Off block was a much needed break from things. Arthur and I had a total blast. I did spend 2 days with an neurologist in the city. I'll finish that externship in a couple of blocks. It is amazing to spend some time at a small animal clinic away from the Teaching Hospital. Things move SO fast because the clinicians are not having to spend the time teaching while they do things.
In the 2 days I was there I saw so many cool (some sad) things:
Golden with anxiety disorder was fly snapping and walking in wide circles
4 hemilaminectomies in a day
A cat with FIP in the brain
An 8 week old pug with scoliosis and hind limb paralysis
A boxer with a meningioma that we removed in surgery.
A cat with peripheral neuropathy.
Along with many other things. It was pretty sweet. Both days were 13 hours long, but the amount of cases we saw was incredible.
Anesthesia started this week. I was anxious going into anesthesia. So much depends on making sure you have all your ducks in a row. You need so many drugs and equipment handy, tons of calculations, etc. It is SO easy to really ef something up. Day 1 I got to follow another student who had already been on anesthesia. Days 2 & 3 were both dentals on healthy animals. I'm on call this evening, so we shall see what awaits me.
This year is flying by so far. I also started to study for boards this week. I guess it's about time. Boards are the end of Nov or beginning of Dec.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Second week FARMS
So this week has been great. Coming back from such an intense externship, I was feeling a little down when it comes to large animals. This week has totally helped get my attitude back on track. I currently have 2 in house patients but have worked on laproscopically inseminating 25 ewes, castrating 2 bulls, vaccinating some heifers, and assessing a lame leg on a suuuper cute 16 day old angus today.
My in house patients are a valuable sow who was a show pig and is now a breeding sow. Her job is to pump out expensive babies. She has been lame and has gone off feed. The last 2 days have been rocky, but today she finally ate. All it takes is a little baby talk, and Jos holding a 60 cc syringe full of creamed corn to get a girl going. She gobbled down 10-12 syringes of yogurt, heavy cream, and creamed corn... DELISHHH!!! She is still refusing to eat out of her bowl, so I will continue to baby this girl for another day or so. If she still refuses, we may see if her mouth is bothering her or something like that. My hereford heifer has osteomyelitis in one of her toes that we arthrodeised today. Hopefully by drilling a hole through her toe, we can get the joint to fuse and make her sound again. She is also an expensive creature and her owner would like her to be an embryo donor cow in the future. So we will see if she can get through this. She is a super sweet girl, so I have been enjoying working with her so far.
I also was told that I was doing a great job managing my patients today, which was great. A little compliment every now and then is all I need to keep going full speed. ;)
My in house patients are a valuable sow who was a show pig and is now a breeding sow. Her job is to pump out expensive babies. She has been lame and has gone off feed. The last 2 days have been rocky, but today she finally ate. All it takes is a little baby talk, and Jos holding a 60 cc syringe full of creamed corn to get a girl going. She gobbled down 10-12 syringes of yogurt, heavy cream, and creamed corn... DELISHHH!!! She is still refusing to eat out of her bowl, so I will continue to baby this girl for another day or so. If she still refuses, we may see if her mouth is bothering her or something like that. My hereford heifer has osteomyelitis in one of her toes that we arthrodeised today. Hopefully by drilling a hole through her toe, we can get the joint to fuse and make her sound again. She is also an expensive creature and her owner would like her to be an embryo donor cow in the future. So we will see if she can get through this. She is a super sweet girl, so I have been enjoying working with her so far.
I also was told that I was doing a great job managing my patients today, which was great. A little compliment every now and then is all I need to keep going full speed. ;)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Nice day off
We decided to split the weekend, so I had a nice 1.5 days off.
I totally needed the break because I was starting to get super exhausted form the 12+ hours of work a day.
I took a trip into the twin cities. Stopped and picked up some stuff for the wedding and bought a little something for Arthur and my dad. They both have birthdays coming up. I found a lake and took a walk around it. It has an area with food and beer so I bought a fish taco and had a beer. It totally hit the spot.
I have 5 days to go on this rotation and I'll admit I am getting more and more comfortable working with cows. I'm not sure where I'll end up in the future, but I will say that by the end of this upcoming week, I will probably have seen it all...
I totally needed the break because I was starting to get super exhausted form the 12+ hours of work a day.
I took a trip into the twin cities. Stopped and picked up some stuff for the wedding and bought a little something for Arthur and my dad. They both have birthdays coming up. I found a lake and took a walk around it. It has an area with food and beer so I bought a fish taco and had a beer. It totally hit the spot.
I have 5 days to go on this rotation and I'll admit I am getting more and more comfortable working with cows. I'm not sure where I'll end up in the future, but I will say that by the end of this upcoming week, I will probably have seen it all...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Calves on a dairy
I'm not too sure where I stand when it comes to calf processing on a dairy.
I've only seen a few places (so far), but I can't say I agree with it 100%.
The future of a dairy is the calves, in my opinion. If you want more milking cows, then you have to replace your old ones with new ones - who are your calves. It seems, however, that the calves are last priority at many dairies. This may have something to do with survival of the fittest (like if they are weak, let 'em die). I don't know what percentage of calves should live, but I feel like if you give them a little tlc and analyze your calf processing protocol, then you should be able to achieve a pretty high survival rate.
Also my deep thought for the day is if I were to die and come back a living thing, I would put male dairy cow at the absolute bottom of my list. You cannot GIVE them away which is a little troubling to me. I will leave it at that.
The dairy uses sexed semen which is giving this dairy a 65% heifer rate. So I supposed when you look at the shear volume of this dairy, it is WAY better to get 65% than 50 (or whatever it is naturally).
The birth of a dairy cow is so awesome to watch. After any semi-crappy day, you can always go watch a couple of births to lift your spirits. The ONE main thing, though is you CANNOT look at their junk. Just walk away and tell yourself , "It's a girl! It's a girl!! And BAM your day just got a little better!
I've only seen a few places (so far), but I can't say I agree with it 100%.
The future of a dairy is the calves, in my opinion. If you want more milking cows, then you have to replace your old ones with new ones - who are your calves. It seems, however, that the calves are last priority at many dairies. This may have something to do with survival of the fittest (like if they are weak, let 'em die). I don't know what percentage of calves should live, but I feel like if you give them a little tlc and analyze your calf processing protocol, then you should be able to achieve a pretty high survival rate.
Also my deep thought for the day is if I were to die and come back a living thing, I would put male dairy cow at the absolute bottom of my list. You cannot GIVE them away which is a little troubling to me. I will leave it at that.
The dairy uses sexed semen which is giving this dairy a 65% heifer rate. So I supposed when you look at the shear volume of this dairy, it is WAY better to get 65% than 50 (or whatever it is naturally).
The birth of a dairy cow is so awesome to watch. After any semi-crappy day, you can always go watch a couple of births to lift your spirits. The ONE main thing, though is you CANNOT look at their junk. Just walk away and tell yourself , "It's a girl! It's a girl!! And BAM your day just got a little better!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Dairy Rotation: Day 1
This dairy is flipping HUGE!
Every time I looked out into the maternity pen, there was another cow birthing. It is incredible. A huge pen of new born calves. They get to dry off inside before going out to their calf hutches. It is the cutest thing when they get their bottles. Their little tails wag and they all stand up and come to the fence. So precious!
Today we got to do a bunch of physical exams on the fresh cows. I think this will be the daily routine. In that pen, we had a lot of udder edema, retained placentas. There were 2 cows with eye issues. I helped to do a subconjunctival injection on a cow with a melting ulcer. I also learned (and got to practice) using my nose to detect infection. ew!
Then we head to the sick cow pen and attend to those ladies. They are so sad, but in the grand scheme of things, there are way less cows in the sick pen than at smaller dairies. The whole scale thing skews your perspective.
In the sick pen, we had a prolapsed vagina and rectum on ONE cow that we got to put back in place. We also had several down cows. It is amazing how flipping a cow and giving her a hit of calcium can make a lady perk back up. There was one cow who I thought was going to be a euthanasia today. She must have must been down and out; after we flipped her and gave her Ca, she had her head up and was eating and drinking.
We also drenched a few gals (gave them cow gatorade). A cow who had her eye removed last week was back in the sick pen to have her socket cleaned out. That was very satisfying! And gross!!
I got to hear some lungs on pneumonia cows, and we worked on a foot abscess. We also cut a right DA and I personally got to remove a 6+lb highly vascular mass on a cow's shoulder. I hated EVERY moment of it, but the only way I'm going to get better is to do it over and over. Even thought I wanted to cry the ENTIRE time, I'm all about doing another one.
Overall today was pretty cool. the dairy has a rotary milker that milks like 76 cows. At one point today we got to stand in the middle of the rotary and look up at all their faces. I probably could have stood there for hours staring at their ridiculous faces.
After our day we headed into town and got dinner and had a beer.
On the list of to-dos tomorrow: fix an umbilical hernia on a calf, and go through the same routine we did today. Hopefully I will be presented with another opportunity to cut and suture. I have to force myself to get better at that crap!
Every time I looked out into the maternity pen, there was another cow birthing. It is incredible. A huge pen of new born calves. They get to dry off inside before going out to their calf hutches. It is the cutest thing when they get their bottles. Their little tails wag and they all stand up and come to the fence. So precious!
Today we got to do a bunch of physical exams on the fresh cows. I think this will be the daily routine. In that pen, we had a lot of udder edema, retained placentas. There were 2 cows with eye issues. I helped to do a subconjunctival injection on a cow with a melting ulcer. I also learned (and got to practice) using my nose to detect infection. ew!
Then we head to the sick cow pen and attend to those ladies. They are so sad, but in the grand scheme of things, there are way less cows in the sick pen than at smaller dairies. The whole scale thing skews your perspective.
In the sick pen, we had a prolapsed vagina and rectum on ONE cow that we got to put back in place. We also had several down cows. It is amazing how flipping a cow and giving her a hit of calcium can make a lady perk back up. There was one cow who I thought was going to be a euthanasia today. She must have must been down and out; after we flipped her and gave her Ca, she had her head up and was eating and drinking.
We also drenched a few gals (gave them cow gatorade). A cow who had her eye removed last week was back in the sick pen to have her socket cleaned out. That was very satisfying! And gross!!
I got to hear some lungs on pneumonia cows, and we worked on a foot abscess. We also cut a right DA and I personally got to remove a 6+lb highly vascular mass on a cow's shoulder. I hated EVERY moment of it, but the only way I'm going to get better is to do it over and over. Even thought I wanted to cry the ENTIRE time, I'm all about doing another one.
Overall today was pretty cool. the dairy has a rotary milker that milks like 76 cows. At one point today we got to stand in the middle of the rotary and look up at all their faces. I probably could have stood there for hours staring at their ridiculous faces.
After our day we headed into town and got dinner and had a beer.
On the list of to-dos tomorrow: fix an umbilical hernia on a calf, and go through the same routine we did today. Hopefully I will be presented with another opportunity to cut and suture. I have to force myself to get better at that crap!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Dairy rotation
Since U of I does not offer a dairy specific rotation, I decided to take one in Minnesota. It is affiliated with the University of MN College of Vet Med. I just rolled into town. This dairy is HUGE!
The weather has been so hot here that the maintenance guy who greeted me said that they lost 80 calves last week due to the heat. That's right EIGHTY! Holy Crap!!
I imagine I will get to see everything dairy here. My personal checklist: palpate lots of cows. I need to get better at finding the repro tract and diagnosing pregnancies. I'd like to assist with some dystocias, and get to help fix a DA or 2. And I plan to avoid all vats of shit (unlike the other day).
We stay in a pretty nice set up. There is an upstairs above the offices that is only a couple of years old. Every room has 2 beds. Every 2 rooms shares a bathroom. There are a ton of kitchen appliances. This place is in the middle of nowhere, though. I imagine I am going to get pretty bored. No alcohol is allowed either, so we can't even have a beer in the evenings. Guess I'll get some reading in and catch up on a few tv shows online. Maybe there is a town close by where we can go hang out for at least a night.
I'm also hoping for 1 day off to squeeze in a visit with Stefanie in Minneapolis.
The weather has been so hot here that the maintenance guy who greeted me said that they lost 80 calves last week due to the heat. That's right EIGHTY! Holy Crap!!
I imagine I will get to see everything dairy here. My personal checklist: palpate lots of cows. I need to get better at finding the repro tract and diagnosing pregnancies. I'd like to assist with some dystocias, and get to help fix a DA or 2. And I plan to avoid all vats of shit (unlike the other day).
We stay in a pretty nice set up. There is an upstairs above the offices that is only a couple of years old. Every room has 2 beds. Every 2 rooms shares a bathroom. There are a ton of kitchen appliances. This place is in the middle of nowhere, though. I imagine I am going to get pretty bored. No alcohol is allowed either, so we can't even have a beer in the evenings. Guess I'll get some reading in and catch up on a few tv shows online. Maybe there is a town close by where we can go hang out for at least a night.
I'm also hoping for 1 day off to squeeze in a visit with Stefanie in Minneapolis.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Ambulaory
I'm on day 2 of ambulatory.
Yesterday:
We pregnancy checked some mares. We used ultrasound to see the heartbeats.
We filled out health papers for some beautiful dairy show cows.
We made a farm call to check on a down beef cow. Mystery as to why she was down. The most gigantic bull was standing over her. They get big. REAL big! We took her (via sling lifted by tractor) to the barn so she could be in the shade.
Today:
We drew blood from a bunch of dairy cows on a 3000 head dairy. The U of I wants to buy some cows for the students to palpate, etc. So these are cull cows we were testing to see that they were disease free so we could buy them. I got to draw blood form 14 different cows. And then I managed to step in a drain and lose both my boots. Shit poured into them and I was stuck mid-calf deep in shit. Thank goodness Dr. Hermann sent me home to shower. I was probably offending everyone!
Then we ultrasounded a mare that had 2 embryos. They were still both there but are too close to terminate one safely. So we are just going to give it time
And finally a trip to Kickapoo to check out a lame fawn that we could not catch.
Yesterday:
We pregnancy checked some mares. We used ultrasound to see the heartbeats.
We filled out health papers for some beautiful dairy show cows.
We made a farm call to check on a down beef cow. Mystery as to why she was down. The most gigantic bull was standing over her. They get big. REAL big! We took her (via sling lifted by tractor) to the barn so she could be in the shade.
Today:
We drew blood from a bunch of dairy cows on a 3000 head dairy. The U of I wants to buy some cows for the students to palpate, etc. So these are cull cows we were testing to see that they were disease free so we could buy them. I got to draw blood form 14 different cows. And then I managed to step in a drain and lose both my boots. Shit poured into them and I was stuck mid-calf deep in shit. Thank goodness Dr. Hermann sent me home to shower. I was probably offending everyone!
Then we ultrasounded a mare that had 2 embryos. They were still both there but are too close to terminate one safely. So we are just going to give it time
And finally a trip to Kickapoo to check out a lame fawn that we could not catch.
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