's skull and drove pieces of the skull into it's brain and then seizured a couple of times- luckily Doc and a local neurosurgeon were able to do on-site surgery, and the horse has been doing great). The most exciting call today was to do some x-rays on the lower leg of a 29-year old horse, looking at it's pastern and fetlock joints to see how bad the arthritis was, and whether cortisol-type injections would help to relieve the pain/lack of mobility. The X-rays from this old girl were pretty bad- her joints were very messed up and some mineralization was seen around the joints on the tendons, where her body was trying to compensate for the lack of mobility by hardening more structures (or something like that!).

These are pretty much what her ankles looked like (another google image). Bad arthritis!

Well, we decided to inject the lower fetlock joint/pastern joint and see if we could get at least a little cortisol in there. Cortisol helps to decrease swelling and inflammation in the joint. I volunteered to hold the sedated horse's leg and hoof up, while Doc injected the lower/back of the fetlock (between the "ankle" and the "heel" of the horse). I, unfortunately, only weigh 135 lbs, and the horse weighs about 1100 lbs. Well this old girl  was both sedated and ornery and decided to lean all her weight on me right as Doc got the needles in and was ready to give the injection (for this type of injection, you put the needles into the spot, then attach a syringe filled with your injectable- kinda opposite of normal). I almost went down with the horse, of course dropping the leg and sending needles flying everywhere in the process. Yay me!  So Doc, taking it all in stride as usual, angled himself in there, held the horse entirely up with his burly six -foot-plusness and tried to inject it. After 4 syringes of cortisol that he just couldn't get in- whether from the inaccessibility of the joint or the movement of the horse- he ended up only getting about 3 cc's in and around the ankle. Hope at least a little of it diffuses into where it was supposed to go! What really sucks (though not as badly as it would if cotisol was super expensive) is that he won't charge that owner for anything but the 3 cc's he got in- the rest of the 4 syringes that were used are just costs that he has to absorb. In case you don't already know this, equine medicine is not very profitable unless you have a lot of clients with a lot of money. This area is not exactly bursting with those type of people.

At seven I was hopeful we would be headed home and I would get to see my lover boy (by that I do actually mean my boyfriend), but alas, it was not to be! We got an emergency call up in Gettysburg for a horse that had a swollen hock- not limping or anything, but just swollen. The horse was scheduled to be in a show on Sunday and so the owner was quite worried and wanted us out right away. So we drove about half an hour up there.  By the time we got there, the hock was hardly even swollen. Doc looks at it, takes the horse's temp, does a basic lameness exam just to make sure it is not the start of a bowed tendon, and gives his verdict that it was actually just a bee sting. Gave it some Tri-histamine to help with any reaction, and another Tri-drug which had some Cortisone to reduce the swelling. Finally, we were back on the road to home- singing maniacally the entire way (it is one of Doc, Ms. S and I's favorite things to do- sing and dance to oldies and newbies at the top of our lungs and/or in funny voices). I think it was mainly the exhaustion coming out. I shudder to think what passing cars heard when they drove by...

An hour and a half later, I am finally home! And exhausted. Manage to burn my hamburgers for dinner, get in a mild argument with my testy loverboy who misses me and find the rest of the mouse which my cats so pleasantly hawked up for me under the piano. Thankfully, they did at least kill something (first time ever!) so I guess I can't complain too much. Off to bed- tomorrow is my day off!

~Rich With Life~

Roses, Third Eyelids and Politics

I started off my day with a bath for the Rem monster outside- something she professes to hate, though I think secretly loves. I will never understand why baths in the house are enjoyable, swimming in the pond is heavenly, but bathing outside with the hose is terrible! Finally she has stopped smelling like the dead things (mostly groundhog) in which she rolls and has started to smell like something I wouldn't mind petting again.

After lounging around a bit and eating some spaghetti that was definitely too old to be eaten, I headed over to Doc's around noon. (I will be referring to the vet I ride along with as Doc, and all of his patients/clients will of course remain anonymous. His vet tech, an awesome woman who I adore, I will refer to as Ms. S. ) Something you should know about Doc- his hobby, besides horses of course, is gardening. He is a master gardener and grows orchids in every shape, size and variety you can think of. They are absolutely stunning. So as you can imagine, his entire property is always well-planted. He has some little mini ponds, a rose garden, and tons and tons of trees and vines and flowers- things I know nothing about! The first order of business this morning was to trim the rose bushes. Now my idea of trimming rose bushes is when Remi gets bored every fall and eats mine down to the ground. Apparently this is not how the rest of the world does it... who knew? Doc taught me how and when to prune, and I feel like this is probably a good thing to know!

We finally got started with the patient calls around two pm, after a couple hours of trimming and pruning and wheeling wheelbarrows, stacking and unstacking and restacking cut leaves and branches, that sort of thing. Our first couple of calls were just routing check-ups and vaccinations, no big deal there. We had a re-check on a horse with a skin condition called Scratches. Scratches is a bacterial infection on the legs, which Doc normally recommends treatment with the office special-recipe Scratches balm, which Ms. S zealously guards the recipe for. It does contain DMSO however, which, if you have never smelled it, is absolutely the WORST smell. I would actually rather smell the gut cavity of an animal than DMSO. I think I might just be super sensitive to it- even from across the room I feel like it invades my senses. I can even taste it in my mouth. It is gross! A google image of scratches is below:


The other interesting call today was to remove a third eyelid on a horse. It had a small cancerous growth on the third eyelid that had been getting bigger, and the idea was to cut enough of the third eyelid out to stop the spread of the cancer. Technically it is called a squamous cell carcinoma. I was a little nervous, as my stomach was not feeling so good from the crappy spaghetti, and because last week I had almost passed out at an eye surgery. I attributed it to the heat at the time, but I was just a little worried that perhaps it had not been solely the heat. My biggest fear is that the queasiness I displayed as a child will come back to haunt me and ruin my goals of becoming a vet. So I was pretty relieved when I made it through the whole surgery today without batting an eyelid. Doc calls it a "meatball surgery"- I guess because it is so easy- you literally bloc the supraorbital and auriculopalpebral (or something like that) nerves, then pull the third eyelid out and snip it off with a pair of surgical scissors- no stitches necessary! It was pretty cool- the lump will be sent out for biopsy, and we should have the results within a couple of days.

Here is a tumor on a third eyelid.

We were headed back around 7 when we got an emergency call. We got there and it wasn't too bad of an emergency- a horse had apparently stuck her leg through a fence yesterday and was a stiff and scraped up, running a bit of a fever. Some bute (painkiller), penicillin and SMZ's later, the horse looked to be heading toward recovery. The guy that owns this horse is probably in his 70's, and has written a couple books on politics, economics and social issues. He is really freaking cool- I think I could listen to him for hours and just absorb. Doc and he had some really in-depth conversation and I realized how little I truly know about the country and the world that I am living in... One thing Doc said that really stuck out to me was about the fakeness of my generation- how people often pretend to care, but don't really, or are outraged and protesting but couldn't tell you what they are really outraged for. It is very true- I have seen it time and again, though I have not recognized it in this exact way. It made me promise to myself never to express an opinion about something until I really know all about the issue...

Anyway, I guess that is probably long enough of an entry tonight- though I suppose no one will read this so it does not truly matter how long I make it. Jazmine is pawing at me to give her some attention so I suppose I will give in!

~Rich With Life~

Day 1: Middle of Summer Blues

So today I randomly decided to start a blog. Not sure if anyone will ever read it or find it, but I know that it will help me to remember and reflect each day as I go through my various internships and perhaps even my life (depending on how long I keep this up!).

A little about me. Right now I am going to be a Junior in college at a small private school in PA that I adore. I am current President of the pre-vet club there, which sometimes is no easy duty! My life goal is to become a veterinarian, knowing full well what I am getting myself into. I am recently engaged to my high school sweetheart, an engagement which will last at least until I get accepted into vet school (hopefully), if not until after vet school. I live on my own in a house in the country with my three cats, Taz, Simian and Jazmine, my English Lab, Remington (Remi for short), my six chickens, Homer, Star, Scarlet, Henrietta, Road Runner and Blondie, and my Appaloosa horse, Sweetheart. 

Sweetheart (I didn't name her- otherwise she would have been named Pighead!)

And Remi (yes it is a she, if you can tell by the pink collar!)

What am I doing with my Summer you might ask? So far I have been mostly going out with one of my neighbors down the road, he is an equine veterinarian, and I spent all last Summer with him on ride-alongs (as I call them). I was able to rack up just under 300 hours last Summer, and found out once and for all that the job of a veterinarian is something that I LOVE. This Summer I am riding along again, though not as frequently (only two or three days a week instead of five). The reason for this is that last year I did not live entirely on my own, and so I had help to do things around the house, etc. I also wanted to spend more time painting (a hobby that I enjoy but am by no means going to support myself by!) and riding.

 I also have a two-week internship coming up down in North Carolina at the North Carolina Tiger Rescue. I am very excited for that unique opportunity, though a little nervous as well! It will be the longest time I have spent away from home in years, and I will be living with three guys, one of whom is an alum of my college. They are gracious enough to lend me their couch so I don't have to pay for a room.

Anyway, I am going out again today with the vet, starting at noon, and I will post this evening when I get back!

 Till then,
~Rich With Life~