Death awaits you with sharp pointy teeth

Well today was my last day of small animals clinical, Andrew every Friday at a small animal hospital it was bonkers! Lots of appointments, the dog from yesterday came in and she's doing well, so that's good! We had 3 surgeries; a cat castration, an aural harmatoma, and a mammary gland removal, so some cool ones! The mammary gland removal was cool, they also sent it to the lab to see if it was malignant. The aural harmatoma was cool because the way the vet did it was to make an incision in the ear, drain out any excess fluid and remove the weird scar tissue that was forming, and then take bits of rubber tuning from a fluid extension set cut in pieces and anchor them around the incision to prevent any more fluid building up. So that was cool since I've never seen one closed like that. After that the next noteworthy thing was a rabbit came in with 'behavioural problems.' Now what exactly means in a rabbit, we had no clue, but you see what comes in. Well this rabbit came out of its carrier, took one wee hop then literally leaped straight at me from the table, hit the wall, fell down, and hopped away like it was nothing. I'm standing here like WTF is wrong with this rabbit, brain tumour? Apparently it was coming into season, ie those crazy lady hormones were getting her crazy and attacking anything that comes close to her. Solution, get her

Speyed. Problem solved, hopefully! It was a very monty python moment for sure. I'm done now and everyone was super nice. The nurse said that the vet should give me lots of gold stars, so that was nice of her. It's been kind of a crazy week for them, so I felt a bit bad intruding but on the same hand I'm glad that I've had some small animal experience before so I could help them out, which thy seemed to appreciate. I didn't get to do as much hands on stuff as I perhaps would have liked, but I learned a lot, saw some new things, and have a placement to come back to when I've learned more stuff, so that's always good to have a place that's seen you multiple times for things like letters of rec, etc so I imagine I'll come back there either over the summer or maybe in march instead or lambing, shall see! But I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow! And start prepping for the next EMS!

Saving lives!

Today before anything happened an emergency came in. It was a yorkie that had eaten 16 ibuprofen! She was shivering, temp of 35, barely awake. So we put her on fluids, gave her stuff to make her vomit, but she wouldn't. She was so down she didn't even have a swallow reflex so we couldn't give her any charcoal either. Her prognosis wasn't too great. But gradually we got her temp up and pumped her full of fluids so her kidneys would fail (hopefully) and have her some antacids to combat the gastric ulcers the ibuprofen would form. Her owners were coming in to basically PTS her but she was bright and her temp was rising and her heart rate slowing and they decided to continue treatment and she left looking great! There still is a 5 day period during which time her kidneys coil fail so we're gonna have to watch her, but hopefully she does well! We also had a dental where we pulled out a massive canine out of a dogs mouth, so that was pretty impressive. There was a PTS which was pretty sad, but the dog seemed to really be going downhill so it

Sounded like it was the right thing to do. And we radiographed a chinchilla do that was pretty cool! Plus they're digital, so even better! Other than that lots of rechecks, puppies, etc. 

Town of cats

I feel like today we saw a lot of cats. It was rather furry in the exam room. It wasn't a particularly busy day, we saw a chinchilla, a dog that had eaten a wasp so his face was a wee bit swollen, a cat with weird nail bed disease, and did a castration, spay, and an ultrasound. Some cute puppies and kittens, nothing of particular note really just the standard stuff really. That being said we still are really busy, very full days for sure! So that's good. They're long but full days for the most part.

Surgery day!

Today we had the normal smattering of puppies, rechecks, vaccinations, etc. but we DID have a surges, albeit just a neuter but still co, though I got grilled about castrations, which we actually didn't go over much in dogs, so I kind of had to extrapolate for horse and bull castrations, but I got most of the questions right I think! Then the vet had his cat in for surgery since he has an unkown Mass in his abdomen. Since the vet was nervous about doing this he asked that I not be in there until he actually knew what he was dealing with, though I did help him hear up. It was fine, I read some diagnostic book and monitored the post op dog, which gave me some practice at taking TPRs so it worked out. The cats prognosis is not super good, he's gonna take him to Glasgow to have him checked at the small animal hospital since he didn't feel he could remove it because of its form and location. So that was unfortunate, and I felt bad that he was worried about his cat all day, so it can't have been easy, and today was a particularly long day so towards the end I think he was ready for the day to be over. Still saw a bunch of puppies! Seriously so many puppies, and a kitten finally. Engadget some crazy clients, also we had a rabbit and a hamster come in, which I was kinda meh about, but it was nice to shake things up. Tomorrow were gonna have some surgeries and an ultrasound so that looks like fun. I feel like these posts are not going to be as interesting to read as the farm animal ones since Ive seen so much of this stuff before I don't really know what's note worthy! Though I am learned a lot about dental problems, there's been a few pups that come in with base narrow teeth and you have to correct it with a rubber ball so the adult teeth don't come in base narrow as well and disrupt the other teeth. There's been 3 I think I've seen, so that's pretty cool.

Long day full of puppies!

Today was my first day of small animal clinical EMS and I must say it was nice being back in my comfort zone more or less. It was a standard day full of vaccines, clinical examinations, and a dental! This practice is really small, smaller than any one I've ever worked at before, but that allows for some

One on one time with everyone so that's nice. Everyone's really nice and eager to teach. It was kind of frustrating seeing so many clinical exams and not being able to just dive right in, old habits I guess! And I have to remind myself it's just the first day! Since this is a relatively new practice we saw a lot of puppies, so thy was pretty fun! I don't think I've ever seen so many puppies in my whole time working that I saw in 1 day! Also saw a cherry eye so that was cool and a dog with a disease that makes his nails fall off called systemic lupus osteolysis, so that was cool. All this being said I'm kinda missing my cows! It's more satisfying having been able to see some 20 odd patients in a day as compared with large animal when it's suddenly 5 and you've only been to 3 farms. It may be too early to call, but who knows!

No autographs please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bZ7xMtQ2OyI

So Hot!

I really don't know how I'm going to survive CA if its this hot in Scotland, let alone in Spain! Hopefully my heat tolerance improves by then! I've been at my friends house dog sitting at thier flat in Anniesland. Its been pretty chill just hanging with the doggies, but I'm definitely glad that I live in the West End rather than in Anniesland. Even though its closer to the vet school going everywhere else is a pain. We've just been chillaxing and playing fetch! Not too bad a way to spend these long summer days!

Last Day of Farm EMS

I can't believe that it's already been 2 weeks! And what a crazy fun 2 weeks it has been! I could not have been more pleased with how that placement went, I feel like I accomplished everything that I set out to do, plus I found out that I would totally be able to pass 5th year OSCEs for clinical placements, so bonus! Correctly pregnancy diagnosed a cow (within 1/2 month, I'll give myself that), so that was exciting! And we felt some freemartins, so theres that too! I guess I'm getting ahead of myself, I'm less tired and on my computer since we were in Glaasgow so I got dropped off early, which worked out quite nicely for me!
So first we went out to the east to P/D some cows on a pretty large farm. There were only 2 so it was really fast. Then we went back to the surgery to get a fancy crush to use for trimming the feet of cows. Once we got to the second farm we set everything up and did semen testing on 2 bulls, 1 that was quite infertile, everytime that happens I think I've messed up the slide somehow, and the 2nd was fine. then we went about trimming the feet of the bulls. Its quite a process, but not dissimilar to the standards for horse foot care, so it wasn't hard to follow. Then we tested some cows for endomatritis  and gave some intravaginal antibiotics. Then we rushed back to the surgery to drop off the crush (at this point we're running 1 1/2 behind) and went to the next farm to P/D some cows. This last one was in Glasgow, so I was able to get dropped off at home instead of having to take the train back, yay! So we P/D 20 cows, a few I got to feel, and 2 of them were freemartins. A freemartin (or a Jenny) is a cow that was a twin and one twin was a female and the other was a male. Because of the way blood is exchanged in foetal cows, the XY and XX cells get mixed up in the 2 foetuses, leading to masculinised female non-fertile calves and sub or non-fertile bulls. So there were 2 that didnt have a uterus. Good for future reference when I rectal a cow and there's nothing there. Then I felt a few more for comparisons, like different stages, anoestrous, etc. Then the vet did a kind of mock OSCE and asked me to P/D a cow and I got it right! Apparently after rotations 5th year there's going to be a list of 8 things and the student has to do 2 or 3 of them to pass, day 1 competency things that we are expected to know. But after these 2 weeks I've done 3 of them, so that bodes well I think. Maybe I'll make it to graduation after all!
When we were all done I got dropped off down the street from my flat and the vet had such nice things to say and I feel like he meant them, so all in all it was a terrific placement! I really want to try to come back and squeeze my way in sometime before 5th year, but we shall see!

Long and busy day!

This morning started off pretty slow. First I got off the train expecting to see my usual bus sitting there waiting for me. No such luck since its the towns day of celebration here, so the busses weren't running, so I had to walk to the practise. Which isn't a problem except it takes a while, so I was a wee bit panicked that I was going to be late! But as luck would have it one f the vets was driving by as I was walking so I hitched a ride with him! Prefect! Then I went to see about a down cow and calf. The cow had septicaemia and the calf has an infected navel, so we treated that and went out on our way. After a quick lunch I ran back out to pregnancy diagnose lap me cows, so I'm getting better at recall and what a uterus feels like empty, pregnant, really pregnant, etc. it's so crazy when you can feel something and know exactly what it is! We then went to do a fertility test on a bull, and he was very infertile/subfertile. We'll have to go have another check on him in 3 months to see if anything improves, but it seems like he's been subfertile the whole time he's been there. We then went to another farm to do a quick PD and were off again. Then we got another call while heading back to the surgery to to a calving. This is the first
One I've been called to that didn't involve a Caesarian, so it was nice to see the vet use the jack since I see so few of those. It was a great 2nd to last day for sure! The sun was out and we were outside and it was lovely! I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day! Hopefully they'll let me come back before 5th year!

Getting pretty good at this!

Today was another pretty busy day, abd the weather has still been holding! First we went to see about a cow that had punctures its side on a silage tractor so the people either wanted to treat it or send it to slaughter. It hadn't punctured and collapsed its lung, and it's temp wasn't terribly high, so we determined that it was for for transport and sent it off to slaughter. Hopefully the carcass will bar good and the people get money for it! Though its unlikely that the lungs wil be saved and the area of the puncture will probably be chucked out as well. Then we went to see about a calf that had a lump on its leg. It was arthritis that had been caused by bacteria that had gotten intro the joints and caused massive infection. So the calf will be emergency slaughtered because hell never live to be a cow that isn't lame, won't be fit for transport, and will most likely be in pain. Then we came back for a quick lunch and then went out to do more fertility testing. I pretty much did the whole thing myself this time, which was exciting! And then I pregnancy diagnosed 2 cows correctly (they were in calf) so yay! Exciting day! Though I do smell a lot like cow, so looking forward to a nice shower.

Still hot!

It's another lovely day, bordering on the too hot, probably because of the humidity, and the fact that we're basically plastic wrapped whenever we do anything! Today was a fairly busy day till the end, and I got to get the early train again, so yay for getting home early! The first place we went to was a dairy that had a cow with peritonitis, potentially. She was a bit smelly and had a bit of gas in her abomasum, so we have her some jabs. What was so cool about this particular dairy was they used automatic milkers! I've heard that they are he best way to prevent mastitis and to increase milk yield but I hadn't actually seen them before!ao cool! I was very impressed. Next we went to a calving, and it was a highland!! Unfortunately the calf was dead (it was an Angus cross) which was quite sad, but since highlands are bred to be so hardy and easy to have if they have a calving problem it tends to be a big problem. Then we had some lunch and went out to do another cesarian. It's nice to see things like that again to reinforce how to do or so I can get better at knowing what to do. Afterwards we went to check on a cow that wasn't doing too well that looks like she had some sort of persistent lung infection. Lovely Belgian blue though, but really skinny.
Also I guess I forget to define the acronyms that I use so here's the ones I can remember using:
LDA=left displaced abomasum. This is what happens in dairy calves fed silage, basically not fed on grass, post calving. I think they are most likely to get it be first 3 months after calving. Basically the abomasum, which is a true gastric stomach in the cow, is able to move from midline to the left (or right) causing GO problems. You need to do surgery to taco it back in place so it stays. I'd write more about it but I don't think anyone's particularly interested in the inner workings of the rumen
RDA: right displaced abomasum. See above, though usually doesn't require surgery, though if you do do surgery the prognosis is not terribly good
PD: pregnancy diagnosis
I'll try to be better about it, I usually am on my phone and too lazy to write everything out, also my phone self corrects to a ninj of weird things. Also I think I've used atomic symbols for elements. So if I say else have a bonus of Se, Cu and I it's selenium, copper and iodine, etc.
Also I'm not sure if I've talked about "the routine" so I will now. After every fame we visit we have to lather up with either iodine or soap all over our water proofs to protect biosecurity. It can get a bit tedious, but I'm getting better at not missing poop, at first I felt like no matter how much I scrubbed I'd miss something!
I should also note that when you cut the peritoneum of a cow air comes rushing at your face. Now you'd think that would smell bad, intra-abdominal cow air, but it smells quite nice actually. I think it smiles minty :)

Busy and hot!

Today was a pretty busy day, we were barely at the surgery again. We started off bright and early and went to see about a possibly LDA. It turned out that it was a RDA, do we didn't get/have to do surgery. I was kind of bummed but I've seen an LDA before, so it wasn't too bad. We have some motility drugs and the cow was pretty smelly with diarrhoea so we took some poop so see if it's salmonella. Then we went to another farm to see about a possible anthrax case. It was a highland cow, so I was gutted that the first highland cow I got close to was a dead one! So sad. So we took blood then went on the PD some cows, they were all negative so they will most likely be culled.
We then went to a farm I've actually been to before to take some blood to test for BVD so they can go to the highland show next weekend, so they don't spread it to anyone there. Then we went to see about a poorly calf, which ended up dyeing while we were there, it possibly had meningitis, but we ended up putting it to sleep while it was basically dying, so sad. Then we gave some lectate to a scoury calf. Then bad to the surgery to check the blood smear for anthrax (negative) and have quick lunch. Then we went to look at 2 twin ewe lambs that all of sudden had gone downhill, took some blood and fecal samples to test for various things since we were unsure as to exactly what was wrong with them. Then we got called to a bullock that was doing poorly, but it pretty much seemed that he had heat stroke, on this "hot" Scottish day, it's 20C just to put that in perspective! Also just found out that I passed all my exams! All As and Bs to my surprise (except phys, which I passed and that's all that matters!) so now the rest of my summer can officially begin!
Also I got to draw blood from the coccygeal vein today woot!