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