Day 38- God Never Gives you Anything you Can't Handle

     I am sure not everyone that reads my blog has the same beliefs as I do, but today I have to give thanks.
As many of you know Vet school has taken a HUGE toll on my family, not only emotionally but also financially. My tuition is at an all time high and the cost of it, plus books and supplies and not being able to work makes life very difficult at times to say the very least. My entire family as well as Chad's has always done everything in their power to make sure I could fulfill my dreams. I always feel so guilty and bad for needing so much financial support and my family never blinks an eye to breaking themselves to make sure I see this through. Unfortunately this is not always enough. I have had many, many moments that I considered putting vet school on hold so that I could relieve my family members from this financial burden.
    Moving to Oklahoma was no exception. I considered very seriously putting this last year on hold but of course no one in my family would have it. It has been financially stressful but everyone has been pitching in to cover my expenses. What most of them didn't know is that I am registered to take my first board exam in 6 weeks and the study materials that I need for it have yet to be purchased. I have been praying every night that something would come through or work out so that I could buy the books I needed for the board exam. It has been weighing heavy on my heart that I didn't have the books needed to take the test and this test is crucial in getting my license. But, how could I possibly ask for more money when everyone was already doing so much! I just kept telling myself to pray and that it would be ok, and that God would eventually hear me!
    My family has been spreading the word about my blog and I had no idea how many people it reached, until today. Today God heard me. My dad got a card in the mail today with a check for 1,000. As he read me the card I could not stop crying and found it hard to believe but this is what I had been praying for and I knew God finally heard me and sent my blog to an angel. Someone I have never met has been reading my blog and saw the faith in me that I have so much trouble seeing in myself. On the card it said "This help came from God for his faith and trust in her ". I cannot possibly thank this person enough and I will forever think of them as someone who heard my prayers. Thank you for believing in me, and it is my promise to you to continue my life in your legacy, a person who has extraordinary faith in others and the heart of an Angel.

Day 37- My First Diagnosis

 Yesterday I was unable to blog about my day because I didn't get home until midnight and had to be back at the barn very early, so sleep became more important than blog. Yesterday my patient was a 3 day old Longhorn calf (similar to picture), that was abandoned by his mother and not nursing from a bottle. Upon examination my little man had a swollen joint and for once this rotation I immediately knew the answer!!!! When a calf isn't nursing, they are not getting antibodies from the mother and are extremely immuno-compromised which means they are very susceptible to infection. At birth, the umbilical cord is an open door to the bacteria of the outside world. Calves can normally fight off infections of the bacteria from their umbilical cord (navel) with the help of their mothers colostrum (first milk filled with antibodies). If they don't receive the colostrum and have an open door to bacteria they easily get systemic infections and the most common manifestation of this is infection in the joints, also known as Joint Ill or Navel Ill. After diagnosing my patient with Navel Ill, I put in a catheter, pulled some blood to help us define the seriousness of his condition, and gave him IV antibodies we then proceeded to flushing the joint and put antibiotics directly into the joint. Needless to say it was a long day and night, but completely and utterly worth it as I arrived this morning to a bright and alert baby that was ready to drink and play. Not only was this moment rewarding because my patient was doing so much better but I also knew what was wrong him all on my own, it was a " I am gonna be a doctor" moment that I will never forget!
                                                

Day 37- Get Dirty!

     Another busy day in the Food Animal Clinic as our time in this rotation dwindles down. Yesterday we had a miniature Hereford bull with a case of lumpy jaw. This is where bacteria gets into the bones of the jaw and cause bone growth and infection, which is where it gets the name lumpy jaw, I know it is very scientific! Next we had a bucking bull with a broken elbow, who despite his painful injury was trying to hook anything in site.
              
     







      Like a good southern girl, I had made a big crock pot (thanks to Nana and Papa for sending us to OK with a good crock pot) of boiled peanuts for all the doctors and students on my rotation. After dinner last night I realized I forgot to shut the peanuts off before leaving the barn and asked Chad to ride back with me turn them off. Upon arriving at the barn I got word that a dystocia heifer was on it's way (having trouble calving). So of course I asked to stay and help!
      When the heifer arrived and was palpated it was discovered that sadly the calf had died and was way to big to deliver normally, this meant that a fetotomy had to be performed. This is where you use wire the cut the calf into pieces so that you can get it out. The calf is already dead and this is much less traumatic on the mom than trying to pull the calf whole or doing a C-section. But as you can imagine this is a tough and DIRTY job. I jumped right in head first and got to make the head cut (pun intended)! After 2 hours, every doctor and student in sight looked like they were just in a mass murder seen, but we got the calf out and mom was standing and on the trailer to go home by midnight.

Day 36- Time to Step It Up!!!

     Today started the last week of Food Animal Medicine! I am so sad that my time in the barn is coming to an end. I am finally starting to have the courage to speak up and find the answers, which is the nature of the beast in our final year! As soon as we get comfortable in a particular area of vet med it is time for the rotation to end.
     Today I had a hoof wall crack that got infected and became an abscess within the hoof. Then I had yet another case of foot rot! So from now on, if I see a foot problem the answers will almost always be Foot Rot! Finally I had my most exciting case of the day. A bull with a prepucial prolapse (I told you it is all about the penis!) and weight loss. After doing a full physical exam, we proceeded to the rectal exam for more answers. Upon rectal exam I felt many hard knots over the secondary sex organs (prostate) and against the rumen and bladder walls. Then we ultra sounded the masses to determine their nature. We found that they were abscess's and he many more in his lungs, abdomen and spleen. This was a very interesting case and I was over joyed to be the student assigned to it! Our top deferential for this kind of disease process is something called Hardware Disease. This is where the cow picks up some kind of wire or nails accidentally when grazing and it gets stuck in their reticulum (one of the stomach compartments). The reticulum sits right against the diaphragm, and on the other side of the diaphragm is where the heart lives. With hardware disease the piece of metal pierces the wall of the reticulum when it contracts and can potentially stab the heart and create an infection. An infection in the heart "seeds" the body with the bacteria from the infection as it pumps the blood through.
     One of the most interesting things about Hardware Disease is that if you catch it early, before it pierces the heart, the treatment is very specialized.....it is a magnet! You heard it right! A magnet! By putting a magnet in their stomach it keeps the metal pieces from piercing the wall of the reticulum and therefor heart!
                                                

Day 33-25 The work never ends!

     This weekend was much like this week....lots and lots to do! It now seems the days are starting to blur together and hours turn into days and days into weeks. Looking forward to the weekend is only a tease and they seem to not exsist anymore. Today was the most time I have gotten off in since I started my clinical year 5 weeks ago. I was at the barn from 8 until 11:30am, getting the afternoon off now seems like a carribean vacation! I was home and back in bed for a much needed nap by noon! It is funny the way life changes as you go through different phases. There has been times in life that all I wanted was a new vehicle or time with my family or money to spend....and the list goes on. Although all of those things are still high up on my want list....it now seems the only thing I really long for is sleep! A 3 hour nap today was enough to make me feel human again. But now I look forward to anouther long yet exciting week in the food animal ward and count my blessing one of which being much needed rest!

Day 32- Penis is the word!

     Penis's seem to be a popular injury for this rotation in the Food Animal Ward. We have two bulls in house that have penile injuries and are currently in treatment. Then, as mentioned yesterday, we admitted a camel for a penile injury. The plan for the camel today was a PU- Perineal Urostomy. This is a very strange but interesting surgery. To put it bluntly it is a sex change surgery! When there is an injury to the penis the PU surgery is used to save the animal and divert the function of the penis so that the animal may survive. In the PU surgery there is a small incision made under the rectum and the urethra is then incised and the walls of the urethra are sutured to the exterior wall of the skin. Basically this makes the male urinate like a female through a man made opening! It is done often in animals that get re-occurring blockages from bladder stones but can also be used for animals with extensive penile injuries. In addition to the PU surgery, our camel would also receive a penectomy (surgical removal of the penis). This all seems very strange to most I am sure, but in actuality they are amazing and interesting surgeries that are used more commonly than you would think!

Day 31- Camels Camels Everywhere

    Today was an exciting but crazy busy day. I got to de-bud (de-horn) some baby goats (kids) which was super fun and I got to practice local lidocaine blocks. We also did an LDA- Left Displaced Abomasum surgery on a cow, just like the one we did last week, were we used the gut fat to tack the stomach to the abdominal wall so it doesn't displace again. Then we did some lameness cases in cows and a Breeding Soundness Exam on a bull (measure testicles, electro-ejaculate them and evaluate the semen).
    We also had two alpacas for mange and a llama for a tooth root abscess. Llama's and alpaca's fall into the family Camelids. On the schedule we had one listed as "camelids, other." I knew it wasn't a llama or alpaca because they are listed under llama or alpaca, so I wondered all day what the "other" was going to be. Turns out that "other camilid" is actually a CAMEL! I freakin camel! The dromedary camel has one hump and the male we were seeing today was bleeding from his penis. So we got to anesthetize him and exam his penis more closely, pretty awesome, more the camel being awesome not the penis, although the penis was pretty cool too!
                            



    We ended the day with "floating" our downed cow in the aqua cow tank. Our cow had calving paralysis, which is where the get paralysis of the hind end from the baby putting pressure on the sciatic nerve during birth! Our cow wasn't standing well on her own so she gets to spend the night in the float tank! This keeps her muscles healthy and helps the nerve heal by keeping her in an upright position!