I've moved onto the food animal and reproductive medicine rotation (FAMS and we lovingly call it). I don't want to kill myself yet but I'm getting there. I was late the first day and it was Dr. Ram that was there to greet me. Dr. Ram has no sense of humor and his first words to me were: "We start on time here." Well crap, there goes that grade. Truth is, they never told us what time we had to be there and my friends all told me we didn't have to get there until 8:30. I tried to get there by 8:00 just in case but traffic was horrible so I didn't get there until 8:05. I felt like an ass. Oh well, no sense in beating myself up over the past right?
The field trips on FAMS have been . . . . interesting. Its hot, there's a lot of cow crap, and the smell of the silage makes me want to vomit. But it could be worse. The residents are all pretty cool. We joke around a lot and have a good time. My first day we did an LDA surgery and I got to scrub in. It was awesome. I had my arm inside the cow and was feeling the abomasum and everything. Although the face I'm making is less than flattering. They even let me close the incision. Unfortunately when we came back today the cow was looking very dehydrated and she had a 'ping' on her left side again. Even though we did a really solid omentopexy she may have displaced again. We'll recheck her in a few days to see what we need to do next.
The calves have been both the best and the worst part. One dairy farm we went to yesterday had this field full of hutches almost as far as you could see. The hutches were small and dirty and the little roofs barely gave the calves enough shade. They all looked small and sick. I almost cried when I saw it. Many of the calves had pneumonia and I know that last month a lot of their calves died from heat stress. We took blood from about 60 calves to test their total protein and 30% of them were at an inadequate level, only 40% were in a good solid range. The calves we saw today were in a better situation. They were in a clean and dry area with sand, a barn to shade
them and plenty of fans to keep them cool. They seemed happier (if a calf can be happy). A lot of them were jumping up and down and wanting to play, it was very cute. We had to dehorn some of them. I didn't like that. Not because it was cruel, they couldn't feel it because we blocked them, but because I was terrified of missing and burning part of their face off. We used this tool that gets really hot and burns the cornual epithelium. Not something to mess around with. But all in all today was a better experience than yesterday with the calves.
them and plenty of fans to keep them cool. They seemed happier (if a calf can be happy). A lot of them were jumping up and down and wanting to play, it was very cute. We had to dehorn some of them. I didn't like that. Not because it was cruel, they couldn't feel it because we blocked them, but because I was terrified of missing and burning part of their face off. We used this tool that gets really hot and burns the cornual epithelium. Not something to mess around with. But all in all today was a better experience than yesterday with the calves.Today we also got to lance an abscess. Finally, after months of being on clinics I got to see some good 'ol pus!! A cow were were removing sutures on had a big lump on her neck. We stuck a needle in it and pus just started dripping out. Dr. Mendle lanced it and pus just started to pour out of her neck. It was amazing. I got video of the whole thing. Then, when we thought there was nothing more that could possible be in there, Dr. Mendle pulled out this:
Just a gianourmous thing of fibrin. It was amazing. I couldn't believe my eyes. That poor cow must feel so much better now, I can't imagine having that much pus in me just stretching out the skin. It was so satisfying to take it all out of her.So I have one more week of FAMS and then vacation. I can make it through one more week. I hope.
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