I'm on my new rotation: large animal (horses, cows and assorted farm animals) soft tissue surgery. Although it's laid back, I really don't feel comfortable working with horses, nor am I familiar with "horsey" terms, how to deal with horses, or anything. We all are required to learn about them in class, but for those of us who haven't dealt much with them outside the classroom, it can really suck! Well, my current patients are a Brown Swiss bull named Brutus, and a 950 lb. pig named Finn. Both are super sweet and super cute, so I'm glad to have them. The week is dragging on, though! Last night we got home to find out that our cat Twinkie (in the photo, the handsome redhead on the right with our late, great Peter) apparently has tapeworms...NOT COOL. We ended up getting him de-worming medications. What disturbs me the most, more than seeing wriggling little white worms in his feces, is how he got them. Cats can get these nasties from mouse hunting, ingesting a flea that happens to harbor tapeworms, or from meat that has tapeworm eggs in them. Well, Twinkie doesn't have access to the outdoors nor do we have any evidence of having mice...which leaves the option of the fleas. He's never had fleas, doesn't seem itchy, and doesn't have flea dirt on his fur. So sadly, maybe I had brought some from the hospital...or maybe he got a few when I brought him to the hospital for the day! Or maybe some of our meat at home had some eggs and sometimes we give him tiny pieces...AUGH GROSS. If you want to learn a little more about tapeworms and humans, click here. Sorry for those of you I've completely freaked out!
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