Trust me, I'm (going to be) a Vet

Cell Mediated Irony?

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:21:00 +0000

I have a Microbiology Exam tommorow and i have contracted Orthomyxovirus!!!!!!! Well, i can only guess i have the flu from the feeling-like- im-on-my-death-bed and the-world-is-freezing-today symptoms. ARGH!!! DAMN YOU MICROBES!!! wgr8yh2t87syej278ejy829yjem912~!!!! When will stuvac/exams end?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Cold and Wet

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:33:00 +0000

Stuvac this week has been rather dismal. Poor Matisse. My parents still wont let him sleep in the laundry. I think i need to get him one of those swing-pet-beds like this one:

Bits of cardboard on concrete cant be too fun.

Just not quite Matisse's style..

I think this one is pushing it...

Peachface

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 09:53:00 +0000

Birdie here is a 17 year old (yes, 17!!!!) Green Peachface who is quite old-he's losing feathers where he cant reach, so hes not feather picking

I googled peachfaces up and they apprently are from the Arizona Desert! How cute is this photo!

Its nearing to the end of semester, can you tell?

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Tue, 29 May 2007 10:55:00 +0000

Old man

Volleys

Lice

Ticks

Wildlife Health Centre Open Day

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:52:00 +0000

Beardies

Green Tree Frogs (Ive forgotten what the speckled one is, i think its a "Special Green Tree frog" or something similar)

Bad hair day?

Rosella X

Princess Parrot

Eclectus

Whatcha looking at?

Peepo

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:59:00 +0000

Im sure that this possum wasnt at all interested in what i was doing
inside the room he was peering into.. damn pathology

1 vs 100

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:29:00 +0000

Spirometra erinacei

Dipylidum caninum

Anoplocephala perfoliata

vs.

Bundeena

Verandah out the front...

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:24:00 +0000

Places id rather be than at uni..... (which starts tommorow)

Camden Park Chicken Farm #2

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:46:00 +0000

Its been a long while since i was on this propety with J. It was a last minute decision to squeeze in one more prac before uni starts and seeing as though poultry is for two days, i couldnt pass off the opportunity. Extra bonus points as it was near my house!

Camden Park Chicken farm # 2 is a propety based in Camden on the Elizabeth Macarthur Agriculture Institue. F tells us that the direct decendents of the original John and Elizabeth Macarthur, where John was the "Father of the Australian Wool Industry", lived in the mansion that we drove past.

H and F were very warming to us. Their dogs, Glennis and Lulu were lovely too of course. The days were short as the chickens were only 3/4 weeks old. There wasnt much to do except checking waters, feed hoppers and signs of "ill thrift" in the chicks. I took a fair amount of Lulu portraits because she just sat still. Shes the calmest Jack Russel ive ever met! Kinda strange really. Shes only a year old and thinks shes a working dog. I wouldnt mind having a dog like her-but then again i wouldnt mind having all the dogs ive met :p

Glennis - Shes pretty old and has some dingo in her!

On the quad bike to "The pit" with Lulu protecting us from those drasted dairy cows that grazed along the way. It had just rained two days before hence the greenery

Lots of chickens!

Lulu herding chickens better than two vet students put together

"Whatcha looking at?"

One of my favourite shots!

Flat out

Its a tough job being cute...

Being a dog - My other favourite one!

Leppington Pastoral Company

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:37:00 +0000

The week between Mulawa and Leppington Pastoral i took off. Strangely, lots of things seemed to pop up that week.

We didnt have the 7am start at the dairy which was good (4am also for that matter), plus M and I dont live far away. The propety itself is huge! Apprently it being the largest dairy in the Southern Hemisiphere, where there is about 2,000 cows milked 24 hours a day. Calving occurs constantly where we would pick up anything from 7-20 calves per day. It was good the dairy prac and i must say it went alot faster than the horse prac-i guess because we were *gasp* having fun.

We did alot of AI and herd health/reproduction monitoring and not much milking. The golf buggy was used for N's AI rounds. We got to drive it through the all-terrain of cow-pat and from pen to pen. I bet you anything that our Golf Buggy does more 4WD/Off roading than any other Cabramatta-4WD, and it doesnt bust your pocket in fuel costs. One battery charge lasts you 4/5 days and gives you speeds of up to 40kmph (So N says).

Oh what?!

Out of all the heifers, i particulalry noticed one:

The vet came in to attend to some cows. A fair amount of them had LHS Displaced Abomasum. The corrective measure for this is to suture the abomasum securely on the LHS and then pass it down on the RHS above the milk vein via the threads passed through on the RHS. Of course you got the occaisional mole-cow and everytime you went to do something it would thrash around. We gave a fair few injections as well which was good. The vet, B, was terrific bloke and taught us alot.

We saw some dystocia including a calf coming out in non-diving position but in the position below on the top LHS. Correction just invovled us simply manouvering the leg forward. They said they dont get too many other strange ones depicted, well at least usually by then the calf would be in great condition because of the prolonged and intense labour.

Calvings are very interesting to watch and listen to. I think my photos are a bit too graphic to put on the internet. I guess you can use your imagination. But here is what happens after calving (not following a particular calf) :D

While M and I were watching a calving, this cow in the same pen gave me the "Whatcha Looking At" expression.

The calf shed is pretty much inaccessible by foot so we had to be driven there. We spent a morning there and we didnt realise we were going to be there until lunch. It was pretty hot too and R and D said theyd pick us up later but didnt! We had to be driven back to the dairy by L. We hand fed the calves, gave them their injections and made sure they got their feed. Each pen had their own austomatic feeder where the calf goes into the feeding stall and its ear tag is picked up. The computer checks to see if its had its quota of milk for the day and if it hasnt, then the hatch opens up for it to feed. If it has, the hatch remains closed.

The calves are so funny, they suck your fingers! I saw the physio the week before for a basketball injury and i figured, hey, i dont need to pay to see him anymore, i can just get a calf to massage them for me =p

The cats got to be fed too. Theres a whole bunch of them running around drinking and sleeping:

I didnt drink it! I SWEAR!

Lets not forget a muzzle shot eh?

Mulawa, Berowra

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Its been almost a week since I've left for Mulawa but the week off has been certainly filled with catching up sleep from 5:50 am wake-ups.
Mulawa is an arab horse stud situated in Berilee, Berowra. M and i went for our 5 day prac to which the day started at 7 am and finishing at 4pm. The predominanlty to halter showing but also have an eventing team, do studwork, agist, race horses, riding and your normal pony club horses. The team who work there were dedicated and were absolutely lovely to us.
Each morning/afternoon, we would negotiate the windy road through Berowra to meet the Ferry. Ive never been on a car ferry before so it was rather novelty at first. I realised felt sick if i didnt look out the side rather than forward. M was fine.

We didnt get any wet weather until Wednesday

The ferry was rather annoying. My car is rather low, and depending on the tides, the off ramp would be steep (hence having a sharper dip) or not. Eventually i got better at negotiating the incline but i did suffer a good two scrapes =/

The horse stud here predominantly trains Arabs. They do have the occaisional TB and SB as surrogates.

Halter training

Nosey horses

We, as students, do the usual daily job of cleaning and washing of quarters and equipment and feeding. That damn grassy hay got to me. At this rate, i'll probably be one of those vets who live on anti-histamines. Again, M was fine but claims that she has a lagging immune response.

In addition to this, the vet came pretty much every day to do Semen collection and storage, treated a foot abcess, embryo flushing, pregnancy and follicular testing, AI and foal conformational defects. He also brought along his dog Lily. She had to be tied up when we did semen collection-she goes nuts for some reason. Otherwise, she is a very lovely dog. Ive never seen a BC before with such a light coat.

One of the riders brings Bruno along to watch. Hes a Pug X Jack Russel. Hes funny looking but very sweet.

We got to see how bit the propety was and it was HUGE. It goes all the way down to the river where we crossed with the ferry and across into the national park for many kilometres. Mind you this is the propety on other side of the road where we were based which is also theirs.

On the back of the Gator in which M got to drive

I did get scared when i had to lead a particular horse who was pushing me up against the fence/thrashing/being difficult. One of the workers, M, ended up havign to lead two horses instead, and i just wrode on the gator. Goes to show you again (go back to Orange Horse Post) that horses, despite being around people all the time, are dangerous and unpredictable.

But you know, you will get quite often a nice one like this one who will let you groom it and take its portrait.

Or let you scratch it all day.
You forget all the bad things and remember why you love them in the first place =)

Allain's Piggery, Yass

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:40:00 +0000

I came home from Yass yesterday for Animal Husbandry Placement, where it is about 2.5 hours drive from my place and about 1/2 and hour from Canberra. A and i went to Allain's Piggery in Blakney Creek. We left Sydney on Sunday with the temperature at high 30s to mid 40s at about 2pm. We arrived at Goulburn (about halfway) to be greeted with nice 25 degree coolness. When we got to Yass it was about 25 degrees too. I called T later that night at about 5pm and he told me in Sydney it was still mid-high 30s. We were hoping it wasnt going to get cold as we didnt pack a suitcase suited for it.
We stopped by the Big Merino and had a look around.

You can actually go in and climb up to the eyes of the ram. On the way up, it was a wool history museum. You can feel the temperature rise 5 degrees as you go up each level. By the time you were are the top, we reached the temperature we left behind in Sydney.

View from the right eye

View from the left eye

It looked like it was going to rain on the way there. I think there was too much wishful thinking there-it blew straight past Yass.

Most of the ham spanking good times were spent with the pressure hose cleaning out pens and giving the pigs a cool down. We also did alot of feeding, saw matings, did AI, learned about management, moved pigs around and asked lots of questions.

This is Rupert, the fat pet sheep that hangs around the propety. He was hand reared hence is a big sook. He is usually found under the silos sticking his nose in and eating grains all day or found in doorways of the piggery looking out for someone to give him a pat on his head.

The main street in Yass isnt any different from that to Orange. Except that Orange has more main streets and lots more coming off it to residentials. Oh andtheres alot more shops.

Whatcha looking at?

Nothing like relaxing in the pool and watching the beautiful sunset-and to take out the smell from your hair

Overall, the prac was good. I dont know if i couldve spent another 2 days in the smell but if it wasnt for that then id be more than happy to stay for 2 more days to make the prac 5 days and to see how the farm is managed on a weekly roster. So i wouldve seen alot more if i stayed for Thursday and Friday-and smelt alot more too =/

Just Plain Sleepy

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:45:00 +0000

Just a few pictures i took of Matisse while spying on him from my window. This is what he gets up to all day:

Yes, he's sleeping here....

This was taken by M at a recent BBQ. I absolutely love it !

Wiser and Older

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 10:25:00 +0000

I went for a check up the other day for my wisdoms. I got them surgically removed on the 20th of December, which sucked because i was living on congee and was housebound for a week THROUGH CHRISTMAS. The last thing i remembered before waking up with the oxyygen mask was lying on the bed looking at the surgrical light. I asked the doctor whether or not i shifted across from the bed to the table myself and he excitingly claims yes. Anywhoo, studying a medical-related degree doesnt really help your situation. After watching many veterinary procedures, you just become uneasy and funny thoughts come in and out of your mind when you're about to go under for the first time. The IV catheter hurts alot. You get this cold wave when they pump the relaxants up your arm and across your neck-it feels very freaky. When i woke up the bottom half of my face was numb and I couldnt talk/laugh/smile. In recovery, when the other dental patients woke up, we tried to crack jokes to see if any of us could do the above. Obviuosly it was unsuccessful. I couldnt do any of the above until the next day.
What i am thankful of is i never experienced any pain. I only had pain when i opened my mouth too wide and i never touched the prescribed painkillers-an applause to the surgeon! Because the mouth is full of microflora, oral hygiene is vital post-op. One of the things Principles of Diseases/Work has taught me is Chlorhexidine is used for hand washing pre-surgery, but this time i learnt that it is also used as a mouthwash but the hard way. I guess you can tell it was horrible tasting right? Extremely i say.

Good riddance i say.

Shouldnt it be Snowy?

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:52:00 +0000

Heres evidence that i rode bareback.
I have enough trouble as it is riding with a saddle =/

TinTin! Tintin was a puppy from the RSPCA when S and D picked him up. Like all border collie Xs, hes a smart cookie! And of course VERY adorable and is pick-up-able! His tricks invovle running very fast and as you can see, he is anatomically adapted to be streamline and aerodynamically advantageous. He also sits when you have food. We had dinner outside and D threw mussel shells on the floor and Tintin proceeded to lick and eventually chew them. Of course this behaviour isnt allowed.

Hey, get that red light out of my face!

Xmas Cheer

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 02:01:00 +0000

Milo

Matisse This time last year- He doesnt have his weird winter coat
and he destroyed the antlers =/

Horses

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 02:59:00 +0000

The 5 days spent doing the course was rather good for basics. As i've probably mentioned before, the course is rather pricey. A few things such as riding and foal handling were taught to us and were emphasised and is just a build up of all the skills we got during our week at Camden at the end of first year. The horse unit itself is adjacent to the main CSU gates and has about 30 horses. During peak production (a decade or so ago) they had 120 working horses in which the students took care of. Because of course changes and university exchanges, alot has changed in terms of management and student enrolment/capacity. Rather sad. They have excellent support staff who are leaders in their industry where they have their own businesses external to teaching here. Its rather obvious they needed more staff.

In house cat

Each pair of students were allocated a horse to "take care of". B, T and I were in charge of the stud which involved numerous horses that resulted us always finishing last because we needed to be supervised.

I've never seen dog collars on horses before

We got to see preg testing. In the photo below you can just make out a ball small circle at the centre of it-thats the heart and yes, the miracle of life! After this we saw a caslick (http://en.mimi.hu/horse/caslick.html) to which i wont post pictures of

We saw alot of heat detection which should eventually lead to semen collection using Snowy (poor dude, never gets a chance) and variuos mares. Apprently he won Best Teaser at the Sydney Royal easter Show. Go figure.

Only for Bayo to do the job.

The Arena used to be an equipment shed, i mean ad BIG a
equipment shed before they turned it into this

We used it for Lunging and riding

Our horse, Arti goes for a spraying after having to put up with
4 students who dont know what theyre doing on the back of a horse

Foal handling was something new to us, nonetheless fun. The foals were lanky things and some of them were rather difficult. We all had a go with this guy. He was too easy so they put us on the alpha mare's foal. No photos there because it invovled us running around the yard numerous times, lots of struglling, foot stepping and kicking. It makes you appreciate that foals ARE NOT cuddly and cute as depicted below.

This is our second attempt at semen collection. The first time above wasnt so successful. Im glad someone is impressed because the demonstrators werent.

This is the first time i've seen flehmen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response) in real life. Its rather funny to hear. I couldnt get a good shot of it-maybe at next prac =/

The uni horses as anyone would gather, is used to having n00b students poking them and doing odd things that normal horses wouldnt. Below are two forms of restraints. Once we were showed how to put the restraints on, we had to try them out ourslves. V and I had to do the second restraint on a different horse and it just flipped. Literally. We got the ropes in the places where we wanted it but when it came to pulling the leg, he started to twitch but i managed to tie it in time before he lashed out. Scary stuff. Standing in a small roundhouse with 500kg thrashing around. All we could do was stand back as far as possible, and as i said the roundhouse is rather small, so this was rather hard. He ended up snapping the buckle-thing around his hind foot =/

The most amazing experience was swimming with the horses. Yes, we swam with them but not like how they depict in the movies. You lead the horse into the water and have to stay in front of them. Once they can no longer walk on the floor and start swimming, you place your feet and stand on their pectoral muscles so you are being pushed with their movement. Your face is literally under their head and if you were lucky enough to already be swimming in the dam with turd from previous horses, you would get a nice nasal shower from yours.
The difficult thing is trying to steer the horse. You're trying to keep your head up to breathe, so the natural reaction is to pull the bridle to keep you up, especially when the horse is wet your feet start to slip. If you pull the bridle down, you pull the horses head down = horse drowns you first then drowns all 500kg on top of you.

Classy - Boots and Boardies

View from the back of the ute to the dam

Me leading the horse in

Swimming with the horse - you can just make out my head in front of the horse

We found this littel dude on the banks of the dam. He wont make it =/

The were are odd few things we saw on a daily basis:

Stink beetles having sex everywhere

The toilets - which one do you go to?

The plants adjacent to the toilet that smelt like wet-dog

The course overall is excellent. I reccomend it to anyone who hasnt had enough horse exposure. The only thing bad i have to say about it is the price and lack of staff. Orange is a lovely country town and i see myself coming back at some point in the future working here on a temporary basis. I would like to thank and congratulate the staff for putting in a trumendous effort in running the course and having to put up with weird questions from clueless vet students.

Orange Flours

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 07:15:00 +0000

The second important thing about Orange is Roberts Bakery. Its been given the title of "Bakery of the Year for 05/05" by the NSW Baking Association and you can definitely smell/see/taste why. Theyve also won "Meat pie of the year" with a trophy cupboard stack full of awards from various shows. Sign me up to be a judge of any show! We went there twice before prac so we could load our tummies with bakery goodness. All the food items were of reasonable price with the meat pies at about $3/4 dollars and the sweets cabinet made you feel like a kid in a candy store. They have a sandwich bar to which you can buy your lunch, coffee facilities, normal savoury bread, birthday cakes, cookies etc. Its such a pitty we couldnt go every morning and try everything, but then again for the sake of our wallets and my hips, i'll wait till next time im around.

I think they need a bigger trophy cabinet

Breakfast Pastie - the most popular choice by us

Vanilla Slice and Cuppaccino

Bacon pie

Plain meat pie

Latte

Apple Pie

Bee Sting - the second most bought choice

Berry and Rhubarb Strudel

I also bought for T and A, a Date and Walnut log, which was a bit dry. I also bought a Christmas pudding and am waiting on the verdict.

Roberts Bakery
184 Peisley Street
Orange NSW

Tel: 02 63621245

A week in an Orange and Cherries

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:00:00 +0000

I have officially made it to third year! yeay! I spent my time kinda celebrating/relaxing in Orange for a week doing the Horse Course which is now run by CSU and as a result have uppity the price compared to previous years.
The week was jam packed full of horse handling and we were all buggered by the end of each day. Orange is a nice town and i have concluded that one of the two important things there are Cherries (provided you go at this time).
Arriving on Sunday afternoon to our shoe box cabin, we went to Mount Canobalas to oogle at the views. Pretty neat stuff, its a 360 degree view with some radio towers in your way. Becasue of the exceptional reception, it provided us a chance to call our mums :p

On the way down the mountain A took us to Borrodell on the Mt. A has been to Orange before and has made a trip to purchase Cherry Wines for her family and friends in Sydney. Just on the outskirts of Orange, there are lots of vineyards and orchards and the green life looks rather odd among the rest of the dry and lifeless land. Nonetheless i couldnt resist myself to taking a picture of the juicy cherries on the tree.

Cherry Orchards

We couldnt help ourselves but to help ourselves :$

Wine tasting is a pretty fun experience. Especially if you go with friends who dont normally drink, so bring me! My understanding of wines is that they are very strong in smell, flavour and alcohol. Ive only ever had tasted red wine once because Sangria doesnt count. We tried three wines: Wine Makers Daughter, Cabernet Sauvignon 'Opus' and Cherry Liqueur. I bought their two bottles of their specialty for a gift for T and one for myself for when i can handle the strength better.

Views outside

The tasting facilities seconded as an art gallery with pieces going for a good $200 minimum. It also had views of the mountains and land below.

On the way home to Sydney, we picked up a box of Cherries at $5 a kilo. Bargain!!!!! Before i left Sydney, the cheapest i saw them in the super markets were $12 a kilo and the asian grocery stores were at $8 a kilo. It came in a 5kg box and as much as i would love to sit here all day and eat it, 5 kgs is a bit too much. Some of the girls we know got one box and split it among 5, but a split among 3 is good enough for me.

Borrodell on the Mount

Lake Canobolas Rd
Orange NSW

Tel: 02 6365 3425
URL: www.borrodell.com.au

Lawnmower man XXXposed

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:27:00 +0000

With exams and all, its really hard not to right? (I'm talking about procrastination fyi) This is what we came across looking on domain.com.au Something to flower up my day i guess...

Haha i also came across this. Can you beleive that this picture was found on a Vet's website? I dont know what theyre trying to encourage here...

Rocket Lady

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:51:00 +0000

According to http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/Home.cfm, if i were to do Medicine this would me my "Suited" specialtly. Where do i have to sign for Aerospace med? Can someone tell me if theres even such branch? Only in America you say? By jove you're right!

	Specialty	Score
1	aerospace med	46
2	nuclear med	45
3	physical med & rehabilitation	45
4	dermatology	45
5	rheumatology	43
6	nephrology	43
7	med oncology	43
8	radiology	43
9	psychiatry	43
10	pediatrics	42
11	pathology	42
12	obstetrics/gynecology	42
13	hematology	42
14	general internal med	42
15	emergency med	42
16	family practice	41
17	cardiology	41
18	occupational med	41
19	plastic surgery	41
20	urology	41
21	thoracic surgery	40
22	orthopaedic surgery	40
23	ophthalmology	40
24	neurology	40
25	neurosurgery	40
26	endocrinology	40
27	infectious disease	40
28	colon & rectal surgery	40
29	allergy & immunology	40
30	radiation oncology	40
31	anesthesiology	39
32	pulmonology	39
33	gastroenterology	39
34	preventive med	39
35	otolaryngology	37
36	general surgery	34

TETRAPARESIS

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:57:00 +0000


One of my Fav videos from BBGROG =D

Cow toe?

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:20:00 +0000

Anatomy 2B is dubbed the freak show

Equine Anatomy Exam

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 05:59:00 +0000

Yes, this is what i think of it.....................

Kankles

noreply@blogger.com (kimmeh) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 04:11:00 +0000

Just when i've gotten into the rythym of sport again, i injure myself. I must be pretty unlucky. Maybe i should take up another sport that doesnt potentially invovle me sacrificing my mobility. I now officially have two bad ankles that will never be the same again. Im homebound for a week until i can place pressure on it, which is good because we're heading in to midsem break-i guess i could study for that exam right after the break?

Trying to keep a positive eye, as i was walking to my car before the game, i came across this chap sleeping in the shade. Extremely friendly might i say. SO friendly he let me pat him and look at his tag. Everyone, meet Oscar!