Vermin

I've got a vermin problem. More specifically, my neighbor and I have a rat problem. He has a very large pile of lumber stacked next to the fence and covered with a tarp. This is perfect rat habitat--nice and dry during the winter, cool during the heat of the summer, excellent protection from cats and dogs. That takes care of the rat housing problem. What about their nutritional needs? Not to worry. They have been dining out in my five-star compost pile for months. I've known they were there. The dogs definitely know the rats are there. I think they have almost caught one on more than one occasion.

Once the rats started stealing all of the vegetable matter from my compost, and eating the sprouted seeds from the containers of cat grass I was trying to grow for Beast, I decided they were getting too bold, probably too numerous, and that it was time to do something.

Since I have never actually seen them or their droppings, I only suspected they were rats. I spent nearly half an hour at the Bi-Mart reading labels of every single type of rat trap and poison and repellent product they had on display.

Poison really worries me because the rats are literally on the other side of the fence. Any poison I push or drop into their posh lumber condos could easily make its way back into my yard and pose a huge risk for the dogs. Even the new traps with the poison block contained within a plastic unit that the rodent has to enter seemed to be too risky.

So it had to be a trap. There are so many different ways to trap rats and mice. I eventually selected a TomCat snap trap, working from the theory that as messy as it might be, I'd rather dispose of dead bodies than try to re-home live rodents. I have boxes and boxes of exam gloves, plenty of plastic bags, and I go every day to a large veterinary teaching hospital where I can properly dispose of dead animals.

The first two nights, I baited the trap with cheese (smoked gouda, it's all I had) and pushed it next to the compost container. Nothing.

Then I realized, these rats don't know what cheese is. They have been living the ultimate vegan lifestyle for months. Last night, I baited the trap with a bit of eggplant rind that had a nice juicy hunk of eggplant attached. And I put the trap IN the compost pile.

I woke up to find this. The relatively small size (for a rat), the smooth, dark grey fur, and the hairless tail that is much longer than the body identify this as a black rat.

According to one of the local newspapers, the population centers of Oregon are seeing increasing problems with black rats. They are attracted to backyard chicken coops (they eat the chicken feed and can also kill chickens). My neighbor and I don't have chickens, but apparently we've provided an acceptable alternative. 

I may get a second trap. I've got plenty of bait and all summer to work on this project.

Diary of a Fourth-Year Vet Student: On the Hunt

I am on the hunt for a job. Yes, I haven't even taken my board exams yet. I have barely started my clinical year of vet school. But I am focused on getting a job--because after all, isn't that the whole point of getting a professional degree like a DVM?

I am at a big veterinary conference in Denver. The American Association of Avian Pathology (AAAP), one of the largest professional poultry groups in the US (maybe in the world, it has an international reach despite the name), schedules its annual meeting at the same time and place as the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which is the largest vet med group in the US. Even though AVMA caters to vet techs, students, and veterinarians of all types, it is heavily focused on the small animal clinician. So it is with some satisfaction that we poultry folks look around and see that we represent a rather substantial number of bodies at this conference.

I had some grand plans to get a job while at this conference. I have a dozen copies of a carefully groomed resume all ready to hand out. Those plans were probably a bit ambitious. Instead of job offers, what I have gotten so far is excellent advice about what kinds of jobs I might expect to get and how to go about marketing myself to get them.

AAAP is incredibly dedicated to serving its student members. They offer lots of scholarships. I got one last year in support of my research project. We published the first set of results from that project in December, and I've got a poster up at this conference with the next set of results and have another manuscript that will probably be ready to submit to a journal in January, so their investment in my research project was money well spent. This year, AAAP gave me a prestigious scholarship that will help pay some of the expenses of the externships that I have to complete during my fourth year. And they gave me another high-profile scholarship just for grins and giggles (joking aside, my reference letters were stupendous, which helped a lot with this last one). 

AAAP also has a mentor program that is unique in the vet med world. When I told my classmates last year that AAAP had matched me with a mentor who could give me advice on fourth-year externships, career planning, and just about anything else I might want to know, they couldn't believe it. No other professional vet med association has this kind of formalized mentoring program.

But wait, there's more! Tonight, AAAP had a "meet the expert" event. It was like speed-dating for aspiring poultry vet med students. A dozen round tables were each labeled with a specific sub-discipline in the poultry industry (technical services, layer production, government, small flock consulting, etc). There were at least two industry professionals at each table. We students had ten minutes to pick a table, pick their brains, then a bell would ring and we would have to move to a new table. It wasn't as rushed as it sounds as you could easily linger at a particular table for two rounds if you wanted to. And AAAP generously had an open bar with beer and wine to keep our throats from getting parched. That isn't to imply that this was a drunken debauch--it only lasted an hour or so and there was far more talking than drinking. But it is the little things that make a simple, no-frills activity feel more special.

I got such amazing and helpful advice. All of those professionals were so generous with their time and quite willing to share their experience. I am still not quite sure which direction I will head with respect to where I want to end up in the industry but I feel better prepared for what I need to do to market myself appropriately.

One of the best pieces of advice I got was from a layer consultant. He said, treat every day of every externship like a job interview. Even if I don't get an offer from that company, the poultry vet med world is a small one, and in one way or another I will be their future colleague. 

Poor Mimi!

Mimi had ten teeth removed yesterday. Her face, tongue, and lips are so swollen I can't inspect the suture sites yet. She's groggy from the anesthesia. She looks pretty rough, like she is resurfacing after a week-long bender of booze and speed.

Most of the teeth on her upper left arcade are now gone and only a molar or two remain on the upper right side. She lost her last incisor. Fortunately, I took her to the dental specialist who taught us our dental unit in Small Animal Medicine, and she was able to save Mimi's lower canines by putting bone graft material around the roots. She still has her upper canines--they were apparently fine. Her canines are about all she has left!

Like most fox terriers, Mimi is a tough little dog. She is eating her canned food with gusto (never noticing the meds I drop in there--a long course of antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory). Once she started swallowing last night, she stopped drooling bloody saliva all over herself and her blankets so she looks a bit more presentable. She is not feeling much like playing but she is following me around the house like she usually does.

She lost all of her incisors but that one last year. And she lost a couple of premolars the year before. So what's up with her extremely ferocious dental disease this year? I brush Mimi's teeth regularly (I do this for all three dogs) but sometimes genetics and bad luck overcome our best intentions. I have recently changed to a different toothpaste although honestly that probably won't make much of a difference.

And in case you were wondering, dogs do just fine with few to no teeth. My dogs don't chew their kibble anyway, so that's not a problem. And once the incisions heal and the sutures resorb, dogs can still catch balls and retrieve toys. No more chewing on antlers, but Mimi never did much of that anyway. And we will still be able to play tug, gently, with fleece tugs.

A Lighter Note

Just look at this ridiculous dog.

I know that dropping to the ground and showing the belly is a submissive posture for dogs, and that's certainly part of why Azza does it, but she also loves belly rubs and has learned that this behavior can also serve as an invitation for that.

Archie in a second-floor windowsill. He knows there are many bunnies lurking in the garden below so he is taking advantage of his expanded view of the landscape.