Nearly-Dr Ferox

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The Chronic Cat Problem
2008-05-08 23:59:00
 Cats have something of a reputation if you ever talk to a veterinary surgeon about them. “Oh, you just throw the pieces of a cat into the same room and it will put itself together again,” is what our surgery lecturer has told us. But there is one notable exception. Chronic Axilla (armpit) Wounds in cats don’t look like much, just an open wound in the cat’s armpit. The problem is that if you treat it like any other wound and stitch it up, the cat’s phenomenal ability to heal just doesn’t work, and the wound breaks down and opens up a few weeks later. This is bad for the cat, frustrating for the owner and extremely frustrating for the vet, because it makes them look incompetent when really it is the cat’s fault. The owner also doesn’t trust you when you try to explain the only way these chronic wounds are known to heal, because it is quite bizarre. (more…)

X-Ray Challenge #2
2008-05-07 11:30:00
Since some people seemed to quite enjoy the last X-Ray Challenge , here’s another one for you! This one is a cat, so things are a little different, but not by much. I will admit it is harder though. And for those of you who would rather have something relatively ‘normal’ to compare X-Rays too, here is a link to a ‘normal cat‘ (<– click it). As with the previous challenge, you may find it easier to see things if you copy the images into paint and surround them with black, after all X-rays are read in darkened rooms for a reason. Ready to discover what was there to be seen? (more…)

Pet Photo Contest!
2008-05-05 03:00:00
I’ve been amusing myself taking photos of Moo and Crumbs, the Kendal Hall unofficial resident kittens, so I decided why not share some of the fun and have a pet photo contest! I’m looking for a pet or animal photo to use in a new header for this blog, alongside Moo & Crumbs. Dogs, Cats, Canaries, Ferrets, Horses, Fish or any other photogenic pet you may have near your camera can enter. Entries will be judged on the clarity of the photo, and suitability for use in a header. Those that pass will then be posted on this blog for people to vote But what is a contest without any prizes? Here they are: $15 from me via paypal. (If you don’t have paypal, you can donate it to a paypal-enabled charity if you like) 3000 Entrecard credits from me. A permanent link in my sidebar if you have a website. 2500 Entrecard credits from One Million Pet Pics $20 via paypal from One Million Pet Pics 2500 Entrecard credits from Bloggeries Blog Forum A photo-manipulation of your pet...
More About: Contest , Photo , Photo Contest

Vets & Drug Company ‘Bribes’
2008-05-03 05:50:00
Thursday the 1st of May was Industry Night at Kendal Hall. It’s an opportunity for big players and drug companies that supply the Veterinary Industry in Australia to set up a display, tell us about themselves and give us poor veterinary students free stuff! There’s been a bit of concern about doctors pushing unnecessary drugs onto patients because they get bonuses, rewards or holidays from drug companies. This doesn’t happen much in the Australian Veterinary Industry, so in the interest of transparency I’m going to show you what I got, and elaborate on what veterinary professionals get from the big drug companies too. Yes indeed, I got a bagful of free stuff. (more…)
More About: Company , Drug

The Unmentionable Class
2008-05-01 01:00:00
There is one particular practical class that we Veterinary Students are aware of from our early days, and think of it with a mixture of laughter and dread. It is known by many names: Reproduction 3 The dog repro prac The ‘Circle of Love’ and Dog Wanking 101 You read that right, and I don’t mean to be crass, but that particular class is very, shall we say, straight forward. There’s a reason I don’t have any photos of this practical class, so you will just have to use your imagination on this one. (more…)
More About: Class

X-ray challenge #1
2008-04-29 01:02:00
Want to challenge your brain and your eyes and find out how talented you are at reading X-rays? Here’s your chance! Carefully examine the photo above. You may want to copy it into paint and expand the black background to make it easier on your eyes. What do you notice about this dog? There are a few easy things to notice, and a few hard things to notice. When you’re ready, read the rest of this article to find out how observant you are. (more…)
More About: Challenge

Cyclopia
2008-04-27 01:08:00
We get to see some wierd things in Veterinary Science. Exhibit A: This head belonged to a calf that suffered from cyclopia. It’s pretty cool to look at, don’t you think? The name is pretty descriptive, ‘cyclopia’ will make you think that this poor creature has only one, central eye. In fact, the main problem is not with the eye itself, but with the development of the brain and nose. Cyclopia is infact the most severe expression of holoprosencephaly. (more…)

Calf Foetotomy
2008-04-25 01:00:00
Obstetrics are fun. It’s a lot like a spacial reasoning puzzle; you have to find a way to make the neonate (soon-to-be born) animal fit through the birth canal, otherwise it doesn’t matter how strong you are, it either wont fit or will damage the mother coming out. That’s when the veterinarian considered either a cesarean, or a foetotomy. For those that don’t know, a foetotomy involves cutting bits off the foetus because it is stuck in the birth canal. It’s a bit gruesome when you think about it, but the alternative is having a dead, possibly rotting calf stuck half in it’s mother until the cow is dead too. I videoed some practice foetotomy cuts from a practical class last week, which are below if you feel like viewing them. If you don’t want to watch, it’s okay. I realise that I become quite desensitised to ‘icky’ things, so it doesn’t bother me, but may bother you. (more…)

More awards
2008-04-23 01:00:00
Somebody out there must like me, because I seem to keep winning these things. Maybe there just aren’t a lot of other blogging4life blogs to compete with. Who knows? And just as a reminder, I had also been nominated by allbutonespecies for the best animal blogger in the blogger’s choice awards. I would love any support I can get, specially as I hadn’t nominated myself for this, unlike most other entries.  
More About: Awards

Moo the Kitten
2008-04-21 01:07:00
Hello! My name is Moo and I’m one of the Kendal Hall kittens. You might have seen me in other posts, but I decided that I wanted more attention, so here I am! (more…)
More About: Kitten

Textbook Review: Color Atlas of Clinincal Anatomy of the Dog and Cat
2008-04-19 08:20:00
I thought it might be helpful to someone out there if I wrote about the books I use most often when studying. It can be very temping when you first learn that you’ve been accepted into a Veterinary Course to go out and get your hands on any textbook you can. However, it’s not worth buying any text book you’re not going to use. I bought the Color Atlas of Clinical Anatomy of the Dog and Cat  early on in first year, because I found it so useful. It’s full of color pictures which is exactly what a student needs before a practical class, whether that class is anatomy or surgery. Diagrams are only so useful when you need to see what the animal is really going to look like. (more…)
More About: Review

The Endoscope
2008-04-17 14:01:00
I never would have thought that my days of youth wasted on video games would ever have provided me with useful skills in a Veterinary career. But as it turns out, the hours I spend playing Lylat Wars have actually made it easier for me to get the hang of driving an Endoscope. For those that don’t know, an Endoscope is basically a camera on the end of a long tube that you can put through the mouth, nose, ear, anus or any other orifice large enough to accommodate it. You get to see the video on your computer screen, and you can thread sampling pieces through the endoscope if you need to grab a chunk of anything inside the animal. It’s a team effort. One of you drives the head of the endoscope up/down and left/right, and the other person pushes the tube deeper or pulls it back out. The trick, as the driver, is to keep your target in the centre of the screen, and not compromise on camera angles, which is a lot like playing a video game. (more…)

Twin Foals
2008-04-16 03:37:00
You don’t hear much about twin foals, and you nearly never see them. This is because even though up to 10% of horse pregnancies may be twins, they are usually aborted very early on because of the great difficulty in getting both twins to survive. If the twin foals do survive, they’re usually runts and don’t thrive. There just isn’t that much room inside the mare for two growing foals, and in most cases the weaker twin dies and is reabsorbed early in the pregnancy. (more…)
More About: Twin , Foals

The Herald Sun’s Propaganda and our Education
2008-04-14 03:59:00
The Herald Sun, probably the trashiest newspaper in Australia, published an Article on the 13th of April called ‘Dogs Operated on, then Killed.‘ It made me sick. This highly biased piece of ‘journalism’ distorts the truth with the writer’s own opinion without giving full consideration to the ethics behind these decision. Worse, they also used emotive words to suggest that what goes on is actually much worse than it really is. The article has angered many vet students with it’s one sided story, including myself. You want to know some facts and reasons behind why we use real live dogs for terminal surgery? Let me explain it to you. (more…)
More About: Education , Propaganda

Look what I found!
2008-04-12 09:45:00
7pm on my 21st birthday, I was just about to shut my car door and drive home, when I notices something moving and geting closer. Lucky things happen to you on your birthday, and it turns out I had been discovered by a stray dog wandering through the grounds of the vet school. I took him into the after-hours clinic, and was happy to learn that he had a microchip. So he’s almost certainly back with his family now. That’s birthday luck.

There’s a Cow in the Horse Wards?
2008-04-08 09:26:00
Usually it seems like cattle vets and equine vets have very different views on life and would rather see each other as little as possible. As such, it was quite surprising for me to learn that there was a calf hidden in the horse wards that had undergone treatment for an umbilical abscess. I found out about the calf from listening to gossip in the line for dinner. Apparently the horse people haven’t told the cattle people that they have it, and apparently there is some disagreement as to whether the calf should have any roughage to eat at the moment. What’s also interesting is that this calf is a Friesian bull, and apparently he is a clone, which is why all this money and extra care has been devoted to him. It’s just the rumours I heard though. It’s kind of funny hearing the horse specialists bumble along trying to manage a calf. I’m inclined to believe that he probably is a clone though, because I have heard of other highly valuable stud cattle being c...
More About: Horse

Dental Health for Dogs and Cats
2008-04-06 14:12:00
So many animals that walk into small animal practice suffer from dental problems, and most of those are due to a build up of plaque on the teeth, which then becomes mineralised and forms calculus. This can cause problems and discomfort for the animal, as gums become inflamed (gingivitis) and the bone around the teeth may resorb (peridontal disease), causing the teeth to fall out. We get taught about dental health my a man who is a human dentist four days per week, and a veterinary dentist the rest of the time. He has a very devoted perspective on teeth, and I have to say that when we were shown the human photos of dental disease, every student in the lecture felt compelled to go brush their teeth. So, what do you need to know about your pets teeth and what can you do to keep them in good health? (more…)
More About: Health , Dental Health , Dogs , Cats , Dental

Kitten Invaders
2008-04-04 13:18:00
I apologize for my slack posting this week, but sometimes work gets ontop of me and I just get buried under all the things I have to do, instead of the things I wantto do. That level of work, and the stress that comes with it, can really get you down. Fortunately, my day was saved by two furry invaders who snuck through my slightly ajar door. There are a few kittens living in Kendal Hall at the moment, being hand-raised by a student after their mother died in the clinic. I don’t know their names, or even if they have any yet, but they’re a semi-familiar site scampering around the hallways or sneaking into the dining room. Their antics really made my day when I was desperately trying to get work done,a nd really just needed a distraction. (more…)
More About: Kitten

Marijuana Poisoning in Dogs and Cats
2008-04-01 12:26:00
It happens. For some reason, dogs and cats show up in emergency clinics from time to time with signs of marijuana toxicity. Sometimes pets are present when this drug is being smoked and become intoxicated and overdose that way. dogs have been known to eat pipe cleanings or joints, but usually they’ve eaten some hash cookies or hash brownies when someone is trying to get rid of the evidence. You might think that a drug like this would be ‘fun’ for the dog or cat, and I know stoners who are adamant that the cat deliberately walks through their puffs of smoke, but I’m not convinced. The animal isn’t going to know what to expect or what’s going on, and marijuana toxicity is very traumatic for them. (more…)
More About: Dogs , Cats , Marijuana

Little Old Me?
2008-03-30 14:19:00
I found out recently that I was nominated for the Blogger’s Choice Awards. I had never heard of these before, but as I understandi t they ar essentially like the Oscars, but for Blogs. I was nominated for the Best Animal Blogger category, and voting runs all year. If you think I deseve a vote, please go ahead and register so that you can vote. You can also nominate your other favourite blogs or vote for them in other categories too.

Melbourne Aquarium Work Experience
2008-03-29 06:10:00
This past week I’ve been lucky enough to be doing vet work experience with the veterinarian who treats the inhabitants of Melbourne Aquarium , Dr Rob Jones. I’ve been following him around this last week, and on Friday was lucky enough to spend part of my time in Melbourne Aquarium. It’s Dr Jones’ responsibility to provide veterinary care for all the fish, crustaceans, reptiles, and soon birds (penguins coming soon) that are both on display and behind the scenes. The most impressive of these inhabitants are the sharks that glide lazily around the oceanarium. Every now and then, the divers catch one of the sharks out (see above photo) for an examination and blood tests. And I got to be there and take photos! (more…)
More About: Work , Experience

Herriot Syndrome
2008-03-27 05:34:00
When I started work experience this week, I was talking to the veterinarian who was supervising me. “So, do you want to work with just small animals then?” - the Vet “Actually, I haven’t yet made up my mind. I quite like all species.” - Me “Huh, that’s unusual. Most students have already made up there mind that it’s going to be all small animals by the time they come here.” - the Vet “… They have?” - Me I didn’t realise that so many of my fellow students would have already made up their mind about which careers they intend to follow in veterinary medicine. Obviously there have been some fanatics that had decided when they were 6 years old that they wanted to do horses and only horses, but that’s not me. In fact, I’m left wondering if I have Herriot Syndrome . (more…)

Found: One Easter Bunny
2008-03-25 10:32:00
On Monday morning a client at the Dandenong Veterinary Hospital rang to say that she had found the Easter Bunny . She had, I’m not joking. I big, white, rabbit (see above) was found hoping around her backyard. They spent the day trying to catch it and see if it would eat, before bringing him in to the vet clinic on Monday morning. We scanned him for a microchip and didn’t find one (didn’t expect to either), and kept him until today when we had to surrender him to the council pound. We had been hoping that somebody would ring, asking if we had found a rabbit. He’s very friendly, quite take, and loves his broccoli! I’m really hoping that his owner manages to find him. If you know someone who lives near Dandenong (Melbourne) and has lost their rabbit this Easter, please urge them to call the vet clininc or the council. He’s such a sweet bunny, I hate to think what might happen if he’s not reunited with his owner or adopted.
More About: Easter Bunny

I still cry for cats
2008-03-24 09:50:00
 Euthanasia is part of being a Veterinarian. It’s something we have to do, even though it’s unpleasant and emotions run high. Death is part of life and if you take responsibility for an animal during it’s life, then you have to realise how that responsibility will ultimately end. I’ve performed euthanasia for rabbits, rats and wild birds. I’ve been present for euthanasia of dogs and cats. You do start to lose emotion after seeing a few of them, and my heart really goes out to the owners who clearly felt so strongly about their animal, but I still shed a tear for the cats. (more…)
More About: Cats

Parasites in Meat
2008-03-22 04:02:00
 I mentioned in a previous post that there are a variety of parasitic cysts that may be present in the meat that we eat. I don’t mean to make you paranoid about enjoying a nice rare steak, because in modern production systems these aren’t that common. They become more common in free range animals, as do all parasites. Parasites infect all sorts of organs in an animal, but there are only a few groups which infect muscle specifically. They are the Trichinella species and the Cestodes (tapeworms). Some of these can infect you, and some of them might make you feel sick. (more…)
More About: Meat

Surpirse! It’s a Tiger!
2008-03-19 15:00:00
Somethings take you completely by surprise. On Friday the 14th of March a buzz flowed through the corridors of Melbourne University: There’s a TIGER in the post mortem room! It goes without saying that several students, including myself, crowded around the window of the post mortem room to see for ourselves. We do autopsies as part of our 3rd year, but we consider ourselves lucky to get a cow or horse on the table, a tiger is something on the next level entirely. (more…)
More About: Tiger

BAG’s Fugly Formal
2008-03-18 15:00:00
  Last Thursday was another massive college organised drinking event with a theme: BAG’s Fugly Formal . BAG is our Bovine Appreciation Group, and traditionally this event is a B&S ball with a cattle theme. There was a 4-legged race (aka the bull run), bobbing for apples in lube, a cow & calf drinking competition and the Irongut eating contest. Much fun for everyone, and now at least half of us know exactly what obstetrical lubricant tastes like. Everyone dressed up in their best ‘Fugly’ outfit for the event, fully aware that it was likely to get covered in dust, drink and lube. Rectal gloves were a recurring theme, because they have one hundred and one uses at an event like this. (more…)

Microchip Myths
2008-03-17 15:00:00
 Most pet owners in the western world will have heard about microchipping their pets so that if their animal is lost or stolen, it can be returned to them. Many councils around the world now require pets to be microchiped before registration, and have legislated which microchips can and cannot be used. However, there are a few myths and misunderstandings about these devices circulating. Most people microchip their pets in the belief that if their animal wanders, it can be located and returned. In fact, the chip is not some sort of GPS or tracking device: it is a passive radio transmitter that only emits a number when activated by the chip reader. To be returned to you, your pet has to be actually found and scanned.  Your contact details must also have been entered into a database, otherwise the shelters may find your pet, and find the chip, but won’t be able to find you. Currently only 30% of dogs and 3% of cats are returned home from shelters. (more…)
More About: Myths

Rite of Passage
2008-03-14 15:00:00
 For vet students, your first rectal exam is very much a rite of passage. Other people joke around about it, but it’s a milestone for vet students. “You put your hands up a cow’s bum? That’s gross!” - quote from average Joe. Horse, in this case, rather than cow, and the whole arm, not just the hand. As a first year student one looks to this moment with a sense of anticipation because it’s one of those feats that brand you as a genuine veterinary student, and not just someone with too much homework and no social life. (more…)

All About Pets: social networking site for pet owners.
2008-03-12 15:19:00
  For all you pet owners out there, I’d like to bring to your attention a fairly new networking site for pet owners and their pets; All About Pets . It has forums, articles, leaflets and will let you create profiles for you and your pets. It also lets you join clubs and groups online. It’s run by the Blue Cross, a major pet charity in the UK, and is intended to help pet owners find useful information and meet other people with similar interests. I’m on there as Ferox, and drop by the forum every week to reply to posts and generally be helpful. I suggest you have a look and see if you like it. The URL for you: http://www.allaboutpets.org.uk
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Site