Dairy sheep??

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

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

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...

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

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!!! :)

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

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.