Life Update

Things have been CRAZY over here, and I didn't even realize how long it had been since I had posted. I guess, rather than write an extensively long post, it may be easier for me to make a list! So here goes:

1.) Finished the semester with two B+'s, an A and an A- (kicked butt in biochem!!), which, while not a great GPA booster, is a semester I am proud of.

2.) I got an interview at VMRCVM!!

3.) I have been fostering an orphan lamb from the farm (named Sir Lambchop) and have had a quick intro to bottle feeding and lamb care! Having a hard time with the little fellow; he isn't the brightest bulb in the box (thus why momma kicked him off) and I have been struggling to get him on solid food and to drink out of anything but the bottle.

4.) Amidst some new baby animals at the farm, we have two calves! The very first calf did not do so well (born Xmas Eve) and died on Friday (we think from hypothermia) after a very cold night and an aggressive cow who wouldn't bring her in or let us bring her in. My boss gave me the opportunity to necropsy/dissect her (yes, I know, a little weird)  in order to become more familiar with cow anatomy, as well as to see differences from normal relating to cause of death. It was sad, since she was a beautiful little heifer. But overall, it was really neat to be able to do, and I was glad of the opportunity.

5.) I'm heading to go visit a good friend for New Year's Eve, and then leaving for my interview at Missouri on the 10th. I will be driving to Colorado with my dad and stepmother, and then will return home on the 15th, only to head to VMRCVM on the 17th for my interview that is on the 18th! Then I start school again on the 20th. It will be a crazy few weeks! In between I will be working at the farm ($$$) as per usual.  I would have loved to shadow over break, but it has just been a little too hectic.

Wish me luck!!! I have been talking to current students, practicing questions, and getting reaaaally nervous. My mother bought me a suit for Christmas, and it is charcoal with big black lapels, black buttons and a black shirt. It is really classy looking! I have to learn how to walk in my pumps though... :P

I will try to upload some pictures of Lampchop and some other things to colorize my blog (cause who just wants to read large blocks of text??)

Melissa

Winding Up and Winding Down

Well the semester is almost over; only three papers and three exams stand between me and Winter break. I have been finishing my cartilage and bone staining of the chick embryos, and have collected most of my data. I have been having some issues with the embryos taking much longer than predicted to dehydrate and rehydrate so I have been a little bit crazy with my schedule. I even slept over at the Science Center last night, and will be going in every day even though I am technically on break. Yay, Science!! But it has been a really neat process to learn how to do this, as well as to learn how to work with embryos. I freaking love science. It is the coolest thing to learn how and why certain solutions can turn cartilage and bone a certain color, can turn muscles and organs translucent, can make skin brittle.

I need to buckle down and do really well this final cycle; I am on the border of an A in all three of my science classes. This will probably end up being my worst semester grade-wise of college, but definitely the one in which I have learned the most, and I think that is the more important thing.

I submitted my supplement for Wisconsin today, which means that I really have nothing to do except wait. I won't find out about VMRCVM until the end of December, and may not even hear from Wisconsin until March! It will be what it will be...

~Melissa

Today was a bit rough. A&P exam in the morning, Biochem exam in the afternoon. I have been studying for both since last Friday but I don't feel great about either exam. I guess we will see what Monday and the grades bring... On the upside, we have a wet lab with Doc tomorrow, where the pre-vetters will be learning more about equine dentistry and veterinary work. I'm sure it will be fun! And I have work, which always cheers my soul even as it exhausts my body. Being around animals all day is a balm for my stressed out self; it reminds me why I do what I do, and even allows me the rare opportunity to apply the things I am learning in the classroom to the the things in the field and the barn.

~Melissa

Crazy Week

This week has been an interesting one, only promising to get more stressful as it goes. Monday started the kick off of our research study after finally getting IUCUC approval. We recorded three dogs, and have more set up in the coming weeks. Monday also started the individual capstone research project that I am conducting, which involves shooting lufenuron (an active ingredient in flea and tick meds as well as a hugely industrial pesticide) into eggs to see the effect on embryo growth. That has been a shit show, as one could say. I was in the lab until eleven last night getting it all set up and all of my eggs injected... The biggest problem was that my drug refused to be soluble in anything! Finally got it in a 3:1 ethanol:water mix, but we will see if any of my eggs live after that...

Got home with half an hour to spare before course re-registration opened. I switched some classes around, and ended up in Vertebrate Zoology, Neuroscience, Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology 2. Can you say hellooooo stress? Three of those have labs, while vert zoo is a combine 3 hr lecture/lab. This will be my first time taking 4 science courses in a semester (I really like to hold on to just one non-science), but I'm not too too worried. 

Tonight marks the continuance of more intense studying for my two exams on Friday; Anatomy and Physiology and Biochemistry. I really need to do well on both; my grade could go either way (A-/B+) in both classes, and having a good exam score would put it on the higher end!

Anyway, out the door!

~Melissa

I took this during a gelding a couple of weeks ago. For some reason it just struck me as being very beautiful. The outlining of the vein, the bright colors, the angle of the light. I suppose this is my repressed artist self coming out for a moment.

 Where am I? Sitting between the two back legs, holding one at the correct angle for the vet.

No, I'm not a serial killer.

I got invited to interview at Missouri! :)

Triplets!

I got to the farm this morning just in time to watch  a ewe, Pineapple, give birth to the first lamb of the season... and then two more! Who doesn't love cute baby lambs? :)

Regrets

This is one of those nights that, seeing everyone else out having fun for Halloween, I wish my life wasn't so busy and I didn't care so much about grades. Some things you can't get back, like time spent with those you love. Maybe I'm just feeling sentimental because I'm a senior, and I know that this coming Spring will see me separated from the friends whom I have made in college and who have made their way deep into my heart. But sometimes it's really hard to sit at home and work on my papers while everyone I know is at a gathering on campus, talking and laughing and enjoying themselves.

On the upside, I dressed up as a phospholipid for Halloween. I put on a hood that was polar-bear-esque in order to make the pun of having a "polar head" and covered myself in the chemical equation for a phosphatidylcholine phospholipid. Perhaps not super imaginative, but it did win me an extension on biochem assignments.

~Melissa

Good Morning!

It's a beautiful day here. The sun is slanting across my backyard, highlighting the tufts of white in the squirrels' tails as they leap from tree to tree. With the window cracked I can even hear the sound of one munching on a nut, something I liken to nails on a chalkboard. My chickies are running around, fluffing their feathers and stretching their wings. I think they might weigh a pound each now. And there goes Big Red, my beautiful Americauna rooster who crows his head off from 4 AM to noon. Jasmine is sitting next to my keyboard as I type, plaintively looking at me (she either wants more breakfast or pets, probably the latter).

It's nice to finally have a break to appreciate these things. This past week has been like heaven. I had an exam on Monday which concluded my six weeks of exams, and then it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. My workload has been light, and my birthday was on Friday. I received an invitation to watch a complicated gelding surgery, so I of course took that. It wasn't too involved; one testicle was where it should have been (just not dropped), while the other was  up in the flank. I ended up holding the back leg out, while Doc performed the procedure in a way to provide a really good view for his audience. Two of the pre-vet students joined me (and many more wanted to), and got their first taste of vet med. Both are thinking of doing equine vet med, and so it was a good experience for them. They also got to meet the woman who runs the rescue that the colt is on (someone who I am quite fond of), and Doc and Ms. S. One of the girls set up an interview with Doc to start riding along on Saturdays, which I think she will very much enjoy. Doc and Ms. S. invited the club out to his barn again this year for a hands-on equine dentistry wet lab (which we will definitely take advantage of!).

Later, Jared took me out to the Cheesecake Factory and the large mall in Towson, and his parents joined us. I thoroughly enjoy their company and will be missing the family fall birthday celebration tonight with them, so being able to spend some time with them made me feel a little better about that. It was a really nice night. We hardly get a chance to go anywhere, and I had never been to the C.F. out here, and only been to Towson mall twice. I ended up buying a really pretty dress at Macy's which I found out that the register was marked down even further than I thought, ending up only being $10! Jared bought me a really nice watch of a fancy brand I had never heard of, which I protested strongly (walmart watches are more my style) but am rather fond of. Not sure how often I will wear it though; I am rather afraid of hurting it.

Last night was my brother and I's combined B-day celebration with the family. It was a rowdy and loud time as usual, with a lot of bickering going on across the table! My mother prepared a wonderful meal (of course!) and everyone pigged out. She even made two cakes so Dale and I could each have our favorites. Dale got a shopping trip to get him some new professional clothes, and my mother bought me a 60 minute massage (woohoo!) and an engraved Littman Stethoscope. It is gorgeous and the sounds it produces are incredibly clear (much better than my cheap Amazon one). I seriously hope I get in to vet school or else I will have a very awesome stethoscope and no place to use it! (Jared suggested I could always hang it on the wall as motivation LOL). My mom's small animal vet went to VMRCVM and is apparently head of the program that helps first year vet students get settled... including what they need to bring. So she gave mom advice on which one to buy and to get it engraved (to prevent stealing). I keep meeting vets that graduated from there and they are all so enthusiastic and offer to "put in a good word" or are just outpouring about the program's strengths. I would be happy anywhere, but I would love to stay a bit closer to home, and I do love the school. Here's to hope!

Today (to conclude this long post) I am headed with the club to a small exotic rescue a couple towns over (only 20 mins from campus), and then later to a haunted scream park with my friends! Should be a fun AND beautiful day :)

~Melissa

The Best Thing

This semester has been great in that all of my science classes have been overlapping in really nice ways. Our second unit in Comparative Animal was on muscles, at the same time I was learning about muscle tissues in Human A &P, and just the other day we learned about the detailed bio-chemical aspects of muscles in Biochem. Even in strange things such as learning about crocodile's blood shunting abilities in CAP and then learning about BPG binding (or lack thereof) and hemoglobin affinity for bicarb in crocodile's in Biochem the very next class  (both of which are important factors in croc's ability to drown their prey). It's nice because I get completely different things and details in each course, and then some overlap which certainly helps with the studying.

And then there is my Native American Studies class. I love learning about the indigenous cultures here in America. More than that, I am intrinsically drawn towards learning about the social justice issues, racism and oppression going on in the Native communities. It inspired me to sign up to lead a week-long immersion trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in the Spring where we will be doing service projects and engaging in conversation with the Snowbird Cherokee. This is a new trip this year (also called alternative break trips), and I am trying to act as a bridge between the Native professor on campus and the Center for Public Service. In the past, the trips have been viewed as a bit of exploitation and "let's go see the Indians." I'm trying to re-vamp that and make it into a respectful and mutual atmosphere where students are made truly aware of the issues facing the native people in the Americas. I'm really excited about it (in case you can't tell), but it has also been taking up a lot of time.

A lot of exams and papers and readings lately (have 5 weeks straight of exams, then a week off and start over)... my grades have not been as good as they should be, but I only have so many hours in a day to study for exams on top of everything else. I've even been neglecting writing on here because it takes time!  Speaking of which... I need to go work on my bio paper and my NAS paper and my readings and that video I'm supposed to watch and studying for my exam on Tuesday and working on my biochem HW problems and oh yeah the three or four chapters in textbooks I'm supposed to have read by Monday...

At least its good practice for vet school. Which I may one day get into, and then put myself in debt for the rest of my life.

Happy Tails and Trails,

~Melissa

5 AM Surprises

I leave the window open at night because I like to sleep in the cold and burrow under blankets. This also normally means I wake up with the sun and Big Red's non-stop greeting of it.

This morning I woke up to a different type of chicken noise; a strangled squawking. This noise awoke me abruptly, and it sounded like it was receding into the distance by the time my fuzzy brain recognized it. I threw on my robe and flip flops, turned on the floodlights and went outside. My hens were in the pen, huddled in a corner of the coop, while Big Red was still sound asleep in the house. My two juvenile roosters were nowhere to be seen. I searched around their coop, and checked their house. They weren't in their usual perching spot. There were also no feathers that I could see. My best guess was one of the boys had gotten nabbed by a passerby fox, and the other had run into the corn field across the lane, or was hiding under some bushes. It was still pitch black outside and I wasn't about to go tramping through the corn calling for a chicken that may or may not be there and may or may not come to me.

So I shrugged and went back into the house. Once the sun came up and I had eaten my breakfast, I went back out to investigate. Standing in my backyard were both roosters, who came running up to me looking for food. The white one looked as if he was missing some tail feathers, and he had a strange burr on his belly, but had not a mark on him. There was a trail of white underfeathers spread around the coops and some in the front yard, but how much of it was there beforehand is impossible to determine.

I put an ad on my school digest this morning to try to find them a home. I guess I'm a sucker for a friendly chicken and some pretty tailfeathers. If no one wants them I suppose I'll get up the gumption to eat 'em one of these days but...I was almost hopeful the foxes had taken that decision out of my hands. Guess not. So there they sit, basking in the sunlight beneath the pine trees in my backyard, freely reining the yard since they refuse to stay in their pen and I'm too lazy to figure out a better way to keep them in.

~Melissa

Study, study, study

I think this is my life motto! Really!

Well it looks like I spoke (wrote?) too soon the other day. As of now, there are 7 students signed up for Friday, so that is very exciting! I guess I need to learn some patience...

Things haven't been too exciting here on the home front lately. I do have 15 eggs in the incubator set to hatch this weekend, tagged to go to my aunt. I'm hoping for a good hatch rate; this is the first time I have tried an automatic egg turner, so we shall see how it works compared to my lovingly hand-turned eggs. All the animals are doing fine, and the two juvenile roosters are driving me nuts escaping every day! They may hit the freezer sometime soon... I don't know what else to do with them! They aren't bothering anyone but I also couldn't find a home for them, and they are food hogs. We will see if I have the heart to do it...

Just wanted to shoot a little update :)

Back to studying!

~Melissa

This semester has been a little rough so far. Getting back into the swing of things has just taken it's time I suppose. I have mainly been getting B's on assignments, and the few A's have been scrapes. This Friday is my first biochemistry exam, and I am studying every way I know how, and a few ways that I have never tried before. It's never too late to learn better methods!

I have a presentation today, and I also have a seminar to attend. Then I get to get back to working on my endless piles of homework and reading. There literally are not enough hours in the day to do it all. I am in class from 9-5 on M/W and 1-4 on T/Th, with my Fridays being the shortest days, only having two classes. But then I have a 2 hr chunk of time for research, so really it equals the same thing. This is, really, the best prep for vet school I could ever ask for (if I get in!). Talk about time management skills...

We have the first real trip with the pre-vet club this Friday, and I'm getting disheartened already this semester. The first meeting, a wet lab to set up our Dermestid colony, had two officers come to it, my best friend and one first year. No returning members, not even all of the officers. The upcoming trip is to the farm that I work at, where we will be teaching them how to handle sheep, poultry, and piglets, and giving an intro to all the animals on the farm. There will even be a piglet castration demo. But so far only 3 people signed up, two of them being first years. I am happy that even 3 people will go though, and will be benefited (hopefully) by what they learn.

All of the events this year I conferred with the other officers about before scheduling, and received enthusiastic input about them being good ideas. The end of year survey to all club members (filled out by almost 20 people in the club) last year showed that everyone was satisfied with the events and meetings and felt that they had helped them to figure out a career or enhanced their knowledge of the profession. Last year we had a really good core group who came to meetings and trips; about 10 people or so. This year even the other officers don't seem to want to go to things. I advertise via our email and our facebook group, always emphasizing that getting experience in different fields is good even if someone is only interested in small animal medicine.

I know I have wrote about this before, but it seems to be a continual problem here...

Do any of you reading this have any ideas? Are you part of a similar club, or do you know how to get people motivated? I think I need advice...

~Melissa

Just A Little Hectic

These first few weeks are always a bit of a mess. It takes time to get back into studying habits and time-balance, and it seems like the meetings and planning for other things never stops. I have really been enjoying my classes though. A friend who is in vet school suggested I take A&P, and even though it is the human version, I find it very fascinating and extremely applicable. I have a whole ton of printouts of other animals and their systems which I have been using for species comparison. It makes lots of things that I have seen or just learned on the surface make a whole lot more sense. Since it is not a Biology class, the bio they teach you is rather shallow, but that in itself makes me appreciate Cell Biology last semester even more.

I applied and was chosen to lead an alternate Spring break in TN this year, so I have been going through training for that as well. Between the initial pre-vet club meting and training, I haven't been getting home before 7 each night. It makes things a little rough; especially when I need to still make and eat dinner, as well as do homework and take care of the animals/house. Jared is very helpful, but there are many nights where he gets home just as late.

It will work itself out though....

The PVC schedule this semester I think is pretty good... hopefully others think so too! We are starting with a "wet lab" where we will be setting up a dermestid colony. The club will be maintaining it and once it is mature, putting in specimens for cleaning. Then next semester we will have a lab where we will put the skeletons back together, identifying the bones and the specimens as we go. We are taking a trip out to my farm to give everyone some experience with sheep, poultry and hogs, as well as going to a variety of animal shows and rescues in the area. Speaker-wise we have in the works a small animal vet who does some alternative medicine (acupuncture, muscle maneuvering), a board-certified surgeon, an advisor for Penn Vet program and a current vet student. We are also doing a wet lab with tumors (fixing, staining, ID) and a dissection of some deer parts (we do hardly any dissections at my college).

We have about 15 first-years interested in the club, probably 7 of which are seriously interested in veterinary medicine. I am hoping many of our past members return as well... but we will see!

~Melissa

Back to the Grind

I've been back to school a little over a week now, and it is already hectic! My semester consists of taking biochemistry, comparative animal physiology, human anatomy and physiology and native american studies.

 I also found out last week that I will definitely be doing research this semester! While unfortunately it is too late to actually help me with vet school applications, I am very excited to have the opportunity to see what it is like to conduct a behavioral research experiment! Even better, my dear friend Gael will be doing it with me, as well as my VP for Pre-vet club, and an ex-pre-vetter who is a hoot. We are going to be studying dog communication and trying to determine whether dogs can distinguish barks in a certain way; testing two hypothesis about the purpose of barking. I'm still a little fuzzy on the details (I have a reading list a mile long to take care of this week), but it seems like it will definitely be a good experience! I will probably be adding it on as a fifth "class," Bio 460, which will show up on my transcript and give me credit (not that I need it :P).

The last few weeks have been rather eventful. I worked my butt off at the farm right up to the last day before school. We had a lot of changes with farmhands and staff, and so I was training away, as well as finishing all the little things that needed to be done before I went back. I helped ear tag and deworm this years lambs, and we had two more litters of piglets born, which all had to get teeth clipped and iron shots. I will still be working there on Saturdays, and covering when they need me to (like this Thursday morning before class), but so far my schedule has been a bit interrupted.

This past Saturday we had a funeral for my great uncle Frank, who was tragically killed when someone ran a stop sign and literally plowed him and his motorscooter over. While it was very nice to see all of my extended family, it was sad to be attending a funeral rather than the party that had been planned. But, in true fashion of my large Polish family, there was far more laughter than tears, people spending all day telling their favorite stories of Frank, and they even ended up having a small party after all. Grief mixed with healing.

I also have a whole new pile of fluffballs in the garage, which are for my aunt (with a few to replace ours which were eaten). My neighbor's dog came into the garage and disemboweled five of my day old chicks before I dragged her butt out of the box, leaving me with fourteen and a really, really bad attitude.... I don't even want to talk about that because it still pisses me off. So we have another dozen in the incubator; this time trying an egg turner.

I will be getting back into posting regularly now; at least once a week if not more! While I am sure plenty of it will be rather boring, we are doing some pretty neat stuff this semester with the PVC (can you say dermestids??), and I have a good bit going on at the homefront. So stay tuned!

~Melissa

Don't You Just Hate Those Times When...

... you call three vets, schedule appointments with all of them and then forget who you called, when you scheduled them for, or what their names are?

Yesterday was spent out with Doc (first time in awhile!), and our first client sure was interesting. We headed out on the road for the half hour trip to a new client's house. Ms. S. (the vet tech) called ahead to let them know we were coming, reaching a voicemail that did not contain the client's name and seemed to be for a business. Using 411 and a 4G hotspot, we got a home number and called again, to no avail. With a shrug, we continued on our way, hoping that someone would be there to greet us. We pulled up to a decent-sized farm with some tractor trailers parked in the yard, as well as a pretty bay gelding grazing freely on the lawn. Pulling up to the barn, a pirate greeted us.

Well not really a pirate but...his ensemble was a torn shirt and pants, red bandana covering his hair, and a bandage across one eye. A ruddy complexion, jowls and a 10 o'clock shadow of white bristle completed the look. Doc rolled down a window and inquired if he was the owner of the horse we were looking for. Indeed, he seemed to be. He also seemed very confused. We had come with x-ray equipment in tow, planning on taking a look at a hoof which had abscessed, healed and was still bothering the horse. The owner explained that both of Doc's competing vets in the area, Dr. O (who used to work for Doc) and Dr. T, had been out to see the horse. Dr. T had taken x-rays last week. Both vets had said that nothing was wrong with the horse, and he simply needed shoes.

Doc took this in with good humor and simply asked if he still wished for us to take a look at the horse. The pirate shrugged and said "I could always use a third opinion." We parked, and got out. The grazing bay was our patient, and as his owner pulled him off the grass and towards the barn, it was clear that this horse was really not okay. He staggered in, appearing to be lame on not just one foot, but both front feet.

After an examination of the foot with the  pastabscess turned up little results besides a soft sole, Doc checked out the other hoof and found white line disease, a fungal infection that results in separation of the hoof wall. The horse also had a very soft sole on this hoof, yielding to thumb pressure. The owner's insight of trail boots upon turnout had saved him from more bruising. Taking a look at the x-rays confirmed some inflammation and no serious further problems. Our pirate friend was jubilant that he had not listened to the first two vets and had instead listened to his farrier, who had cautioned him against shoes. Had he shoed the horse, serious hoof problems could have ensued.

The bay was truly his baby. This was his favorite horse of all time, and he diligently copied down directions, medications and names, took cards and magnets, and set up an appointment for next week. Throughout the appointment, he asked us multiple times the name of the practice and Doc's name, seeming to forget them once the names left his ear drums.

As we drove away, I think we were all wondering if he would be pursuing a fourth opinion; however, I think he may have been out of vets. Perhaps he will become a regular client... then again, more likely, he will return to his original vet, and the check-up appointment will be canceled.

If nothing else, it certainly made the day interesting.

~Melissa

Neglect

Sorry it's been so long. When the school year starts back up, I am sure I will have more to post about! It's been kinda crazy around here, with barely time to draw breath. My applications for vet school are officially submitted, and all I still need is one letter of recommendation to be submitted. Everything has been verified by VMCAS and so my application will be on it's way to the schools this week! Hopefully that means I have a greater chance of being seen and considered and will be on top of the pile, much like the sheep below.

I found a huge scholarship that I applied for for the upcoming school year, and I am sorely hoping that it comes through. I just got back from a fantastic vacation in LBI (long beach island) with some of my best friends from college. We had a wonderful time- I don't think I have laughed that much in years.

I have a week back home, in which I am working as much as I can, and then am heading down to Florida with Jared's family for my second vacation this Summer (boy am I spoiled!). I am a little worried about my animals, since I have been trying to find people to watch them and make sure they are well taken care of when we are gone. Remi is hard since she gets worn out very easily due to her double hip displasia.

I am also farm-sitting this week, and shadowing two days. In between which I have to get Jared and myself packed for Florida, and work on various projects that need to be done before we leave.

Crabbing!

Yesterday I went out crabbing with my grandfather for the first run of the season. The weather was spectacular out on the Chesapeake Bay, and though other crabbers had taken his usual spots, we still found somewhere to lay our lines. Watching the sun come up on the bay is an amazing experience... the sun is reflected in a thousand tiny mirrors, amplified over and over. It comes up red and burning, and the sunrise is always spectacular. The wind coming off the bay is always a little chilly and also a little warm, making the entire thing an experience not to be lightly forgotten. As we drove out over the water at 5:30 AM, right before the sun came fully up, I chanced to see an osprey flying above with a fish in it's clutches, perfectly silhouetted against the sky. Fish leaped out of the water, water birds called to each other and flew off the water as our boat disturbed them. I even saw a very rare (in the bay at least) horseshoe crab.

We laid three "trot" lines (I'm not actually sure if this is "trout" or "trot" since I have only ever heard it spoken) with chicken necks tied up their lengths, and detergent  containers as floats on the end. We caught them up and ran them over a roller on the side of the boat, allowing my grandfather and I to take turns dipping them out of the water with a net. Leaning over the boat as far as possible without falling in, we dove after the crabs as they were pulled up, clinging to their chicken necks. Blue and shimmering, the females with bright red claws, they are agile swimmers and beautiful to behold. Each and every crab gets measured to make sure it is a legal size; if not, it is tossed overboard to live another day.

All in all we got 2 bushels of crabs, and called it in a little early due to the crabs ceasing to come up at a good pace. I always have a wonderful day out with my grandfather. He is one of my favorite people, and I adore his silly humor and loving personality. Crabbing with him is one of my all-time favorite activities, both because I thoroughly enjoy the experience as a whole, and also because it is a solid day that I get to spend with just him.

Photo Blog! Pics from the Farm

Inside the main hen house

Bella, who I shaved terrible.

Molly, one of my all-time favorite dogs.

Piglets!

The sheep gazing pitifully at me, waiting to be fed.

An escaped herd of lambs. They were sneaking out under one of the fences.

Bad Blogger!

Ah, I have become a terrible blogger. Even during the semester I was able to get one or two in a week, yet now I am having a rough time. This morning I finished up my veterinary school application and my personal statement. I haven't hit the submit button yet, but I am almost ready to. Does anyone have any questions about applying to vet school or the application? I know I have around 10 followers; not sure how many are planning to apply or not.

I normally shadow on Thursdays, but the vet I ride along with is attending a funeral today. This gives me some extra time to get things done around the house and in the garden, and actually sit down and write on my blog! Really things haven't been too interesting. At the farm I helped with another batch of piglets, and dewormed another pile of lambs. My animal handling skills are definitely benefiting from my time at the farm. The farm calls the last couple of weeks have been pretty routine; vaccines and floats and hoof abscesses.

There was one case that was pretty fascinating a couple weeks ago; we did a 24-hour check up on a foal and it was very sick. The ears and whites of the eyes were completely red, and it's gums were splotchy in color. The placenta had some hemorrhaging and the uterus was probably mildly infected during pregnancy. The foal also had front knees that were backwards, and had to be splinted. Though we looked for other genetic deformities (normally they come in pairs), we couldn't find anything obvious. After a strong round of antibiotics, the foal has now recovered, has straightened legs and is quite a handful to hold on to for it's blood draws! It was good to see such a quick recovery, and to know that without our intervention the baby would not have made it very much longer. 

~Melissa

Week at the Farm

My week at the farm was pretty eventful. Monday I headed in a little early to help catch and load two sheep going to market. One was a sheep that had somehow gotten it's tail ripped off, and the other one was the sheep that had prolapsed their uterus a couple months ago. We got everyone loaded without too much of a problem. The sheep were going in the back of a pickup, since two sheep easily fit in a cab. The worst part was getting the larger sheep (probably around 200 pounds) up into the back of the truck. As you can imagine, they don't help very much!

Yesterday we started the day by catching all of the ram lambs (24 of them) and isolating them from the ewe's and the ewe lambs. They were starting to get a little... aware... of things so this is necessary to avoid incest. The ram will be coming back in a couple of weeks to try to get some November babies.

I'm headed in today for my normal shift, and then going to two family parties this evening.

~Melissa

Personal Statement

Well I'm sitting here revising my personal statement for the 10^nth time. VMCAS opened on Wednesday, so I have been working slowly on getting everything taken care of. I stopped by the community college today to request that my transcripts get sent out. One of my eLORs is in already (way to be on top of things for that recommender). My GRE scores are unofficially in and the score reports already requested to be sent to my schools.

Where am I applying? VMRCVM, Missouri, Wisconsin and (possibly) Colorado.

Really if I don't get in to my IS (VMR), then I am hoping for Wisconsin or nothing at all. I love vet med, but I don't love it enough that I can't wait another year to save myself $100,000+. My instate and Wisconsin would be the lowest cost for me (IS at $20,000, Wisconsin at $25,000). Wisconsin is better for large animals I believe, but I do quite love VMR.

It's bizarre to actually be here, in the process of applying. When did I grow up? When did I become a senior in college, knowing 100% what I wanted to do with my life, engaged, living independent (kind of) from my parents, hoping to make a dream come true by getting into vet school and putting myself through 4 years of hell (or so I have heard) to earn 3 letters and a ton of knowledge?

Where does life go when you aren't looking?

~Melissa

Relaxation?

Things have been crazy around here. Between taking care of the geese, chicks, chickens, cats, dog and horses, working multiple part time jobs, helping out my grandmother, upkeeping the house, working in the garden, studying for the GRE and prepping for the opening of VMCAS (Today!), there hasn't been too much free time present for me to sit down and pen something. In a little under an hour I will be heading off to take the GRE. I am certainly hoping to do well, and feel like I have studied my butt off for it.Whatever time I have left this evening will be spent starting on my VMCAS, revamping my personal statement, and possibly rounding up some chickens and cows to go to market at the farm.

Monday morning when I got to the farm, one of the hogs, Daisy, had just had her first litter. No one had expected her to have them so early (she was supposedly due tomorrow), so it was a surprise. She had ten little ones, and took to them right away. I have gotten a bit more used to both her and the other sow, Lillian. They are in the main barn in the farrowing pens. These are pens with an escape side for the piglets to go in when the sow gets up and moves around. This helps lower the amount of piglets that get squished! On commercial farms, they put the sow in very small cages, with bars too tight for the piglets to get anything but their noses in to suckle. This is portrayed by animal activist groups as being cruel, but in reality this saves the lives of many piglets.

ANYWAY... Yesterday I helped clip off the end of the piglets teeth (they are born with really, really sharp teeth and can actually damage the sow's teats), and give them iron shots. I was brushing up on my piglet grabbing and handling skills! In a couple weeks I will be helping with castrations on the gilts.

And now I'm on my way to go take the GRE! I have a ton of pictures stored up to post on here, so hopefully I will get to it soon.

~Melissa

Pericardial Effusion

Last night I also went into the ER for the first time in well over a month. I really enjoyed being back there. Even though I can't touch animals, the techs and doctors still teach me a lot of things and let me help with things that need to be done. Last night there were some interesting cases: an older dog with kidney failure, partial paralysis (probably due to a blood clot thrown from his kidneys), poor blood pressure and a heart murmur. He got progressively better as the day went on, and by the time I got there he was able to stand a bit, and had lost his head tilt. He was still having some neurological problems, but was doing much better. There was another dog that had eaten rat poison and no one had caught it until he started to bleed profusely out of his gums. It was very bizarre to see, and no one was quite sure what to do with him. Since he was having a blood clotting issue, they didn't feel comfortable lifting him up for x-rays for fear of causing more bleeding and bruising. They administered a lot of Vitamin K, which I think was supposed to balance things out in some way.

Another dog came in that had microphthalmic disease (not sure if I spelled that right), and after a variety of stains and tests, his eye pressure revealed glaucoma. Microphthalmic is linked to coat color; if you breed two blue merle Aussies together you get the disease, and any really "double dapple" coat color on a dog (also seen in Dachshunds) can produce this.

By far the most unusual and sad case of the night was a dog with pericardial effusion.This is apparently a rather rare thing to happen. The pericardial sac (surrounding the heart) becomes filled with fluid, putting pressure on the heart and causing it to have problems beating. The heart appears globoid on x-ray, and ultrasound allows views of the fluid. There is a 50% chance that it is cancer, and a 50% chance that it is idiopathic. The treatment is pericardiocentesis, where fluid is drawn off by catheter. The procedure is fairly expensive, and the dog that came in was older, so the owners made the very difficult decision to put him to sleep.

I tried to find some good radiographs on google to show you what it looked like, but was unsuccessful!

~Melissa

A Flock of Ewe's Eating Sounds Like Rain on a Tin Roof.

Yes, they do, bizarrely. It is very peaceful.

Yesterday I worked at the farm, my usual  Sunday routine. I feed the ram (Black Knight), who is good friends with me, then head down to feed the piglets and the swine. They have 6 piglets and 5 pigs. I head to the chicken houses and feed the layers, the pullets (broilers to be), and the new flock of layers which are still very young. Finally I head to the large barn and feed the 30 or so sheep and lambs, as well as the two sheep dogs, and the barn cats. Then I go to the other farm down the road and feed more sheep and lambs. Next week I will start feeding the cattle- they are changing the management plan to try to tame the cows a little bit more, making it easier to deal with them for routine health maintenance as well as when the time comes for them to go to slaughter. They have a mixed breed herd, with only about 15 head.

The rest of my day is filled with general farm labor; yesterday I moved feed and hay around, cleaned out all of the nest boxes, and shoveled out the "Super Coop" chicken barn. They keep the barns very clean, and the chicken houses get cleaned about once a week, while the other pens get poop picked out twice daily. As far as farms go, this is about as clean as you can get!

This week, my first out of school(!), I am starting to work 3 days a week there. This should definitely help me pay off my vet bill for my horse in a reasonable amount of time! I also will be doing some garden work for Doc to work it off, continuing to clean houses and picking up some more yard work and such. Hopefully sometime soon I will have paid it off and will be able to put some of the money I'm earning into my checking account!

Tomorrow I will be learning how to shave the Great Pyrenese farm dog, and starting to paint the mile of white board fence surrounding the farm. They are trying to keep me with the animals as much as possible, which is awesome.

Here are some cute pictures from the farm:

The small brown coop

Piglets!

The Babies!

We ended up having one more born last night, giving us three blondes and three black-topped-yellow-bottomed

Yes, it's alive, just resting after breaking out!

The Waiting Game

Sorry for my silence lately. This semester has been a very tough one for me, and I am in the midst of finals week. Coming up to it were the usual piles of papers, last minute quizzes and homework that professors tend to shove in, as well as reviews and study sessions. I am 3/4 of the way done, having taken my poetry exam on Sunday, physics on Monday and cell biology on Tuesday. Tomorrow evening is organic chemistry. I have felt surprisingly good about most of my finals- yes, there were one or two questions on each that tripped me up, but overall I actually felt very confident and prepared about them. I am hoping organic will be the same (it is one of the easiest classes for me), but I am having a hard time studying for it.

Last Wednesday my goslings hatched, and yesterday and today my chicks have been hatching. Currently I have two chicks out and three breaking out, with two eggs showing no signs of occupancy. I did "candle" them and it looks like one of the eggs' membrane is drawing backwards as if the chick has died. The other one looks normal and was put in the incubator a day later than the others, so it is very possible that it will just be late.

I will post plenty of pictures once I get a chance this weekend.

I did just find out that I got an A+ in my poetry class as my final grade. With 100% on the midterm and A's on all of my papers and journals, it was something I was hoping for but not completely expecting! That will definitely help balance out my GPA with the relatively lower grades that I am expecting in physics and cell biology. If only my English classes counted towards my science GPA for vet school! I am keeping my fingers crosses that I pull out of cell biology with above a C. I have never even received anything less than a B+ in college, but I will actually cry with joy if I get a B- in cell. Even a C+ I would take. Anything above a B- is essentially unattainable for me, even if I got 100% on the final (which didn't happen). This, I suppose, it what someone once referred to as my "welcome to the real world."

I will know in less than a week. Professors are supposed to have their grades up by Monday I believe.

I hope I haven't lost any readers due to my silence (though I'm not actually sure that more than two people read this), and I promise that this Summer, filled with animal-related work on a farm and my usual shadowing, will be a much more exciting blog! Oh, and I'm applying to vet school this Summer. That might be interesting to everyone too! I would be happy to answer any questions about the process if any pre-vet students read the blog.

~Melissa

My Eggs are Peeping!

I'm coming up on 21 days for the chicks and geese in my incubator. This evening they started peeping! That means tomorrow and the next day will be filled with baby chicks :) What a great way to end my last week of classes!

Finals are coming up next week and I'm studying my butt off. Today I finally braved up and asked one of my professors to write a letter of recommendation for me. He was enthusiastic about it, and I am thrilled. I have no doubts he will write me a great one, and I am very happy that he agreed. I was worried that since I am doing poorly (for me) in his class, that he would be reluctant, however he knows how hard I work and I think that that makes all the difference.

So, I'm back to studying :) I'll post some cute pictures when they hatch!

Oh, and I got a raise at the farm!

Melissa

Life Around the Farm

Things have been going okay lately. Sweetheart is recovering very well and even got on a nice new pair of shoes with pads on the front. She has never been shoed before, so we were all amazed at her allowance of the farrier to put them on (though I suspect the Ace had something to do with it too).

We have chick eggs and goose eggs in the incubator, and the sun is bright and shining. Hopefully my garden will be plowed soon and I can get in the vegetables that I love so much. I still haven't heard anything from my internships, and with the end of the semester fast approaching I am assuming that I probably won't. Luckily, I do have plenty of things to do with my summer, and the folks at Evermore even offered to help me run a research project on wormer effectiveness on their farms if I want to. So I'm getting somewhere I suppose, no matter how slowly.

The school also just hired a new professor for next year, and I have already approached her about doing research with her next year. She does behavioral work on dog breeds and wolves, and I think it would be something I would very much enjoy.

Today I am invested in writing a 15 page paper, the last paper of the semester and a very tiresome one. Thus, I am not going to write too much more, besides to say that I should have some time on Sunday to update on my shadowing Saturday night. I haven't been to the emergency hospital in three weeks due to illness, dinners and trips, so I'm looking forward to getting back there this weekend!

Here are some more pics from Evermore (because it's so beautiful I can't resist!):

Photo Blog

This is the ram and some of the younger cows at Evermore. The ram is super friendly, and the calf in front is  getting there. :)

This was one of the lambs who was posing for me. Right as I went to shoot (he had been staring at me), one of the other sheep came barreling out around the corner.

This is a bad picture (in some many ways), but was a shot of the bulbousness of my chicken's hind end. I wish I had taken more photos of her (as well as the necropsy).

Chicken, Chicken Now Come Down Outta That Tree

Sweetheart has been doing a little better. After a week on stall rest, her feet have started to firm up again. However, mentally she isn't doing so well. She spends all day everyday pacing back and forth in her makeshift stall, trying to get out. She bashed her face open a little on the ceiling trying to get out, and we ended up putting her on Acepromazine to try to take the edge off. Unfortunately even max dose isn't doing much to help her, though it did stop her from trying to leap out. Nothing will stop the pacing. Even tying her up doesn't help. It's a really bad sign, and I'm afraid that she will colic, especially with the new meds that she is on (muscle relaxers, bute, ace and aspirin). She refused to eat her pills for a few days without hand feeding and serious work on my mom's part, but with the slow mixing in of her new senior feed, she will finally eat it. She has lost probably 100 pounds in the last week. I'm praying that she gets through this. I am so grateful to my mother for taking care of her, and spending hours every day with her. I don't think I could handle it on top of everything right now, though I would do my darndest were she here with me. I've had her for 8 years, and that crazy horse and I have been through a heck of a lot together.

One of my chickens got really sick yesterday- blew up like a balloon, retaining water and had an abnormal-looking rectal area. She kept getting worse as the day progressed, despite isolation and warmth. We made the decision to put her out of her misery in the evening. I have never before seen a chicken walk upright, but I saw it yesterday. After she was gone, I necropsied her to check out was going on. She had about 2 cups of abdominal cavity fluid, which was slightly yellowed. However, all of her organs and membranes contained yellow staining. I thought this was perhaps renal failure, but upon consultation with Dr. C., I think she had egg yolk periotinitis. That is, the egg was deposited inside the abdomen rather than the oviduct. This makes complete sense, since her eggs have always been misshapen (she is our only white-egg layer), and that is a common precursor to this disorder. There is no real hope, and the chicken will simply waste away over the next few days. I am glad that she did not have to continue to suffer, and I am also glad that I now know the signs and what to look for... and if in the future I end up treating chickens, this is one disease I will certainly not forget.

~Melissa

Short Post!

I'm giving you a short blurb since I feel guilty when I'm not doing orgo problems!

Friday was a little rough for me; got a call in the AM that my horse was not doing well. Needless to say, I headed up to go see her and missed most of my morning classes. I headed back for my exam in cell biology (which I consequently tanked), and then back to my mom's house to be with her. She appeared lame and stiff, hardly moving and very poorly when she did. She looked miserable, and we had the deep fear that this may have been the end for her. We thought perhaps she had foundered  and seriously injured herself (though it seemed very bizarre), and got her in a nice padded area, with 12 inches of bedding and penned her in. My mom's barn only has a run in, so we had to make a make-shift stall to keep her contained (not that she was going far but...). I checked out all her vitals and she seemed fairly attentive, just in a lot of pain. Doc came on up when he could fit me in later in the afternoon, and even after blocking her feet, he wasn't able to fully determine what was going on. She seemed lame in her front two feet, but also very hunched in her back. The night before she had been running and bucking (as usual), and so it was proposed that perhaps she had hurt her back, and possibly had stone bruises on her feet. Her range of motion was definitely limited upon testing. We put her on muscle relaxants, bute and stall rest (which she hates). By the next day she was looking a bit better, and she is almost back to her ornery self at this point. She had some blood work drawn up and it did suggest Equine Metabolic Syndrome, whose symptoms she does fit rather well. We are still waiting for the lyme disease results (lyme disease can cause both sore backs and feet). Friday will tell whether she has improved any, and also if she will ever be rideable again. If not, she is still my girl and will live out a happy pastured life so long as she is comfortable.

This week has been rough already; after finding out that I did poorly on another cell test, I have just been quite depressed. I put in a ton of time studying for it, and yet my grade just doesn't reflect it. I'm hoping to just make it through at this point.

Saturday I visited VMRCVM and loved it. I set up an individual counseling session with an admissions counselor to go over the best ways to present myself and how to be the best applicant I can be. I want in! That won't be until May, and hopefully by the meeting I will have my GRE scores and my grades for the semester. Here's to hoping they don't drop my beautiful GPA too far!

Melissa

For some reason people want to talk to me?

I got interviewed again! I am not so keen on this website but the woman was really nice, and kept bugging me.

http://www.dugdug.com/blog/future-of-veterinary-care-gettysburg-college/

~Melissa

Universe Giving Back

So yesterday I was dying of thirst. I had just gotten out of a lab working with mouse melanoma cells and for some reason I just really wanted something to wet my whistle. I was in the library, studying for my cell bio "quiz" on Friday, and I went down to the machine to get something. Of course, I only had a five dollar bill, and the machine only takes ones. I had some quarters and other change, and I very excitedly realized that the machine took nickels and dimes ( I only had four quarters). So I sit there and feed about ten coins in. The readout says 1.70 put in. Drinks are 1.75. I have no more change. I stared in desolation at the machine. I really just wanted a cherry coke- was that too much to ask?? I pressed the coin return and the machine spit out my coins, one at a time, filling up the little holder. I retrieved them and looked sadly at the machine, then at the snack machine next door. Little hope in my heart, I reached into the coin return of the snack machine, out of habit more than anything. Deep in the recesses of that black hole, I found a dime. I stared at it in disbelief, then quickly re-fed my coins in. The machine spit out my cherry coke, and a nickel, which I replaced in the snack machine's coin return.

Later, I found a very, very important notecard that I thought I had lost hidden in the bottom of my backpack.

Luck is apparently with me. Perhaps the universe knew I needed a little help this semester.

~Melissa

Course Selection: Successful!

I picked classes this AM for next year, and I got in everything I was hoping to!

In the fall I will be taking:
Comparative Animal Physiology
Biochemistry I
Anatomy and Physiology I
Native American Studies

In the Spring I will be taking:
Vertebrate zoology
Neurobiology
Anatomy and Physiology II
Roots of the English Language (I have heard this is helpful for medical terms)

I will have three labs both semesters, but one of those three is a combine lecture and lab, so it is essentially 4 hours of lab twice a week with those. I will be in class 23 hours a week! If I have to go to part-time status I will be retaining the biology classes, dropping A &P and my two non-science classes. I will be graduating on-time (rather than early as my high school self had wanted), but I will be graduating with a strong background in the sciences, well-prepared for grad school.

 By this time next year I will know if I am going to vet school directly out of undergrad or not! My back up plan? Probably becoming a research tech somewhere to get experience with that.

I still haven't heard from either of my Summer internships, though I emailed the FDA one last night since their 45 day prediction is about up. I have a sinking feeling that I will indeed be working on the farm this Summer, and that my chance to get into some sort of research is gone. BUT my advisor did tell me I was welcome to come piddle around in his lab this Summer and get a little unpaid experience if I wanted (since the time for grants has come and gone), and this I will do since even a little research experience is better than none!

We are skyping with a distinguished alumni this evening, and I'm sure hoping that club members will show up. The last speaker to come only had three other officers and one general club member show up (which was kind of embarrassing!). She was a local vet, and extended her offer to those at the meeting to come shadow and even possibly work for her, so that was a great opportunity that many people missed out on. This speaker is a faculty member at a vet school, and has authored hundreds of articles, as well as two novels! I'm pretty excited to meet him.

Anywho, back to homework!

~Melissa

What a Week!

Well this week I got back two not so great exams- an 83% on a physics exam and an 83% on an organic exam. The class average was much lower both times, hovering around a 75 for the physics and a 64 for organic. I'm not so happy with either one, but there is nothing I can do about it, and I'm just hoping that my other grades will balance them out. On Tuesday I was invited to go to a private dinner with a visiting author by my poetry professor. I really didn't know what to expect, but it was a fantastic multi-course meal at a prestigious restaurant in town, and there were multiple faculty members, mainly involved in my professor's main job- a review magazine. I was one of two students there, and there were only 15 people invited. I had a wonderful time chatting with everyone, and was invited again this coming week for another meal with a visiting author at a different restaurant. After the dinner, I went to a reading by the poet, and had my book signed. He also came to class the next day and talked with us, so that as well was very neat.

My lab partner "forgot" to tell me that she was going out of town for the end of the week, which meant that we couldn't do our lab project. This coming week we will then have to do two lab projects at once, on top of having another cell exam on Friday to study for. I'm a little nervous about doing all of it, but I'm sure that it will work out.

Yesterday was a pretty big day for me; it was my first full 8 hour day at the farm! I fed the animals in the morning, went to the feed store, refilled the feed barrels in all the barns, and then got called to give a hand with a prolapsed uterus. The owner gave me some gloves and helped catch and hold the ewe, and I washed her up, stuffed her uterus back inside and put a harness on her to keep it in. They are planning on getting rid of her soon... if you know what I mean... so they didn't want to have the vet out to staple her uterus in place (the normal procedure for a permanent fix). This is the second time she has done this, and on a meat farm this is an unfortunate event they can't afford to worry about. She did get an antibiotic shot to prevent infection, and she will be kept until her babes are old enough and the antibiotics are past the required time. I finished up with the evening feeding, checked on her again, and then heading to my grandmothers for a shower before shadowing.

Last night I shadowed at the ER, and had a really interesting time. The vet that I shadowed with ended up being pretty involved at VMRCVM. He is a very active alumni and part of their mentoring program. He has done small animal practice, emergency practice, and currently does lab animal medicine at Virginia Tech. And he is one of the 4 interviewers for vet school applicants. Talk about intimidating! He kept asking me questions about things he was doing and why he was doing them, and I'm pretty sure I failed about half of the questions.  He was a really nice guy though, and had fantastic client interaction skills, probably the best I have ever seen. I was also in surgery with him for three hours, doing both an exploratory and a cryptorchid. The exploratory was negative, so he took samples of the intestines for biopsy. The cryptorchid surgery also did not go as planned- the second testi was in a bizarre place, and was only a centimeter long! Talk about difficult to find. He never gave up though. I did notice that his hands shook during the entire surgery, something that I found fascinating, though his cuts were as clean and straight as can be. He told me all about different structures and arteries as we went, and I really enjoyed the surgery. I'm certainly hoping that I ended up leaving a good impression with him! If I get that far, it would be helpful to have a familiar face on the other end of the table, and if I get even further, it would be really neat to have him as a mentor.

Cheers,

Melissa

Farm Hand

First of all, I did want to apologize for not being as up-to-date on my posts as I have been in the past. It has been one rough semester for me, and while I post when I can, it's nowhere near what I'd like to!

Some updates about the new job:

I went on Saturday to follow around the current farm hand for feeding time and see what needed to be done. My duties are basically to feed and water the cows, hogs, sheep and poultry (both broilers and layers), gather eggs, and (surprise, surprise) scoop poop. Builds character I have heard. I certainly don't mind it, especially since right now there are tons of baby animals on the farm! They have about 20 head of cattle, 7 hogs (and 9 piglets!), probably 100 chickens and tons of sheep, as well as two sheep dogs, and two barn cats. The entire farm isn't "organic" but it is sustainable; they do everything as close to organic as they can while still being able to make some money. Basically, they buy non-organic hay because their neighbor sells hay and it's cheaper and easier. The farm is absolutely beautiful, and at the top barn you get a gorgeous view of the valley and the nearby horse stables of the farm one over. The animals are taken care of really well (besides the minimal vaccines and vet work, which I'm not a fan of, but it's not my place), have tons of space and pens are cleaned daily. Even the hogs are allowed to nurse their piglets freely (which unfortunately results in squished piglets).  I'm excited to be there, even if it is only on a farm hand capacity. We did find the first dead lamb of the season; no visible marks, but just dead in the paddock. The main sheep dog was really depressed about it, and wouldn't even look at her food. She is a Great Pyrenees, and the sweetest thing I have met. The other farm dog is a 8-month old mixed-breed puppy with no manners who jumped all over me and was absolutely ridiculous. We will have to have some talks because I hate being jumped on by huge obnoxious animals, especially when it results in my butt landing in sheep poop.

I start next weekend for my first full-time day, and then skip a week because I am going to VMRCVM's Open House! Taking whoever wants to go from the club, and I think my mother is going to go down with us/drive us since she wants to go too.

This morning we moved my horses back to my mom's (quite a feat). I will miss them, but not the added responsibilities of stall muckings, getting feed and shavings, and scrubbing out the water tubs! They have a much larger pasture there and acres to run in and have a grand ole time. They certainly were happy when we dropped them off!

Shadowing this weekend was pretty busy. There is some dissension in the ranks between the admin and the staff, which made me feel kinda uncomfortable, but I still enjoyed myself. We saw a strange lump on a dog's toe (possibly a bone infection), diagnosed a huge mass in a very sweet, young dog, patched up two dog-bite victims (both of the same breed, ironically).  Saw a small puppy who ingested a couple pills of mucinex and was extremely drunk-acting. And euthanized an old, old cat.

Similar to the toe; our dog was missing it's complete claw as well (and had been for months): (From brooklynvetgroup.com)

~Melissa

Fingers

You can always tell how stressed I am by the bad habit I have. That habit is destroying my fingers. I think they are worse now then they have been since the fifth grade when I tried to stop ripping them apart. I peel the nails off, and get rid of all the skin on the sides of my fingernails and rip my cuticles off. It's not pretty, and it is a really nasty habit. This week has been one blow after the other. I got my cell midterm back that I took before break, and it was bad. I mean BAD. I went in to meet with my professor, and he did tell me that I'm 16th out of 60 in the class, but that's not saying much since half the class is actually failing. My lab grades are bringing everything else up. His exams are graded essentially question by question pass/fail. So if you write a 10 point essay and don't use the exact terms that he is looking for, or miss a couple of details, you get a zero. There is very little partial credit, and that he only gives if you were spot on with everything and only missed a little bit. I can understand it, and I realize that probably more classes should grade this way but... it was kinda harsh for me, especially when some of the questions had to be answered in only one sentence.

On top of that, I had a midterm in American Poetry on Wednesday (which I rocked), and an exam in orgo yesterday which I didn't do so hot on. The worst part about the one yesterday was that it was really unlike the professor- he threw stuff in there from last semester without even a warning or an indication to look back over it, and even the format was different than his past exams. Nobody that I talked to actually finished the exam, and I myself left two parts of questions blank, and guessed on quite a bit. It was pathetic, since orgo is normally my strong suit by far, and I went in feeling good about the material. Maybe I'm developing text anxiety? After the exam I went to my next class and was just miserable. Even a few tears leaked down my cheeks as I took notes on lecture. This semester is rough. I have a physics exam on Monday, so I'm hoping to do alright on that one, and get at least two good grades this semester. Unlike last, this definitely won't be a 4.0. My great GPA for vet school is quickly dropping with every exam, and I can almost see things slipping away from me.

Oh, and the school is probably slicing down my grant money for next year. Which means that I am looking at the possibilities of going part time just to be able to make ends meet (I can do this with the amount of credits I need, though I sacrifice the courses I have been looking forward to for years, and this looks awful for vet school applications, especially after what this semester is shaping up to be). There are bigger things than vet school though, and one of those is not putting my parents into debt just because of what I want to do.  I'm looking into taking out more student loans as an alternative as well.

My poor fingers...

~Melissa

Two Interviews and a Ride

Had both my interviews today!

The first one went really well- the owner forgot I was coming, however, and so it was kind of a surprise that I was there! She was really great about it though, and sat down to talk with me about everything. I loved how organized she was, and also how incredibly nice. She offered me as much work as I want to take on, starting Saturdays and if I feel comfortable to do an evening during the week, I could do that as well. She showed me all of the barns, and everything was well taken care of and very organized, clean and kept up. It impressed me a lot, especially on a fairly large farm. They offered me the position on the spot, and in my heart of hearts I knew it was right, and I accepted. She was so excited to hear that I had experience with power tools and farm upkeep, and could drive a stick shift, which her current worker cannot (he is also 15!). I met one of the other full-time workers and he as well was extremely polite and friendly. The place had a wonderful vibe to it. So I start in April! I will be taking care of hogs, sheep, cattle and poultry, and any general farm maintenance that needs to be done.

I headed home after that for a short break, and then went to the trail riding place.  Yes, I know I had already accepted one job, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to check out the other and possibly do both. Well, it was a little different. The paint on all the buildings was peeling, there was trash and random junk piled into outbuildings, and goats, turkeys, chickens, an emu and what must have been ten dogs running around without containment. It was right off of a main road, so I was little concerned, but everyone seemed to stay away from it. When I got there the place was empty, though there was one horse in a stall by himself. I figured they must have been out on a ride and so I waited. The barn was the nicest place, and was obviously well-kept, though very small. The horses as well looked really nice, well-groomed and well-fed. I had my interview once they came back from the ride, and was told that there were a ton of people applying for the position. I was supposed to go out for a working interview and ride as a second trail guide, but the ride cancelled, so I just talked to her for a few minutes and left. She didn't really seem too interested in what I had to say, just seemed really busy and anxious to be done. She did invite me back for another working interview in a couple of weekends, but I think I might email her and let her know I am no longer interested in the position. As much fun as I think it would be, it is also a much longer drive, and I don't know that she is really someone that I would want to work for!

I was all itching to ride once I got home, so after a nice dinner with my grandparents, I hopped on my horse. It was a pretty short ride, since she spooked at a plastic bag and almost dumped me off, and then was being a complete brat. I honestly just get tired of fighting with her sometimes, and I did today. I half-heartedly made her do a few things such as turns on fore and rear, trotting some figure eights, walking up to the terrifying plastic bag, but then just let her head on back to the barn. I brushed her down again and gave her some lovings, mucked stalls and headed back home for the night.

Time to get cracking on some homework!

~Melissa

Back-Up Plans

This Summer I really need a job. I'm super excited for the internships, and very hopeful that I will get one. But I'm also a realist and I know that I don't have research experience or lab animal experience, and there is a fairly large possibility that I won't be chosen for either one of the positions. Unfortunately, both of them have MAY 1st as the last day that they will be notifying students. That's a long time from now, and I get out of school just a couple days later. If it's a rejection, I don't want to be scrambling for a job. So I've been applying places. I am waiting to hear back for a time, but tomorrow I am supposed to interview at a farm near to home. It would start out with Saturdays but could move to weekdays in the Summer. They have cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, and I would be helping take care of the animals and doing things such as mowing and weeding, and possibly butchering if they needed an extra hand. I also applied for a trail guide position at the only place I have heard of in the area that does trail rides. I received a request for an interview from there, and am just waiting to hear back for date and time. I'm definitely hoping that one of them works out!

It's Bad When You Are THAT Client

Well yesterday I went out with Doc for the day- he actually had a pretty full schedule, which is very good for him, and hopefully a sign of things to come. The first appointment was an ultrasound for breeding. The mare was obviously in heat, and one of her corpus luteum's was 45 cm and soft (perfect for breeding!), while the other was 20 and hard (not yet ready). They were able to order semen for her that day, and Doc will do the insemination today. We then went to a farm simply for Wellness exams, vaccines and coggins, and then on to a lameness re-exam (foot abscess). Finally, we headed down to do my girls. And they were the worst patients of the day.

Since I had been out with the vet, I obviously hadn't had them caught and chilling in stalls for awhile. Thus they came galloping in, and while they let me put halters on and pop them in their stalls, they were obviously whacked out and worked up. My horse started it out with trying to bolt out the door, and refusing to stand still for her vaccines. She is normally a perfect angel and doesn't even react for shots, but today she was being a brat! To make matters worse, we should never have started with her- my mom's horse is way too smart and knew what was coming. She got vastly unruly, dancing all around, and even threatened to rear! After a little calming down and some firm words, she stood still to let Doc inject her with a pre-treatment (she breaks out in massive lumps from vaccines without it), and then give her vaccines. Both of them were wide-eyed, perk-eared and all worked up, and once I let them out of their stalls, they took off bucking and farting into the pasture.

If I were a vet, I wouldn't want to work on my girls! To be fair, Doc's horses can be pretty bad as well, so I'm sure he wasn't too upset about it. But I certainly would have preferred that they did me proud!

~Melissa

Kitten Pushing

It's Spring Break!! That means no driving to school for a week- very exciting. I have limited myself to shadowing just once this week, which I will be doing tomorrow, out with the equine vet. My girls need their vaccines, and I figure I might as well spend the day on the road too! I have a ton of homework, papers to write, problems to catch up with and exams to study for, as well as housework.

Last night I shadowed at the ER, which was a complete mess. When I walked in, there was only one person in the back, and it was someone I had never met. I knew they had just hired a new tech, and so I went up and introduced myself and asked if that is who she was. Unfortunately, I was completely off, and she was one of the board members! Well, I think that may have put us on the wrong foot (you know what they say about assuming...), as she acted a little annoyed by me the rest of the night, but was still pretty helpful and friendly overall. One of the vets on staff got really, really sick (she has some medical issues to begin with and these somehow got exasperated). As a result, the shelter manager called in all the help she could get- including board members; one of whom was Doc (my equine vet), one of whom was the neurosurgeon that we visited a couple of weeks ago with the club, and some others who stepped in. The other steady ER vet was in at 7 and managed to take things over, but it was crazy hectic for awhile. Very few of the vets there knew how to use the computer system, or where anything was, so the techs ended up doing a lot more teaching and fixing than being able to do their normal jobs, and the vets ended up doing teching duties!

It was certainly crazy, but I also got to help out a lot more than usual with drawing stuff up, running and fetching, and cleaning (I must have cleaned at least 10 kennels last night!). I also got to see some suturing of a nasty leg wound, and some ultrasounds on a pregnant mother cat and a dog with liver problems. I learned how to run all the phlebotomy equipment, and just felt a lot more useful than usual! Unfortunately I came down with a migraine about half an hour into being there, and though I fought it tremendously, by 10 I was having waves of nausea and light sensitivity, so I headed home a little earlier than usual.

The most touching case was a "shop cat" who came in. She was pregnant, and was brought in by a building tenant who did not own the cat, as she had only had one kitten and that was over 24 hours ago. The worst part? The cat's owner had seen the cat giving birth and when the second kitten was coming out, he decided for some unknown reason to push the kitten back inside. SERIOUSLY? The very sweet and concerned tenant had absolutely zero money, not even an exam fee, and the owner had told her to tell the hospital it was a stray and not his, as he wasn't going to pay for it. The vet on staff couldn't just let this cat walk out the door- she gave her a very brief exam, and stuck an ultrasound probe on her belly. Defying all expectations, the kitten first in row (the only on we could find) was still alive! The vet suggested she take her home and give her privacy and a dark room, and hopefully she would go into labor again and have the rest of her litter. It would have been a bugger if this cat hadn't been one of the nicest and chillest cats I have ever met, but she was. I was also impressed by the vet's compassionate actions, especially when she knew the board members were there and would know that she had donated her free services. On top of a variety of other interesting cases, the night was very educational and a great start to break!

~Melissa

APVMA

Ah what a wonderful time we had this weekend in Florida. Going to the APVMA Symposium was definitely an amazing experience! Not only did I get a tour of my first vet school, but I also attended lectures on large animal anasthesia, acupuncture and rehabilitation, getting into vet school, VMCAS and theriogenelogy, and had a hands on lab where I got to examine the deceased victims of animal cruelty (though really there were euthanized shelter animals that they doctored up to look like they had been cruelty cases). I feel so much more prepared to apply to vet school, and I also feel way more knowledgeable about some of the foreign schools and opportunities (like glasgow and dublin). Not that I'm planning on going abroad, but it is good to know for other students! The food was wonderful, the hotel was fantastic, and we really had a nice time. The girls from G-burg did me proud, always being respectful and attentive to the speakers.

The most disappointing bit was that we didn't have any time to really meet other pre-vet students. They cancelled the only social event, and it was kinda disappointing. Some of the other schools as well were very disrespectful- talking and laughing through presentations and even elections for the 2013-2014 officers of the APVMA. I really had expected more from those around me, especially since it was a professional conference. There were also way too many people who showed up in jeans to the formal and semi-formal dinners. For us it was a really big deal to be going, but I guess to other schools who attend every year it is not as important.

Hoping to go next year again, as it will be held at Iowa!