New Year, New Semester

We all know that New Year’s resolutions don’t really start until a week after the first. Or, in my case, ten days later. Better late than never, here’s the first weekly update for 2012:

(As a side note, this blog has over 2000 views! How cool is that? Thanks for reading!)

Labs: Bull evaluation took up two labs worth of time this week. In the first lab, we looked at abnormal sperm under microscopes. It was a good review from last semester’s theriogenology lectures. In the second, we did a bull evaluation with live bulls, and filled out an entire Breeding Soundness Exam form. On Friday I had two more labs. First was canine reproduction, which covered information that will be very useful if I ever work with dog breeders. The second lab we trimmed hooves of cows and placed orthopedic blocks. The blocks are really neat. There are pre-formed plastic ones, or you can make them out of wood. My partner and I used a wooden one, and used this horrible smelling goo called methyl methacrylate to stick the block on the bottom of the hoof. They are very useful when one claw is injured (an abscess, ulcer, etc.) and needs to be rested. You stick a block on the healthy claw, and it works like a charm.

Lunchtime Talks: Our pharmacology professor gave a lecture about drug labelling and the risks of using compounded drugs, and the hierarchy of drugs we should follow when going off-label. Compounded drugs are created by compounding pharmacists, and do not carry a company’s guarantee of safety or efficacy. As a professional you have to trust your compounding pharmacist to perform stabilization and purity tests to ensure the compounded drug will work the way you want it to. For some drugs it is the only option, such as potassium bromide (KBr), which is available as a chemical compound only (its used treat epilepsy in dogs). For some drugs, you need compounded versions because the formulation isn’t available that you want (for example if you want a cat sized dose but it only comes in giant pills). Its always good to review the guidelines on extra-label drug use, as pharmacy laws are stringent and not always clear cut.

Clinic Cases: Nothing too exciting, but there was a horse in for a colic (abdominal pain) episode that was a rather frustrating case. They ran several diagnostic tests on him, but they didn’t give any solid information. They tried treating him empirically for a bacterial infection by giving him penicillin, and his fever went away. They then empirically treated him with omeprazole in case his problem was gastric ulceration, and his appetite shot up back to normal. I’m still not entirely sure what was wrong with him

Lectures: We have electives going on this semester, so I should be able to fill up this section fairly easily. We had a lecture on parasite control in horses, and it taught me a lot of things I didn’t really understand before, and now I would feel confident helping horse owners develop an individualized parasite control program that addressed their particular needs.

Miscellaneous: On Friday we had a Happy Hour and a Winter Formal. The formal was surprisingly fun, everyone was dressed in fancy dresses and nice suits, and the WCVSA put on a casino night. I was helping to run the roulette table, and I had a great time. Kind of makes me want to actually go to a casino one day

The Internet Is For Professionalism

We were reminded again of the impact our online communications can have on our profession, our school, and our reputation. I was almost scared off of writing this blog due to the severity of the reminder. However, I think it is valuable to keep writing, because it provides me with practice communicating in a professional and appropriate manner. I am always cautious with what I post on my blog, but I would greatly appreciate if anyone reading my updates could give me feedback about the anonymity of the patients I talk about and whether I am presenting information in a professional manner.

With that out of the way, here is this week’s update:

Week of October 31st to November 4th

Labs: On Tuesday we had a colic case workup and fluid case workup lab. We were given the case information for a couple of horses, which includes history, presenting complaint, clinical signs, and results from some basic diagnostic tests (things like blood work). We then had to generate a differential diagnosis list, request further diagnostics if warranted, and determine if the case should go to surgery. A very important role for a general practice veterinarian is to know when to refer a case to a hospital with the necessary facilities and expertise. This exercise helped reinforce what decision criteria we should consider for sending horses to a referral practice for a surgery.  We also worked through developing a fluid therapy plan, which is something that is always good to practice. The principles are fairly straightforward, but it gets very interesting and complicated once you consider an actual case.

On Wednesday, we had an injection and venous access lab for cattle. We learned how to give intramuscular injections and subcutaneous injections. What was different about cows compared to other species is that we have to consider some of them are going to enter the food chain, so we need to be conscientious of the location of our injections. We’re taught to give them in the neck muscles, since they aren’t used as a cut of beef. We also had the opportunity to place a jugular catheter! Its kind of difficult when the cow keeps trying to swing her head around, since were were using local anesthetic (the risk and cost of general anesthetic isn’t warranted when you are placing a jugular catheter). The good thing I’ve realized is that the basic principles of aseptic technique and the essentials of many of these procedures are the same between species.

Lunchtime Talks: On Wednesday we had a very unique and interesting talk. It was “Understanding Animals from a Gwich’in Elder’s Perspective”. The speaker was Gwich’in Elder Randall Tetlichi. He explained the paradigm he uses to think about his relationships with animals, and how that affects his interactions with them. It is definitely a more spiritual way of thinking about animals than what I am accustomed to, but I was intrigued by all of the similarities. The idea of talking to animals and listening to what they have to say is quite well known to us, as we have entire courses dedicated to reading animal behaviour. Plus I chat with Winston all of the time . He had a strong message as well, that we need to consider the impact our way of life has on all the other animals and plants we share the planet with. Overall it was a refreshing change of pace from our usual lectures.

On Thursday we had another excellent speaker, Dr. Jacqueline Neilson, on the topic of “Understanding Feline Social Behavior and Managing Multi-Cat Households”. She talked about the dynamics of feline relationships in feral cat populations, and compared them to the relationships cats have to form when they are kept as indoor pets. In short, we’re keeping cats in situations that they would normally prefer to avoid. However, cats are very socially flexible, and multi-cat houses generally work out perfectly fine.  There are many problems that can crop up though, including inappropriate urination. This is a common reason for cats to be relinquished to shelters, so we are very interested in figuring out ways to prevent and stop that behaviour in house cats. She was a fantastic speaker, very informative and had a great sense of humour.

Clinic Cases: There is a horse with a severe laceration on the cranial aspect of the hock. This case actually fits with what we are currently learning in our equine course. The extensor tendons run down the front of the leg, and their purpose is to prevent the hoof from rolling under when the horse takes a step. When the extensor tendons are cut, the horse is unable to flip its hoof forward properly, so it “knuckles over”. These injuries usually carry a good prognosis. The complicating factors of this case, though, is that the entire hock joint has been opened up (it wasn’t just the extensor tendons that were cut) and that there is contamination of the joint. The principles of treatment are to clear up the infection, then provide stabilization to allow the joint to fuse and the skin to heal. Leg problems in horses are tough to treat for many reasons. They can develop founder (laminitis, or inflammation of the tissue holding the foot bone suspended in the hoof), ileus (their intestines stop moving the way they should, usually this results from stress of being sick), or delayed wound healing (they don’t have the best blood supply in their legs, and have very little skin to spare as well).  I get the feeling many leg problems in horses carry a poor prognosis, based on what we’ve been taught in lecture.

Happy Halloween!

I’m all set with my coffee and a cookie, so here’s this week’s update!

Week of October 24th to October 28th

Labs: On Tuesday, we had a small animal lab on endoscopy. An internal medicine resident passed the endoscope (camera on the end of a tube, essentially) into a dog’s stomach, to show us all what the inside of the stomach looks like and to demonstrate the technique. Our professor was also there explaining the indications for endoscopy, as well as discussing his own experiences with using endoscopes in private practice (I think he’s done a few hundred endoscopic exams, which is pretty impressive since it is a specialty procedure). He advocates the usefulness of the technique, and I’m inclined to believe him. They use endoscopy much more frequently in horses, and its an invaluable tool in that field. I think there’s plenty of potential to use those same diagnostic techniques in dogs as well.

On Wednesday, my surgery group had our second cat spay. I was the assistant surgeon this time, which meant I helped out the primary surgeon by prepping the cat (shaving, scrubbing, etc.) and by holding things for her while she performed the surgery. I tried to be helpful by reminding her of things, such as not handling the skin during the abdominal wall closure (it leaves unsightly bruises), which was thankfully well received by her (I’m not trying to be a know-it-all, I swear!). It was a much less stressful job than being the anesthetist, that’s for sure! I’ll have to remember to show a ton of appreciation for my techs running anesthesia in practice…

On Friday I had my last large animal palpation lab. I went out in style, as I was able to retract the uterus (fold it back on itself in the pelvic cavity so you can examine the whole tract), identify a corpus luteum (a lumpy thing that forms after ovulation) on one ovary, and a 20mm follicle (a fluid filled structure that has an “egg” in it) on the other ovary.

Lunchtime Talks: On Thursday (I think) we had a talk about the role of the veterinarian in suspected animal abuse cases. It was part of an animal welfare lecture series sponsored by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). The presenter had a long list of credentials, and I think he is currently working for the BC SPCA. He talked about the veterinarian being an expert witness for the cases that go to trial, and he emphasized the importance of a well written report. The impression I took away from the talk is that helping with animal abuse cases is a valuable and rewarding experience, but at the same time they seem to be very taxing by taking you away from your practice for days at a time, not to mention you are exposed to some awful cases of animal cruelty.

Clinic Cases: This week in the large animal hospital there were a group of gigantic (as in 2000 lbs, 7 feet high) draft horses coming in for surgical correction of left laryngeal hemiplagia (paralysis). With this disorder the arytenoid cartilage (I don’t think you can see them in humans, but they are located by the vocal cords) on the left side droops and hangs across the airway. This causes a problem when the horse is working and needs more air, because normally the cartilage is lifted up and away from the airway. The surgeons chose to perform a partial arytenoidectomy, rather than a “tie-back” procedure. With the tie-back, suture is used to basically string up the limp cartilage so its out of the way of the airway. The problem with this procedure in large horses is that the forces put on the airway while the horse is working is too strong, and the suture breaks down. So they decided to simply take out the flapping cartilage (arytenoidectomy).

In the wildlife ward, there is a special case in right now. There is a bear cub who was hit by a car. To any classmates reading this: do NOT visit the bear! Nobody is allowed to see the bear except for the attending clinician, because we do not want the poor little guy to be accustomed to humans. He’s young and impressionable, and if he is no longer afraid of humans he will inevitably become a problem bear that hangs out too close to human settlements. As far as I know he is doing all right, he had some broken ribs and a few other issues. They are hoping to send him to a rehabilitation facility where there is less risk of him habituating to humans.

Lecture: We had our Equine Medicine and Surgery midterm on Monday, a quiz on Feline Viral diseases on Thursday, a Clinical Pharmacology assignment on treating mastitis, and our Clinical Pharmacology midterm on Friday. I kind of want to sleep for several days straight now.

Miscellaneous: On Friday we had our Halloween Happy Hour. For anyone that hasn’t read my previous entry on Vet School Traditions, the happy hours are events put on by one of the classes. They bring in food for everyone, create skits to advertise (usually humourous short videos), hold fundraisers for their class graduation (they put on an auction) and serve booze. The Halloween one is my favorite because everyone is dressed up in costumes. My favorite costume was a zebra being mauled by a lion.

Still Midterm Season…

Week of October 17th to October 21st

Labs: On Tuesday, we had a colic (abdominal pain) work up lab. We watched a video on how to perform an abdominocentesis, which is basically poking a hole in the abdomen of a horse and seeing what comes out. Its a bit more involved than that, but that’s how I like to think of it . We then went and practiced the technique. We also performed an epidural on the mares, then palpated their urethral orifice and practiced passing a urinary catheter. That part was hilarious, the helper forgot to point the catheter away from the rest of the class…

On Wednesday, we had a bovine handling lab where we practiced various techniques involving putting things in their mouths. We learned how to pass a stomach tube, and I was barfed on by a cow! No jokes! Poor girl burped as soon as we put the tube into her stomach, so there was a big mess after that. We learned how to put in a mouth speculum, which is just a little metal thing that is wedged between their molars so they don’t take your fingers off when you’re trying to look in the mouth. We practiced “drenching”, which basically means taking an old champagne bottle wrapped in tape to prevent breakage (vets are practical, what can I say) and using it to dump fluid into their mouth. Its a bit like bottle feeding a calf, except the cow’s head is almost as big as my torso and she’s trying to keep my fingers as a souvenir. There are also some nifty pumps that look like bicycle pumps that can be used to deliver a ton of oral fluids if a cow really needs it. Finally, we learned about trochars, which are hollow pointy things that you stick into the side of a cow that has bloat (her stomach is full of gas that she can’t get rid of). Its actually a life threatening condition, so you have to act fast. Our professor told us a great story: Apparently some veterinarian, after putting in a trochar, decided to demonstrate to the farmer that most of the gas produced is methane. Lets just say things went south after he lit the match to prove the gas was there

Lunchtime Talks: On Tuesday there was a lecture on Financing Your Future. It was a presentation about your options for student banking and what methods there are for investing your money. It was a good talk, though I had heard of most of what they presented before. It really reminded me how far in debt I am though

On Thursday, there was a discussion group on the ethics of using animals for teaching. It was a good discussion, and I really enjoyed it since I miss debating. We talked about whether animal usage is ever justified, and came to the conclusion that as long as the animal is treated humanely, that there are no viable alternatives, and the teaching experience is maximized, then it can be justified. There were wildly differing opinions as to what constituted a maximal teaching experience, and we each had opinions on the different ways that we use animals. Public perception of our profession and our use of teaching animals also came up.

Clinic Cases: In the wildlife ward, there is a beaver that is in for a fractured rib and a wound on her lower jaw. She has been here for a bit, and is healed up pretty nicely. We are waiting to find a rehabilitator to work with her, because it is too late in the year to release her (she wouldn’t have time to build a home and find food for the winter). So she will need a home for the winter until they can release her in the spring. She’s really cool looking, and quite big. I’d guess she’s about the size of a small dog, but much thicker built. She takes sticks into her nest and chews on them like dog bones, its pretty cute. She’s not a fan of people, so we usually leave her alone except to take care of her room.

There is a cow convalescing in the bovine ward that had a very unusual surgery performed. She had a cranial cruciate ligament repaired! This is normally in the realm of football players with torn up knees, and its the most common cause of hind limb lameness in dogs. This cow is a research cow, so the clinicians decided to go ahead and fix up her knee. I had a chance to examine it prior to surgery, and it was pretty bad. It made an awful “thunk” sound when she put weight on it. So they called up a retired professor who had done the surgery before (but over in Germany) to come help out with this case. She’s doing all right, unfortunately she developed a big seroma (a bunch of liquid called serum is in there, its not infectious) so they’re waiting for that to go down on its own. I’m surprised it worked, since she had a significant degree of osteoarthritis and is such a big animal. But it appears to be holding up so far

The other day our orthopedics professor mentioned a really cool case in the small animal ward, and that the patient had some “funky looking radiographs” and that they hadn’t diagnosed him yet. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, because exams are cramping my style.

Lectures: Had our small animal medicine and surgery midterm on Thursday, I hope it went all right. I don’t feel as confident about this one as I did for Therio and Food Animal!

Miscellaneous: Not sure what category it fits under, but I accompanied a group of University of Alberta Pre-Veterinary Medicine Club members on a tour of the school. They’re here for the weekend, and the Academic Dean gave a presentation for them as well. We brought them through the clinics and showed off the fancy imaging machines, the patients we have in right now, and the learning facilities we have. We also had an informal question and answer session with them. I was still braindead from studying, but I offered what helpful information I could I remember attending that same trip in my first (or was it second?) year at the U of A. It was so much fun, because Vetavision was going on the same weekend that we visited! I still have the pictures of all the stuff that was on display…even some of the specimens I studied for Anatomy in first year (very strange to scroll through my pics and recognize the random preserved body parts). I hope we helped inspire a couple students to perservere and stick with this awesome profession

Fixing the Format

Well this just won’t do! The semester is half way over, and I have yet to post a blog entry! I miss writing, but I haven’t had much spare time to do so. So here’s the plan: I’m going to try a new weekly digest format, rather than the longer article format. I’ll include interesting things we learned in labs, lunchtime talks, lectures, and any cool cases from the clinics. I’ll keep it short and sweet, so I won’t have the excuse of not having enough time to write! I’ll try to define any medical jargon I use, which I hope will be good practice for when I talk with clients. Sometimes its hard to translate medical terms to normal words.

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This Week, October 11 – 14

Labs: On Tuesday we had a cardiology lab. We went over the various machines you can use to tell you more about the abnormalities of a patient’s heart. We learned the indications for using each of the machines, and how to interpret the data they spit back to you. Echocardiograms (ECG) are much more limited in veterinary medicine, because our patients vary wildly in the size and shape of their hearts. So we just use it to determine the rhythm of the heart. We also use oscillometry, which can tell you blood pressure. Again, our patients make this more difficult than in humans, because a scared cat’s heart rate can be 200 beats per minute, which can be a bit difficult to get a reading from.

On Wednesday I had my first live surgery. I was the anesthetist, meaning I was responsible for ordering the drugs, setting up the machine, placing a catheter (took me 3 tries, dammit), and monitoring the status of the cat during the surgery. It is a stressful experience at first! I didn’t know it would be that scary right off the bat. Once I got into the groove of things and knew what to look for, it was much better. Then I stressed out again waiting for the cat to wake up at the end. She did wonderful though, and made me look good

On Friday we had a palpation lab, where we perform rectal pregnancy exams on cows and horses. It was our second last palpation lab, so its fairly routine for us now.

Clinic Cases: There is a horse with a grade 5/6 heart murmur, he is a nice old horse that was donated to the college. I was able to listen to his heart, and it makes a whoosh sound between the “lub” and the “dub”. That means its a holosystolic murmur, and its point of maximal intensity (where it seems to be the loudest) was at the 4th intercostal space (between ribs 4 and 5).

There is a horse with chronic sinusitis as well. It resulted from a missing tooth that was basically a highway from the mouth to the sinus, and food and grossness got up in there. He has bilateral nasal discharge. He has a facial deformity as a result of the swelling, and his nasal septum was deviated and occluding the nasal passage. He has a temporary tracheostomy tube (a hole in his throat) so he can breathe easier.  They’re going ahead with surgery, and they’re going to take out part of his nasal septum, flush out all the crud, and pack off the missing tooth in the hopes that it will form granulation tissue (pink healing fleshy stuff) so the hole will be blocked.

There was a dog in the clinic that had severe burns, and they treated him with this crazy looking saran-wrap type stuff (I can’t remember the name of it) that they brought over from the human hospital. The plastic wrap helps keep moisture in while keeping contamination out (hair, bacteria, etc.). He’s doing fantastic, and may have actually gone home by now.

There was also a heifer in with heart failure. They went ahead and used the ultrasound to get a look at her heart. I couldn’t interpret what was going on in the heart, all I knew was that it was very abnormal. Her heart sounded really cool, like a washing machine swishing water around.  She also had a distended brisket, which happens in heart failure in cattle due to edema (fluid in the tissues).

Lectures: We had a midterm on Friday, which went all right. I think I made a stupid mistake about the interactions between copper, molybdenum and sulphates, but that’s okay.

Playing Doctor

This semester has really picked up in terms of hands-on learning, hence the title of this post. It still doesn’t feel like I’m an actual doctor (perhaps because I’m really not yet!) but these labs are certainly putting me on the road to being more comfortable in a clinical setting.

We’re taking a course on the basics of surgery. It includes information about aseptic technique, choosing suture material, judging whether a bandage is needed to help a wound heal, and other good information like that. The lab component is both exciting yet kind of scary (exposing your inexperience is always unpleasant!). Our first lab went over how to open up surgical drape packages without making a mess of things, how to scrub your arms until they’re raw (those bacteria like to dig in deep), and how to put on your gown and gloves aseptically. I hope that stuff gets easier with practice, I really feel like a newbie. The second lab we’ve had for that course was about abdominal wall closure. I’m so glad we’re taking it in baby steps like this, because I hadn’t realized something that sounds fairly easy (like abdominal wall closure) turns out to be rather challenging. Mostly because all the darn layers of the wall look similar and stick to each other. 2D pictures really don’t do justice to what the tissues actually look like. Next week we’re practicing some plastic surgery techniques (for those show dogs and horses that simply can’t have a scar on them ).

The other hands-on lab we have is for a course called Clinical Exam and Diagnosis. Its an integrative class that brings together the knowledge we’ve gained in pathology, virology, parasitology, physiology, etc., then shows how we use that knowledge to direct our history taking and our diagnostics. Its mind-boggling the amount of stuff we already know when its put into a format like this. I just hope I don’t forget all of it by the time I’m in practice!

The lab component for that class is fantastic. Our first lab taught us how to perform a physical exam on a cow. We had these sweet old dairy cows that let us poke and prod at them with inexperienced hands and stethoscopes. The next lab went over how to do a physical exam in a horse. The horses we had were all sweethearts, but it was quite obvious they all had their own personalities. There were some horses that would let you shine a light in their eye, squeeze their lymph nodes, and even tolerated us putting a re-breathing bag on them (it amplifies breathing sounds). Others would put up such a fuss when you tried to do anything to them. My favorite was Wyatt, an apparently ugly gelding with a ridiculously loud heart murmur (he’s perfect for newbs that are just figuring out what a heart murmur is!). He loves to chew on coveralls and lick your hands, for some odd reason. Our third lab was a review from first year’s Neurology course on how to do a neurological exam. I’m always grateful for a chance to review information, since its usually set up so we only have one opportunity to learn a set of skills (no time for repeats!). My friend brought her dog Bob, a cute little cocker spaniel cross that has infinite patience . He was a trooper, since he essentially had 4 neuro exams done on him! On a side note, Winston doesn’t have any neurological deficits

I’ll keep posting about these labs, since they’re my favorite part of this semester. I’ll also consider writing about the WEAMS field trip, we’ll see if I feel like procrastinating later this week

Vet School Traditions

Holidays and traditions go hand in hand. I was thinking about the traditions I’ve participated in over the years, with the most recent ones happening at veterinary school. I wish I knew the origin of the traditions we uphold at school, and I’m not sure how old they are either. They offer an interesting look into the sort of community us veterinary students foster amongst ourselves.

The first tradition many vet students experience is receiving their information package that has been compiled by the previous year’s students and the offices upstairs. It contains information about accommodations, horse boarding facilities, recommended textbooks and more. It helped me with moving out to go to school, and it felt very welcoming.

The first week of school is full of traditions. There is an orientation for the first two days, with a meet and greet over breakfast, a tour of the school and teaching hospital, receiving our microscopes and slides, and myriad other introductory procedures. We’re paired up with our second year buddy, whom we may have contacted via email during the summer before arriving. One hilarious but odd tradition is that the guys in the second year make themselves look ridiculous on the first day. In my first year, the second year guys shaved their hair into awful haircuts, such as mullets and racing stripes. The guys in our year dressed up as “Jersey Shore” guidos with nasty fake tans and popped collars and heavily gelled hair. I’m not really sure why this tradition occurs, perhaps its a way to remind everyone that there are still males in veterinary school? There’s an orientation barbecue put on by the second years, which I enjoyed in my first year since it was an opportunity to get to know your classmates. There’s a couple drinking contests to start up a bit of friendly rivalry between the classes, usually boat races. The current first years are quite good at this game, and I feel kind of sorry for next year’s first years!

There’s one first week tradition called Hurricane, and I’m very hesitant to write about it. The best part of this tradition is that we keep it under wraps from the first years, and I would hate to ruin the surprise for any potential first years reading this. Lets just say it’s probably the most memorable of the veterinary school traditions, and the best tradition for bringing together everyone in first and second year. If you do want to know what it entails, just message me

About mid-way through the semester, we had a nice surprise from the second year class. The morning of our first midterm exam they brought heaps of baked goods and fruit for us. The sugar high lasted nearly until the next day, I swear. I thought it was a nice gesture that helped us through our first exam (which wasn’t very difficult, but was more stressful than many tougher ones). We returned the favor by bringing breakfast on the morning of their second final (since the first one was done in the computer lab).

Throughout the year we have events called Happy Hours. Each class puts on one event. First years have a Valentine’s Happy Hour, for example. These events are a fund raiser for each class for their graduation. We had a Person Auction at ours last year, and there are often Silent Auctions as well. In the week running up to the event, each day a filmed “skit” is shown to advertise for the event. These skits are created by each class, and they’re usually poking fun at the vet program or at classmates. The professors are good sports and will often play a role in them. Food and alcohol are served at the event. They’re a nice break throughout the semester, offering a chance to socialize outside of the classroom. The skits are also really fun to put together, but perhaps I’m only saying that because I’ve never had to edit the video

At the end of the first semester we have a tradition of going caroling. Each class asks two professors if they are willing to host them for a couple hours, which entails providing snacks and drinks and a house large enough to fit 40 to 60 people. Needless to say, its a great time, with singing and good food and standing way too close to your fellow classmates as you all try to cram into somebody’s living room. Last year a couple students wrote a veterinary version of Little Drummer Boy, I’ll ask them if I’m allowed to post a copy on my blog (its very well done!).

There are several smaller traditions that aren’t tied to holidays or events. For example, at the beginning of every month the Hallway Monitors will announce all the upcoming birthdays and they bring cupcakes for them. A couple classmates of mine go out for Wings Night on Wednesdays. All sorts of little traditions like this are great for reminding me that we’re all in this together.

What sorts of traditions are there in other schools? Feel free to comment about them!

Pathologist for a Day

I had the opportunity earlier this semester to participate in a fun lab run by the Pathology Club at my school called Pathologist for a Day. The lab consists of spending an afternoon in the diagnostic pathology lab at the school watching and working with the pathologists there, as well as the fourth year students on their rotations.

The day I had signed up for was the day before my Virology midterm, which you’d think was a bad idea but oddly enough it helped solidify some of the material we had covered, far better than cramming for an afternoon would have done. I saw several cases that day, including a puppy with parvovirus, a pronghorn antelope with neurological disease, an owl with herpes virus infection, and a cat with hepatic lipidosis and icterus. I’m not sure what kind of detail I should go into, so I think I’ll just keep it to general observations (I don’t want to gross anyone out too much).

We had just covered parvovirus in Virology, and seeing an actual case of the disease helped immensely. I could actually see what my professor had been talking about, and it made so much more sense! Seeing the pathology that a disease agent causes helps me rationalize the diagnostic tests and the treatments we administer.

The two wildlife cases were interesting as well. We don’t cover much wildlife medicine in our courses (we hardly have time for the domestic species) so it was really great to see a couple cases up close. The owl was in quite an advanced stage of disease, it was amazing it lived for so long with the disease. In my mind it highlighted the point that animals are usually very, very sick by the time they will come to see me.

The pronghorn antelope was strange, because we didn’t find anything wrong with it. The sample we took will hopefully give a diagnosis. It was disappointing, I thought that there would be all sorts of interesting things wrong with it because it had neurological signs. This is also a good lesson to learn, and reminded me that I shouldn’t go looking for disease where it doesn’t exist, and that sometimes very subtle changes to the body can result in very dramatic clinical signs.

The cat we looked at had icterus, which means its mucous membranes (such as mouth, lips, eyelids) and its fat were very yellow colored. The liver was massive and bright yellow! It looked so bizarre. I’m used to seeing livers like that now (we’ve covered it thoroughly in Pathology) but the first time I saw it I was amazed.

If you want more specific details and descriptions of the problems I saw in the animals, just ask me! I’m always looking for an excuse to practice my description skills

P.S. – Sorry I’ve been on hiatus…midterms were killer.

The Story of Stumpy

I apologize for the lack of posts, I hit the ground running into second year and I haven’t really slowed down since. One of the things that has been keeping me busy is taking care of the newest beast in the household (no, I don’t mean Sean). I tried to keep it a surprise to make this post all that more exciting to read…we got a cat!

~*~

I was checking my email for probably the fourth time that day (we receive an absurd amount of mail) when I noticed a request for the adoption of a cat. Sean and I had been informally looking for a cat for some time, so I decided to look into it. His name was Stumpy, and he was a Manx cat (I suppose the lack of a tail explains his name). Apparently he’d received a nasty cut, and when his owners brought him in they realized they couldn’t afford his treatments. He was surrendered to the teaching hospital, and was going to be euthanized 24 hours later if they could not find a home for him. Being the big softie that I am, I decided that this was the cat we’d been looking for.

When I went to go see him the next morning, he was quite out of it. Poor little guy was all wrapped up in bandages and was still drowsy from sedatives and pain medication. After discussing his situation with the clinicians, and finding out all his treatment regarding this injury would be covered by the hospital’s donated animal fund, I agreed to give him a home.

The first night we brought him home was a bit nerve-wracking. As my readers likely know, I already host a menagerie of animals in my rather tiny house. My worries were quite unfounded, as Stumpy simply strolled out of his kennel and walked around like he owned the place. Well, it was more like he hobbled around like he owned the place, since he was still bandaged up. I thought Winston would be more of a handful, but after the initial excitement it turns out he’s kind of scared of Stumpy (or at least he dislikes being rubbed by the cat). I was amazed at how quickly he adapted to his new situation.

Over the next week or two (I forget how long, the days blur together when I’m in school) Sean and I brought him to the hospital nearly every day to change bandages, clean his wound, put in a drain, etc. etc. Sean was an absolute peach about it, and I’m glad he was willing to drive us in. I don’t think Stumpy would like public transit.

Now Stumpy is nearly better. He still has to wear a cone, which is a strange plastic green contraption (the hospital is trying out different styles of cone to see if they work better than the traditional Elizabethan collar) that makes him look like a flower. He loves to lounge over Sean while he trying to play video games, and he loves to stand in my face when I’m trying to study or use the computer. He likes to sleep with Winston, but Winston isn’t really fond of it (yet). The damned cat also takes up the ENTIRE bed somehow. The sugar gliders fascinate him, but he usually doesn’t realize they’re there unless they’re up and about.

I’ll try to get pictures of him soon, he still looks pretty rough though. He looks hilarious with no tail!

I Wish This Was Around When I Was a Kid

When I was a kid, I attended a summer camp. We played outside, learned arts and crafts, and sang songs around a campfire. Really traditional stuff, the things that first come to mind when you hear the phrase “summer camp”. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it (I absolutely loved it), but oh man, do I wish I had a chance to attend one of the Sci Fi summer camps as well.

Sci Fi Camps (www.scifi.usask.ca) is a summer program offered here at the University of Saskatchewan. It started quite a few years ago, and has been wildly successful. They put on programs and camps across the province. The main focus of the camps is to make science fun (which I already think it is, but I suppose I’m biased). They do all sorts of experiments, build neat stuff, and learn about everyday science. Usually the camps are focussed on Engineering or Computing Science, but this year was something different. They introduced a Vet Med summer camp for the first time, and I was lucky enough to volunteer for many of the labs they offered.

I helped out with the heart and lung dissection labs, and gave the lecture once. As is typical for me, I loved giving the talk to the kids, even when a couple of them fell asleep. A few of them were really into it, and asked me some good questions. The dissection was always fun, because even when they were really grossed out they would still be quite interested. Most of them would dig right in to the specimens and would proclaim how squishy it felt. It was somewhat of an ego booster when one group asked me how I could remember all the names of the structures of the heart.

The lungs were a hit. We’d put a straw in the trachea then use a hand pump to blow them up. The entire group would say “whoooa” then proceed to prod the inflated parts. It seemed to blow their minds (pardon the pun), especially when we cut a chunk off and they saw that the lungs weren’t hollow.

The parasitology lab was also good fun, as we taught them how to do a fecal flotation. I was very surprised there weren’t more poop jokes told during the lab, and a little disappointed. I guess these kids are more mature than I am.

I had way more fun than I thought I would working with the camps. These kids were great to hang around with because they actually wanted to be there. They were really interested in what I had to tell them, which was very unexpected for me. I thought they would all be yahoos that didn’t give a hoot about what I was showing them. I was pleasantly surprised when they posed great questions and were able follow my dissections. I hope I get the chance to help out with something similar in the future.