Llama Rescue Day

I took a day off from Imaging on Thursday to go with about 20 other Cornell vet students out to the Northeast Llama Rescue in Middleburgh, NY (in Schoharie county, west of the Albany area, so...far away) to help with some basic care of 100 llamas that had been rescued as part of an animal welfare seizure in Montana.  Over 600 llamas had been rescued from the Montana farm, and 100 of them were shipped out to Wes Laraway at Red Maple Farm, home of the Northeast Llama Rescue.  All 100 were males, and they were all supposed to be castrated (although we found 6 that weren't...more on that in a bit), so that should have made our jobs a little easier--no pregnancy checks, at least!

Sarrah, John, and me wrangling llamas

All the llamas were rounded up in the barn when we got there, and after a quick tour of the farm (which also houses rescued and rehabilitating wildlife as the NY Wildlife Rescue Center, and rescued farm animals as Barnyard Sancuary), we got down to business.  We teamed up and wrangled the llamas into pens, gave them somewhat cursory physical exams, and did routine vaccines, microchipping, and some fecal sampling.  The range that we saw in terms of their overall condition and well being was really broad--from some chubby, cheeky guys to sadly emaciated boys trailing matted fiber almost down to the ground.  There were also a few that turned out to not have been castrated, so we got to do standing castrations on those--one student per testicle!

LlamaFACE

Some of the llamas were super friendly and even liked having their faces scratched and petted, confirming my suspicions that llamas, while not as adorable as alpacas, have generally superior personalities.  And that we need one for our backyard.

The operation at Red Maple Farm was really interesting and the setting was beautiful...it was a little bit like the farm of folklore with one of every animal you can imagine--even peacocks and bobcats!  Wes has a website for all of his rescues, where you can take a look at some of his animals, including the rescued llamas and some pictures of our day on the farm: http://redmaplefarm.net/

Radiation Vacation??

After nearly two weeks of working with the radiologists on the imaging service, I honestly don't think the rotation deserves it's reputation--radiation vacation, radiholiday--whatever your preferred auspicious/inauspicious moniker. Sure, we only worked 8 am - 5 pm, which by the sound of it is by FAR fewer hours than some services, but it was more like a Make-Your-Own-Rotation than a holiday. Starting the day with an hour and a half of "Resident Rounds" every morning, we were usually free to watch and learn from the techs until we started "Student Rounds" in the afternoon. All the time in between is largely unsupervised, meaning that you can do anything from radiograph your dog, to watch a CT scan on an eagle, to check your email and study for boards. I suppose the amount of freedom that we're given on this rotation makes it prime for slacking, but it's also the only time that we're given explicit instruction in how to create a radiograph. Especially for someone like me who hasn't worked in private practice or had experience as a vet tech, the opportunity to learn from the techs here not only how to position an animal for different images, but also all the different settings, tips, and tricks that produce at least an average radiograph (let's not aim too high for the first try), is truly invaluable.

We do LOTS of rounds on Imaging. Resident rounds--appropriately titled--are when the residents present the images from the cases that were seen the previous day and overnight. They project the images--usually radiographs, but from time to time still images from an ultrasound, MRI, CT scan, or scintigraphy--on a big screen, and describe the findings and conclusions from those findings. Some common--and least arguement-inducing--reasons we'll use radiographs are to look for signs of metastasis in the lungs, or pre- and post-op images of orthopedic surgeries. We also have student rounds in the afternoons, in which we look at images from cases archived for teaching, and have to go through what we see and what we think that means. While we have instruction during Block 5 on interpreting radiographs, having rounds like this every day helps cement in the things we learned then, but also helps me at least see things that I hadn't seen before. I had a pretty good idea of what radiologists mean when they say they see an airspace or airway pattern in the lungs, but now I've seen--and had to point out with a laser pointer--a bunch of different examples. And hey, practice makes perfect, right?

Imagine Imaging

I finished derm last week on a pretty calm note, moving away from allergies and atopy into the realm of ear infections (of course, brought on by allergies or atopy...) and autoimmune disorders like pemphigus. I spent most of one day trying to figure out the difference between "puppy strangles," a derm problem in dogs, and regular-type "strangles," which is an infection seen in the lymph nodes of young horses. Of course once I finally got around to figuring out puppy strangles, and that we don't really know what causes it but that it's definitely not the same infection as in horses, I discovered that the dog I was working with didn't actually even have puppy strangles. Nice. But I guess that's the educational part of being on clinics...now that I've spent all this time trying to diagnose puppy strangles, at least I should be able to recognize it if (/when?) I see it.

On Monday I started my second rotation, Imaging. This means mostly radiology (taking x-rays), but with a little bit of ultrasound, MRI, and CT thrown in for good measure. I was excited to see the differences between rotations, and how each service does things a bit differently (at least, that's what I assumed...). Again, there were 5 students on the rotation, though this time it was all third years, so I was hoping that there was someone who knew how to use UVIS (our confusing and notoriously bug-ridden computerized medical records system). We got a lot of instruction and practice interpreting radiographs (aka "x-rays," but if we call the actual images of bones and body parts that come up on film or the computer "x-rays" we get a lecture about how x-rays are actually the radiation that produces images, which are properly known as "radiographs." Phew.)--anyway, we got a lot of instruction in how to interpret these images during first and second year, but not a lot of info on how to actually produce the images. So, I was looking forward to two weeks of practicing taking radiographs of dogs and cats that came in for diagnostics.

Snowstorms and dandruff

This week started out auspiciously enough--with reports of feet of snow coming our way. And indeed, Tuesday morning I woke up to the prospect of digging my car out from under almost a foot of snow. We thought that our appointments might cancel for the day because of the inclement weather, but we only had one no-show. And a bunch of different consults from other services in the hospital.

We worked with Dr. Miller, one of the two Derm chiefs, last week, and this week we're working with Dr. Scott (the other chief) and Dr. Clark (the resident). It's interesting to see each doctor's approach to the same problems--allergies in dogs or ear infections--and also to how they communicate with their clients. I wonder what it's like for clients to have different students every time they come to Cornell, and then only see the doctor for a few minutes at a time sometimes.

I've started to get more comfortable with the computer system we use--UVIS--and all the paperwork and protocols we have to follow. I got to take my first ear swabs (exciting? no.) and make and stain slides, but other than that we don't do much in the way of "procedures" on derm. The doctors did a punch biopsy last week, and all the students (there are 5 of us on this rotation) got to help with the injections for an intradermal allergy test--there are 50 injections to give so I don't think anyone was super keen on doing all of them!

There's more snow forecasted for today, but right now it's looking clear and cold, with not a flake in the sky. Hopefully the weather holds for the rest of the week so that I can make the drive to Vermont to go skiing on Friday with no problems!