Chrysocome

Ah, dang, I was just about to move to NZ because it sounded like you were learning about it for a local type thing. I always wanted to do it too :sad: Birds of prey are just amazing. I've had a killer of a week and it's only Wednesday. We've had three days and going to have a fourth day of full lectures, ie seven lectures spanning over 8am to 5pm. I lose concentration by about 10am. 80% of it has been on pigs and I just can't focus on one topic for that long. It's torture, I tell you!

Thank you all. I have now officially put two animals to sleep, a stray cat very sick with flu and an aggressive dog (it bit the owner's child). My first in what I suspect will be a very long list. But the worst is when animals die on their own and it takes days and days, as I witnessed very recently, it takes all the strength out of you, and you just have to keep it together for the owners who will sit with their animal for days, in silence, just being there for their pet. It is heart warming and it heart breaking at the same time. I'm going to fly through the remainder of Semester 1 as the next semester is about to begin! Week 13 Not the most interesting week. Monday – morning was gross pathology, looking at the urinary system. Afternoon was ‘hospital orientation’ which was a basic tour behind the scenes of the Werribee Animal Emergency Centre, which is on campus. In second semester we will be doing rotations in WAEC, working on (gulp!) real patients. Tuesday – Radiology 4: Musculoskeletal system. We looked at X-rays of normal and abnormal anatomy. I can’t wait for the day when I can recognise all the carpal and tarsal bones of a horse. They had lots of models for us to look at (and put together into anatomical parts - sometimes it felt like a difficult 3D puzzle) which made things heaps easier to understand. Wednesday – Afternoon off Thursday – Clinical Pathology 7: Tying together all the different blood results, biochemistries, urinalysis etc. More problem solving using numbers and patterns. This time we weren’t told what the theme was so we had to work off what we had learnt before. Friday Morning – Small Animals 3: Dermatology I really liked this prac. The first part was looking at fixed histological slides from the museum at uni. We learnt what different organisms affecting the hair and skin looked like under the microscope. The second part of the prac was working with live animals. Students brought any of their animals that had a skin condition. We learnt different diagnostic and clinical techniques such as tape preps, wet smears, skin scrapes and biopsies. Afternoon – Canine Surgical Anatomy 3: Thorax and lungs This was done on cadavers. We repeated what we had done surgically in the terminal surgery (good for me, as the anaesthetist, I hadn’t concentrated much on the procedure) and then different procedures such as lung lobectomy and placing drains. These cadavers were from the morning’s terminal surgery, which was another group’s ‘thoracotomy’ (I had done it last week). I mention it because one animal goes a long way for us. They are used when alive to teach behaviour and clinical medicine, even have blood taken for the blood bank. Some are then placed in the terminal surgeries to teach anaesthesia and surgery. After they are euthanased, they are used for surgical anatomy, letting us look at different parts so we know what is important to avoid in a live animal. Finally, that animal may be separated into pieces to teach many groups of first and second year students general anatomy. It may sound gross at first but I believe it is a good way to teach students while using as few animals as possible. A single animal goes to teach dozens of students, helping all of us in our careers. Week 14 This was the week of prac exams, and the last week of semester. Monday Morning – gross pathology, urinary system 2 Lunch – the 2nd pathology quiz! Eep! I really flailed in this one. Then I had to run (literally) for... Afternoon – Equine practical exam. I was one of the first ones rostered. I had a very friendly lecturer that everyone likes so it wasn’t too stressful. A lot of other people were very nervous though, some near tears (apparently one of the other lecturers was really tough). I was examined on lots of different clinical, identification and handling techniques. We’re given a list at the outset that we absolutely must be able to do. I think I aced this one. He let me go on a unique identification mark because I wasn’t tall enough to see the top of the horse’s back! Hehe. Tuesday – Small Animals 3: Urinary system More clinical techniques and medicine – looking at the body system, different clinical presentations, blood and urinalysis, diagnostic techniques like X-rays, and techniques such as catheterising and getting sterile urine samples via needles. We then worked through full case studies. Wednesday – AHM: Pasture budgeting Every year this has been the worst concept for me, and possibly a lot of other students. It’s a lot of dull number work and I never really understood it because each lecturer used different systems. But this time we had a lecturer who taught it really well in class and did it really well in prac too. So I walked out actually feeling like I knew something important about grass! Thursday – Bovine practical exam This was even simpler than the horse one. A lot of people were worried because there was no set list given as to exactly what you needed to know. I got another really great lecturer. We acted out a scenario where I was the vet and he was a client, and I had to work out what was wrong with the cow and how to treat it (mine apparently had heart problems). He decided to use the last couple of minutes to give me career advice then we finished early. It was great. Friday – Day off Another mock up poster for the 'vet show'.

Ah AV, i should have known you were a Whedonist from the day you recognised my usage of the word "gorram" I have yet to see it, so I'm glad you reminded me

Part 2: The lower respiratory system Following the respiratory system down, the trachea divides into two bronchi. Each bronchus further divides into secondary bronchi, which enter the lungs or air sacs as parabronchi. The parabronchi further divide into air capillaries, which form loops through lung tissue. Air capillaries are the site of gas exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide, and therefore lie in close association with blood capillaries. (Mammals have alveoli instead). Diagram of the bronchial branches: http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/crosscurrentflowlungs.gif The top part shows the lower branches and their association with blood vessels (secondary bronchus, parabronchus then air capillaries) In mammals, the lungs shrink and expand with each breath, supported by the diaphragm. In a bird the lungs are rigid and of fixed volume, and they do not have a diaphragm. This makes the thoracic cavity and the abdominal cavity one continuous space (the coelomic cavity). The lungs do not wrap around the heart as they do in mammals, instead they are located near the dorsal (spinal) area. So how does a bird breathe without changing the volume of its lungs? The answer is that they possess air sacs, located throughout their body cavity near many organs. The air sacs expand and contract to move air through the lungs. No gas exchange (O2 for CO2) occurs in the air sacs. Besides acting as bellows, they also lighten the body and extend into the bones to help with flight. Thus, the air sacs closely link the respiratory system, thoracic organs, abdominal organs and musculoskeletal system, which may be of consequence in systemic disease, and makes respiratory infection particularly dangerous. The positions of the air sacs are: two cervical (not present in some species), one interclavicular, two cranial thoracic, two caudal thoracic, two abdominal. http://www.peteducation.com/images/articles/ill_bird_airsacs.gif The movement of air through the sacs is dependent on the position of the sternum (and ribs), controlled by chest muscles. A bird must always be allowed to expand its chest. If the chest is restricted such as when being held incorrectly, the air sacs cannot fill, air cannot be moved through the lungs, and the bird will suffocate. Another important function of the respiratory system is to do with thermoregulation. Unlike mammals, birds have no sweat glands to cool down. Instead, they rely on increasing their body surface area (see later) and changing how they breathe. They take in more cool air by breathing faster. The movement of air causes evaporation of the moisture in the lining of the respiratory system, taking heat with it. Thus if a bird cannot breathe fast or deep enough (such as being held too tight) it not only has the potential to suffocate but it can overheat as well. A summary of the major differences between birds and mammals: Avian | Mammalian Vocalize with syrinx | Vocalise with larynx Complete tracheal rings | U-shaped tracheal rings No diaphragm | Diaphragm Air sacs | No air sacs Rigid lung | Expanding lung One-way air flow | Two-way air flow* Gas exchange associated with inspiration and expiration | Gas exchange associated with inspiration* Further reading What I call a bible of bird breathing, this page has excellent diagrams and explanations: http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdrespiration.html -- *Next time - all about how this system actually works

Pardon me Renee, I'm a little curious. Budgies have 9 air sacs and they are inside their bodies in various places. I was wondering how you worked out they were inflamed? Also note the air sacs are directly related to the lungs so something that has affected the lungs first could have easily spread to the air sacs. edit - I'm so tired.. accidentally put the wrong number in.

Had to think about that one - didn't know it for sure. I think it depends on your definition - they most certainly can if they roll over! Googling it seemed to mix it up with a similiar debate over whether or not that dogs can physically look up either. But look at these - http://thisislavergne.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/pig.jpg http://bp3.blogger.com/_s6Jh7xoynGw/Rr-oSr...20/headshot.jpg http://www.fadingad.com/blog/brooklyn/emmett_pig01.jpg Just by looking at the shape of the neck muscles - especially the weighty ones - it seems like they can't point their skulls vertically like we can but I still reckon they can look skyward with their heads like that.

I love #9 - it is an urban myth circulated entirely by internet. Just google Lisa Holst and spiders. Just debunking that one there

Oh, what a cool idea for a thread, I hope I can join in (when I'm more awake), I have a whole bunch of them. Regarding #4 - that is only comparing compressive forces in the same direction as the shaft of the bone ie how much the bone can be 'squished' (this is important as we are standing, walking and jumping on the bones every day). When you apply perpendicular and especially shear forces it's pretty weak, which is why spiral and transverse fractures are common. (Wow, I actually learned something in Biomedical Physics!) Sailorwolf - that's Einstein's general relativity. It's because gravity has an effect on time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation if anyone has the time (and brain space) to read up on it. Pretty heavy physics/maths there though. Hey, I have a bunch of weird animal knowledge, maybe I can start a list too. Chryso's weird animal #1: Cymothoa exigua is a crustacean that parasitises fish. First it attaches itself to the tongue of the fish and extracts blood with its legs. Due to lack of the blood the tongue starts to die. The parasite then attaches itself to the tongue muscles, replacing the fish's tongue with its own body. The fish can then use the parasite to manipulate food, having a whole other animal for a tongue! Hehe.

Week 12, Friday morning Canine Surgery 4: Thoracotomy This very long post is an important moment in my career and it is here in its entirety. It is something I will never forget. This terminal surgery I had to be anaesthetist and the prac was thoracotomy. As such, I had the hardest job of all. This was also the last of the 3 terminal surgery pracs that I will ever do. In these pracs, the animals will not wake up from the anaesthetic and are euthanased while unconscious. Our dog was almost certainly the result of a breeder’s cull, as there appeared to be quite a few of the same. I did the pre-anaesthetic exam and then set up the pre-medication – a heavy dose of sedative (Acepromazine for you SW, if you’re interested). I then put on a hairnet and mask, grabbed an anaesthetic machine and set it up (as the dog was over 10kg, I used an adult rebreathing circuit). I had made sure the night before that I was super-organised so I knew everything that needed to be done and it all went smoothly – machines all set up and checked for leaks, all gasses, fluids and drugs checked and made up, etc. My fellow surgical team members then entered the operating theatre. They placed the dog on the table. As they did so our ‘assistant surgeon’ exclaimed. She could feel the buzz of the heartbeat through the chest wall. I listened – sure enough, a Grade 4 heart murmur. The heart was incredibly loud, especially now in the quiet of the theatre. Each pulse of the heart could be felt, physically, as a gurgling gush when I placed my hand on her chest. I had to begin the dog’s anaesthesia as well as control fluids. I shaved her foreleg, cleaned it, then placed a catheter into the vein. So then we were ready – a series of events I’m sure will become second nature to me someday, one after the other. I injected the induction agent (Thiopental) and watched the dog go unconscious. That dose is limited so I had to move fast, drawing the dog’s tongue out and using a laryngoscope to help me see, I placed an endotracheal tube into the trachea. I squeezed on the rebreathing bag, inflating the ETT’s cuff until I was sure there were no leaks. I then connected the ET tube to the anaesthetic machine, turned on the oxygen, turned on the anaesthetic vaporiser (Isoflurane) and watched the dog, making sure she was staying deeply unconscious. I connected fluids to the catheter. I then inserted a probe into the oesophagus, connecting it to stethoscope earpieces, so I could hear loud and clear the sound of her heart. I kept those in my ears for the entire prac. Maintaining her on the anaesthetic, the surgeons got to work preparing her for surgery including shaving and scrubbing. My job was to look after the patient (yes, that is how we all thought of her, even though this was a terminal situation). There are different indicators of anaesthetic depth that must be checked constantly – including eye position, jaw tone, palpebral reflexes (blinking) and withdrawal reflexes (reacting to a painful stimulus), as well as cardinal signs such as heart rate, pulse strength and respiratory rate. I had to do that check every 5 minutes. The gush of her defective heart was in my ears, a constant buzz in the back of my mind. The surgeons were then ready. The head surgeon had scrubbed and gowned, and now draped the dog. I kept my eyes on the signs, listening and checking for any hint of a change as the surgeons began their thoracotomy. A thoracotomy means opening the chest to observe the heart and lungs. It can be done as an exploratory tool when ultrasound and x-rays have not told us anything, or to do surgery on the heart or lungs such as remove cancer. I then had a difficult task to do. Breathing relies on the pressure difference between chest and lungs. When the chest cavity is exposed, that pressure difference disappears and breathing cannot occur. My job was to press on the rebreathing bag, pushing air into the lungs and acting as a ventilator. In essence, I had to be her lungs. There is a certain pattern to breathing – inhale, exhale, pause, repeat. I had to do this constantly for about, oh, half an hour. I had to inflate it at a certain pressure too – too much and I would damage the lungs, not enough and she wouldn’t get enough oxygen. At the same time, I had to listen to and record the heart and respiratory rate (which meant I had to count my own rhythm of squeeze, pause, pause, pause, squeeze…). Getting a heart rate (ie counting how many beats within a certain time then multiplying it to get beats per minute), numbers floating around in your head while trying to maintain a steady rhythm, it is not easy! In addition, I had to keep checking anaesthetic depth by looking at the eyes, eyelids and jaw tone. And of course watch the surgery too as that was part of my learning experience. Another factor is that the rebreathing bag fills at a certain rate so I had to keep opening/closing valves to make sure the thing didn’t fill too much (but it still had to be filled adequately). Finally, what made it really hard was that I had to stop inflating the lungs whenever the head surgeon wanted me to, because she was using the scalpel or needle and didn’t want to have inflated lungs in her way. Between the constant checking, counting and all those other factors I was completely overawed. Right there, I saw her heart pulsing away. A living, beating heart, I was staring at it. I cannot get over that fact and indeed it was all the talk for weeks to come. I think we were all affected in the same way by the experience. The surgeons were actually holding it in their hands, and I got to feel the gush of turbulence through it. As I stared at the pulsing heart, and the salmon-pink lungs bulged with each squeeze of my hand, it dawned on me. I was the one keeping the dog alive. With the power of my hand, I was keeping this beautiful living creature breathing and functioning. With that realisation came a powerful knowledge of the fragility of life. It just really hit me, the responsibility I had right then, and for the rest of my life: to be responsible for lives, to save and to take them. As for this dog, she had a massive pulmonic stenosis. The major blood vessel was constricted at the point where the blood was supposed to be flowing to the lungs. When blood did get past that point it shot out, causing turbulence and what we had heard and felt externally as that gurgling buzz. The part of the pulmonic artery after the constriction was massively dilated. The heart itself was abnormally large. The surgeons closed the chest, tied a drain in place and finished the surgery. The dog resumed her own breathing and all was done well within the allocated time. We had each performed our roles well, and we had all learnt a lot from it – more than just how to perform surgery. The real surgeons came around with a tube of green (Lethibarb) to end these animals’ lives. They made sure I was still wearing the stethoscope as the agent was injected. I listened as the heart stopped, instantly, and that gentle throb in my ears was no more.

Thanks all, it was quite an experience, I learnt heaps. The first x-ray is indeed of an echidna. I like that you can see his spines. The second x-ray is of a kite which is a bird of prey.

Yeah Sailorwolf, the Robert-Jones is pretty incredible. It's almost comical seeing the thing. We've been shown one on horses too. I do have a picture of one of those when the demonstrator was using a client's dog that needed it, but as you picked up I'm not allowed to show it. You are right, the uni did recently send around a very strict email telling us we weren't even allowed to talk about clients, their patients, or post pictures of them (this is especially important in second semester when we are in the hospital for real). In this thread I hope I managed to avoid mentioning real patients, and stopped it when the email was sent. The posts from way back (not in this thread) I probably talked about them a bit but I can't edit those anymore. You might notice I don't post as many photos as I used to, and they are of my friends, and teaching animals not patients. But thank you for reminding me, I do slip up sometimes and forget how much detail I am getting into. I guess it's true of any photo being placed on the internet, you must get permission from all the people in the photo before you post it.

Hi Zebra, I asked that myself when I was first taught to use it. Used properly it should not produce any pain at all. If it does it is very brief. The upper lip is very sensitive. The twitch is designed to stimulate the natural response to strong pressure (almost 'pain') by releasing a powerful wave of endorphins (opioids) from the brain, which stimulates euphoria and inhibits the sensation of pain. They might feel a bit sore afterwards but the theory is that by the time the feeling in their lip returns there is no sharp pain sensation. Of course that doesn't mean that twitches are always used properly. Here is its wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_%28device%29

Week 12 Ah, week 12, otherwise known as Annual Fish Week. Fish Week is a week where all subjects come together and bring us the glory of life as an aquavet. Monday: Equine 12 Morning off. In the afternoon we had an equine prac class, where basically all we did was pass a stomach tube. Our horse was really jumpy and would not let us put a twitch on her, in the end the head horse lecturer (who is renowned for being absolutely-no-nonsense and terrifying, to horses and students alike) had to do it for us. It’s an interesting sensation passing the tube. First you dunk it in lube, then approach the (somewhat displeased) horse who is well restrained. The stomach tube goes up the nose and they really resent that (although our horse was completely still for that! Imagine having a pencil sized tube stuck into your nostril. It was just the twitch she didn’t like). The tube goes into the nostril to the pharynx (back of the throat), then you kind of have to get a feel for getting the tube into the oesophagus and not the trachea. To figure out which hole you’ve gone down, you blow into the tube (to see if it’s kinked) then suck on it. You can’t suck back in the oesophagus whereas you can in the trachea. We also took this time to practice some of our past skills that would be examined in the coming weeks, such as picking up feet and identifying areas for nerve blocks, joint taps and the like. Tuesday: Reproduction 7. Otherwise known as Examination of the Male Reproductive System. We did breeding examinations on rams (I’ll not go into detail here). We watched an examination on Alex the big Angus bull who was on campus that day. Finally we watched Lucky, our demo miniature pony, as demonstrators did collections and the like while a female miniature pony looked rather confused. Wednesday: CMS: External coaptation This was quite a fun prac. We learnt about the different techniques and materials for bandaging limbs. This included soft padding, plaster and the neat stuff that goes rock hard after it cools. We used either pool noodles or each others’ arms, and used the mechanical saw to take it off. He's crashing! Give me some adrenaline, stat! My lovely Robert-Jones bandage. Aka giant cotton tip (which we later dubbed "The Face Swab") Fun with Plaster casts Then getting the darn thing off. What can I say, occasionally we manage to have fun at Vet School. Thursday: AHM 3.3 Another rather boring computer-assisted earning exercise, this time about genetics. (Mostly maths and using Excel). Friday: Morning: Canine Surgery 4 My post on this became so large, and is so important to me, that I decided it deserved a post of its own. It will appear after this post. It details another day where we walked out of the operating theatre sobered and with a little more wisdom about life and our place in the world. Afternoon: Aquatic animals Anyone ever intubated a fish? Until that day, I didn’t even know it was possible. Okay, so for being fish week there wasn’t a great deal, prac-wise, on fish, but I assure you the lectures, which I don’t talk about here, did feature them. This prac was in two parts. Part 1: Production fish: autopsy. There were about ten big fat Rainbow trout for post mortem. Fish anatomy is pretty fascinating. We were cutting off beautiful orange fillets. I was a little grossed out by the smell – it was making me hungry. Ick. Part 2: Domestic fish: clinical exam, anaesthesia and surgery. You heard me. It’s seems odd at first to have so much done for a fish considering the (quickly changing) view of fish being less than mammals and birds. There are also plenty of incredibly expensive fish out there, like those couple-hundred-dollar koi, so people do have surgery done on their fish. First we did clinical techniques like gill biopsy and skin scraping, looking at them under the microscope for parasites. We then learnt how to do anaesthesia – there is a tank of clean oxygenated water and an induction tank with the anaesthetic agent. The fish is popped into the latter tank. Within about ten minutes it goes floppy and doesn’t react to stimuli. The fish is then placed into the ‘surgery table’. It is irrigated with water from the induction tank. A tube is placed into the fish’s mouth across the gills, so drugged water flows across them. To wake the fish up it is placed in the oxygenated tank. I thought that was pretty cool :glare: More to follow soon.

How quickly those two weeks went! I can’t believe I’m back already. And yet I’m utterly exhausted too. I have been working at Colac Veterinary Clinic in the Otways region of Victoria, which is mainly a dairy cattle region. I went with my good friend and fellow vet student Joanne, so we took turns at either going out on call with the vets or spending time in the clinic. We lived in a tiny little cabin right next to Lake Colac. It would have been scenic had it not been the middle of winter, and one of the coldest they’ve had in years. The wind would blow straight across the water making it three times colder where we were than on the other side of the campsite. Some nights the cabin would shake violently and the rain would come sideways, making it seem like Lake Colac was goiing to engulf us. And did I mention it was cold? The vets were all really friendly and I learnt heaps from them. Going out on call was so cool. The way they have their phone system hooked up to their cars sometimes made me feel like I was in a police car. They would get called out to different farms and new cases would crop up so they get sent there. We travelled great distances and sometimes I’d spend the entire day on the road. Despite the pouring rain and freezing wind, it was beautiful countryside, with green grassy hills and cows everywhere. Yet sometimes we would come suddenly into true native forest with eucalypts. I could imagine it had been untouched by humans and their conversion of native scenery into pastures and farms. Most times a haze of mist coated the hills and every now and then a moment of beautiful warm golden sun would peak through. I could pretend I was in a whole other country like Scotland and I imagined it looked very much like the United Kingdom. You can’t tell I’m a city girl, can you? If you had to ask me to describe what I learnt about on my two weeks I’d say this: LDA’s. LDA stands for Left Displaced Abomasum (the abomasum being the true stomach of cows). It is normally on the right. When it gets displaced it slips under the rumen (the big fermenting vat stomach) and ends up on the left. This makes them slowly get sick. We saw so many of them it started to become kind of boring at the end. To find it, you tap on the cow’s ribs while listening with a stethoscope, it makes an extremely distinctive ‘ping’ noise like bouncing an over-inflated basketball. To fix it, you can roll the cow (50% success) or intervene surgically (90%). Have you ever seen a cow up close? Imagine trying to roll that giant creature over! I learnt pretty well how to do it though, impossible as it seems at first. You tie her up in a certain way and pull to get her down on her side. Then with the help of at least another person, roll her onto her back, rock her from side to side for a bit then roll her onto her other side. I saw three LDA surgeries, which involves local anaesthesia (SW: if you’re curious, it was a line block Lignocaine at the left paralumbar fossa) then opening the cow’s side, sticking your arm in, finding the abomasum. A few sutures are placed through the omentum (attached to the abomasum), then through the ventral midline of the cow, effectively tying the stomach to the bottom of the cow. Absolutely fascinating stuff to watch and help with. Other things I saw, there are way too many to mention them all. Some of them were cows with mastitis, causing them to produce gross looking milk. There were plenty of lame cows. The vet has to get the cow in the crush and make a pulley system out of ropes to get the cow to lift her foot. Dairy cows especially get lame since they are walking in wet mud which softens their feet, then walking on concrete and rocks every day which damages them. I also did lots of pregnancy diagnosis which is done per rectum. There were also horses and sheep, too many for me to describe. Another major feature of my time there was calving. It is calving season for dairy cattle. Due to the intense nature of dairy production they often have problems giving birth and require assistance. I saw many of them with the vet, and got to help, using pulleys and chains to help extract the calf. In fact, on my first day I saw three, well into the night (I went on call after hours with one of the vets). Struggling to deliver calves in the pouring rain and pitch dark but for the car headlights and standing ankle deep in mud, it’s quite an experience, I can tell you that. On my second day, the vet had two cases to do: A bull and an early calving (which means the calf was already dead) He went to go attend the lame bull, and he handed me the bucket with chains and told me go for it. So I did my first unattended calving. Although the calf was already dead, I was pretty amazed by the whole thing, just getting to do it on my own! I was glad I’d had the experience the night before though so I knew what to do. There are things vet school doesn’t’ teach you though, like how darn slippery it is in there! I was always pleased to come back to the clinic to the Lounge which was kept deliciously warm by a gas heater. On our ‘off’ times, and some afternoons when it was quiet, Jo and I would browse through their library, learning, taking notes and photocopying. And don’t tell anyone, that last day we were so exhausted we both fell asleep in that lovely little room. Though the large animals and being on call was exciting, that isn’t to say that time in the clinic was boring. There were plenty of cases to follow and help with. That is one (of many) things I love about being a vet: the problem solving. You are presented with pieces of the puzzle and have to work out how to solve it. So even the ‘mundane’ cases were useful and interesting. I also got to see alpaca medicine in action. I saw plenty of surgery, and got scrubbed in for a few to help out. I helped take many x-rays. I placed catheters, intubated, gave injections and expressed bladders. These things are ‘mundane’ for a vet and yet I had never done the before, the little things like how to hold things in while the animal is moving is not something you can be taught in writing. I also killed my first animal as a vet. It was a stray cat, stuffed with contagious cat flu, absolutely reeking of urine, and looking so sick and miserable I felt a tiny bit less horrible when I ended his life. In the weekend between Jo and I travelled to Queenscliff and took the ferry across Port Phillip Bay to Sorrento for a 21st. I feel like I’ve travelled the world in these past two weeks – Colac and the Otways, Mortlake, Winchelsea, Queenscliff, Sorrento, Teesdale, Point Lincoln, Geelong and back home to Werribee. I was happy to get home and crawl into my warm bed, telling everyone I was not moving from this location for a good while! I’m so glad to be home and see my family and fids. But I had an amazing trip, I learnt so much in just two weeks. Time for a good long rest now before Bacchus Marsh (another mixed practice) and then back to uni. It’s nice to be back :glare: Now for some pics. Lake Colac, which by the end of the trip I had dubbed "The Lake at the End of the World" (anyone else read that book?) Crossing on the Ferry, looking back at Queenscliff Fun with fizzers at midnight on a beach in Sorrento Look what we found in the X-ray cabinet And another Lake Colac again Geelong Point Lincoln

I am so relieved you are getting him to a vet Michelle, is it an avian vet? I too am worried about infection. He needs the wound cleaned, a shot of antibiotics and painkillers too. They should also check if it is broken. It might be the light but it also looks dark and swollen to me. Poor little guy. Best of luck, please keep us updated.

Thanks to all, your support means a lot to me. I'm not pleased with my last exam, actually I was very unimpressed with the surgeon who didn't look me in the eye even once during the whole thing, read off his laptop while I was spearking, and yelled at me when I didn't draw the shape of the incision right from his directions across the room. How am I supposed to draw a semicircle on the triangular shaped wound if what I get is "draw it from the corner, no the other corner, now extend it, no you're going the wrong way, go back, no, the other corner, go along the triangle, no, start from your first corner, and your semicircle is still wrong and make it bigger, no the triangle not the semicircle." Argh, just come over and draw the thing, and then I'll answer your question! The radiologist, all she wanted from me was two words, but I didn't know that. She asked me how to stop motion blur and I got the most obvious one. She was looking for more and I had no idea what she wanted so I just said I didn't know. (Usually, they go to a different topic when you say that, to give you a chance to talk about something you actually do know). She asked me something else, and I talked for ages with her giving me prompts until I said what she was looking for in the original question! She was like, "That's it!" And I was "Huh? You mean I just talked for five minutes and we were still on the same question?" I felt like an idiot because she probably thought I was babbling and didn't understand that one simple thing. Wasted so much time because both the examiners couldn't make their questions clear! I had no idea what I was being asked. Grr, is what is say to that, and I'm going to forget about the entire last four weeks of my life now, I like blissful denial. Anyhow, I know that those bad feelings are there, and I know that many people get it, it's frustrating because that doesn't seem to help me with the moment. But I know that it goes away, so I hang on until the end, which brings on the helplessness. But I think having the knowledge that it exists is important. I used to think I was alone in having those feelings, but now I know better. I will be gone now as you see from my announcement in another thread. I'll keep writing while I'm away and post them here, probably in a few big chunks when I can. Catch you soon!

Brilliant photos! Close, sharp and clear, the colours are vivid and the textures really show. They're all great! Your birds are all so gorgeous, I love them all

Having finished all my exams (possibly the worst month of my life!) it's now 'winter holidays' but no rest for me! I'm headed west to Colac, to work at a veterinary clinic. It is a mixed practice and I'll be there for two weeks. It is the middle of calving season for dairy cows so there should be some interesting cases. When I come back I'll be going to another mixed practice, with a focus on beef cows and sheep, but it's close enough to be able to stay at home. On the way up I'll be visiting an old friend of mine who breeds poultry and Samoyed dogs among other things (budgies incldued) on his massive farm. My five chickens I got from him. It will be good to see them all again. Pretty much finished packing, I'm one of those people can never fully 'pack' the night before, I leave it until the last minute because it makes more sense spatially to me to put everything in the car... and it's also 1am. As always my heart aches at leaving behind my dearest Milly and Squee, my parents will take care of them but I still worry so much. They will be getting heaps of cuddles and a feast in the morning before I go. I'll miss them so much And of course this place, there won't be internet where I'm going (unless I can sneak in at work... hehe). I'll miss you all while I'm gone, and in my breaks I'll finish writing for my journal and the various articles for the FAQ's and my biology thread. Expect lots of stories and photos when I return! Catch you later, Chrysocome

Good on you AV, I'm still disgusted at what those kids did, but just so glad that she came to you!

This has probably been posted here before, it's certainly made its way around the internet. But I don't think it possible to see this one too many times! I just had to share, in case anyone hadn't seen it, it's so close to my heart right now. It's this little animation about a kiwi. Enjoy.

Well my last exam is today, actually I'm one of the last to have my oral exam. It's not fun. I've hit a limit where I just can't cram anything new so I'm basically waiting around with the guilt associated with "I should be studying, why aren't I studying? I'll regret it later if I don't." Really nasty feeling of helplessness. I just want it to be over. Add it to the awful imposter syndrome, which most vet students and sometimes vets get, especially around exams, it's not nice. You get these nagging thoughts like "Why on earth am I here? I don't deserve to be here. I'm not smart enough. I'm such a fraud. Everyone thinks I'm smart but I just faked and fluked my way here. I have no idea what I'm doing. Everyone will be disappointed when I fail. I've wasted five years and thousands of dollars." It intensifies around exams and when you see even the smartest and most confident people around you break down - and I mean burst into tears - it doesn't do any good for your self esteem when you consider yourself to be 'average' among these high achievers. And you can't really talk to anyone about it - outsiders to the profession often think you're exaggerating over something trivial and being arrogant, and it upsets your colleagues because they have the same feeling and don't want to let it out just yet, not when there's so much to do. But it will all be over soon. I've had some diasasters, I have no idea how it all went, we'll just have to wait and see. The sucky thing is I'll have to pack tomorrow and leave early Sunday morning to go work on farms. No rest for me! Well, off to uni for some more procrastinating now.

Flying into walls might not be due to eye problems. I know my budgies fly into walls when they got exhausted, which is why I panic when they fly in circles for no reason and don't try to find a place to land. And well, they are a little tubbier than they used to be so it drags them down and makes it harder for them to fly, they also get tired faster. Is this a possibility? I agree that a vet check is best, clipping will stop him flying into walls but it won't fix some kind of underlying problem, like say for example high blood pressure damaging the fine veins in the eye (I don't know if this happens in budgies, I'm just using it as an example).

Chlamydia = Chlamydophila = Psittacosis. I'm curious, did she warn you about it being zoonotic? Unless it's some other bird chlamydia, I don't know too much about them. The green poo thing is true though. It should clear up with a course of doxycycline I believe. Urates going green - that's to do with bilirubin and biliverdin, kind of equivalent to jaundice in other animals. The PU/PD and leg favouring makes me think kidney too. I hope everything goes well, please keep us updated. If you can, tell us about the tests and results, I like to hear and learn about them :budgiedance:

Oh no, sorry to hear that. PU/PD (around here we pronounce it poop'd. Yes, we are mature) can be kidney, liver, diabetes or even psychogenic among other things. But I hope it's something simple. Good luck!

So was I. But mine has also seen tapeworm, roundworm, rat, dog, cat, horse and the other domestic animals... some of which had been dead for several days, most were killed by drug overdose and badly diseased... So I kind of got a bad image when I read MB's post! I disagree with "nature will fix it". Domesticated animals can ruin the natural bloodlines by slow dilution. So nature takes out the ones that won't survive well in one or two generations. But there are always those sneaky recessive genes, and quantitative genes that add up over time. Nature has to start again when you release these genes into the gene pool. I do agree that you need a certain number before that happens so wild budgies won't be greatly affected. But I still think it is a bad idea. Yes... but captive breeding takes into account the effects of inbreeding deprression and genetic drift so they try to renew from the wild population if they can. When they can't they worry heaps about it. Budgies have been selected on physical traits not survival traits for years and years moving them towards homozygosity. The decreased variation can be disastrous in a small population.