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
No comments:
Post a Comment