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