Because disturbing things should be shared!

Disclaimer: I hate parasites. Blood, guts, broken bones, vomit, diarrhea, raging hemorrhagic fever, fine. Worms, maggots and other crawly things- no.

Unfortunately, our current block is about 25% parasitology, and we have a professor who, while being a wonderful lecturer, absolutely lives to make students squirm. And with some of the weird things out there... that's not hard to do.

Case in point- Dioctophyma renale, or the GIANT KIDNEY WORM. This worm is so huge, so disgusting and so freakish that it must always be written in all capital letters every time I write it, like a monster from a B horror movie. Holy cow. The only reason it does not get the title of Worst Thing Ever (which it would have to steal from Dermatobia hominis, the human bot fly) is that it's extremely rare in humans.

What could possibly make them this freakish? Well, the very name GIANT KIDNEY WORM should probably be a clue... but for the full effect I defer to the University of Guelph College of Vet Med, and their wonderful video about the removal of, I believe, 4 of these slimy, disgusting and utterly horrifying roundworms from a dog (like I'm going to watch it again to count). You have been warned.

GIANT KIDNEY WORMS!!!

Holey Cow

Back by familial demand (and the availability of a new, disgusting story!)... The Blog.

This is a very fuzzy picture of me with Stella, CUHA's fistulated cow, in our Rumen Function Lab, the crowning jewel of Block III (and by that I mean, the only animal contact we get in Block III). Your questions are as follows...

1. "A fistu-what?"
Fistulated cows have a permanent hole in their side that allows access to the rumen, the big giant fermenting vat that is one of the cow's "four stomachs" (see post, Rumens Are Awesome for a refresher). It is plugged when not in use.

2. "DOESN'T THAT HURT??!!!!"
Judging by Stella's reaction... no. The tissue is completely healed, they have no sensation in a healthy rumen, and since the rumen interior and the outside of the cow are actually the "same" surface, it doesn't get infected. Basically, the GI tract of an animal is continuous with the animal's exterior (mouth to anus), so it isn't sterile in any animal, least of all the giant barrel of microbes that is a cow.

3. "EW. Why would you do that???"
Directly and indirectly, Stella saves other ruminants' lives. Indirectly, by being a research animal, since studies can be done on her rumen contents with minimal disruption to her (seriously, she was snacking on hay while we were fishing around in there) and by teaching vet students such as ourselves what a healthy rumen interior should feel like. Cows are not what you'd call discriminate eaters and foreign bodies are not at all uncommon. Stella also directly helps sick ruminants in the hospital by donating rumen fluid to animals that have had their stomachs emptied out for medical reasons. Cows, sheep, goats etc. who break into the grain bin and gorge themselves can come down with a potentially fatal bellyache known as lactic acidosis, caused by rumen bacteria going wild on an influx of starchy food. Severe cases in valuable animals result in the rumen being emptied out and started from scratch... with Stella-juice as a microbe innoculant :)


Fun facts... rumen stink takes several successive showers to get off of your skin. It's a delicious mixture of methane and rotting sauerkraut that just clings on and on and on... Also, to get this picture, I definitely took a blast of rumen juice to the face when Stella sneezed... and by sneezed I mean the pressure blew juice right out of the rumen hole. It was awesome. Actually, to quote my instructor... "Med students don't get to do anything NEARLY this cool." And it's true :)

Coming up...
- the end of Block III
- the beginning of Hell on Earth, also known as Host, Agent, Defense (Block IV). This block includes parasitology, bacteriology, virology, immunology and so on... or, in other words, Every Bug that infects Every Species and How You and They Fix It. I may or may not see the light of day until Christmas...
- Shelter Med clinics :) kittens, puppies, the occasional bunny with half an ear...
- BIG RED HOCKEY!!!!!
- er... I have a final Tuesday so I haven't thought much past that...

So, that's it for now... will update when I have more stories to tell :)

End of the year... or is it?

Well, block IIIa actually ended a few weeks ago, but I've been busy most of the time before and after that since such is the life of a vet student. Passed all my classes (woo), some by more than others (oh well), and now it's SUMMERTIME no matter what the weather says.

So after 9 months working at 120% mental capacity, what does a student do for three more months until Round 2? Well... work, because I'm still poor. I'm working as a student tech in the hospital, a lab assistant in the research tower, and doing some tour guiding on the side. Because that's apparently not enough to completely wear me out, I'm also bent on hiking as many of Ithaca's GORGEous trails as possible, starting up a 20x25' vegetable garden with a friend of mine, and I just started riding lessons today! :) (Maybe I am just a glutton for punishment... or it could be related to the fact that I don't have cable). All that has finally brought me up to a satisfactorily occupied point... which just goes to show you how intense vet school actually is, since it's taken 3 jobs, 3 major hobbies and Netflix to fill in the downtime. Oy.

Out of all that, I'm by far the MOST excited for riding lessons!!! I've always, ALWAYS wanted to ride but there was always either not enough money or not enough time (or both)... not that I'm exactly wealthy now, but I found a great stable that has very reasonable rates and an awesome instructor. Plus, if anyone asks, I get to write this one off as "professional development"- I'll look like significantly less of a moron in the large animal clinics if I can "speak horse" (anyone who's ever remotely interacted with the equestrian world knows what I mean). I definitely used some muscles that were shocked and offended to be utilized for the first time, and will definitely need some practice, but I LOOOVE everything about it and can't wait to go back for my next lesson!!! It's all about physical and mental balance, and working with the horse at a level that's difficult to get with most species... the kind of partnership that you need to ride well is the epitome of everything I love about working with animals. But, man, is it going to be work to get there... riding is serious exercise and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

And it's mental exercise as well... just like the rest of my jobs and hobbies, probably a little more so than most of them. I guess by the time you reach this point in schooling, you really are just learning all the time, whether it's how to dose IV antibiotics in the hospital or how to post on an English saddle without falling off (for those without muscles, hard.) So... while it's technically summer "break"... it's more like 3 more months of mental conditioning to prepare for the marathon of second year. Just like athletes, I guess we can't completely check out and expect to hit the ground running in the fall. Hopefully the massive amount of "Scrubs" I've been watching won't interfere... :)

Open House 2009

What a day!

To the best of my knowledge, Cornell is one of the only vet schools (if not THE only vet school) that does an Open House activity for the general public, and boy is it an experience... 8,000 to 10,000 people descend on our school and see booths and demos about everything from milking cows to ultrasound to a teddy bear hospital. If I had known about this as a kid, I would have begged to go to this WAY more than Disney (but then again, I'm kind of a nerd, so take that as you will). I was working at the "Pocket Pets" booth with three other vet students and our assorted furry (scaly, feathery) kids, and that was also quite an experience by itself... the line of visitors started at 10am when the doors opened and we had a constant flow of people until the school stopped letting people in at 4pm. We did have the most live animals of any "small animal" booth, therefore we were the coolest 8) Our little guys held up remarkably well, given the day they had; even though our job was technically "Educate the public", that was really secondary to "Protect the animals from the public" (though the public was actually very well behaved today). We educated a surprising number of people about the existence of chinchillas, and that ferrets are not rodents (they're carnivores), and that gerbils have tails and are not rats... but also offered a few serious tips on small exotics care and hopefully made some small critters' lives a little better. We also had a few critter ambassadors, including the famous Gideon the Bunny, who placidly (and totally unnaturally) sat through 8,000 head rubs, God bless his furry little head. (Gideon was rescued by my friend's animal hospital after being thrown out of a van, and we have a theory that he was actually a lab rabbit whose brain was swapped with a Labrador retriever).

While most of the day went wonderfully, I do have yet more proof that the avian species is out to get me... I was sitting with Gideon at one point, and was stationed next to the bird cages. We had a Senegal parrot sitting out two cages over, who decided she was bored and wanted a human to antagonize... because I am a prime target for this, I found myself suddenly trying to calm down a large white rabbit while balancing a parrot on my head. I thought we could work this out, since the other volunteers had been wearing her as a shoulder accessory all day, but pretty soon discovered that this particular parrot has a taste for both ears and glasses... add parrot-notched eyeglass frames to my collection of bird-induced damages. On the bright side, I did end the day with a clean shirt. Maybe someday we'll get along, just not today...

Dragons and Phoenixes

Friday afternoon... after getting chewed up and spit out by a neuroanatomy final, what is there to do on the first beautiful spring day you're allowed to enjoy?

Chase a dragon across campus and watch it fight with a phoenix. Of course.

Among the more random traditions of Cornell is Dragon Day, hosted by the architecture and engineering schools and enjoyed by all. Apparently, a little over a century ago, the architecture students decided that they needed to have their own day, and they selected the Friday before St. Patrick's Day. They started by making large mechanical snakes, to honor St. Patrick, but eventually it morphed into a dragon and thus became Dragon Day. The dragon marches across campus powered by first year architecture students, then winds up in one of the quads and is burned while the students dance around it.

Even better is what happens when the engineering students get jealous. Their tradition is apparently not as old, and it still taking shape, but *usually* they build a phoenix to meet up with the dragon on its march (they made a knight a few years back... har har). This year's phoenix was really gorgeous, though the 20-odd foot tall dragon rearing up and flapping its wings at the bird was pretty awesome.

Just another day on the Hill... sometimes even the vet students get to be Cornell students too!

Pictures because my cell phone camera did not do it justice:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March09/DragonDay09.html

Cornell Daily Sun coverage (they didn't burn the dragon this year, sad!)
http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/03/18/beast-escapes-fire-annual-dragon-day-festivities

And yeah I know this was last week... between work and a million other little things I've been busy, plus I adopted a cat yesterday so I've been kind of involved in that! More on her at a later date :)

Being a real doctor! (Sort of)

Last night I got to participate in my first healthy pet clinic, and can't WAIT to do the next one! This program is run by the vet school once a month, and it serves dual purposes: to vaccinate, examine and give limited treatments to the pets of low-income families in our area, and to give vet students a taste of being the primary clinician with real patients and their owners. We're somewhat supervised, of course, but by and large it's the students doing physical exams, giving out advice, and dispensing medications. Most of the animals are only there for vaccines and a basic checkup, and the owners understand that sometimes all we can do is say "Head to your regular vet for some diagnostic tests" if something appears to be really wrong, but it's great to be out there doing something to help the local community, and getting to be an actual junior professional for a little while! This is a HOT program among the students for obvious reasons, and it took some luck and waking up seriously early to get in on this one... plus, for the first time all year the date didn't conflict with some major, important test.

My partner and I saw six cats and a puppy in the course of three hours- I successfully drew blood from *two* cats WITHOUT causing hematomas (first time ever, so proud of myself :), and hopefully we prevented seven possible rabies cases, six FeLV infections, one distemper/parvo infection, and killed a whole lot of fleas and other parasites (the drug companies donate quite a few flea, tick, heartworm and other parasite preventatives to dispense to owners free of charge). All told, it was a great place to work on PE's and client communication... both of which I'd like to be better at sometime before clinics. Can't wait til the next one... hopefully it won't be the day before my neuro final. That is the one unfortunate tradeoff we face as students- higher grades or more experience? There is SO much going on at any given time that it would be very easy to neglect studying and attend seminars, wetlabs and demos seven days a week, so we've all had to settle into our own patterns and choose how much time to spend between books and the real world. Similar to college, I kind of want to spend a year here without classes, just attending all those bonus seminars and lectures and getting my hands dirty in wetlabs and clinics... but in the meantime, balance is key, and whatever I'm doing hasn't failed me out yet so I'll just try to keep it up!

Miscellany

That basically describes the distribution period, and what I've been doing... none of which are really blog-worthy on their own (in the form of some kind of cohesive story) but I can stick them all together to give you some idea of my "spring". (I'm aware that it is technically the "spring" semester but it's still 5 degrees at night... and during the day... so I refuse to call it that until, oh, May.)

Comparative anatomy
Taking up most of my class time is dissection, once again. This time it's not dogs, it's... whatever the professor can wheel and deal for on this strange anatomy professor network of animal parts suppliers, from biological companies to zoos to whoever happened to have an interesting species die this week/month/year/etc. (Seriously. They have a listserv and bargain with each other for whose school gets the interesting carcasses.) We've primarily been working on two goats, a sheep, and three rabbits (that is not a dissection rabbit, that is MY rabbit, see below), but we had a brief visit from some elephant wrists last week and today was a batch of recently killed woodchucks- revenge for the rodents giving us six more weeks of winter yesterday. Not that we'd have any less than that here. Still. The point of the class is to note similarities across species and basically get a feel for the anatomy of non-dog animals we may, or may not, encounter in practice someday. Later we'll have some reptiles, maybe some birds, we'll see... allegedly our professor is trying to arrange for us to dissect half a dolphin soon... should be interesting :)

Large Animal Neonates
I'm not a large animal person by any stretch but this is a cool distribution because a large part of it involves volunteering as a foal sitter in the LA Neonatal ICU. "Foal season" recently started and the sickest ones are starting to trickle into the hospital... my first shift is later in the month so we'll see how that goes!

Neuroanatomy
Is death. 'Nuff said. Hey at least it's not brain surgery! Wait...

Other than class....

CPS
OK, technically I am getting credit for this, but it's quasi-extracurricular. It involves working in the Community Practice Service taking patient histories and performing the first of several physical exams on patients by progressively more experienced students. Of course, it's winter, and the caseload is somewhat low, so when there aren't any clients they ship us off to whatever hospital service will take a shadow for a few hours. Which is kind of cool... it works out to be like mini-clinics. One day they tagged me onto an exotics case (ferret with insulinoma... see why I didn't get a ferret?) which got sent to ICU, so I wound up in ICU for the afternoon. Another day I hung out in internal medicine with some third years. It's a good taste of what's to come in two years, which I prefer not to think about quite yet...

VSPCA
Yes technically I got credit for this too through CPS but I do it anyway because it's fun :) We do shelter intake physical exams at the local SPCA once a month, and it's a great way to practice your PE without clients shooting nervous glances at you. My pig-bleeding skills appear to be better than my cat-bleeding skills, however, so I need all the practice I can get...

SVECCS
Basically all the vet school clubs are known by acronyms, in case you didn't notice... I *think* this one stands for Society of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Specialists... or maybe it's Students... you get the idea either way. I got to shadow another day in the ICU through this group which was pretty cool. Again, low caseload, but I got to sit in on rounds with the upperclassmen and hopefully absorbed some really useful information about acute liver failure in cats, and fluid therapy. Or it possibly escaped my mind shortly after listening since I only understood about 1/3 of what they were talking about... oh well, I tried. It'll be put back in another 2 years.

Basil
Is my bunny, for those who don't know, and provides entertainment in lieu of television. Last week he happy-danced himself right off my bed. Last night he tried to jump through a mirror to greet the bunny on the other side (it failed). Today he brought large pieces of the straw mat he's been destroying to the door of his cage to show me all the progress he's made. It's nice to be reminded of why I'm here sometimes :)