#Veterinary Science

[drafthearse]

colic surgery in a horse showing healthy pink tissue on the left and red dying small intestines on the right.

[equinesandeducation]

Final weekend of january already! Making a big batch of pasta salad, so I have lunch for the week and don't have to spend time on that in the mornings. Spent a good chunk of Saturday afternoon just rotting and reading, recharging a little 🙌🏻

[spindle-and-nima]

Update on bunbun!

I've been busy caring for this sweet 7 year old girl so my usual content was a bit slow. She's about 10 days post op now from having a very enlarged uterus full of liquid and necrotic tissue removed. We ran some tests on her and found it was not a bacterial infection which is what we hoped, but rather a uterine cancer. The good news is it doesn't appear to have spread anywhere else at all, and her recovery is stellar, with everything having been removed just in time (the surgery was critical bc this thing was so full there was high danger of it bursting in the body). It was a stressful surgery because prey animals especially might stress to death when put under and may not survive the surgery. So it was risk the surgery, put her down, or risk the uterus bursting and taking her little life. Thankfully she beat the odds.

I will interject to say this rabbit was not spayed. It is EXTREMELY important to fix your rabbits because fixing them decreases the risk of cancer. 70-80% of rabbits that are unspayed develop cancer after 3 years old and it is hard on their little bodies. Cases like bunbun don't always end well, and even with all this cancer can return, so please please fix your pets. Better to spend the money to be responsible than risk the high chance of expensive hospital bills and more importantly, a very sick friend later on.

She was extremely boney and skinny before, and now is plumping up and being more active and i got to see many flops and binkies (her owners were delighted to hear this because she evidently rarely binkies). Who knows how long that dreadful cancer was sapping her sunshine away. She will be going back to her owners soon to hopefully live a few more happy years!

Bonus: a very delightful before and after (left is her poor very underweight self)

Live well, brave girl!

[theoddvet]

It is so cool when you can see the pathology grossly on the tissue section before looking at it microscopically!

This unfortunate canine had multicentric lymphoma that was being managed palliatively quite successfully, until they developed neurological symptoms. All lymph nodes were grossly normal, but the lymphoma (the dark purple areas) had spread to the meninges in multiple areas.

[wikipediapictures]

Fascioloides magna

[misforgotten2]

The Colloidal Gold Reactions sounds like the title of a best selling crime novel.

[twitt3rpate]

there's nothing like ochem to humble you.

[er-cryptid]

Domestication

-- an evolutionary process

-- mediated by humans

-- alters genetic make-up of plants and animals

-- the shift to rely on domesticated plants and animals took several thousand years

-- significantly altered human culture

-- advantages of plant domestication -> increased size -> loss of delayed seed germination -> loss of protective devices -> controlled seed dispersal -> simultaneous ripening of fruit or seeds

-- advantages of animal domestication -> smaller horns -> less aggressive -> ready resource for food or labor

.

Patreon

[wolf-tail]

Tomcat stud jowls are so funny to me.

My adorable plump chipmunk cheeks mean that I am an absolute STUD who SMASHES PUSSY like a GOD so DON'T FUCK WITH ME

[acti-veg]

applying to colleges right now and it's my dream to be a veterinarian but i'm just feeling... i dunno, dread? i'm going to have to dissect things and i'm going to need to artificially inseminate things and i'm going to need to intern on a couple farms and probably a million other little things that i don't agree with at all and even if i manage to skirt some of these things i'm going to have to do at least a couple if i want to, you know, get my degree, at least where i live but i suspect pretty much everywhere. and i just. idk. i feel silly for second guessing myself about this but i also feel awful for willingly doing it. just venting i guess i don't really have much of a question just like... what would you do if you were in this situation i guess. and is there anyone in your audience who's been through something similar and has some advice 😭

Veterinary science is unfortunately just a discipline that is heavily linked with animal agriculture industries and animal research. Vets exists mostly to maintain property. That isn’t to say that vets can’t go into it because of a love of animals and they can certainly do a lot of good, it’s just important to have your eyes open going in, as to exactly what the subject is like and why the profession exists.

It is really up to you to decide if you can justify the acts you’ll be expected to perform so that you can get the degree, and presumably then do some good with it. We could certainly use some animal rights advocates in that profession, but there is a reason why many of us could not do it. Moreover, you need to decide if you can tolerate it. it’s a difficult course of study as it is, even moreso when you’ve got a moral issue with what you’re doing.

I wish I had a more comforting answer for you anon, perhaps one of my followers with direct experience can offer a bit more? Regardless, it’s a difficult situation and there is really no way of getting around that. Best of luck with your degree though, regardless of what you go with!

[drafthearse]

Veterinarian practices cesarean section on cow

[equinesandeducation]

Fully into one of the hardest weeks of this internship, but managing so far, and also sort of having fun! 😅

[typhlonectes]

This post has been updated. It was originally published on May 23, 2017.

Declawing a cat may sound like a relatively benign procedure, like getting your nails trimmed. But the process involves removing the bones at the tip of a feline’s toes, which can result in long-term problems for your furry friend, a study concludes.

To study the long-term consequences of declawing, researchers examined 274 cats of various ages, half of whom had been declawed. Studying animals in shelters and others who had been brought in for veterinary appointments, they examined the animals for signs of pain (which, in cats, manifests itself as potty problems, flinching in response to touch, body tension, and excessive licking or chewing of fur, among other things). They also looked at the felines’ medical histories and behavioral reports from their vets and owners.

They found that declawed cats were seven times more likely to pee in inappropriate places, four times more likely to bite people, three times more likely to be aggressive, and three times more likely to overgroom themselves. In addition, the declawed cats were three times more likely to be diagnosed with back pain (possibly because they had to modify their gait due to their missing toe bones) and/or chronic pain in their paws...

[thagomizersshow]

For those that don't know, I make social media content for a wildlife rehabilitation centre. Earlier this year we launched a video series about the science of wildlife rehabilitation called Alberta Wildlife Insider. Each episode walks through the reasons a particular species comes into care, what that care looks like, and how we return them back to the wild. The 2nd episode (above) just dropped and is about great horned owls! You can go to our channel watch the 1st episode about rehabbing black bear cubs.