Humane Society crisis averted.

Tyler and I drove down to the Humane society today to iron out the pet's liscenses. I gave them the paperwork I had, showed them when all the critters were fixed, they asked when we moved to Pomona, and done. That was it. No late fees, no hassle about sterilization certificates, a completely painless process. I think poor Tyler just got the short end of the stick with the person who was helping him. I got the helpful, nice CSR, and he got the person who had a little bit of authority, and decided to go on a power trip.


I also spent about 4 hours in the anatomy lab this morning. I think I'm pretty solid on the bones and vessels of the pelvic limb, but I still suck at the muscles. My goal this weekend is to get them straightened out.

Damn horse case

So I figured since today was friday, we'd finally be told what the diagnosis on our horse case was for the week. It gave us some genetic info on his Dam, and then when we asked for a genetic test for the condition we thought we had, the case said "before being able to conclusively diagnose this horse, it was struck by lightning and died." Aargh! So frustrating, but I guess all our cases are based on real animals, so that's what actually happened with the horse in question.

I also went to that paleopathology talk today. It was really awesome. The pathologist who was presenting was talking about how she worked with Sue the T-Rex. I'm jealous.

I also got my required tan coveralls for when we do clinical skills at the ovine and bovine places. Tan coveralls just scream "put a ghostbusters patch on me" in my head. As tempting as it is, I don't think anybody would have a sense of humor about it. But really, why tan coveralls? Whats wrong with blue or green?

Struggles with the inland empire humane society

During the last day of orientation for school, I came home to find a letter hanging on my doorknob from the inland empire humane society (the group that covers Pomona and a bunch of other cities,) basically saying "leave a check and rabies certs for all your pets, for when we come back by tomorrow, or we'll slam you with late fees" So I found the cat's rabies certificates, wrote a check, and left it hanging on the front door. The next day, when I came back from the white coat ceremony, there was an invoice for all the critters, saying they still needed rabies certs for the dogs. About a week later, I got a letter in the mail saying that I owed late fees, plus they wanted to charge me the "unfixed" fee for each of my pets. I also still needed proof of rabies for my dogs.

Well, when I vaccinated my dogs last year, I forgot to print out rabies certificates. No big deal, but I since I didn't print them, I couldn't call work and ask them to print them retroactively. So I made an appointment with school for the first day they were available to get my dogs re-vaccinated.

Today was the first day that they could get me in, that I had a few hours off from class. I got the dogs re-vaccinated, got rabies certificates, and sent Tyler to the humane society to straighten it out while I was in class.

Apparently, the girl he talked to was a complete dick about the whole thing. She kept insisting that she needed spay and neuter certificates for each of the pets to prove they were fixed. Fair enough, except I don't think our clinic even offered such a thing. I didn't have "certificates" of their reproductive status, but I did send him with their freaking MEDICAL RECORDS, that document each of the surgeries. They wouldn't accept the medical records as proof of being sterilized. Then Tyler mentioned that the late fee was bogus - we had complied with their liscensing request, and it was within 30 days of moving here, even though we weren't able to iron everything out until today. The bimbo he talked to gave him the business card of the person to talk to, even though the person was right there in the office, and she could have just let Tyler talk to him then and there. Tyler wasn't sure how to proceed, so he waited to call until I got out of class - and now he's out for the day.

I guess I'm driving down there on Saturday to try to iron it out. But if I strangle somebody there, you all know why.

An unexpected twist

In PBL today, we got our genetic test back for our horse. It turns out that the genetic disease that made sense for his pedegree and symptoms wasn't the problem. *sigh* back to reading.

We also had a "club day" during lunch. All the clubs set up booths, sold random stuff and food, and recruited members. I ended up joining the Zoo, Wildlife, Exotic and Conservation club, the pathology club, and I'll probably end up joining the student chapter of the AVMA and the emergency and critical care clubs as well.

Yesterday, I had my first morning at Banfield. Did a physical exam on a boxer, ran bloodwork, and did a blood differential. Not a whole lot for being there for 4 hours, but it beats sitting through a lecture. I think I have 3 more clinical experiences before midterms: one with VACS, our school's mobile spay/neuter van, one with sheep and ruminants, and one with horses. One of the vets that was teaching us exam skills was telling us how jealous he is of the early exposure we're getting. He said he was super excited when he went to vet school, because he finially got to touch a cat his third year.

Week 3

Just got home from our first day of week 3. We have a horse case this week. We're dealing with a yearling with muscle spasms and "Impressive" lineage (horse people or Fugly Horse of the Day readers will know exactly what we're dealing with here), a lame limb, worms and cryptorchidism.

I'm trying to get started researching everything I need to. I know what physiology I need to look up, the parasitology, the pharmacology, and everything else - but I don't know what I should read about in anatomy to prepare for anatomy lab tomorrow. Hock? Testicles? A certain muscle group? Aargh.

After I posted this, I just checked my email, and HECK YES!!!!

The study of diseases in ancient animals, like dinosaurs, is complicated by the lack of most clinical tools -- lab values, pathogen culturing, genetic analysis, symptomatology, even soft tissue. Neverless, some diseases are revealed in the fossil record. Their analysis is profoundly affected by modern animals used as comparitive reference models. This is an excelent opportunity to learn about cases of pathology in pelycosaurs and dinosaurs, and the techniques used to arrive at "diagnosis"

Feeling pretty good

Yesterday was pretty awesome.

In the morning, we had a couple hours to practice clinical exams on some of the faculty member's dogs. I got to hear a heart murmer on an older lab mix. I found a skritchy spot on a norwitch terrier that made it try to scratch with both legs at the same time, so it just ended up with its butt bouncing on the table. Best of all was when I went to do an exam on a min-pin mix. I walked up to the table it was on, and said hello to the dog. It ran over to me and licked my face, with its little nubbin wagging like crazy. The vet who owned it said "that's really bizarre. He never warms up to new people that quickly!" He then proceeded to growl at all of the other students that approached him, but would then turn around and give me kisses. Win!

In our PBL group, we had to present what we would tell our client about how we would reccommend proceeding with their dog's back/hip problem. We covered getting further, more in-depth imaging, surgically repairing it, and how to manage it medically, if they didn't want to spring for the more expensive option. Turns out that our group nailed it - our fictional client decided to try to manage it medically, with an MRI and surgery as a last resort. And our reccommendations for managing it medically were spot on!

I did screw up a bit yesterday. After our micro/cellular biology class, I forgot that I was supposed to get my 2nd rabies vaccine. I've emailed people, and hopefully I can schedule something to get it done at another time, but I'm kicking myself for spacing it. And it seems like it'd be so easy to space things. We have some things that happen every week no matter what, but things like working at the clinics, or some of our labs are constantly changing, and I'm always worried that I missed an email, or that I didn't copy something down correctly.

Anyway, I'm going to spend the weekend catching up on anatomy and histology. I also still need to buy rubber boots and coveralls for my large animal clinics, and a pair of paddock boots for my equine clinics. I'm also going to see if I can either download "The Girl who Played with Fire," or if I can get caught up enough, see if I can talk Tyler into driving down to Pasadena to see it in the theater.

Hard not to be a bit paranoid...

A few days ago, when I was sitting at my front porch, a neighbor stopped by to chat. He mentioned that while I was in class, somebody in a red car had been at my house, and around back (looking for me?) I don't know. He was telling me this in very broken english, so I kind of brushed it off and didn't think anything about it.

Today when I was out front, a car pulled up behind mine, and a guy with long grey hair got out. He said he was with the neighborhood watch, and wanted to know if the name of the park across the street for me was X park. I said yes. He then asked if my landlord was Ms. X. I said yes. Then he snapped a picture of the front of my house, presumably getting Tyler and I in the frame, then drove off. WTF? It was creepy.