Confirmed: Beau is not a Parrot
For parasitology lab today we were doing heartworm testing. We were to draw blood on our own animals and bring samples in to use for several different methods of antigen and microfilaria detection. Last night I drew blood on Beau, he probably didn’t notice he was so in to his rawhide that he was chewing, and got two great samples to bring in.
I went to work this morning, carefully remembering to pack the cold blood on ice and bring it in to the lab with me after cleaning the duck enclosures. It was in its own ziploc bag, two beautiful purple top vacuutainers with 1.5 mL of whole blood each. I went to the lab and put them in my sample processing box in the fridge, thinking it would be safe and sound and that no one else ever even looked in my box in the first place.
I went to class, I attended the Open House meeting at lunch, I delivered the last half of the dog food order for this month, I went to the lab to start on my work. I open the fridge. I look in the sample box.
It’s empty.
Little did I know that in my absence, my hard-working graduate student friend went ahead and processed the blood and prepared it for running Proventricular Dilation Disease tests on it. This is a virus unique to psittacine birds (parrots) and unlikely that Beau might have it… considering he doesn’t even have a proventriculus. So I stared at the empty fridge and as my heart dropped a million things went through my head. We do a lot of research on a lot of different biologicals that are all avian… and what crazy mayhem might result from using canine blood in the stead of avian? I could just picture some PhD looking at the anucleate erythrocytes under the microscope and going, “what kind of crazy bird was this?!”
So after a moment, or maybe a lot of moments, of panic, I went home in a mad dash to get some more blood from Beau for lab and continued to give the grad student a hard time about testing Beau for PDD.
I’m proud to report that he doesn’t have that fatal and devastating disease… and I didn’t even need the blood in parasit lab since they provided samples for us anyway.
vet school | Comment (0)Days Like These
It’s on days like these that I remember why I decided to go to vet school in the first place. They remind me why all the stupidity and the drama and the annoying things like studying and NEVER GETTING TO TOUCH A REAL ANIMAL are worth it - because in the end, we get to see real animals and we get to help people with those real animals.
I’ve always really enjoyed our Correlates classes. They are essentially husbandry classes and skills classes - because even though you could make an entire semesters worth of lectures and exams out of Equine Care, Maintenance and Exam, we just don’t have time for it. So all the food animals and small animals and their care and how to examine them is condensed into short little two hour sessions each week and every once and a while we have a talk on ethics or the animal shelter or behavior.
Today was my bovine correlates for this year and even though I didn’t get to actually touch a cow - the clinician leading the talk is one of the best faculty at the entirety of Texas A&M. Here is a man who actually gives a crap about the students - really, truly about the students - and not research or their job or their aspirations to get tenure or that specialization or that grant money. He actually listens to each and every one of us, actually cares about our opinions, fears, hopes and goals, and makes us feel like yeah, at first we are going to totally suck at being vets, but in a few year’s time we’ll finally have the competency we so desire to have and everyone will survive.
The other thing this clinician reminded me of is the fact that I secretly love large animal medicine. Not horses so much, but cows for sure. They remind me of those happy 10 weeks I spent in Costa Rica, a la James Herriot only with mosquitos and sun tan lotion. He reminded me that even though I don’t know anything about cows or about farm life, that if I want to be interested in it, I can be, and I don’t have to be defined by my background and I don’t have to let what I’m familiar with govern my career path within the profession.
Honestly, I love dogs. I love them more than life itself, and if I could see just dogs all day long, I would never get bored and I would never grow tired of listening to people talk about them. But there is more to being a vet than working on your favorite animal and being the best advocate for that species you can be - you still have to live in the real world and you have to enjoy your life outside of work. And for me to enjoy life outside of work… I don’t think I could live in a big city. I don’t think I would like commuting every day, and I know from previous jobs that unless there are frequent changes of scenery, I come to loathe what I do just because I hate being trapped in the same place, day after day after day.
It’s why I love my work at the aviary so much. Sometimes I’m in the office, sometimes I’m in the lab, and every day I go out there and check on my ducklings. One job with three locations, it’s perfect. And I think rural Texas (or any other state) has a lot to offer me in that arena. I love driving past pastures in the quiet of the morning (or riding my bike, depending on how ambitious i feel that morning) and I enjoy fresh air and sunshine. I like being away from the congestion and rage of humanity in the city. I like the idea of living in a town where everyone knows everyone - it’s a secret delight to my inner gossip. It’s why I love my neighborhood - I know just about everyone and my neighbors are my friends. I read the newspaper everyday because my community is important to me, the things going on here, locally, are important to me, and in my mind, rural life exemplifies this lifestyle.
I like feed stores and small groceries and run down old barns and life centering around schools and churches and the post-office. I like being spread out, far away and not tempted by all the material things in life. I like to have my hands in my pockets and my heels in the dirt and I like the very visceral, very real and alive feeling I get when I’m out tottering around in the country.
The other bonus for me is that I will not have a single cent in debt when I graduate. Although rural vets do not get paid less than their city counterparts, or even work more hours, I certainly don’t even have to worry about those fears, even if they are myths. I can freely choose to do as I wish in my career. My only fear is the extreme lack of technical skill that I posses, but that can be easily remedied.
It’s days like these that are my favorite because it’s when the real learning takes place. Looking at that cow in the large animal clinic, grinding its teeth and looking miserable made so much more of an impression on me than learning about the technical aspects of its disease, uroabdomen, via powerpoint in a sterile lecture hall.
I knew i chose this career for a reason.
blah blah blah, vet school | Comment (0)Three Days And Counting
Second Year starts on Monday. It’s sort of an overwhelming and underwhelming experience at the same time. First Year was so hard, and humbling, and here I am, happy, confident and well-rested at the dawn of the next two semesters of hell. I’m looking forward to it, I need something to do, and certainly I’m not all that excited about things kicking in to gear again, and yet I also dread it, what it means to be busy and studying and stressed out again. I’m nervous and confident, freaked out and ready. Mostly, I just want to get the whole ordeal over with as soon as possible.
This summer has been good to me, good to the dogs. Beau had me all summer, loving on him, snuggling with him, taking him to the park and longs walks in the morning and just being here for him which he adores. Faye has become adjusted to my nearly constant presence, to our routine and to her life here. When I start disappearing for 8 hours a day, things are going to be very different for her, I can imagine, but probably not hard. Mostly I just worry that she will get in to trouble while I am gone despite our training, and unlike Beau, she’s not too dumb to even consider getting into something she’s not supposed to touch. I’ll probably walk them in the mornings so they can stretch their legs and and of course they will get their walks in the evening. We might even go to the park still for the first week at least, especially since it’s so hot outside we can’t go right after school, but eventually I know that our trips there will drop off and it may be a select-weekend affair only.
Tomorrow is orientation and I have to sell both my club and my company for all they are worth. It’s pretty much an all-day affair and I know I will be tired at the end of it. Steven’s up at the lake, maybe I will go just to sit on the shore and let the waves lap my toes and watch the sunset. I am going to miss the lake.
Saturday my grandparents are coming up to see the new place and for lunch with my mom and my cool Aunt Leslie.
Sunday, if it is not raining, I’m going out to the lake again with Kat and Jordan and we’ll be meeting Steven up there for one last hurrah before my soul is stolen yet again and I am forced back into slavery vet school.
I’m not sure what to think, what to do. I don’t know how vet school will change things, will make things harder, or easier. I don’t know what to expect and I don’t enjoy being so unsure. I think the dogs feel my tension - we’ve been getting up a lot in the middle of the night to go out and they spend every moment in the closest proximity to me as is possible. Doesn’t matter that they are always asleep… they are always near me and I’m thankful for that.
blah blah blah, vet school | Comment (0)