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| Inside the main hen house |
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| Bella, who I shaved terrible. |
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| Molly, one of my all-time favorite dogs. |
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| Piglets! |
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| The sheep gazing pitifully at me, waiting to be fed. |
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| An escaped herd of lambs. They were sneaking out under one of the fences. |
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Photo Blog! Pics from the Farm
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
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
Saturday, June 8, 2013
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
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
Friday, June 7, 2013
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
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
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
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
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
Monday, May 13, 2013
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
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
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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:
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:
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| The small brown coop |
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| Piglets! |
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