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!