Foggy Morn', Handsome Horse

Saturday dawned cold and foggy. I mustered myself from bed and went to the vet school to meet my friend JK. We took the Belgian draft horse Andrew out for a spin behind the teaching hospitals, making efforts to avoid parked vehicles and a flighty horse. We went off-roading in our slight, two-wheeled sulkey, bumping significantly over a small precipice and flattening vegetation (er, that would be leaves) as we traveled. Dr. Ruaux, one of the small animal clinicians, came out to capture the occasion on digital film. May you enjoy the surreal aspect (whether because of the vet students, or the fog -- you may decide for yourself) of these pictures.

Andy looking a bit disheveled...



View from behind...


Having a good time...

I attended two wedding receptions in the last two weeks -- both for new couples in my church. I was considerably pleased to visit one of the new wives on Tuesday evening. Her husband was helping someone change their transmission oil, so we had a nice time, just the two of us at her house. A tour of the abode, perusal of wedding pictures, and generally getting to know each other ticked the time away. She now lives the closest to me of all the girls from church, and it appears as though our acquaintance will be beneficial. It's rather strange how my friends within my age bracket are beginning to marry and "set up house-keeping." It's kinda neat, too.

Yesterday evening my friend CS and I went to Pioneer Villa after prayer meeting. We talked and ate fried cheese sticks and a milkshake, just like in the old days.

***
I was typing away on this and talking to my friend Lil last evening, consciously/subconsciously thinking that Bible study was at 7:30 and I still had plenty of time. And then it dawned on me that Bible study is really at 7 and it was 6 minutes past that time. So I was off to Bible study where we discussed the sinful nature. We were discussing why we don't do the things we think we should and the example arose of procrastinating about e-mailing people back. Interestingly, I created a folder a few weeks ago in which to place important e-mails that I hadn't replied to yet. I named the folder "Imperative" and moved a few files to it. It currently contains four emails from at least 2 weeks ago that I have not satisfactorily dealt with yet. Hmmmm.....

Two Steps Away from Death

I am now on anesthesia rotation -- that dreaded rotation for which I have been mentally preparing for a long time. Now it is here. Though I retain a healthy sense of respect for small animal anesthesia and the dangers it entails, it is not nearly as bad as I could have imagined. Dr. Gunkel is nicely calm, demonstrating that potential problems can be addressed appropriately without the anesthesia people flying into a frenzy.
The anesthesia tech is a nice and humorous person who occasionally breaks into various theme songs -- eg. singing "rollin', rollin', rollin -- git them doggies rollin, rawhide" as we are rolling an animal to the radiology room. Theme songs were an important part of my formative years, and I have an appreciation for them. :)
Tomorrow I have my first horse case. The learning continues.

Camelid Course with Cebra

To set the tone, you must first go listen to the Llama Song. If it has blatantly inappropriate connotations, I apologize.

Last Friday I completed two weeks of camelid medicine and surgery with Dr. Cebra and company. I've heard this is probably one of the best electives offered at the vet school, and I was certainly very impressed with it.

We had the awesome chance to practice herd health techniques like cutting fighting teeth, administering vaccines, and giving oral medication. You may recall that the last time I gave oral meds to a llama my thumb became chronically disfigured (even now it bears the mark as varied pink color under my nail). On this recent occasion I retained full use of my digits.

Cutting fighting teeth? Fighting teeth are these nasty, curved pointy teeth that male llamas use to castrate each other. You can imagine that they wouldn't be desirable in a domestic herd. There are a couple ways to deal with them -- the power tools and the fetotomy wire. My favorite is the fetotomy wire -- the power tools work better for managing incisors. You pass the fetotomy wire around the tooth, use the curve of the tooth to stabilize the wire and saw back and forth until the tooth flies off and you partially lose your balance. We had a spotter prepared to grab us in case we really took a fall (which no one did).

We did a couple labs out at VMAIL, where the college keeps a herd of llamas/alpacas and a number of other research animals. We practiced abdominocenteses, setting jugular catheters, wrangling llamas, passing stomach tubes and getting spit on. One of my classmates really took a spitting -- perhaps 30-50 % of the front of her coveralls was tainted. It was grand.

We went on a field trip to a llama farm near Eugene where they fed us llama meat sloppy joes. We practiced ultrasounding for pregnancy in llamas. When I placed the ultrasound probe on the llama I ultrasounded, the fetus was immediately in view. Dr. Cebra queried with amusement whether I could find underground water as well. It was a fluke, naturally.

We castrated llamas standing and in recumbency (one of mine was anesthetized and one the ground but still spitting). More great practical experience, and it went well for all of us. We also got to pin dead broken legs and place casts around the pins to stabilize them (a type of external fixation).

The class was a great confidence builder and a good experience in general.

Hmmm...

On Saturday I was playing round table ping pong and received a blow between my eyes. For some reason, I find that to be humorous -- being wounded with a ping pong paddle.

No Glaring Scientific Errors, Please

It is always irksome to me when Christians set out to discuss creation vs. evolution and end up making grievous errors in their statements about scientific facts. I mean, couldn't they at least show the evolutionists that they are capable of thinking and understanding science? An argument containing glaring scientific errors is more likely to turn an evolutionist further from creation.

Last weekend I was reading Answers, the journal produced by Answers in Genesis, and came upon an article about the intelligent design of camels. This article had great potential and even said some valid and important things. Sadly, it contained errors that could quickly turn off an educated evolutionist.

For instance, it stated that elliptical red blood cells are exclusive to camels. This is not true -- llamas and alpacas also have elliptical red blood cells. Granted, they are cousins of the camel, but the article made no allowance for them. Furthermore, birds, reptiles and amphibians also have elliptical red blood cells.

The article incorrectly defined "osmosis" in a very glaring way, saying it was equivalent to water storage or something ~equally incorrect.

The article furthermore stated that camels store large amounts of water in their circulatory system. The blood volume of camels may be a higher percent of their body weight than the blood volume of cows. However, the idea that camels use their circulatory system to store water is flawed. If the camel stored water in its blood stream, it would pull that water off when it became dehydrated and the camel would likely experience decreased tissue perfusion, lactic acidosis and a debilitated condition. The Fresno Zoo website states that camel blood volume does not fluctuate (at least not significantly) with dehydration. This idea suggests a much more stable system than the Answers article.

Lastly, the article stated that the fat in the camel's hump allows it to make use of the water in its circulatory system. That makes no sense -- water in the circulatory system is basically freely available to be used. The fat in the hump provides water to the camel by actually making new water as it is metabolized for energy. Interestingly, one source mentioned that breaking down 1 pound of fat results in the production of 1.1 pounds of water in the Arabian camel. That's pretty amazing.

My plea for Christians: if you are going to take the time to debate evolution, please get your facts straight. It's really not all that hard if you use the right sources. Peer reviewed journals are a must.

Rising Briefly from Obscurity

About two posts a month -- that seems to be the trend here... Every once in a while some bloggable topic surfaces in my brain, but when the evening comes there remains little desire to sit at school and type.

I learned a good deal in "Large Animal Clinical Medicine" and am significantly more comfortable making decisions about medical cases.

The last week of the rotation was considerably crazy. For me the craziness began Sunday night the 24th of September, though I believe it started on Friday for Dr. W. I arrived at the clinic and was handed a clipboard for a case that was coming in -- a <1 day old cria whose mother was not allowing it to nurse. Assessment proved the cria to be in good current condition, but we treated it for failure of passive transfer and a meconium impaction and sent it on its way to success. Later that evening a cria came in with watery diarrhea (which later proved to be cryptosporidiosis). She was strong but pyrexic and anorectic. She was remarkably good at remaining hydrated in spite of the nasty diarrhea, and didn't require fluids as much as many cria cryptosporidiosis cases.
Simultaneously with this case, a horse came in with a swollen muzzle which later proved to be a rattlesnake bite. I accepted this as my case as well (which I was pleased to do considering the owner of the horse and the pure fact that it was a horse).
I started the weekend with one case and ended it with four.
And then Thursday the 28th we took in a colicking horse with a mass (potentially an abscessed lymph node) and a recent history of strangles. That evening a horse came in with laboratory evidence of renal failure. To top off the week, a seizuring, slobbering, recumbent goat arrived Friday in the middle of grand rounds. We assessed the goat, treated it for possible organophosphate toxicity, pondered the recent application of an essentially harmless herbicide to the field neighboring the goat's pasture, and did not discern the cause of the debilitation.
Two animals were euthanized that day, and so we ushered in a calm weekend that completed my large animal medicine rotation. I expected to miss it, and I already do in some ways.