2/5 DONE.

Two down, three to go.

Anatomy was my biggest concern, so now that it's out of the way bring on the final finals!

In case you guys were curious....here's a smattering of questions from my anat lecture final:

#1. Which of the following is correct?
A. Large volumes of local anesthetics injected into the epidural space can reach nerves proximal to the site of injection. This is not the case for agents injected into the subarachnoid space.
B. The cheif advantage to obtaining a cerebral spinal fluid sample at the lumbosacral junction is that the lumbar intumescence is easily accessible.
C. The subarachnoid space exists by virtue of the cerebral spinal fluid that fills it.
D. In order to avoid inserting a CSF tap needle into a patient's brainstem or spinal cord, the needle should be directed toward the pedicle of the vertebral foramen.
E. Cerebral spinal fluid results help veterinarians to determine the nature of lesions, particularly those that cause vascular damage.

#2. An anesthetic agent that "shuts down" the output of the reticular formation to the cerebral cortex would be expected to:
A. result in paralysis of striated muscle
B. result in atrophy of striated muscle
C. affect the animal's awareness of stimuli
D. affect all sensory neurons
E. affest all lower motor neurons (neurons innervating striated muscle)

#3. A horses's loss of awareness of the position of its joints (for example, the horse's being unaware of the knuckling of the metatarsophalangeal joint of a pelvic limb) could be the result of damage to its:
A. olfactory cortex
B. somatosensory cortex
C. visual (optic) cortex
D. auditory cortex
E. motor cortex

#4. A complete transverse fracture of the olecranon bone will affect the dog's ability to:
A. extend the elbow joint
B. extend the digits
C. extend the shoulder joint
D. flex the elbow joint

#5. T/F. The large intestine of the dog contains haustra and tenia. (I wrote a big WTF next to this one).

#6. Matching the following functions to the appropriate nerves below.
A. Purely motor function
B. Mixed function
C. Special sensory ensory function
Nerves:
1. Olfactory CN
2. Trigeminal CN
3. Trochlear CN

*Extra credit from me if you can number the CNs correctly without cheating!! :)

Alright, guess that's all I'll share. You guys probably already think I'm nutty enough. Just keep in mind that I had 125 of those questions. And I reallllly had to pee around #68.

For those of you who are curious, our retarded school does not release final exam or final course grades until Saturday 8/16 at noon. Which means just before I get on the plane home I'll know whether I should pack light or heavy. No reason to stress about it now!

Have a great week!! :)

Island mechanics.

So our car died two weeks ago. We knew the starter was going bye bye, but were assured by our "no-longer-our-mechanic" mechanic that it should last a long while yet. It seems people here are more interested in not getting paid to not work than to make any money at all. Interesting lifestyle, as opposed to say...the States. Where people would rather get paid to not work.

I digress. For the last two weeks our precious little Ross-mobile has been sitting out at Ziggy's by the beach. Kristin was attempting to return from volleyball with Chris when little precious gave her the finger...so to speak.

Because of our impending finals, we have been lax about getting her back. I checked on her last week, attempted to start her, and was rewarded with a lovely grating grinding noise. Thus starts our adventure of trying to decipher Island Mechanics.

Having had bad luck previously with our "not-our-mechanic-any-longer" mechanic, we consulted the aforementioned Chris who assured us that starters are really easy to install. If we could just find the part, he would put it in with no problem.

Having no Advanced Auto Parts (etc.) here on the island, and also no Island Yellow Pages to consult, I approached our anatomy prof Dr. Danny who happens to be a major car guy on the side.

Side note: I've been drawing the darnedest little cartoons for the vet prep class, nothing special really, but Dr. Danny saw and few and now seems very interested in my illustrating his anatomy text he's working on. Or at least that's the rumor...no actual deals as of yet.

Can you imagine my surprise when Dr. Danny offered to have his mechanic tow our car back to the dorms? He also gave me the name of his auto parts supplier (aptly named Island Auto Supplies) where they have anything and everything we might need (including Flywheels lights for our wheels, SOOO tricking out precious once she's all better!!). I called yesterday morning, and low and behold they had just the right starter in stock! At $800 EC it is a steal, and with Chris installing it we are saving a bundle!

And after all of these wonderful things happened yesterday, we took our anatomy lab final and it was AWESOME. Super easy, very well prepared was I, which is good because I need all of the help I can in that class....what did that 2nd semester tell me earlier? They failed something like 29 people last semester in Anat 1? Out of something like 100 students? They had to adjust the curve to prevent losing too many students?? Hmm.....wonder where all of my stress comes from.
Let's all just hope precious is still sitting there at the beach. With all of her tires. That would be a wonderful pre-finals surprise.

Lizards and Ducks and Spiders OH MY

More action shots of wild animals in St. Kitts.

The other day I was studying on the patio outside of the student union and I glanced over to see a little friend watching me. He was long, brilliant green with a gorgeous blue ridge, and looking at me very suspiciously. I tried snapping a pic of him, but one little movement from me induced a flight response faster than a hungry vet student at the Marriott buffet.

My little friend was so intriguing that I decided to take a little study break and seek him out below the patio. Unfortunately he was unavailable for the paparazzi, but I found two or three close friends of his just hanging out down there. Check this guy out: (note the size of the screws in the wood as scale)

I particularly like this ‘Profile of a Sunbathing Lizard’.

Action shot of him trying to avoid the paparazzi.

Seriously, these guys have Floridian lizards BEAT!

Staring contest.

The other day we were sitting at lunch studying anatomy (ironic how the smell doesn’t bother you nearly as much after it has removed all of your scent-detecting ability), and in a fit of repressed creativity busting out Kristin made this:

I think the texture of the crumpled foil gives it a nice 3D quality.

In another story alluding to anatomy, I was sitting by the window last week and in my ADD haze glanced over to witness the Coolest Thing Ever. A rather large jumping spider (we all know how I feel about those) was hanging out on the glass watching a rather larger fly buzz around drunk on formalin. The fly really should not have drunk and flown. It would crawl along the glass moving tantalizingly close to the spider without coming in arms reach. The spider just sat there watching the fly move back and forth across his path without taking any action whatsoever. In a fit of evil, I finally tired of watching their cat-n-mouse game and gently prodded the fly basically on top of the spider. I was rewarded for my empathetic attempt at putting the poor dying-of-formalin fly down by witnessing the Coolest Thing Ever (Yes, I realize I repeated that. It’s for emphasis, not because I’m not paying attention). The spider grabbed onto the fly and held on while it made a very pathetic attempt to escape. Personally I think the fly was a little bit lonely and just wanted a hug. Anyhow, once the fly calmed down a bit this rather small spider made his way far away from the large human who kept sticking her fingers near it, shoving himself into the corner and sucking away at his tainted prey (second-hand formalin anyone?). I snapped this shot just before he wandered away from me:

Please note the cleanliness of the windows. For pity’s sake (yours) I’m going to go ahead and say it is paint splatters.

I hope you enjoyed my local wildlife shots here on the island, I’m off to…what class?....study.

I heart Cows.

Today was my first calf wrangling experience.

Yes, calf wrangling.

I never in a million years thought when I was younger "how fun would it be to get all dirty and stinky running around a calf pen trying to rope an unbroken calf and then force it to walk around a paddock so it gets used to being roped?".

Don't get me wrong, I've always loved cows. From a distance. I moo at them on the highway, watch them every day frolicking in the fields on the way to and from campus...but really real cowgirl stuff? Totally a pipe dream.

Until today.

Practicing our rope tying abilities...

Yup, I think we can hold a couple of calves with these!

Kristin #1 came along for the ride, and between us we were able to sneak some good photographic proof of the event (no pics aloud on campus, thank you very much PETA). Unfortunately, there were no action shots of me with a cow...but I wrangled like a pro. Kristin is all of 80 pounds wet and she would not let her calf have any power. I was very proud of her:

Yes, that is a young adolescent calf. Kristin is just THAT tiny.

You cannot even begin to understand how excited we were to get in there and learn about handling cows.

Kristin and I super duper excited. Notice my Dickies coveralls I have been dying to wear all semester. Blasting HOT.

They are really interesting, for example they have something like 180 degree vision, and they get really nervous when you stand in certain areas of vision/non-vision (very prey-like behavior). They don't kick like horses (backwards), it's more like a roundhouse kick out to the side. They don't like change much, and are really really distracted/nervous when something is different in their environment or route (ie. to/from the paddock to the barn). Designing a good cow facility is like an art form. You have to Be The Cow to truly be successful and have Happy Cows.

Our first victims round the corner...and stop so short that the one in the back ran into the front one's butt.

This little newbie calf really did not like us.

Hmmm...maybe if we just mill around over here they won't notice us....

These were not Happy Cows. They were not interested in the least in playing nicely.

I now have mucho increased respect for my fellow large animal vets/techs/workers/etc. Those little guys were bucking, and it took all of my attention and energy to maintain control on them. I cannot imagine (or wait!) until we are working on the donkeys and adult cows. Super excited.

Slipping the halter over the calf's head.

Properly aligned harness.

This little guy was an absolute pain-in-the-ass.

Anna's turn for some harnessing.

The harnessing is really the easy part...it's the forcing an adolescent animal who weighs more than you to walk where you want them to that's difficult.

Very stubborn calves.

Notice the ineffective screwing of the tail. Supposedly that makes them walk forward, but statistically it didn't work that well. Of course, it could easily have been user error.

Success! Sort of...still need to go to the next paddock!

After rounding them all into the bigger paddock, we practiced walking them back and forth to get them used to handling. Sounds easy and all, but seriously folks. They're not just big Labs.

Post-Calf-Wrangling-Glow. Or it could be the smell wafting around me. Whatev.

Post-cow hands. Haven't been this dirty in a long time. You know you've really worked hard when even your boogers are dirty. (that one's for Kristin!) :)

And what better way to celebrate a successful calf wrangling afternoon than to shower up and receive a free catered meal with my fellow on campus mates?! With those crazy dorm fees you betcha the meal was free and all-you-can-eat-until-its-gone.

Clockwise from top middle:
*Pasta salad with some sort of italian dressing (yum!)

*Curried goat. Yes, goat.

*BBQ chicken.

*Some sort of hash brown vege deliciousness.

*Corn. Duh.

*The little puff pastry looking goodness are called Johnny Cakes. A little bland, but delish with the curried goat sauce!

And for dessert: ginger ice cream on spiced pound cake. The ice cream was a bit spicy for me, not a very typically ice cream taste...but mixed with the spice cake it was FABULOUS!

Time to return to the books!

Lesson of the Week #3.

I know it's been a while, please forgive me.

Tomorrow we have what I feel is the biggest exam thus far (anatomy). There is both a lecture and lab portion (all of you vets out there can just skip over this part, you've been there/done that):

Lecture
cranial nerves
spinal nerves
male and female reproductive systems (functions, organs, innervations, blood supply, etc)
urinary system (functions, organs, innervations, blood supply, etc)
plus 10 questions reviewing all previous material
Lab
pelvic limb (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
spinal cord/nerves/muscles
neck (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
face (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
skull (all bones, holes, etc.)

Why am I telling you all this during my lesson of the week? Well, because during review last week in lab Dr. Horowitz was going through the muscles along the spine and he told us about a nifty little muscle tucked in there who's job it is to lift the tail. Of course, that muscle won't be on our exam. And inevitably, that was the first muscle I memorized.

Sacrocaudalis dorsalis lateralis.

It just rolls off the tongue so easily. Very fun.

The second muscle I memorized, also NOT on the exam:

Levator labii superioris muscle.

That one is nicknamed "The Elvis Muscle", given that Elvis used it to make his funny face. I think it should be the "F-ing Chow Tried To Bite My Face" muscle.

So that's it folks, enjoy your new-found knowledge of canine anatomy and I'll talk to you later if I haven't drowned myself in formalin first.

Toodles!