Green Pastures

Today began with egg collection, animal feeding and my normal drive into school, followed by my first two classes and my Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem exam. I have no idea how it went- some of the questions were extremely random (such as "what is the name of this person that created C14 incorporation?") and seemed to not be the main concepts or of too much importance. Based on what I think I got right and what I was not so sure about, I probably got a low B. However, there was a bonus essay so I'm hoping that will bump it up. I studied for this exam for over four days, but I feel like what I studied was the wrong things... I studied concepts and details of plant reproduction, of different types of algae and their roles in the bay, of the food web as we have talked about it, gradients of salinities, nutrients, light, etc., but the exam was a compilation of facts, not concepts. Of who did what, orders of phytoplankton, things people said about the bay, etc. So I'm kinda worried... it's out of my hands now though, and he said he would get them back to us by Friday, so at least I should know fairly quickly how I did.

I then headed to lab to get some melting points, and only got to three of five compounds before I had to sprint to get food and changed. I then booked it to my shadowing hospital for the evening. Dr. J was there tonight, so that was enjoyable. We saw a cat who had a spraying problem, a couple dogs with fleas and hot spots, a dog with an ear infection, and most memorably, a kitten with hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus is something I had never heard of before, but apparently it is quite common both in animals and in humans. It is essentially where the Cerebral Spinal Fluid does not drain properly, normally due to a blockage in the Aqueduct of Sylvius, a channel through which CSF drains, is carried to the spinal canal and reabsorbed into the body. In humans, a stint can normally be put into place from the brain down to the abdomen, and the body can properly cycle CSF. In animals, this is normally far too expensive. The physical features of this disease normally include a huge, fat head, with all the features squished down to the lower part of the face.

Like so:

 

The kitten we were looking at also had an oversized heart, as seen on x-rays, being about 4-5 times the size of a normal cat heart. She was also six months old and weighed 2 pounds. She could practically fit entirely in your hand. Her breathing was labored and she had fluid in her lungs. A good Samaritan had seen her and offered to pay for an x-ray, a feline leukemia test, and to take her home if the owners would let her- she was one of a litter of ten, and the owners couldn't afford more than one xray- no bloodwork or anything else. Dr. J. explained to me that hydrocephalus normally comes with other complications, and it had here- congenital heart failure. She would have bad bouts where her heart would start to give out and her lungs would fill, and eventually one of them would kill her. On top of it, she was feline leukemia negative. She would live at most for a few months. So the poor little girl was euthanized today, as her prognosis was terrible. Upon being euthanized, all the fluid in her lungs came flooding out her little nose in bloody discharge. It was so sad, but the peaceful little sigh that escaped from her as her labored breathing came to an end really made me feel for what a mercy the euthanasia was for the little thing- to look at her was to see the extreme suffering that just breathing and walking caused her. One of the few good things that came out of the situation was that because the incredibly nice stranger took an interest in the little girl and paid for a feline leukemia test, they now know that the rest of the litter has it as well- which means they can begin to be treated for it before it starts to break down their bodies. So this one little girl may have saved and prolonged the lives of all her litter mates.

I'm back to the hospital tomorrow from 1:30-7 pm. I'm hoping they like me there- I can never tell, and I get so awkward in some situations that I occasionally say and do things that could be misconstrued- and of course I obsess over things, so I obsess that others do misconstrue them and then dislike me. I think it's part of my Type A personality...

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

~Melissa