Large Animal Medicine Fun
It's funny how the most interesting periods of my life are also the times when I don't have time and don't feel like writing on this page.
I have just completed two weeks of large animal medicine with the legendary Dr. John Schlipf, Jr. It was a great time of learning -- he requires us to make our own plans for treatment and will allow us to employ them as long as they won't wreck the train. He and the two house officers are supportive, encouraging and fun people (senses of humor are greatly appreciated by the CEO of this blog).
It was a little sad, having primarily alpacas as patients... but they also allowed me to hone my fluid treatment savvy and I feel pretty comfortable with assessing their physical parameters. I got some great experience in alpaca parturition (even got to help pull a cria) and neonatal assessment/care. I had a cria whose mother would not allow it to nurse and which therefore had failure of passive transfer. We cured the mother during her stay and the cria was doing very well by the time we sent it away.
I was pretty happy to have a goat as a case last week. It was severely neurologic on presentation but thiamine injections cured it of that abnormality. Remember, always give thiamine to neurologic ruminants. If it wasn't a thiamine deficiency that caused the disorder, thiamine helps make energy for the brain and can aid in the repair process.
And then there were my two isolation cases... crias with zoonotic potential gastrointestinal agents. I became well versed in the art of masking, booting, gloving and Tyvek suiting before breaking the imaginary barrier into the isolation ward. I worried one evening that I may have obtained the zoonotic agent and perhaps only time will tell.
I had fever chills Thursday night and was shaking uncontrollably. I was also on call that night and was called into the hospital to work for about an hour. And I was preparing for a case presentation to be given at grand rounds the following morning. I was a bit worried about the case presentation... but it seems to have gone well. Perhaps I worry less about my presentations when I am a bit out of it.
There's this small white board in the records room where people write quotes of funny things, misspoken statements, etc. And I finally ended up on there yesterday because of something I said during my presentation. I was talking about polioencephalomalacia (which is what the goat had that recovered due to thiamine) and how animals with the subacute phase may recover completely. And then I saw "Of course, the dead brain cells won't grow back." I meant it somewhat humorously but it didn't quite dawn on my what a mute point it was until I saw myself quoted on the board. Dead things never grow back -- what I had been thinking when I said the quote was that brain cells, unlike many other cells in the body, will very rarely be replaced by the division of other cells.
I have just completed two weeks of large animal medicine with the legendary Dr. John Schlipf, Jr. It was a great time of learning -- he requires us to make our own plans for treatment and will allow us to employ them as long as they won't wreck the train. He and the two house officers are supportive, encouraging and fun people (senses of humor are greatly appreciated by the CEO of this blog).
It was a little sad, having primarily alpacas as patients... but they also allowed me to hone my fluid treatment savvy and I feel pretty comfortable with assessing their physical parameters. I got some great experience in alpaca parturition (even got to help pull a cria) and neonatal assessment/care. I had a cria whose mother would not allow it to nurse and which therefore had failure of passive transfer. We cured the mother during her stay and the cria was doing very well by the time we sent it away.
I was pretty happy to have a goat as a case last week. It was severely neurologic on presentation but thiamine injections cured it of that abnormality. Remember, always give thiamine to neurologic ruminants. If it wasn't a thiamine deficiency that caused the disorder, thiamine helps make energy for the brain and can aid in the repair process.
And then there were my two isolation cases... crias with zoonotic potential gastrointestinal agents. I became well versed in the art of masking, booting, gloving and Tyvek suiting before breaking the imaginary barrier into the isolation ward. I worried one evening that I may have obtained the zoonotic agent and perhaps only time will tell.
I had fever chills Thursday night and was shaking uncontrollably. I was also on call that night and was called into the hospital to work for about an hour. And I was preparing for a case presentation to be given at grand rounds the following morning. I was a bit worried about the case presentation... but it seems to have gone well. Perhaps I worry less about my presentations when I am a bit out of it.
There's this small white board in the records room where people write quotes of funny things, misspoken statements, etc. And I finally ended up on there yesterday because of something I said during my presentation. I was talking about polioencephalomalacia (which is what the goat had that recovered due to thiamine) and how animals with the subacute phase may recover completely. And then I saw "Of course, the dead brain cells won't grow back." I meant it somewhat humorously but it didn't quite dawn on my what a mute point it was until I saw myself quoted on the board. Dead things never grow back -- what I had been thinking when I said the quote was that brain cells, unlike many other cells in the body, will very rarely be replaced by the division of other cells.
posted by Claire at 10:06
0 comments
