For the Girl or Guy Who Has Everything

Have you thought about holiday gifts yet? It's almost time. I myself feel a little old to be receiving gifts, but certain family members still insist on it... Which is fine, but this year I'm just going to ask for donations to my favorite charities. I've been making my modest donations to these organizations, but I figure if someone insists on giving me a gift, then why not donate... Who's on my list? The Morris Animal Foundation, which funds research aimed at protecting, curing, and treating companion animals and wildlife. Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an incredible organization that breeds and houses hundreds of seriously cute and talented dogs that are trained to be seeing eye dogs. They also sponsor blind individuals to spend a few months living at their facility so they can learn how to work with a seeing eye dog. I had the chance to work at this place for two weeks doing physical exams, blood draws, vaccinations, and surgeries. It was so much fun and really cool to see how these dogs can work with the blind and give them the ability to be independent. I also got to see people be matched to their dogs to be, which was exciting. The facility is up in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. I also donate to to the ASPCA, which as we all know has a great rep in terms of animal welfare and promoting shelter adoptions. Places I plan to donate to: Now I'm really into PALS, the organization I mentioned in yesterday's blog, which provides therapy for disabled individuals through horse riding. Heifer International, a great program: you donate money to allow people around the world start their own businesses involving livestock (dairy production), poultry (to sell eggs), and even bees for making honey! I also want to start with Kiva, where you can loan money to individuals in third world countries so they can start or maintain their own small businesses. So if you're stumped on what to do with all your cash, looking to ask people for different types of gifts, or looking to give different types of gifts, there you go!

When's the Weekend...

Today was crazy! I ended up taking on a new patient, this horse that came in on emergency the night before. Sad story. A barn that housed many horses caught on fire. Most died, but two survived and were brought to Cornell. I have one of those horses. It was pretty unstable, had many problems that developed throughout the day. So the internists were tending to her basically all day. As a student on a case, you're supposed to try to be on top of things, obviously help, do treatments and all that. But things were moving so fast, the head veterinarians were just dealing with the changing state of this poor horse. So I felt really out of the loop, not knowing what was happening. Then I still had my other patient, the very sweet Quarter Horse Biko. I really love Biko. He could be my favorite patient of all time! If I ever had a horse, it would have to be a Quarter Horse. Apparently, they tend to be laid back with great temperaments. In looking for an example of a Quarter Horse to show on my blog, I stumbled upon this organization that uses horses as parts of therapy for people with physical, emotional, and cognitive disabilities. Pretty cool. And there are little descriptions of their therapy horses, which are all very cute, especially the Quarter Horses. Anyway, later today, I had an appointment with a cria (baby alpaca) and that seemed to take a really long time. Alpacas are such strange animals...they make very strange sounds too. Phew...long day! But now I'm home, and hopefully it's going to be a quiet one. Time to watch some mindless television.

Sunday Afternoon in the Barn

Me a barn goddess? Hardly! Anyway, I'm on what feels like eternal treatment shift duty at the large animal clinic...students take turns working days or nights over the weekend and holiday, and I've been on 95% of the time. But no worries...must stay stress-free and with happy attitude. We've begun Twinkie's flea killing plan and we will soon deal with the tapeworm crisis. Last night we watched "No Country for Old Men". Beautiful cinematography, great, slow pacing (you have to be patient to watch this). But I got antsy and couldn't get comfortable in my seat, so I admit I wasn't as focused as I should have been. So basically, I'm going to have to watch it again, but I did like it. Although I feel like I didn't pay enough attention to be able to really discuss it. But I do recommend it. Marcus really loved it. Onto shopping: I think I'm going to get this hat. It's sorta silly that it says "Cornell" on it, but at the same time, it also makes the hat. Even if I do end up advertising my education...but I have the right...I mean, damn, I pay tuition!!!

An Occupational Hazard

A while back I blogged about Twinkie having tapeworms of a mysterious origin which we treated him for. Well I should have just checked a fecal sample under the microscope to figure out whether it was due to mousing or due to fleas in the first place (animals get tapeworms either from ingesting an infected rodent, infected raw meat, or infected fleas). As far as we know, we don't have mice at all, and we were convinced that Twinkie didn't have fleas because I've never seen flea dirt on him, I never retrieved anything with a flea comb, and I'm so careful about "bringing things home from the hospital". Well, I've learned my lesson. Earlier today I saw something suspect (in his feces) which prompted me to think that he maybe had yet another tapeworm infection!!! AUGH! So I went ballistic and ran a flea comb through his fur and brought a fecal sample to school. Under the microscope I didn't see any fleas on his fur, but I DID see tapeworm eggs from his fecal sample...the kind that are carried by fleas. I most likely am to blame for this, even though I try so hard not to bring any nasties home from the hospital. Ask Marcus, it's like the CDC in here when it comes to infectious disease prevention! So from now on our indoor only, solitary cat will have to be on flea preventative. And yes, cats and dogs can get fleas even from sitting by a screen door, and since cats are such great groomers, you're not necessarily going to see fleas jumping or flea dirt. I should take my own advice and maybe I would have realized that my own cat has fleas. Special thanks goes out to poor Stacy who had to hear about this all and help advise me on my crisis!

Countdown to Holiday Overload

I guess after today, the countdown to Christmas is on...and you know it can get a little scary with all the shopping madness, and the 4AM store sales. Well, after I went to the hospital this morning, I got home and got to watch a couple of movies. AMC is having a Hitchcock marathon, so I watched "The Man Who Knew Too Much". I really like Hitchcock, so it was a pleasant surprise. "Vertigo" was also on, but I wasn't in the mood. I wish I was because I haven't seen that one in a while. But I just wasn't feeling it at the moment. "The Birds" is on, but I recently saw that. What I really want to watch is "Psycho", but that may start too late for me to be able to watch the whole thing. I also flipped between "Mystic Pizza" and the first Austin Powers movie, which I personally love. The rest of the Austin Powers movies weren't so great. Speaking of vertigo, one of my close friends, Jennifer, is a boarded audiologist. But now she's in her first year of medical school down in the Cayman Islands. I've been talking to her and she's trucking along, but I sympathize...that first year is ROUGH...and I mean ROUGH. What's cool though is that I met her back when I decided to go back to school to do this whole vet thing and she was back in school so she could apply to medical school. We became really close friends and it's really exciting to see that she's actually on her way to becoming a doctor! Anyway, Twinkie's been sleeping all day long, and right now Marcus is cooking our "Thanksgiving dinner". No turkey for us, though. We're eating some fish dish. Then some pecan pie. Right now there's a show about Southern food...and damn, that stuff is good....

Back on the Blog Wagon!

I've missed my blogs the past few days! I'm back in the large animal hospital (horses, farm animals), but this time I've adopted a positive, carefree attitude which has really helped! It's incredibly liberating! Since I don't have boards to study for anymore (again, I hope I passed) and my applications are in, there's nothing more to worry about in the immediate future. So I decided that I should just make the most of my situation, and it's really worked out well! I'm so much happier. I'm also more comfortable with horses that aren't so nice. But I DO have a WONDERFUL horse as a patient named Biko. He's up in isolation though because he's Salmonella positive, but he's the best patient ever. He lets me do my thing which spans everything from oral medications, drawing blood, to...medications administered...yes, rectally. And he's so good about it all. Plus he likes it when I scratch his head. I even pick him fresh grass. All he asks is that I feed him...he's pretty demanding about his food. Well, I'm excited because the next few days while I'm in the hospital, but in between treatments, I'm going to start researching my "last hurrah" SCUBA diving trip with Stacy. We hope to take a little vacation either before or immediately after we graduate. Well, I better go. Me and Marcus are going to watch "300", which is Marcus' pick...

My Brain is FRIED

Yesterday I took my boards exam...it was a long exam and by the end it was painful! The night before I stayed at the Marx Hotel in Syracuse, this boutique type place, and ate really good food at its restaurant. I also discovered Lather products, which the hotel uses for its guests. I really liked them! I might buy some for myself. Anyway, sitting in front of a computer screen for 6 hours hurts. I REALLY, REALLY hope I passed the test. This is my licensing exam, so if you don't pass it now, you have to take the ($600) test again. But I'm trying to think positive...that I passed! Talk about random questions though...they spanned from stuff I knew, stuff I guessed on, to stuff I had absolutely no idea about... I was even asked about assessing a horse with narcolepsy!(Which by the way I think I got wrong). After I came back home from the test, we went out to eat tapas at this great restaurant here in Ithaca. I was so hungry though, I felt like I engorged myself! Speaking of narcolepsy, after dinner last night, Marcus and I watched "My Own Private Idaho" last night. I hadn't seen that movie in a while. I like it. It's a Gus Van Sant movie about a male prostitute with narcolepsy and his search for his long lost mother. Then we watched "Sideways", which we've seen before. It's pretty funny.