Visit To New York City

Me and my niece. I spent the night in New York city on my way to California. It was great to have a chance to catch up with my sister and aunt (who was also visiting) and play with my niece, who is at a very cute age where she likes to imitate much of what you do. I'm wearing a purple superwoman cape that I had as a kid that now belongs to Talia. You might note the black eye, she fell on the corner of the scale at the midwife's office. Nothing that won't heal.


Below: My sister and Talia. Like mother like daughter! Debating what to order.

Block 4: Peace Out!

My semester is almost over! I finished block 4 today. The final exam consisted of two 8 hour written exams, given on back to back days (well, technically 9 hours since they were 8-5 but they expect you to eat lunch and take occasional breaks). Typical Cornell. Parts of it were hard and parts of it I knew really well. Yesterday was better than today. When I picked up the second section of the exam at nine a.m. today (it's case based and so is given in sections and you pick up the next section when you turn in the previous one, complicated, I know) I realized I had no idea how to answer several of the questions. So I lay down on the comfortable black couch in the library and took an hour nap (aside: we can take the exam anywhere in the veterinary college, we're on the honor code not to cheat, it's a nice system and I think cheating is quite rare). I mean, I had all day. I had tried napping the previous day during the afternoon but couldn't fall asleep. Unfortunately for my classmate hard at work at the table next to me, I snore, an embarrassingly unfeminine trait.
At any rate, I woke up without having had any flash of inspiration, sadly, but much less anxious. And I still finished the exam with half an hour to spare, at 4:30 p.m.
Block 4 has the reputation of being the hardest semester in vet school. It was a lot of hours sitting in lecture and a lot of memorization but I can honestly say I found it quite interesting and mostly enjoyed it. Except for immunology. Frustratingly, I continue to find immunology to be confusing. I'm planning to read some immunology over break to see if I can begin to consolidate what I learned this semester.
One more exam, in parasitology, and then I'm done and I can get out of here, head to New York city and from there to California. YAY!
It feels good to be almost done but I'm also exhausted and my brain feels like silly putty (perhaps someday I can turn that into a poem).

Cornell University Hospital For Animals On Television

There will be a segment filmed in the CUHA on television tonight:

For everyone who is an American Chopper fan (or a CUHA supporter!), we hope you will tune into American Chopper on Monday, December 13, at 9pm. We believe that the Cornell University Hospital for Animals will be included in a segment on this Monday’s episode of American Chopper on the Discovery Channel.

We expect that the episode will feature Gus, a bull mastiff who is the long-time companion of Paul, Sr. Gus was here this past summer for a procedure.

You can find a sneak preview at http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/american-chopper-sneak-peek/

You should definitely check it out as there is a lot of footage of my awesome advisor, Dr. Dan Fletcher.

Winter Jewels

Normally she spends her time outside looking up, scanning subconsciously for birds. This morning, taking out the kitchen scraps to the compost pile, she has to watch her step so as not to slip on the hidden steps and logs. On close inspection, the snow glitters in the wan winter sunlight, a blanket of hundreds of tiny sparkling crystals. She's never noticed this before, used to seeing snow reflecting sunlight as one large blinding flash of light, ecstatic to discover so many jewels underfoot.

Winter Tomato

She buys the last container of green tomatoes of the year at the farmer's market. Her Thanksgiving attempt at fried green tomatoes ends up a gloppy mush of undercooked tomato, bread crumbs and egg whites. She puts the remaining ones in the refrigerator, forgets they are there until one day in December when she stumbles on a bright red tomato in the back corner of a shelf, as out of place as a hummingbird in snow.
She takes it out, cuts it up. The first bite of salty, meaty flesh brings back memories of summer, fresh succulent vegetables abundant. The gooey pulp of the inside a luscious cool wet aftertaste.

Winter Sun

Mid-afternoon, the sun already setting, one week until solstice.

The winter sun slants through the trees, casting long shadows. Walking up the stairs to her room, light illuminates the landing. Bright and airy, she can imagine for a moment it is summer, can imagine how the house will feel open and alive then. The problem with day after day of grey is that it starts to feel like it will be winter forever. She begins to believe she has imagined spring, imagined summer, that they are simply a figment of her overactive mind.

When her college roommate was ten months pregnant with her son, long overdue, she told her, 'I feel like I've always been pregnant. I can't even remember how it feels to not be pregnant.' She knows that once the sun goes down she too will forget the feel of summer, forget how it feels not to carry an extra weight, but for now she hold onto hope, sun soaked memories.
*

The next day is even sunnier, brighter than it has been in weeks. She exclaims to her friends, 'Look at how gloriously blue the sky is. I wish I could capture it and put it in a bottle, take it out and put it in my window at night to remind me what sun feels like.' They respond, 'How poetic.' The irony is she isn't trying to be poetic at all.

It's on days like this, when she feels her heart finally beginning to unclench and a surge of energy and enthusiasm rush through her, that she realizes she's only just surviving the rest of the time, on what she considers her 'good' days. Last winter she was moribund, limp, lifeless. The improvement between this year and last is the difference between sinking and treading water. She pictures a white-tailed kite, wings fluttering while it hovers in one spot like an oversized hummingbird.

Kite, n. lit. the hovering bird; a rapacious bird of the hawk kind: a rapacious person: a paper toy for flying in the air, so called for its flying like a kite. {A.S. cyta; W. cod; Bret, kidel, 'a hawk,' from cudio, to hover.}

She's neither soaring nor swooping downward, she's treading air, suspended in space.

We Interrupt The Creative Writing Program To Resume Memorizing: Systemic Infections Differentials

Cows:
A Big Brown Bovine And Ebullient Cow
Anaplasma marginale
Borrelia burgdorferi-- Lyme disease
Bacillus anthracis-- anthrax
Bovine viral diarrhea virus
Anaplasma phagocytophilum-- tick-borne fever
Ehrlichia ruminatum-- African heartwater disease
Chlamydophila pecorum

Horses:
A Big Brown Belgian Equine And Nervous Equine
Actinobacillus equuli-- sleepy foal disease, navel ill, shigellosis of foals
Burkholderia mallei-- glanders
Burkholderia pseudomallei-- melioidosis
Borrelia burgdorferi-- Lyme disease
Equine infectious anemia
Anaplamsa phagoctyophilum
Neorickettsia risticii-- Potomac horse fever
Eastern, Western and Venezuelan encephalitides

Swine:
My, My, My Holy Big Bad Francisella
Mycoplasma hyosynoviae
Mycoplasma suis
Mycoplasma hyorhinis
Haemophilus parasuis-- Glasser's disease
Burkholderia pseudomallei-- melioidosis
Bacillus anthrax-- antrhax
Francisella tularensis-- tularemia

Sheep and Goats:
A Big Bad Crop And Bold Francisella
Anaplamsa ovis
Burkholderia mallei-- glanders
Burkholderia pseudomallei-- melioidosis
Chlamydophila pecorum-- stiff lamb disease
Anaplasma phagoctyophilum-- tick-borne fever
Francisella tularensis

Dogs:
Another Big Bad Neutered Rottweiler, Holy Infectious Crazy Canine Coccidiodes

Anaplasma phagocytophilum
Borrelia burgoderferi-- Lyme disease
Blastomyces dermatitidis
Neorickettsia helminthoeca-- salmon disease, salmon poisoning disease
Rickettsia rickettsii-- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Histoplasma capsulatum var capsulatum
Infectious canine hepatitis
Canine parvovirus
Canine distemper
Coccidiodes immitis

Cats:
Yucky Muddy Hissing Bad Fat Frowning Felines
Yersinia pestis-- plague
Mycoplasma haemofelis
Histoplasma capsulatumm var capsulatum
Burkholderia mallei-- glanders
Feline Leukemia virus
Feline panleukopenia
Feline acquired immunodeficiency virus

Birds:
My New Parrot Bird
Mycoplasma synoviae
Newcastle disease
Pastereulla multocida subspecies gallicida-- fowl cholera
Borrelia anserina

Zoonotic:
Yersinia pestis-- plague
Francisella tularensis-- tularemia
Burkholderia mallei-- glanders
Burkholderia pseudomallei-- melioidosis
Chalmydophila pecorum
Borrelia burgdorferi-- Lyme disease
Rickettsia rickettsii-- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Bacillus anthracis-- anthrax
West Nile virus
Colorado tick fever

Wind

At night the wind knocks on her windows, softly, insistently first, then frustrated banging full force. Let me iiiiiin. Let me iiiiiiiiiiin. The old oak tree a low groan. The window panes shudder in their frames, no match for the onslaught. Ice cold drafts slip in through the cracks, uninvited, unwelcome.

There's something oddly comforting about staying up late studying, Simon on her lap, space heater emitting a seeping warmth, tucked in her tiny study nook jutting out over the house entrance. Starless cloudy pitch black night, waves of wind pummeling the house.

Later, trying to fall asleep, she lies in bed listening, wistfully wishing the wind was a person, a Romeo serenading her from below. She drifts off into fantasy, arms wrapped tightly around her blanket

Snow Globe, Magic

She's living in a snow globe. Turn the world upside down and presto-- there's mesmerizing swirling white confetti. Shake. Repeat. Day after day. Confined in a bubble. Same old scenery. Stock snowman, fir tree, gingerbread house. She's dizzy from being upside down, blood rushing to her head.
*
When she is three her mom tells her that Santa Claus doesn't exist. Jewish girls don't get presents for Christmas. She spins the dreidel and lights candles, trying hard to remember the words to the blessing from night to night. She thinks her friends are silly, believing that someone comes down their chimney overnight, but she keeps the secret to herself for years, until they finally figure out the truth.

The magic ended for her then. Later, she put lost teeth under her pillow so the Tooth Fairy could come and take them, but only because she wanted the dollar bill that she got in return. Her parents took the first tooth and put it in a cup of Coke. In the morning it was gone, not even a trace left behind. She stopped begging to be allowed to drink soda.

She discovers magic in nature, never ceasing to find wonderment in the metamorphasis of tadpoles. Staring at the embryos in their clear eggs under her kiddie microscope, watching them change hour by hour, wiggling in their jelly sacs. Wriggling free, so tiny. The limbs popping out, one by one. First a bump by the head, then suddenly, arm, complete with tiny webbed fingers, perfect. She knows that once she was a tiny embryo, tries to imagine herself as a tadpole, so hard to believe without a shred of memory of her watery beginnings.

She's jealous of her friend's daughter, Grace, six years old. She believes in Santa Claus but finds the thought of him coming down her chimney scary, begs her parents to cover the chimney. When she finds a necklace of fairy dust under the tree with the inscription "Follow your dreams," she's elated. Her friend, Katie, miraculously, received the same present, Grace tells her with amazement. Grace's imagination knows no bounds. Her mom straps a horn to Snowfall's head and her horse is instantly transformed into unicorn. The magic permeates the little girl's richly imaginative world, and although it is too late for her, she basks in Grace's joy.

Desire

Desire flits in and out of view, like a yellow warbler hopping among shrubbery. Just when you think you have bright plumage in focus with your binoculars, it alights, disappearing into thick underbrush. Rare winter migrant, passing through, passing interest. Women, half-imagined, daydreams, as elusive as the rarest of warblers.

One winter a storm blew in a flock of red phalaropes. Reversed sexual dimorphism. Pelagic. Halophilic. She found out too late about their arrival, they were already gone. Imagined.

In sea horses, males carry pregnancy. Reproductive reversal. Pipehorses. She's seen the leafy sea dragon in aquariums, camouflaged, delicate fronds slowly undulating underwater. She longs to be that delicate, unearthly gossamer tendrils floating lazily, seductive as a siren.

Time To Buy A Shovel; The Black Market in Lab Notebooks

So I know I've been missing in action for awhile. There's nothing really that interesting to report. I'm surviving. Studying, writing poetry, the usual. SmileySuperLesbian called me tonight and she asked what I was up to and I said, "you know, just taking my nightly bath with Parham." There was an awkward silence until it clicked for her that I was referring to our immunology textbook. Yes, folks, that is how exciting my life is-- I spend my evenings in a hot bath reading my textbook. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of immunology. It's OK. If Boron was my boyfriend (meaning I really liked physiology and spent a lot of time with my books) then Parham is a casual acquaintance.

In other news, winter seems to have arrived in force today. We had our first snow that stuck of the year. While some people think this is beautiful and exciting, I find it rather depressing. I firmly believed it was just going to stay late fall forever, well, at least until spring arrived. Denial is a wonderful thing and worked well right up until the point I looked outside and saw everything covered in white fluff. Yuck.

I've been an embarrassingly bad student this semester. Not only have I slept through class for the first time in my life, I also skipped a class for the first time in my academic career this week. I did this on the same day that another classmate of mine skipped for the first time in her life as well. There's a first time for everything. Almost as scintillating as reading immunology in the bathtub.

In more bizarre news, I managed to lose my lab notebook for the SECOND time this semester. The first time I left it at a computer desk in the library and it never showed back up. After that I left it in my car for awhile and just used my lab partner's. Then I decided to bring it into lab to try to pull my weight and thought it would be a good idea to leave it in the drawer at my lab bench so I wouldn't lose it again. Presto, it disappeared. Magic disappearing act. Or maybe someone is selling them on the black market... because just this evening my lab partner sent out an email asking if anyone had accidentally picked up her lab notebook-- yes, hers has also mysteriously disappeared into thin air. That makes a total of three missing lab notebooks. And yes, they're good reading, but NOT that good. Of course lab is 15% of our final so we will both need to replace them somehow. And then guard them with our lives as they are apparently a hot commodity.

OK, that's all folks. Two weeks till finals and then I'm free for six whole weeks!

Memorizing The Phonebook: Diseases And Names

Glasser's dz= Haemophilus parasuis gm neg bacillus, facultative anaerobe
Fowl cholera= Pasteurella multocida sp gallicida gm neg coccobacillus, facultative anaerobe
Sleepy foal dz= Navel ill= Actinobacillus equuli gm neg coccobacillus, facultative anaerobe
Plague (Bubonic, Pneumonic, Septicemic)= Yersinia pestis, gm neg coccobacillus, facultative anaerobe
Tularemia= Francisella tularensis, gm neg bacillus, aerobic
Glanders= Burkholderia mallei, gm neg bacillus, aerobic
Fowl spirochetosis= Borrelia anserina
Lyme dz= Borrelia burgdorferi, gm neg spirochete microaerophilic
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever= Rickettsia rickettsi, gm neg coccobacillus
Q Fever (stands for Query Fever since etiologic agent was unknown)= gm neg obl intracellular coccobacillus
African Heartwater Disease= Ehrlichia ruminatum, stains gm neg
Salmon Poisoning Disease= Salmon poisoning= Neorickettsia helminthoeca
Potomoc Horse Fever= Neorickettsia risticii, stains gm neg
Anthrax= Bacillus anthracis, gm pos strict aerobic spore forming bacillus
Avian Leukosis, simple retrovirus two copies single stranded genome
Ovine Pulmonary Adenomatosis (Jaagsiekta), simple retrovirus two copies single stranded genome
Feline Leukemia virus, simple retrovirus (number one cause of death by infectious agent in cats)
Feline Sarcoma virus (FeSV), simple retrovirus
Bovine Leukemia Virus, simple retrovirus-- lymphocytosis, Bovine Sarcoma Virus may arise
Equine viral arteritis
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus
Lactate Dehydrogenase Elevating Virus
Simian Hemorrhagic Fever Virus
Cowpox Virus
Lumpy Skin Dz Of Cattle
Ovine Range Fever (ORF)
Bovine Papular Stomatitis
Swine Pox
Myxomatosis Of Rabbits
Ectromelia
Goat And Sheep Pox
Fowlpox
African Swine Fever

Saved By The Mouse

I've been falling asleep in class lately. A lot. For the first time in my academic career. It's like the dam has broken.

This morning I drifted in and out of epidemiology and was barely paying attention in my bacteriology lecture. The professor was talking about some disease where pustules formed and then popped when two of my classmates in the corner interrupted her mid-sentence with their shrieking. At first I, and the rest of the class, assumed they were horrified by the image of the pustules popping. But this must be like the 50th disease we've learned about with vesicular lesions that rupture. When they could regain their speech, they said, breathlessly, "MOUSE!" We all looked. There was a little grey mouse with giant black eyes scurrying back under the podium. Our professor was terribly embarrassed-- we are in the midst of our AVMA re-accreditation process. With as much dignity as she could muster she sputtered, "Well, it IS that time of year."

The class turned into a circus, with the mouse periodically racing out from under the podium, across the floor, into someone's backpack, then back to the safety of the podium, all the while with our professor chasing it with an empty coffee can and three or four students scrambling on the floor while it madly deftly darted between them all.

Eventually one of my classmates caught it barehanded and banished it from the building. We joked we would time how long it took the mouse to re-enter the classroom but we didn't see it again.

Thank goodness for the mouse, at least I was awake for the rest of the lecture.

It's late. I spent the evening studying bacteria. I remember one of my vet tech professors saying that large animal disease have the coolest names. So very true. I can now tell you the etiological agent of African Heartwater disease is Ehrlichia ruminatum. I won't go into Blackwater and Black Leg. Can you imagine telling someone, "I'm sorry m'am, but I believe your dog has Black Leg!"

I've accumulated even more esoteric trivia useful only for cocktail parties than in previous classes. (Did I mention how hyenas give birth through their clitorises-- remind me if not to do so-- that was 3b). For example, anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) used to be seen mainly in people who worked with sheep-- it was called wool-sorter's disease. Nowdays it is seen most commonly in drumming circles. Yes, imported African drums are sometimes made with hides carrying anthrax spores (no, the tanning process does not kill the spores) which are then dislodged and aerosolized by drumming. So think twice before you get a drum from Africa. Of course, I have one hanging in my room as I write (courtesy of my landlady). Don't worry, I've been careful not to move it in the slightest! :)

A Good Bird Day

Yesterday I snapped this shot of the local red tail while filling up at the gas station. I like the way the diagonal lines turned out but I don't think it is completely in focus which is frustrating.

I also saw a pileated woodpecker in my backyard yesterday but wasn't fast enough to get a picture! I saw a flash of a large black bird with white on the underside of its wings and immediately knew it was a pileated. Then I heard its call, very similar to a Northern flicker. I took off into the woods after it and was able to get it in sight for a brief few minutes. It was a good bird day:)

Accurate Fortune Cookie:)

One of my pet sitting clients kindly treated me to a Chinese dinner last night. This is what my fortune cookie said:

'Excitement and intrigue follow you closely wherever you go!

Losing My Mind II

A few days ago my landlady gave me a shopping list and I didn't end up going to the grocery store until after 10. I spent twenty minutes looking for 'red skinned potatoes.' The only skinned potatoes were white, not red. The checkout guy finally pointed out to me that she probably meant potatoes with red skin. Of course! I felt stupid.

Then this morning in parasitology our professor was talking about trematodes and said you get a certain species from eating eggs. And I thought, weird, I've never heard of getting a trematode from eating a chicken egg! Then about a minute later it occurred to me that he meant a trematode egg (probably at the morula stage). I think I need to sleep more!

Losing My Mind I

Yesterday in our lab SmileySuperLesbian was chatting with my lab partner and I and mentioned going to Northampton last weekend. I said wistfully, "I wish I could have gone with you! Why didn't you tell me?" To which she replied, "I asked you to carpool with me and you said you were busy." I was so confused. I said, "What was I doing last weekend that I was busy?" My lab partner, KindEnvironmentalist, said, "You were petsitting." Right! You know you are in trouble when your lab partner knows what you were doing the past few days better than you do!

Also, I've been forgetting where I parked lately and have spent lots of time wandering around B lot looking for my car.

People talk about penguins falling off the iceburg in vet school-- which means your head becomes so full of information that you start forgetting things you have already learned. Some people even forget simple words like bed! I haven't experienced this so far but I think my forgetfulness with my schedule and my car is a sign I'm starting to lose penguins in my own special way. Oh well.

In good news, I passed my block 4 midterm by enough that I am not worried about passing the course although I would like to bump up my grade a bit so I will have to work harder.

I've been having lots of fun lately with my study group, pet sitting and tutoring an undergraduate in biochemistry. I've also been working on staining and finishing up some pretty wooden wine boxes which is great fun.

All in all, a much better fall than last year, thank goodness, despite losing my mind.

Morning Sky IV

Morning Sky III

Morning Sky II

Morning Sky I

As you can tell, I continue to be just as (if not more) captivated by the sky as by my classes. Which is not to say that I'm not enjoying school. I'm just also really enjoying photography

Happy Halloween From The Vet School

Above: Me in the boots and mask.
Below: Class photo. I'm nibbling on the nun's ear and she's giggling as a result.

Below: One of my classmates, who happens to be in my tutor group, dressed up as Amblyomma americana, the Lone Star tick. Awesome!

Fun With Differential Diagnoses-- Alimentary Tract

Cattle Alimentary Tract Infections
Bovines Are Extremely Fun And Never Smoke. Bovines Can Cross Crazy Marsh Streets.
Bovine Rotavirus
Actinobacillus lignieresi-- wooden tongue
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Fusobacterium necrophorum-- calf diphtheria
Actinomyces bovis-- lumpy jaw
Necrotoxigenic Escherischia coli
Salmonella enterica-- serovars Dublin, Typhinmurium, Newport
Bovine Coronavirus
Clostridium perfringens
Clostridium novyi-- black disease
Clostridium novyi type D
Mycobacterium avium spp paratuberculosis
Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli

Horse Alimentary Tract Infections
Rotavirus Can Cross Crazy Streets
Rotavirus
Clostridium difficile
Clostridium perfringens-- A,B,C
Clostridium piliform-- Tyzzer's disease
Salmonella enterica serovars Anatum, Typhimurium

Swine Alimentary Tract Infections
Swine Break The Law. Swine Can Enjoy New Fun.
Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli-- edema disease
Brachyspira hyodysenteriae
Transmissible Gastroenteritis virus
Lawsonia intracellularis
Salmonella enterica serovars Choleraesuis, Typhimurium
Clostridium perfringens type A, C
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Necrotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Fusobacterium necrophorum

Sheep Alimentary Tract Infections
Everyone Can Cross Crazy Marshes.
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Clostridium novyi-- black disease
Clostridium novyi type D-- redwater
Clostridium perfringens types A, B, C, D
Mycobacterium avium ssp paratuberculosis

Goat Alimentary Tract Infections
My Caprines
Mycobacterium avium ssp paratuberculosis
Clostridium perfringens type B, C, D

Dog Alimentary Tract Infections
Canines Cross Crazy Cosmpolitan Cities And Also Catch Every Single Infectious Pathogen.
Canine Parvovirus
Campylobacter jejuni
Campylobacter coli
Clostridium perfringens type A
Actinomyces viscosus
Actinomyces hordeovulneris
Clostridium piliforme-- Tyzzer's disease
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimuirium
Infectious canine hepatitis
Prototheca zopfi

Cat Alimentary Tract Infections
Some Felines Cross Cities
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium
Campylobacter jejuni
Cambylobacter coli
Feline panleukopenia virus

Chicken and Turkey Alimentary Tract Infections
Some Cross Cities
Salmonella enterica serovars Pullorum, Gallinarum
Clostridium perfringens types A, C
Closteridium albicans

Zoonotic
Never Ever Say Caboom Cashmoom (That's me running out of neumonics-- Cashmoom???)
Necrotoxigenic Escherichia coli
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli
Salmonella enterica
Campylobacter jejuni
Campylobacter coli

More Fun With Differential Diagnoses-- Neuro

Cattle Neurological System Infections
Bovines Can Clap. Holy Listeria!
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (prion)
Clostridium tetani
Clostridium botulinum
Histophilus somni
Listeria monocytogenes

Horse Neurological System Infections
Equines Can Clap Equally Well
Equine herpes virus 1
Clostridium tetani
Clostridium botulinum
Eastern, Western, Venezualan encephalitides
West Nile Virus

Pig Neurological System Infections
Pseudorabid Swine Clap
Streptococcus suis
Clostridium tetani
Pseudorabies

Sheep&Goat Neurological Infections
Caprines Can Clap Lovely Scrapies
Caprine arthritis encephalomyelitis
Clostridium tetani
Clostridium botulinum
Listeria monocytogenes
Scrapie

Dog Neurological Infections
Rabid Canids Clap
Rabies
Clostridium tetani
Cryptococcus neoformans

Cat Neurological Infections
Felines Clap
Cryptococcus neoformans
Feline panleukopenia

Bird Neurological Infections
Avians Clap
Avian encephalitis
Clostridium botulimun

Rabbit Neurological Infections
Encephalitozoon cuniculi

Zoonotic Neurological Infections
Listeria Sucks Rabid Eggs
Listeria monocytogenes
Streptococcus suis
Encephalitozoon cuniculi
Rabies

Hint Of Winter

sun warms my skin
wind, silky soft, licks my face and bare arms

i could almost forget
it is fall

except in the shade
there is the hint of winter
a slight nip to the air,
an unexpected chill

and all around me
the trees are exploding with color
leaves leaching chlorophyll
to yield
fiery orange and blood red maples
burnt copper oaks

i want it to stay like this forever
yellow-orange leaves brushing against
robin egg blue sky

but winter is knocking
hail pinging against my windshield
portends the ominous cold to come

i prepare to hibernate
hunker down against the now bitter, driving wind
in the spring my heart and mind will thaw
*
Note: It hailed for the first time Friday and snowed for the first time Sunday, on Halloween (and also hailed again). I wrote this poem on Saturday afternoon while taking a lovely walk from a friend's house to the commons where I perused the local used bookstore and bought an old out of print book of Hebrew poetry which I read walking home and which inspired me to write a series of poems instead of studying Saturday night.

There's A First Time For Everything

Today I fell asleep in class for the first time in my entire multi-decade academic career. I've zoned out before, but never konked out.

My friend says that it was extremely obvious I was asleep because I put my head down on the table and sprawled my arm out. I feel kind of bad about it. Oh well.

There's a first time for everything but perhaps it would have been better if there hadn't been in this case. I guess I'll never know the history of Marek's disease research at Cornell (yes, we have historical lectures as well as scientific ones!) Too bad.

Fun With Differential Diagnoses Or How To Goof Off When You Don't Want To Study

I know I haven't posted anything veterinary related in a long time, which is a reflection that I now have a much more balanced life. In fact, I have been entertaining renaming my blog Skies Of Ithaca since mostly I post photos of the interesting clouds and sunsets.

However, I have to buckle down now. In the next five days I somehow have to learn a massive number of differential diagnoses. I guess I should've started this earlier. I am hoping to come up with some good neumonics. Any help appreciated! (Note: the lists are not exhaustive, simply the most important pathogens. There are always more!)

Cattle Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Man! My, My, My, My, Holy Infectious Bovine Pasteurella=
Manheimia hemolytica-- shipping fever
Mycobacterium bovis
Mycoplasma bovis
Mycoplasma mycoides spp. mycoides (small colony type)-- contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
Mycoplasma dispar
Histophilus somni
Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (BHV-1)
Bovine respiratory syncitial virus
Pasteurella multocida

Horse Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Alas! My! A Runover Sloth Stinks, Ew, Ew, Ew=
Actinobacillus equuli
Mycoplasma felis
Aspergillus spp.
Rhodococcus equi
Streptococcus equi spp. equi-- strangles
Streptococcus equi spp. zooepidemicus
Equine herpes virus 1 (equine abortion virus)
Equine herpes virus 4 (equine rhinopneumonitis virus)
Equine influenza

Goat Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Man! My, My, My!=
Manheimia haemolytica
Mycoplasma mycoides ssp mycoides (large colony type)
Mycoplasma mycoides spp capri
Mycoplasma capricolum ssp capripneumoniae-- contagious caprine pleuropneumonia

Pig Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Alack! My! Pasteurella Porcines Have Strong Backs!=
Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae
Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae
Pasteurella multocida
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus
Haemophilus parasuis
Streptococcus suis
Bordatella bronchiseptica

Sheep Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Man! My! Pasteurella!=
Manheimia haemolytica
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae
Pasteurella multocida

Dog Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Cough, Cough, Cough, Cough! No! No! Bad Aspergillosis!=
Canine parainfluenza virus-- canine tracheobronchitis
Canine distemper virus
Canine adenovirus type 1
Canine adenovirus type 2
Nocardia asteroides
Nocardia nova
Bordatella bronchiseptica
Aspergillus spp. (A. fumigatas most common)

Cat Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Such Fat Felines!=
Streptococcus canis
Feline viral rhinotracheitis
Feline calicivirus

Chicken Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
My, My! An Aspergillosis Egg! Insidious Avian Infectious Newcastle=
Mycobacterium avium ssp. avium-- tuberculosis
Mycoplasma gallisepticum
Avibacterium paragallinararum-- infectious coryza
Aspergillosis spp (A. fumigatas most common)
Escheria coli

Turkey Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
My, My! A Bad Cold Egg!=
Mycoplasma gallisepticum
Mycoplasma meleagridis
Aspergillus spp. (A. fumigatus most common)
Bordatella avium-- turkey coryza
Chlamydophila psittaci
Escheria coli

Mice Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Mycoplasma pulmonis

Rabbit Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Pasteurella multocida-- snuffles

Bird Respiratory Tract Infectious Ddx:
Mycoplasma gallisepticum
Chlamydia psittaci

ZOONOTIC respiratory tract pathogens:
My! Pasteurella Can Rock!
Mycobacterium bovis
Pasteurella multocida
Chlamydophila multocida
Rhodococcus equi

Leaves Of Ithaca

Goodbye Dear Sweet, Gentle, Handsome Moose

I was working in the hospital this morning when Moose came in hit by car and died. He had massive internal injuries and possibly a broken back.

He had been up on Mr. Right's land with IntrepidHomeImprovmentMom and had run after her other dog who had escaped an electric fence and went onto the highway. It all happened in the blink of an eye. It's one of those freak accidents that makes you wonder the unanswerable questions about life-- why do good things happen to wonderful animals (or people)?

It was a huge shock to everyone. IntrepidHomeImprovementMom was very protective of her dogs and always made sure the fence gate was shut and did frequent perimeter checks of the fence at home. Sometimes freak accidents happen and it doesn't make any sense.

He was my favorite dog in the house. So happy all the time. So incredibly good looking-- he was huge for a Boxer and had the nicest face.

I will miss him terribly as will everyone else.

So Much Light and In Love With The World

Above: Every Saturday morning I go to the farmer's market and every Saturday this fall it has been sunny and I have spent minutes just admiring and photographing the glowing light-infused honey. This morning was especially beautiful.

It's been a long time since I've been really truly happy. A long time since I was able to be fully present in the moment, although there are times in my life that I have been much better about mindfully living and not worrying so much about the past or the future.

I realized upon returning to school this year, after having such a difficult time adjusting to moving across the country last year, that I was actually happy this fall.

There's a passage in Sara Greenslit's _The Blue Of Her Body_ that captures how I've been feeling lately, especially today:

Lovely. The fields are butter, the trees.

The light, so much light, now lower, hits the trees at leaf-level.

She is in love with the world at these moments. She sustains the present tense, briefly. The sound of driving over leaves. Light, and be lit. This moment is good enough.

Block 4: Off To A Rollicking Start

Monday morning started with me sleeping through my alarm. Really. On the first day of the semester. Off to a great start already. Luckily I naturally wake up early, around 7, so I wasn't late for class.

I had a dream Sunday night that I had a bad outbreak of a nasty virus that has turned out to be the subject of several lectures this week. A rather strange coincidence that my dream portended the subject of the virology lectures.

Just because I made it to class did not by any stretch of the imagination mean that I was awake. In the second lecture of the day one of my classmates asked the professor to slow down so he could copy his slide. I had no idea why since we had been given notes that were an exact copy of the lecture slides.

It was only last night that I realized this is what was written under innate immunity on the second slide:

h17ct klllng
hi nlkzti n
hn 1kc c kti n

And this on another slide:

k117lzktkv 7 c
k1h7t k 1c h 17c 71
1 h kl c 71

Needless to say I had to copy this section of the notes from a classmate! I guess that's what happens when I don't read the notes before class and am not awake for class. Not sure how the letters got all scrambled but that was quite confusing gobbledygook.

The amount of material in this block is, as promised by upperclass students, completely overwhelming. And very detailed. For example, in this same soluble protein lecture in the innate immune system series mentioned above, there is a sentence in the section on lactoferrin that says:

Contains a loop structure with a basic α-helical domain whose primary sequence is very similar to frog magainins.

Frog magainins??? Thank goodness for google! A frog magainin is an antimicrobial peptide. Who knew? And do I really need to know this level of detail to be a good practitioner? This is the problem with having researchers lecture to you-- they are so detail focused and not as clinical. Oh well, it's interesting at least.

I remember last year one second year describing her feeling of being overwhelmed in block 4 as feeling like she was lying at the bottom of a swimming pool staring up. This is not inaccurate. I've talked to several of my classmates who haven't even started studying yet because they don't know where to begin. So overwhelmed we're paralyzed. Vet school is fabulous!

On top of block 4, we also have a parasitology class. Both classes have weekly online quizzes. Our professor generously put up a mock practice quiz for parasitology. I got a 2/10. Yikes. I compared scores with my classmates and found several other people who made a 2, one with a 3 and one with a 4. I might have to crank up my studying. Sigh.

More Ithaca Sky

This top one is my favorite. It is a classic Ithaca sky. It is amazing the contrast of greys. You can say it is a grey day, but there are definitely many shades of grey in Ithaca!

And some taken leaving the vet school parking lot:

We've also had some amazing sunsets lately:

Aesthetics Of The Farmer's Market: Your Input Needed

I'm going to print some of my farmer's market photos and frame them and hang them in the kitchen. (Taking photos at the farmer's market has become a relaxing pastime and I even met another woman there taking photos too for the first time this weekend. It was a soothing afternoon diversion after euthanizing Lindy Saturday morning).

These are the three I am thinking of printing as 16x20-- the top two would go on one side and the honey one on the opposite wall which is not as prominent visually.

Of the others, I was thinking about printing five 8x10s-- I have put them in order of my preference from top to bottom but am curious which ones you like best.

Goodbye My Sweet Angel

I euthanized Lindy this morning. It was very peaceful. We tried to do it on my bed but we couldn't place a catheter because she had some weird bleeding diathesis and formed a huge hematoma whenever we poked her. So we took her to the ICU for catheter placement.

I euthanized her in the quiet room reserved for euthanasia. I stroked and kissed her head while her doctor injected propofol and her head slumped into my hand. Then we gave her a massive overdose of barbituates. I didn't expect to cry but I started to tear up and cried the whole way home.

My only regret is that I did not have the strength to let her go a day or two earlier. She definitely had a lot of pleural fluid again on Friday during her echo even though we had tapped her Wednesday night. I am sure it was not comfortable for her to breathe her last days and I regret that I kept hoping she would get better and just couldn't give up that hope until this morning.

She was only 9, but she'd been in renal failure her whole life and so had quite a long life for a renal failure patient. I had been giving her fluids for the past three years, every day. She just hadn't been right this fall, she was so weak and vomited frequently and was inappetant. I felt certain it was her time.

I never did find out what caused the pleural effusion and Lindy to fail as a result. The echo was showed a normal heart with mildly decreased contractility but normal cardiac output, wall thickness and atria size. The other differentials are some kind of cancer (lymphoma, mesothelioma), vasculitis secondary to the uremia or pressure from the pseudocyst on her kidney causing blood to regurgitate back into the aorta and leak that way.
*
Dear Lindy,

I will miss you so much. You were such a sweet cat. You never once tried to scratch or bite me even though I poked you with an 18 gauge needle multiple times a day for years and poked your neck and bladder frequently for blood and urine samples. The worst thing you ever did was wiggle a little when things really hurt, like when we tapped your chest the week you died.

I will miss your deep purrs, how you liked to crawl under the covers and curl up next to my chest at night. The way you curled one side of your lip up in a smile when you were happy to see me. The way you always wanted one part of you to be touching me, whether it was your paw on my leg, your side against my arm or your the tip of your tail just touching my hand.

It is so unfair that you had to suffer so much in life, sweet girl. You were very stoic right up until the end, eating, drinking, grooming, cuddling, going outside to lie in the sun and sitting in the window looking out.

You taught me so much about what it means to care for a sick pet and that will be invaluable to me when I become a doctor and will help me to be compassionate with clients in similar situations. Thank you for teaching me about how important it is to be an astute observer, how even an astute observer can miss the subtle signs of dyspnea and how difficult it can be to make a decision about euthanasia when what is going on is a mystery.

I will miss you and love you always.

HT

Gratuitous Cute Puppy Picture

Me at Felicia's Thursday night for the gay graduate student night with a very cute labrador x hound puppy, only 9 weeks old!

Tennis Star At Work

Today I went to see one of TennisStar's matches. She won. Of course :)
She is really an awesome player, especially for just starting high school.






















Above: Moose. Big and goofy.
Below: IntrepidHomeImprovmentMom and Moose.