Yesterday I did a necropsy on a 16-year old albino corn snake. In vet school, our lectures on snakes and reptiles and amphibians were cursory at best, and covered nothing at all on the anatomy of these animals. When I got the email that the snake was coming in, I hustled over to the bookcase and grabbed the first relevant textbook that I saw. It took me about an hour to read and take notes on the chapter on snake anatomy. There was a decent figure in there, so I photocopied it to take down to the necropsy floor. I skimmed other chapters to get an idea of what kinds of diseases were most common in snakes. I also specifically researched zoonoses. I already knew about Salmonella (any reptile can give you salmonellosis), but I also learned that snakes commonly have cryptosporidia in their gut and those little parasites don't care who or what you are, they will make you so fucking sick with the vomiting and shitting that you will wish you had salmonella instead. Right--everyone on the floor was going to wear full PPE (personal protective equipment) including face masks.
And of course, I also immediately sent up the bat signal to one of my classmates who keeps snakes as pets. He was super helpful, giving me tips on how to determine a body condition score for snakes (that's an important thing in vet med, we do it for all species but you look at different parts of the animal depending on the species, and we never talked about determining a BCS for reptiles during school). He also kindly shared other miscellaneous bits of knowledge that one can only acquire by actually keeping snakes around all the time. Not my cup of tea, snakes, but this is my job now.
Snakes appear to have gone out of their way to make their anatomy as weird and difficult as possible (no diaphragm, one lung, three-chambered heart, two aorta, no urinary bladder, tongue hidden away in a pouch in the mouth; I could go on). Thankfully, livers and kidneys are fairly recognizable organs in most species and serve as good landmarks. I did my best, and to be honest, I found some surprises in this snake that may actually provide a cause of death. That's a rare enough outcome for any necropsy in any species, but even better because this one was so unusual.
And today I did a necropsy on a bobcat. The bobcat came in last week but we had to submit brain tissue for rabies testing before we could proceed with the necropsy. It was negative.
So when I was in vet school, still in second or third year, a cougar came into necropsy. Everyone was super excited and it was the talk of school...until that darned thing tested positive for Yersinia pestis, otherwise known as The Plague. Yeah, THAT plague! That's a reportable disease and Homeland Security got involved because bioterrorism. All students in necropsy at the time had to take a course of antibiotics (no opt-out on that), and a mountain of paperwork was created. The pathologist in charge of the case still tells stories about it.
The director of the lab told me during my first week here that tularemia was pretty common in Arkansas. Tularemia? That is a horrible disease! It affects rabbits, but also quite often affects felids. Felids...like bobcats.
So I spent this morning researching gross lesions that I might expect to see for Francisella tularemia, Yersinia pestis, and what the hell, Bacillus anthracis too (anthrax). Going for the full apocalypse. All three are zoonotic (nasty deaths for humans) and reportable. I made notes on the tissues I needed to collect, what tests I needed to request, and where I might send all this shit because we don't test for any of those diseases at our own lab.
I emailed one of my mentors at Oregon State (had some questions about the snake) and told her I had read up on these three diseases before doing the bobcat necropsy. She replied, "I'm so proud that you are considering the absolute worse case scenario before going on the floor!" Snark? Humor? True compliment? All of the above! I'm nothing if not cynically thorough.
So the bobcat had a femur fracture and likely died of starvation/dehydration. No evidence of infectious disease. Even so, I was ready.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Schmoozing
I was quite shy as a young child. Later I became bookish and nerdy, which added an air of stand-offishness. Neither is a winning formula for social popularity.
But my first pass through graduate school changed things significantly. My advisor had a large group of advisees, 7 or 8, with about half of the group working on master's degrees and half on PhDs. He held regular weekly meetings during which one of his students had to report on their research progress and results, and then subsequently defend themselves, with no props other than maybe a chalkboard, against the bloodletting that followed from the rest of the group. It was brutal. It was exhilarating. It was eye-opening. After a couple of years of that, the dissertation defense was a breeze.
Don't start thinking that this was in any way abusive--it was well managed, and no personal attacks or calling people poopy-heads were allowed. The result was that I learned how communicate my research ideas clearly and effectively. But that is only one part of being a functional monkey in the monkey troupe.
The job that I took after that graduation required me to convince petroleum companies to part with their dollars to fund research projects based on ideas that my colleagues and I would come up with. Within the budgets of those projects, I had to cover my salary, including sick leave and vacation, the salaries of colleagues and support staff, and overhead. I had to convince the companies that the results would be of greater benefit to them than the relatively modest cost of paying us to do the work. The first few years were a bit rough but eventually I learned the art of schmoozing. And I got pretty darned good at it. I came to enjoy being good at it. I'm still bookish and shy, but when I turn on the schmooze, I can be formidable.
I have little interest in social schmoozing, although a bit of that is necessary. I'm more interested in technical schmoozing, in which me and other monkeys talk about science-y things.
Now I am working again. Although the role is different (public sector veterinarian), this week I learned three things about my new job: there is plenty of schmoozing to be done, it's been a long time since I was able to schmooze, and I really missed doing it.
I have started lurking around the receiving area when people bring in submissions (that is, animals for necropsy) so I can chat with them. I learn a lot about production practices and problems that are of concern to them, not to mention I get a much better history than the clients write down on the submission form. I was initially worried that I might be annoying the receiving staff, who do an excellent job and whose toes I definitely do not want to step on. But I got an email from them yesterday thanking me for talking to clients! And as soon as I complete a necropsy that has a fairly definitive finding, I call the referring veterinarian and chat with them on the phone. The lab director told me last week he was so pleased to hear all the "hubbub" (that's the actual word he used) coming from my office as I chat on the phone to veterinarians and owners.
How lucky I am to have found a job that lets me do fun vet med things then chat with people about those things all day long.
But my first pass through graduate school changed things significantly. My advisor had a large group of advisees, 7 or 8, with about half of the group working on master's degrees and half on PhDs. He held regular weekly meetings during which one of his students had to report on their research progress and results, and then subsequently defend themselves, with no props other than maybe a chalkboard, against the bloodletting that followed from the rest of the group. It was brutal. It was exhilarating. It was eye-opening. After a couple of years of that, the dissertation defense was a breeze.
Don't start thinking that this was in any way abusive--it was well managed, and no personal attacks or calling people poopy-heads were allowed. The result was that I learned how communicate my research ideas clearly and effectively. But that is only one part of being a functional monkey in the monkey troupe.
The job that I took after that graduation required me to convince petroleum companies to part with their dollars to fund research projects based on ideas that my colleagues and I would come up with. Within the budgets of those projects, I had to cover my salary, including sick leave and vacation, the salaries of colleagues and support staff, and overhead. I had to convince the companies that the results would be of greater benefit to them than the relatively modest cost of paying us to do the work. The first few years were a bit rough but eventually I learned the art of schmoozing. And I got pretty darned good at it. I came to enjoy being good at it. I'm still bookish and shy, but when I turn on the schmooze, I can be formidable.
I have little interest in social schmoozing, although a bit of that is necessary. I'm more interested in technical schmoozing, in which me and other monkeys talk about science-y things.
Now I am working again. Although the role is different (public sector veterinarian), this week I learned three things about my new job: there is plenty of schmoozing to be done, it's been a long time since I was able to schmooze, and I really missed doing it.
I have started lurking around the receiving area when people bring in submissions (that is, animals for necropsy) so I can chat with them. I learn a lot about production practices and problems that are of concern to them, not to mention I get a much better history than the clients write down on the submission form. I was initially worried that I might be annoying the receiving staff, who do an excellent job and whose toes I definitely do not want to step on. But I got an email from them yesterday thanking me for talking to clients! And as soon as I complete a necropsy that has a fairly definitive finding, I call the referring veterinarian and chat with them on the phone. The lab director told me last week he was so pleased to hear all the "hubbub" (that's the actual word he used) coming from my office as I chat on the phone to veterinarians and owners.
How lucky I am to have found a job that lets me do fun vet med things then chat with people about those things all day long.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
My Money Is On The Shitty Greek Yogurt
On Thursday night, I spent several hours in one of the local vet ERs with Archie. He had been vomiting for about 18 hours, and wasn't keeping any food down. He would eat food but he would vomit it right back up. He was also lethargic and not his usual cuddly, interactive self. I had some bloodwork done just to be prudent (although I declined the pancreatic lipase blood test since hanky panky pancreatitis was pretty low on the differential list). All of his bloodwork was totally normal. He got a shot of maropitant (Cerenia) and was back to his usual bouncy hijinks the next morning. He did have some fairly violent, watery diarrhea the following evening but as far as I can tell, it was only that once.
But then Mimi started vomiting yesterday afternoon. She refused to eat any dinner. During the night, she got me up every hour with dry heaves, producing only a little bit of foamy bile every so often. And boy, was she fighting the nausea. Archie just opened his mouth and bleagh! Out came the food and that was that. Mimi made such a production out of it. We got no sleep at all. Mimi's eyes became sunken and she became slightly wobbly and disoriented. She was drooling and groaning in pain when I had to pick her up or move her. She was passing horrific gas all night and had a bit of bloody diarrhea this morning. So off again we went to the vet ER. We waited for over an hour but they had a couple of emergencies come in so they sent us off to another vet ER.
Poor Mimi was not doing well at all by the time we arrived at the second vet ER. I had full bloodwork run on her too, including the pancreatic lipase test. I was actually more worried about acute kidney disease than pancreatitis but all of her bloodwork came back normal. She got a shot of maropitant too, but we all agreed that she was clinically dehydrated so she got a big slug of subQ fluids. She wasn't quite sick enough to warrant an IV catheter and IV fluids although I was considering it.
I declined abdominal imaging (they suggested rads and I would have also requested ultrasound if possible). But if Mimi doesn't get better by the morning, I will probably have to get this imaging to rule out some pretty scary things such as an abdominal mass (GI lymphoma would be at the top of the list). And we'd probably have to do some aspirates of lymph nodes to go along with that. And we'd also have to get chest rads because lymphoma fucking loves to met to the lungs. What a mess.
Mimi definitely became more sick faster than Archie. Several possibilities could explain that--whatever was making her sick was different than what made Archie sick (unlikely, but possible), and she's old and slightly underconditioned so she doesn't have a lot extra to expend in being sick (most likely).
So let's hope she starts feeling better! She's been resting and seems to have stopped the dry heaving, which is a relief.
What could have caused this? If we assume that both terriers got sick from the same thing, then we have to look at environment and diet. With respect to diet, they eat different kibbles, and I brought their kibble with me from Oregon, so that hasn't changed. But I was not able to find a good quality yogurt to add to their morning meal and was giving them a store-brand greek-style yogurt. Personally, I detest greek yogurt. It is too thick and tastes like paste. I like real, full-fat yogurt with live bacteria, and that is what the terriers have been eating for years (Nancy's brand). I've tossed the shitty greek yogurt and am on the hunt for some decent yogurt that they can eat. They could have become sick from some toxin in the yard. If that were the case, I might expect Azza to show some signs of exposure as well, especially since she spends more time out there than the terriers but so far she seems fine. I did learn from the ER vet this morning that campylobacter infections are somewhat common here and can be passed back and forth in a multi-pet household. Nothing in the test results for either dog suggested an infectious agent but that certainly doesn't rule one out. And of course, the dogs were uprooted from their home and dragged out here and they have no idea what's going on. Stressful for all involved. Right now, our presumptive diagnosis for both is acute (hemorrhagic) gastroenteritis of unknown cause. My money is on the shitty greek yogurt.
I start work tomorrow so all of this has been taking place with fairly crappy timing. More stress for everyone!
But then Mimi started vomiting yesterday afternoon. She refused to eat any dinner. During the night, she got me up every hour with dry heaves, producing only a little bit of foamy bile every so often. And boy, was she fighting the nausea. Archie just opened his mouth and bleagh! Out came the food and that was that. Mimi made such a production out of it. We got no sleep at all. Mimi's eyes became sunken and she became slightly wobbly and disoriented. She was drooling and groaning in pain when I had to pick her up or move her. She was passing horrific gas all night and had a bit of bloody diarrhea this morning. So off again we went to the vet ER. We waited for over an hour but they had a couple of emergencies come in so they sent us off to another vet ER.
Poor Mimi was not doing well at all by the time we arrived at the second vet ER. I had full bloodwork run on her too, including the pancreatic lipase test. I was actually more worried about acute kidney disease than pancreatitis but all of her bloodwork came back normal. She got a shot of maropitant too, but we all agreed that she was clinically dehydrated so she got a big slug of subQ fluids. She wasn't quite sick enough to warrant an IV catheter and IV fluids although I was considering it.
I declined abdominal imaging (they suggested rads and I would have also requested ultrasound if possible). But if Mimi doesn't get better by the morning, I will probably have to get this imaging to rule out some pretty scary things such as an abdominal mass (GI lymphoma would be at the top of the list). And we'd probably have to do some aspirates of lymph nodes to go along with that. And we'd also have to get chest rads because lymphoma fucking loves to met to the lungs. What a mess.
Mimi definitely became more sick faster than Archie. Several possibilities could explain that--whatever was making her sick was different than what made Archie sick (unlikely, but possible), and she's old and slightly underconditioned so she doesn't have a lot extra to expend in being sick (most likely).
So let's hope she starts feeling better! She's been resting and seems to have stopped the dry heaving, which is a relief.
What could have caused this? If we assume that both terriers got sick from the same thing, then we have to look at environment and diet. With respect to diet, they eat different kibbles, and I brought their kibble with me from Oregon, so that hasn't changed. But I was not able to find a good quality yogurt to add to their morning meal and was giving them a store-brand greek-style yogurt. Personally, I detest greek yogurt. It is too thick and tastes like paste. I like real, full-fat yogurt with live bacteria, and that is what the terriers have been eating for years (Nancy's brand). I've tossed the shitty greek yogurt and am on the hunt for some decent yogurt that they can eat. They could have become sick from some toxin in the yard. If that were the case, I might expect Azza to show some signs of exposure as well, especially since she spends more time out there than the terriers but so far she seems fine. I did learn from the ER vet this morning that campylobacter infections are somewhat common here and can be passed back and forth in a multi-pet household. Nothing in the test results for either dog suggested an infectious agent but that certainly doesn't rule one out. And of course, the dogs were uprooted from their home and dragged out here and they have no idea what's going on. Stressful for all involved. Right now, our presumptive diagnosis for both is acute (hemorrhagic) gastroenteritis of unknown cause. My money is on the shitty greek yogurt.
I start work tomorrow so all of this has been taking place with fairly crappy timing. More stress for everyone!
Monday, July 08, 2019
Woes of the New Homeowner 2
Well, one of the PODS arrived. Not entirely sure where the other one is (the one with all of the furniture). And yes, I'm quite annoyed. I posted a very unhappy one-star review on google. PODS quickly tried to get me to contact them but I'll let them stew for another day. The unpacking will help to refocus my ire.
And it seems like I am going to take a million photos like this:
Archie is a delicate flower and having reactions to his mosquito bites. The other dogs don't seem to be having the same problems although the mosquitoes are astonishingly numerous. I'm looking into having the yard and house regularly serviced for insects. I've never seen so many fucking insects in my life. Most are benign, I'm sure. I just don't want them anywhere around me or the dogs.
And it seems like I am going to take a million photos like this:
Archie is a delicate flower and having reactions to his mosquito bites. The other dogs don't seem to be having the same problems although the mosquitoes are astonishingly numerous. I'm looking into having the yard and house regularly serviced for insects. I've never seen so many fucking insects in my life. Most are benign, I'm sure. I just don't want them anywhere around me or the dogs.
Friday, July 05, 2019
Soaking Up the Sun
Here are the dogs in the trash-strewn, tick-infested, mosquito habitat of the backyard. Happy as clams.
Mimi laid down first. Archie stood next to her for a while surveying his domain then stretched out. Azza did a quick perimeter check then joined them. It's really sweet how they like to be together.
They all got a very good brush-down before I let them back in the house.
Mimi laid down first. Archie stood next to her for a while surveying his domain then stretched out. Azza did a quick perimeter check then joined them. It's really sweet how they like to be together.
They all got a very good brush-down before I let them back in the house.
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
Woes of the Homeowner
Holiday coming up! That means a house or animal crisis is sure to happen!
Oh, look, there's now a big, ragged hole in the ceiling of my laundry closet. The ceiling started sagging and water started dripping from two small holes sometime yesterday morning. Of course, I immediately turned off the water to the two sinks that are directly above this spot. Then I frantically called the home warranty company. Just like a health insurance provider, you need to use a contractor that they have approved, not just any old plumber that can, you know, show up and fix the fucking problem. So I won't be seeing the approved plumber until next Tuesday...a week from the day I called.
I was worried about water pooling in the ceiling and causing a much larger area of damage, so this morning I climbed up on to the washing machine and poked the ceiling with a screwdriver. Most of the mess went into my handy bucket but it was rather splashy for 30 seconds or so. I widened the hole to take a look--the sheetrock is saturated and is going to have to come out anyway.
When I carried the bucket outside to dump it, to my horror I saw a hornet floating in the water. Was it alive? Is there a nest up there? Will those horrible insects now have access to the inside of my house? I jumped in the car and headed to Lowe's for some industrial-strength wasp killer. I haven't seen any of those vicious bastards but I remain vigilant.
The dripping seems to have stopped now, which means I successfully drained the pooled water, and the leak was probably coming from one of the upstairs sinks. I've moved my daily ablutions to the downstairs sink, which I hope is not similarly leaking into the crawlspace.
And the dogs have plenty of time to get into trouble before the holiday is over.
Oh, look, there's now a big, ragged hole in the ceiling of my laundry closet. The ceiling started sagging and water started dripping from two small holes sometime yesterday morning. Of course, I immediately turned off the water to the two sinks that are directly above this spot. Then I frantically called the home warranty company. Just like a health insurance provider, you need to use a contractor that they have approved, not just any old plumber that can, you know, show up and fix the fucking problem. So I won't be seeing the approved plumber until next Tuesday...a week from the day I called.
I was worried about water pooling in the ceiling and causing a much larger area of damage, so this morning I climbed up on to the washing machine and poked the ceiling with a screwdriver. Most of the mess went into my handy bucket but it was rather splashy for 30 seconds or so. I widened the hole to take a look--the sheetrock is saturated and is going to have to come out anyway.
When I carried the bucket outside to dump it, to my horror I saw a hornet floating in the water. Was it alive? Is there a nest up there? Will those horrible insects now have access to the inside of my house? I jumped in the car and headed to Lowe's for some industrial-strength wasp killer. I haven't seen any of those vicious bastards but I remain vigilant.
The dripping seems to have stopped now, which means I successfully drained the pooled water, and the leak was probably coming from one of the upstairs sinks. I've moved my daily ablutions to the downstairs sink, which I hope is not similarly leaking into the crawlspace.
And the dogs have plenty of time to get into trouble before the holiday is over.
Monday, July 01, 2019
Getting Old
I've been keeping this blog for over 10 years now, and I could swear I've written a post with this same title. (I in fact did, in December 2011, about Harry.)
I was watching Mimi sleeping the other morning, and I started thinking about all of the places that she has lived: two different houses in Texas, Saudi Arabia, Oregon, and now a new house here in Arkansas. She dipped her toes in the Pacific Ocean and the Arabian Gulf. She has traveled a lot in her long life (2 months shy of 14 years old).
Old age is not a disease. But it certainly comes with relatively inevitable physical and mental changes. Mimi has lenticular sclerosis, a very common thing in older dogs (and people) in which proteins start depositing in the lenses of the eyes. Not cataracts, not associated with disease. Just age. She needs help navigating her world, which unfortunately at the moment changes daily, when light levels are low or there are poor lighting contrasts at doors and stairs. She is also nearly deaf. This is a bit of a blessing--Mimi is so high strung in general that not being able to hear things like neighbor dogs barking or thunder is better for her.
Sadly, Mimi is also starting to lose the thread of things now and then. She is a bit slower to wake up. She can get confused in chaotic settings, made worse because she can't hear verbal cues or reassurances. She is not experiencing dementia but I can see subtle signs of decline.
I also noticed just the other morning that the top of Azza's head and ears are starting to go white. She turned 7 years old in December 2018. She's not even close to being classified as "senior" but she's a larger dog and I'm not surprised to see signs of aging showing up now.
Our companion pets are with us for such a short time. It makes me sad to see them age. Older, maybe a little bit wiser, my dogs (and the Beast cat) have been through so much with me, and I'm grateful that they seem to be willing to keep on going, to see what the next adventure might be.
I was watching Mimi sleeping the other morning, and I started thinking about all of the places that she has lived: two different houses in Texas, Saudi Arabia, Oregon, and now a new house here in Arkansas. She dipped her toes in the Pacific Ocean and the Arabian Gulf. She has traveled a lot in her long life (2 months shy of 14 years old).
Old age is not a disease. But it certainly comes with relatively inevitable physical and mental changes. Mimi has lenticular sclerosis, a very common thing in older dogs (and people) in which proteins start depositing in the lenses of the eyes. Not cataracts, not associated with disease. Just age. She needs help navigating her world, which unfortunately at the moment changes daily, when light levels are low or there are poor lighting contrasts at doors and stairs. She is also nearly deaf. This is a bit of a blessing--Mimi is so high strung in general that not being able to hear things like neighbor dogs barking or thunder is better for her.
Sadly, Mimi is also starting to lose the thread of things now and then. She is a bit slower to wake up. She can get confused in chaotic settings, made worse because she can't hear verbal cues or reassurances. She is not experiencing dementia but I can see subtle signs of decline.
I also noticed just the other morning that the top of Azza's head and ears are starting to go white. She turned 7 years old in December 2018. She's not even close to being classified as "senior" but she's a larger dog and I'm not surprised to see signs of aging showing up now.
Our companion pets are with us for such a short time. It makes me sad to see them age. Older, maybe a little bit wiser, my dogs (and the Beast cat) have been through so much with me, and I'm grateful that they seem to be willing to keep on going, to see what the next adventure might be.
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