A vet's tale

Dairy sheep??

2011-02-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! I know I haven't posted for a long time!! We just got the internet about 1 month ago and I am finally getting around to it. For some quick background as to what I have been doing for the past eight months, it can be pretty much summed up as: working at my new job!! I am now officially a mixed animal veterinarian in southeastern Missouri.
The best thing about my job: variety!! You never know what you're going to do or see on any given day! Yesterday we visited a sheep dairy to assist with two lambings on East Friesan Dairy sheep! Apparently the farmer was 1 of 2 sheep farmers to raise East Friesan Dairy sheep in the whole state of Missouri!

The first ewe (which is a female sheep in case you didnt' know) had triplets and the first lambs head was caught under the pelvic bone of the mommy sheep, which makes it very hard for her to deliver the lambs. Unfortunately the sheep had been trying to give birth for over 24 hours so all three lambs were dead by the time we got the call. We actually had to take both of the lambs legs off and make an episiotomy (a cut in the vulva) to make enough room for it to fit through the birth canal. Then I tried to get it out but was getting tired and didn't think it would come and mentioned C-section. Immediately Leo was like, no way jose, and then he pulled the lamb out by it's head (thank goodness!). Eventually we got them all pulled out after the first, thank goodness because doing a sheep c-section is no fun, especially when you know they're all dead already. The good news was that the sheep farmer had two baby lambs that had been orphaned, and the mom with all the dead babies accepted the two live ones! Yay!
He had another sheep lambing at the same time, and she had already delivered one dead baby. I felt in the birth canal for another one, and there was a nose right there! The baby's feet were pushed back though so I pushed him back into the uterus and straightened him out and pulled him right out after that. The good news is he was still alive!! He started wiggling around right after he came out, and was trying to stand up on his own right after we left (30 minutes later! ). We also were given a gift of sheep cheese, which we'll taste later. The owner said that each dairy sheep can produce several thousands of dollars worth of milk per year (sheep's milk goes for $80/pound, compared to cow's milk which is $9/pound), so saving the momma ewe was worth the $300 vet bill, which I thought was pretty cheap considering the amount of effort that went into it!
I wish I could tell my Grandpa Ray about this experience because he raised sheep when I was a kid and we used to love seeing all the lambs this time of year...I know he would've loved to hear about it! : )

Famous last words of two pre-vets

2010-06-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here is my favorite quote from vet school graduation:

Vet school Dean: welcome to the 61st annual College of Vet Med Convocation!
Me (whispered to Lindsey): did he just say ,"complication"???
Lindsey: I don't know but it sure was complicated!

Giggle!

Tiger Lullaby

2010-05-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

To start off I'd like to say that this photo reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park where you just see the T-rex'es eye ball blinking before all heck breaks loose.

LOL.

With that in mind, I'm going to sing you the lullaby I sing my little miniature tiger before her bedtime. It's an adaptation of the song from the movie, "The Hangover", and goes a bit like this:

What do tigers dream of

When they take a little tiger snooze

Do they dream of mauling Gator

Or biting mommy through her shoes?

Don't you worry your pretty striped head

You're gonna take a nap in your cozy tiger bed

And then mommy's gonna sneak upstairs

and sleep in safety from your crazy tiger dares

love, love, oh love love, loveee love love

But if you escape and come up the stairs,

you might just lacerate my trachea.

THE END

If you're wondering how the tune goes, and haven't seen the movie, here is a youtube link to the original song, "What do tigers dream of"

Let me explain...

2010-05-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Adam and I took a trip to Hermann recently...we had a great time wandering around and tasting all of their delicious food and wine. Here are some pics from the trip

Peach Pie from Time 4 Pie...soooooo delicious!!!

Gotta love this guy's smile!!

I think the pie lasted maybe 30 seconds...maybe!

Wine tasting at Stone Hill

Let me explain...

Hearts vs. Turtles vs. Stars

We both thought frowny faces were too obvious since we didn't want them to feel bad if we didn't like a certain wine so we used our previous tic-tac-toe system of Hearts (me) vs. Turtles (Adam) plus Stars to mark whether we liked each wine.

Hearts = complete dislike (contradictory, I know!)

Turtles = Medium like

Stars = Really like!!

This might not be the most sophisticated wine ranking system, but I think it works!

Adam poked me to show me what he had written next to the "Norton" wine. I almost choked with laughter trying to avoid spitting wine across the counter at the nice wine-tasting lady.

Lars is his dog.

LOL. I think this was my favorite moment from the entire trip.

Awards Ceremony

2010-05-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Last night was our vet school awards banquet, which is a really nice banquet followed by an awards ceremony that lasts almost 2 hours! Over $250,000 in scholarships are given out to students of the vet school, and awards are often made in honor of beloved deceased pets, as well as proficiency awards given for academic excellence and proficiency in the clinical studies species categories such as "Swine proficiciency" , "wildlife/exotics proficincey", "feline proficiency" and so on.

The food was excellent and I got to sit at a table with all my friends and neighbors from Providence Hill (whom I will miss very much after we all move out):

Leslie and Joe, Look Joe's eyes are open!!

Peggy, Sarah, Brianne and Amberle

Look Peggy got the award for Feline Medicine Proficiency! Congrats Peggy!

If you remember, Peggy's cats are featured here on an earlier blog post.

Laura G., Jenn and Laura B.

Jenn got an award for canine medicine proficiency!! Good job, Jenn!

Laura B also received an award for proficiency in radiology! Way to go!

Laura G. receives mention for winning an award in public health/epidemiology in previous years, which I dare say was a surprise to us all!

Me and my roommate Laura G. I told her if her new roommates suck she can quit her internship and move back in with me in Farmington. Not likely, this girl's not a quitter!

And Surprise! I got an award for proficiency in large animal medicine and surgery! I've never received an award at this banquet before so needless to say I was pretty darn happy! :)

Congrats to all my classmates on their accomplishments and I look forward to seeing you on stage at JESSE HALL Friday afternoon for one last, teensy-weensy non-important little stroll we're all taking...
JUST KIDDING!!!

One more day and then GRADUATION!!! :)

2010-05-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is a very exciting post, which will start with the phrase , "This morning I took out the trash"

here goes:

This morning I took out the trash, and I found THIS THING in the dumpster:

Snoozing Away

Which reminded me of a conversation I had with my good friends Abbie and David several years ago as they were dropping me off from a night at the Roots and Blues Fest in Columbia. As we drove by the dumpsters, I informed my friends of something I was sure was very important at the time:

" DAVID! We have POSSSUMS in our dumpster! POSSUMS!!!"

They have never let me live it down. Understandably.

I wanted to take a picture of the thing's face so I kicked the dumpster to see if it would wake up:

Nothing.

Then I decided to pitch an empty box of macaroni and cheese at the trash bag the thing was laying in. Not at the thing directly, I would never do that. Not to mention I don't have the aim anyway.

It started to breathe a little harder.

Then...nothing.

At this point 7 years of professional education finally decided to resurface, and these thoughts floated to the top of my head:

Rachel.
The thing wants to be left alone.
It is probably sick, that's why it's not responding to you.
It might have rabies.
It could bite you in the face.
Leave it ALONE!

These thoughts prompted my photography-crazed brain to reconsider my tactic and lob an empty cat food can at the thing. (again, just at the bag, not actually at the thing.)

Again, breathing a little harder, then nothing. Sigh.

Luckily none of my neighbors had driven by at this point. I'm sure the sight of a person in Lucky Charms pajamas and an MU jacket taking photos of the inside of a dumpster would have confirmed any dangling supsicions they may have had about my sanity. Good thing I'm only living here for another week and a half.

My vet brain finally regained control and made me go home and take this photo of my cat. She likes to bite too though so I can't say it was much safer except that she's had her rabies shot

Packing

2010-05-10T11:40:00.001-07:00

This is what my living room looks like right now. Ugh. of stuff is not what I'd consider a fun time...I'm wondering where all this junk came from!

That's my closet door. In the hallway.

This is my closet! Look, you can see the floor! I'm pretty sure I haven't seen that much floor in my closet since I moved in here ;)

Some of us are apparently just going to snooze away the whole thing...

Ahem...while certain others are WORKING.

But luckily some of us are having more fun than others....

Marley has been making kitty forts ever since I started moving the boxes in.

Again, I would like to reiterate that neither Marley nor Gator have offered their assistance in packing up all this stuff!!

Lazy punks!

Oh well.

The cow thing went ok, in case you were wondering. I got covered in enormous amounts of cow poo, as usual for that sort of thing. The problem with being short is you have to really get up in there to feel anything. I got poo in my ear. Lots.

LOL.

The End

2010-05-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Guess what everyone! Vet school is OVER! It's been a week since my last day of class and I still can't believe it. And, REAL LIFE is coming quick! I start my new job on May 24th! HOWEVER, this weekend my cousin wants me to preg check 30 cows for him. He said, "well you're a vet aren't ya!"

I'm still waiting for the magic switch that turns me into a real vet and not a scared 4th year.
Hasn't happened yet.

Just in case you don't know much about preg checking cows, let me explain it to ya.

Doing it is actually realll simple.

And reallly rectal.

Ugh.

Let's just say you put the north-bound end of your arm into the south-bound end of a cow.

Bleah.

And you feel for the baby.

Doesn't sound too hard right??

Where it gets tricky is when you have a cow that's not very far along in her pregnancy, because it feels similar to an "open" or not pregnant cow. At least to me it feels similar.

But I'm just a young'n. The first 1000 head don't count, they say.

The trip here is that farmers usually sell "open" cows and want to keep pregos. So you better be right.

Eek.

My cuz said that most of his cows should be pretty far along so hopefully I should be able to feel the calves . Either way, keep your fingers crossed for me and send one up to the big man that I don't let him down!!

Depth of Field

2010-02-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Minor experiment in depth of fieldShorter depth of field and the kitty is out of focus

Longer depth of field...light out of focus and kitty in focus.

One GIANT LEAP!!!!

2010-01-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone,Laura called me today and said, "i have your national boards envelope " and I said "OPEN IT OPEN IT OPEN IT" and she opens it and says...."PASS!!!!!"yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
The day when I can take off the "(future)" is getting closer :) :) :)
Have a good day!! I miss you all!! Love, Rachel

New Year's Resolutions!

2010-01-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!
Happy New Year!! yay 2010!! As well as being a NEW DECADE, this is also the year that something super duper important (to me anyway!) and a LONG TIME COMING is happening: on MAY 14th, I will FINALLY graduate from Mizzou with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree...7 years in the making baby!!

I'm definitely looking forward to getting a real job and continuing to learn how to be a vet, and caring for all my future patients! :)

Here is my New Year's Resolution though:

NO MORE TRAFFIC TICKETS!!!!!!!

Anyone wanna take bets on how long I can last??

Mexico esta muy bonitia!

2009-12-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

At the beach...

There were lots of beautiful flowers by the pool...luckily it rained that morning making this loooooooooverly rain drop effect :) :)

A beautiful gulf coast sunrise...I got up at 6 AM and walked to the beach on our last day in Mexico to shoot this...the f/stop is at 1/4000!!

The ocean!! As seen from the plane upon arrival at the Cancun airport.

How to have a good time in MEXICO!!

2009-12-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

How to do it up right in Mexico!!

1. Go with 3 great old friends...

2. Lose your passport promptly upon arriving at the Mexican Airport

3 Find it again within 10 minutes (this part is crucial)

4. Pack a ridiculous amount of stuff that way you have to lug it through customs...

5. Lay on the beach for 4 days and get incredibly sunburnt on your right side only

6. Do several shots of tequila and somehow injure yourself under the bar, that's correct, I said UNDER the bar.

7. Go snorkeling and almost get separated from the group because you were swimming after a sea turtle...

8. Tell the customs agents you're only bringing back "Christmas presents"...they might get kinda grouchy about that Mexican vanilla!!

;) ;) These are just options you can take, in case you hadn't guessed already this is the short-and-sweet version of my WONDERFUL vacation to the land of Mexico!!

Thrillllllllller!!!

2009-12-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen...I present to you...EVIDENCE!!!
Evidence that I, Rachel Ray, went to a Michael Jackson impersonator show!!

(In the strangest of all places...Playa del Carmen, Mexico!!! Does anyone else find that weird?)

I've now been to exactly two impersonator shows in my life (that I can remember)...MJ being the most recent and the other one being a Johnny Cash impersonator band called Cash'd Out at the Blue Note when Adam and I first started dating...that was a great time as well!

I think this guy really looked like him but when he started talking he had a Hispanic accent...;)

What impersonators have you seen?

Pawsitive Memories: Happy Holidays from the Whites: Peggy, Tinsel and Sprinkle!!

2009-12-09T14:10:00.001-08:00

These photos are of Peggy White, one of my Vet Med classmates and buddies, and her 2 cute kitties, Sprinkle and Tinsel!! Tinsel was a bit shy, but they are still the cutest!! I wish I could take pictures of cuddly animals all day long...I love my self-proclaimed part-time job!! I'm taking boards tomorrow though...then going to Mexico (the country) to blow off some steam with my girls from high school....expect about 40 million pictures of that trip when I return!!

Pawsitive Memories: Dr. Odunayo, Grace, Zoe and Duke

2009-12-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some more holiday photos of one of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care residents from the VMTH, Dr. Desola Odunayo, and her adorable animals Grace, Zoe, and Duke!! I had a blast doing the shoot and I think they turned out really cute!!

Pawsitive Memories: Merry Christmas from the Straubes!

2009-12-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some Christmas photos of my cousins, the Straubes and their doggy Ben!! I loved their Christmas tree!!

Thanksgiving leftovers :)

2009-12-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my friend Leslie, who fixed our wonderful "Vet School Orphan Thanksgiving" meal on Thanksgiving day! She did a great job, that baked chicken was awesome (and so was everything else, technically!!)
Some pics of some good friends of mine, Abbie and David from their Thanksgiving day-after breakfast that they graciously invited me to!! The breakfast was delicious and I had a great time hanging out with Abbie and David and their family!

I posted that pic mainly because Thorina looks crazy-eyed in it. : )

From Left: Abbie (holding Arwen), David (holding Thorina) and Paco. Doesn't he look distinguished in his polo shirt? Yay for everyone who helped make my Thanksgiving great this year!!

Thankful

2009-11-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of some of the things I am thankful for: 1. Family and friends!! How lucky I am to have such a good support system to keep me going, and also that they are so much fun to hang out with!! I definitely miss them right now though :(
2. Education and opportunity...these things go in the same category because I think the first leads to the former! However, not everyone gets the opportunity for education, so for that I'm really grateful!
3. Marley and Gator...'nuff said.

Here are some pics from a fancy meal my mom made one time for my sister's going away to Paris meal...sigh....

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T20:15:00.001-08:00

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to drop a happy Thanksgiving to everyone on T-day eve. I will be spending Thanksgiving unfortunately away from my family while being on call here for Equine Ambulatory. However, several of my friends from vet school also are on call or have patients in the hospital to take care of, and we've decided to band together and have our own little T-day celebration, so thankfully I won't be spending most of it alone (and it sounds like we'll be having some delicious food as well!!). I will definitely miss my family, and this is the first Thanksgiving I can remember ever missing, but I think it will be ok. Adam is also coming over later to hang out so I'll have good company definitely. :)
Anyway, I've decided to post this endearing video to help all of you out there understand why I'm so attached to my crazy/evil cat. This is a video of Marley when she was just about 4 weeks old. I've literally had this cat since she was a 2 week old baby so I guess maybe you can see why there's a bond there.

Make sure to turn up the volume so you can hear her little mews and purrs!!

Gator and Marley's Christmas lists...

2009-11-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

Marley and Gator have recently made me aware of their Christmas lists to Santa, so I thought I'd post them for everyone to see! Here they are:
Gator's List:
1. A new beagle girlfriend so I can quit humping my mom's arm
2. A cake made out of cat poop
3. A dead cow so I can eat its tibias...
4. A big back yard to run around in
Here is Marley's
1. Human flesh
2. A dead partridge in a pear tree
3. Each of Adam's big toes (I think they have a mutual hatred...)
And here are some pics:

Fall Fun

2009-11-14T09:35:00.001-08:00

Hey Everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time, I was in rural MO on a vet preceptorship, which was super amazing by the way! I love mixed animal practice!
Anyway, here are some pics I took of my dad and his dog and my dog while we on a hike one day...Gator smelled some animal and then took off through the woods and we had to chase him down!! Luckily, he kept up his moronic howling and we could follow him pretty easily. Dad found his pacing back and forth and howling in front of a stream! Gator won't swim, so I guess it's pretty lucky that whatever he was chasing decided to cross water, or I'm not sure we would've ever caught up to him!

Yay, fall!!

Dad and Chase :) Chase is the best dog ever (besides Gator and Bogart of course!!)

Dad and Gator after Dad finally tracked him down....silly Gator!!

Pawsitive Memories: Lorie and Chloe

2009-10-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Lorie is a super cool future-vet, and this is her and her dog Chloe. Aren't they adorable? Thanks to Lorie for the opportunity for a great shoot!

KC Zoo

2009-10-16T16:24:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd addd some quick pics from a recent trip to the KC Zoo since I'm headed up there with my mom and cousin Beth Anne tonight to see my sis. We're gonna have a GIRLS WEEKEND, yeah!!

I'm pretty tired right now, though, we just bled a whole herd of beef cows this morning!

The view from the Millenium

2009-10-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend some and my classmates and I were lucky enough to get to go to an Equine Nutrition conference sponsored by Purina at the Millenum hotel in St. Louis! This was is a great hotel, it has a great view of the Mississppi River on 1 side and the arch on the other. It also has a 360 degree revolving restauraunt on top of the hotel itself! My room was literally on the 26th (of 27) floor, which at first I thought was a pain, but then I realized that I had a great view for picture taking ;) ;) I wasn't on the Arch side, but I did take about a million shots of the river, and a few of the arch from my classmate's room, who was on the other side of the hotel.

Charmin beware

2009-09-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Phone call from roommate today:

Roommate: So your dog just destroyed 4 rolls of toilet paper.

Me: (internally): Sigh.

--end of phone call--

So apparently both of my pets unfortunately have toilet paper fetishes, see earlier post about toilet paper destroying cat.

And also unfortunately, but unavoidably, I did waste a huge amount of time taking these pictures while I was supposed to be practicing my food animal presentation. Oh well.

Pawsitive Memories :) :)

2009-09-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today I had a great photo shoot with Megan, Josh and their dog Baker, who found my ad for Pawsitive Memories Photography on Craig's List (yay, Craig's List!)! They were a fun family to take photos with, and I think they look great!

How cute are they!!!

Thanks to Amberle, yet again, for helping me out with this project!! You rock!

Grouchy cat

2009-09-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today Marley accidentally rolled off the top shelf of my desk! I happened to be standing there and caught her, but when I set her down, she was so freaked out by her almost-traumatic incident, that she turned around and bit me.

My mom and Tim came up for the Roots and Blues fest today, but right now it's raining so they went shopping and hopefully it'll stop before they come back. Cross your fingers!

:)

2009-09-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

Dog Park Etc

2009-09-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic from Gator and I's trip to a local dog park. The other dog is a buddy Gator made named Mango. Gator and Mango made great play buddies, Gator loves to be chased and Mango loves to chase! I think he looks like he's about to fly away here.

Early Saturday Morning

2009-09-07T08:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you all are enjoying a day off! I am just hanging out at home with Marley and Gator and being on-call :)
I decided to post some pictures while I wait for the phone to ring. These are some pics I shot Saturday morning at the MU Rec trail that's pretty much right next to my house.

like them, but I think they might've been better A. If it had been broad daylight...or B. If I had a tripod which would allow me to hold the camera still enough for longer exposures, or if I had a macro lens. Anyway, here are my best efforts with all that being said ;)

Unfortunately I loaded that last picture in there upside down, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to turn it around without starting a whole new post, which I don't want to do. Any suggestions?

Trip to KC and Steamboat Arabia!!

2009-09-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hey!
I thought I'd post a few pics from our trip to KC to visity my younger sister Ashley (who is freakin awesome!) for her birthday, and our trip to the farmer's market/Steamboat Arabia museum. We had a great time on this trip, you should check it out!

Not sure, but I think these are bones from a pig that was on board the boat when it went down. I think the story was that the only thing that actually died was a mule, so I imagine the hog was for the fancy din din's the ppl on board the boat had.

This is my sis Ashley and my Mom and Stepdad Tim. They also are awesome.

Ash is a budding fashion designer!

This is a cool looking bottle of wine that says "Papillon" on it. I don't know what the connection is between this guys hands, and the ridiculously yippy breed of dog, but I thought it looked cool.

A pineapple from the farmer's market!! I don't even like to eat pineapples, but I thought it was pretty. :)

On-Call

2009-08-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

I guess I haven' t posted for a few days so I should probably put up the answer to the Merck Monday question: The answer is Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus! This is a disease process that large breed dogs get sometimes when their stomach fills up with air and twists on its own axis. By doing so, it also cuts off its own blood supply and then parts of the stomach and spleen (the spleen may rotate out of position as well) can start to die off! The gas filled stomach rotated on its axis with displacement of the outflow tract (pylorus) is what makes the characteristic bloated and compartmentalized stomach appearance on radiographs. As you can imagaine, this is a pretty serious condition that usually requires surgery to de-rotate (is that a word?) the stomach and remove any parts of it that might have died off.

So the radiolgy exam went as well as could be expected, there were a few radiographs that got me the "Seriously, that's your answer?!?!" face from the professor, but overall I think it went all right.

Since then, I have rotated to Food Animal Medicine, which is the part of the teaching hospital that deals with cows, sheep, pigs, goats, alpacas and llamas, etc. So far, we've had quite a few cases which is good for us students! :)

My favorite thing by far three days into the rotation has been calf pulling... we've had 2 pulls so far, both of which I was able to help out with. Ending up with a live calf and a healthy mama makes me feel good, and I love watching mama cows lick their babies clean :) Corny, I know, but soooo cute :)

One tip I learned the hard way about calf pulling for anyone who may have to pull a calf in the future is don't sit or stand directly behind the mom for awhile after you get the calf out, because there's a good chance she may try to expel the rest of her placenta and fetal fluids from her uterus. This doesn't occur in a slow trickle either, it's more like an explosion of nasty gooey sticky membranes and what seems like gallons yellowy-red fluid. I happened to be tube-feeding her calf directly behind her, so there was no chance for escape! The only good thing was that my face was turned to the calf, and so I only got this junk all down my side and in my hair, and not in my mouth! Gotta think on the bright side. The fluid itself was pretty warm, so I guess it might of felt good if it had been 20 degrees in some farmer's field at midnight. That being said, we were in the nice air-conditioned teaching hospital, so really it just felt pretty darn narsty.

Hope you all are doing well, see ya later!

Rachel

2009-08-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

This week's Merck Monday question is in honor of my radiology rotation coming to it's inevitable end. Tommorow we finish up our rotation with the traditional ORAL exam (YIKES!). We are given 10 radiographs to figure out the night before, and then we have to explain what is wrong with each radiograph (one-on-one!) to the infamous Dr. Lattimer. Dr. L is famous for falling asleep while you're explaining your radiographs to him, and/or sighing loudly and discontentedly whenever one says anything incorrect about a radiograph. Kinda nerve-racking!

SO, in honor of all that, we'll have a radiograph for today's question:

It is a hot sunny afternoon in your clinic in Dell, Indiana, when one of your clients brings in her German Shephard, Klaus. Apparently, her dog Klaus was catching a frisbee when he immediately went down. Klaus is breathing very hard and fast, has pale mucous membranes, and his stomach feels very distended on abdominal palpation. You take a right lateral radiograph, and immediately have your diagnosis...what is wrong with Klaus's stomach?

A. Gastric Bloat
B. Gastric Dilitation and Volvulus
C. Gastric Adenocarcinoma
D. Obstructed Pylorus

Good luck, remember this dog is about to die, so don't be wrong! (haha juuuuuuust kidding!!)But, that is a slight hint, this is a pretty serious condition!

:)
Rachel

Yay colostrum and wal mart antics

2009-08-19T19:03:00.001-07:00

Good job to everybody who participated in Merck Monday this week!! You are all right!

The correct answer to the question was D. Colostrum.

First of all, welcome back undergraduates!! Glad to see that jam-packed parking lot at Wal-Mart again!
Seriously though, I am glad to see them back. It really made me smile in Wally World when I heard one guy exclaim, "WOW! Now I really know what it's like for parents to go grocery shopping!" and his buddy said, "What are we gonna buy?". The response, of course, was "Whatver's cheapest!"

:) :) :)
What I wouldn't give to be a freshman in college again!

Gator and Merck Monday

2009-08-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, I introduced my cat, now it is Gator's turn. Gator came from one of my classmates who lives out in the country. She had a pregnant poochie show up on her property and produce 5 puppies! She wanted them all to go to good homes so I got Gator, six months later. From what she tells me, he is half-beagle, half-blue tick coonhound. I named him Gator for 3 reasons:
1. I LOVE blue gatorade
2. I like alligators
3. My grandma used to drive one of those 5-wheel John Deere gator things.
I think beagles (and beagle mixes) get a bad rap for being dumb, hard to train, and howling alot. I think they're actually difficult to train because they're so darn hard-headed (at least Gator is!) . To me, he seems very intelligent, he picks up words very quickly, it's just that it's usually up to his mood whether or not he decides to listen! He knows what I want him to do when I say"upstairs" and "downstairs" and he's getting to the point where if I say "go get Ducky", he'll go pick his stuffed duck out of a pile of toys and bring it back to me!
My favorite thing about Gator is that he's a very emotional dog (snicker...even I know that sounds goofy)...but seriously! When he's happy, his whole little face lights up, and his ears perk up! All I have to do is get out the jar of peanut butter and he's golden! However, when he's sad, it's heart breaking :( His eyes look down at the ground, and his tail stops wagging :(
Something tells me he knows I'm a sucker for the sad face, though. It never lasts long.

So here is today's question of the week. I decided this week would be a large animal topic since last week was small animal.

You are called to a small dairy goat farm outside of Feta, Montana. As you examine their goats, you notice swollen carpi (knees) and hard, firm udders on the nanny goats, and that one farmer's one-week old baby goats doesn't seem to be able to walk or stand. A few other of the nanny goats are coughing. Thinking back to the knowledge you gained while in food animal medicine, you realize that the goats may likely have Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus
.
What is the most common transmission route for this virus?

A. Fecal-oral
B. Trans-placental (ie mom passes to baby while in the womb).
C. Virus passes through respiratory secretions
D. Virus contaminated colustrum of nanny goats, which the babies ingested.

Remember, this is just for fun. Unfortunately, this is not the Prime Time Return of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, so all you win is public congrats (and bragging rights, of course ;)

Good luck, and have a good night!

Rachel

Progression of A Sunburn

2009-08-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

My family and I recently went on a float trip on the Meramac river, which was super fun. We floated all day down the river and then at the end hiked up into a super, super cold spring (BRRRRRRRRR), and jumped off a rope swing. The rope swing was pretty hard for me, because I'm slightly afraid of heights, but I still did it, mainly just to prove I could. The actual swing part turned out to be pretty fun, but balancing in the tree trying to catch the rope was not fun at all. Anyway, all together I think we had a great time on the float trip. Unfortunately, float trips always come with some unfortunate consequences (hint: whether I use sunscreen or not). Here is a picture of me pre-float trip:

Here's what I looked like 6-hours post float trip:

And here are a couple pictures of what I look like 1 week post float trip (today):

Sigh.

Mar

2009-08-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd introduce my furry four-legged family members tonight. Let me start by introducing Marley, my cat, by showing you what I foudn waiting for me in the kitchen when I came home from work this afternoon:

An entire roll of toilet paper, shredded to bits all over the kitchen floor. I love Marley to death, but this wasn't her proudest moment. I've had Marley since she was just 2 weeks old. My classmates and I bottle fed her from the day she was born, because she was born at a spay-neuter clinic. Her mother was being spayed, and the pregnancy was so far along that the kittens (there were 3!) were breathing by the time they got them out of the uterus. Basically, the surgery ended up being a pseudo-c-section, because the students couldn't put the kittens down. They rubbed them dry, and took them back to Columbia. The first time I met Marley was when all three kittens sat through an exam with us in their little kennel (it was finals week). At this point, they were small enough to fit in the palm of your hand! I remeber I could hear their tiny little meows throughout the exam, but I didn't mind ;)

Marley has developed into a very much a 1-person cat. She likes me well enough, but anyone else had better watch their back, or they're likely to get attacked! Oh well.

By the way, the answer to the Merck Monday question was choice D, Saddle Thrombus! Good job to ieatblueflamingo, whoever the heck you are, and thanks everybody else for playing!

A saddle thrombus is a clot that lodges itself between the bifurcation of the arteries that feed blood to the back legs. That explains why the back legs feel cold, because there is compromised blood flow to them.

Have a good night, everyone!

:) Rachel

2009-08-12T15:45:00.001-07:00

Dating in the Dark

2009-08-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Hello again!
Today I've decided to make my post about this goofy show that I've been watching recently, called "Dating in the Dark" . On the show, 6 participants (3 men, 3 women) are placed in a pitch black room and allowed to "get to know each other" without ever seeing each other in the daylight. After the initial get to know everybody group date session is over, each individual picks a person that they feel they got along with especially well to go on a single date with in the dark room. They can pick more than one person and go on multiple dates if they like. Usually what happens is they end up finding somebody they feel they have a "connection" with and they'll go on more than one date with that person.
At the end of the show, each person picks one person that they would like to see revealed in the light before they decide whether or not they're going to continue seeing that person at the end of the show. They only get to see that person for like 2 seconds total, then the lights are out again. They also do not see each other while they are being revealed, so they can't see each others facial expressions when they see who they've been dating the whole time. Sometimes, their expressions are pretty comical!
Being as this is a reality TV show, I'm pretty sure it's just a big set up of wanna-be Hollywood actors and actresses, but it does kinda make you think about dating in general! When you remove the superficial aspect of what people look like, all the participants have to go on is whether or not they like each other's actual personality, and then in the end, you can see how superficial a person is or is not based on what they decide after their "date" is revealed in the light. Sometimes it works out surprisingly well and the "hot guy" ends up going out with the goofy looking glasses wearing girl, but definitely not always! Last night, for example, a girl dumped a guy that she felt she had gotten along really well with because he was too short!
I think that the show is alot like dating in a bar really...it's dark in there, your senses are likely somewhat impaired, and you're taking your pick from whoever in the world just happened to show up that night! Anyway, even though it's most likely a set-up (it's just waaaaaaaaay to cliche, for example, all the self-proclaimed crazy red-heads, blonde surfer girls, and good little catholic girl brunettes) I still get a kick out of watching it. It's on ABC monday nights if you feel like checking it out too!! Let me know what you think.

Introduction

2009-08-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I have officially decided to start my own blog. I have decided to do this because things in my life are actually getting to a point where they might be interesting to read about...no guarantees, though! Anyway, let me introduce myself.
If you don't already know me, my name is Rachel. I am from a small town in northeastern, Missouri, which I thought was a pretty good place to grow up actually.
For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a veterinarian. I remember the first time I saw a spay done on a dog...all I could think was, "man, I wanna do that!" Here's why I consider myself a very lucky person...10 years later, I'm actually in my senior year of vet school! How many people do you know that for one thing, actually know what they want to do with their lives, and for another thing, actually get to do it? In my opinion, it doesn't get much luckier than that, and I'm grateful every day to be one of the few...even if I may complain every now and then ;)
I guess it should be no surprise then that this blog may be saturated with veterinary stuff...starting with my own spin on my good friend Abbie's (www.chickinczech.blogspot.com) Monday theme called "Menu Monday". I like the idea of having activities on blogs, so my version of this is going to be called "Merck Monday". The Merck Veterinary Manual (http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp ) is sort of like the veterinary Bible. It may not be the most complicated or in depth of all veterinary related text books, but it, in my opinion encompasses the most species, and includes the most need-to-know basic info for veterinarians. In light of this, and the fact that my classmates and I are going to be taking the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam) in less than 6 months, I've decided to post a vet-trivia question every monday. You can all vote on it then, if you like, and I'll post the answers on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
Here is the first question:

A 10-year old, male castrated tabby cat comes into your clinic, in Holiday, Indiana, crying in pain. His owner reports that "Garfield" initially was seen straining to urinate in the litterbox while yowling mournfully, and has just had an episode of acute collapse in his hind limbs. His hind limbs feel cold and he doesn't seem to be able to put any weight on them.

What is the most likely differential?

A. Urinary Tract Infection
B. Idiopathic Cystitis
C. Obstructive Urolithiasis
D. Aortic Thromboembolism (Saddle Thrombus)

Good luck, remember this is just for fun (and secretly to help me study for boards just a little bit...;)
Hope you all have a great night,
Rachel