Here it is, November 24th. A year ago (Tuesday, not the 24th), I took the national board exams, which I promptly celebrated with friends at Los Tres Amigos. Josh flew into Lansing: we hadn't seen each other since June. I had to go to my last day of orthopedic rotation Wednesday morning while Josh did the Thanksgiving Dinner grocery shopping.

This year, Josh is flying into Akron tomorrow night. It's "only" been a month since we last saw each other (though it seems to have been forever ago). I'm on call until 8am Thursday morning and then we'll drive to Pittsburgh to celebrate Thanksgiving with his sister (driving in from Rochester, NY) and Becca. I've almost finished purchasing my charges for the feast (beverages, pickles, olives, ingredients for orange-pecan buttered yams) and have yet to purchase bread/dinner rolls. Rather than having spent the weekend studying, I was on call.

Friday night I traded with Dr. K (I covered last Saturday while he was at his son's football playoff game) so that I could go out with sister Amanda, cousin Becky and friend Rebecca, who all drove up from Columbus. We had a delicious mexican dinner before fighting the throngs of tweenies screaming to see New Moon. We all enjoyed the movie. I plan to see it again this weekend with Becca, and then with my housemate at some point in time...

Saturday morning after a quick breakfast with my guests (who headed south quickly thereafter in time to catch the all important OSU-UMi game, which had the correct winner in this state), I came to the clinic to treat the hospitalized patients. A neurologic alpaca who's been here a week and a half, and an ADR (aint doin right) alpaca who's been here two weeks (along with her healthy and adorable daughter!) I then ran to town to finish up some errands before I got a call that a lethargic and diarrhea-cria was headed into the clinic. I set everything up and met the owners, who'd driven an hour north to get here. I ended up hospitalizing the little guy and his mom. Turns out he was LOADED with intestinal parasites (strongyles, coccidia, eimeria & tapeworms!) By the time I sent him home Monday night he was looking and feeling much better!

After getting the alpacas settled into their stall, I went to the house and fell asleep reading (Midnight Sun, again). The pager woke me up about a half hour later: a horse near down south had reared up in the trailer and essentially scalped himself. Freezing after crawling out from under my pile of blankets in which I was so pleasantly napping, I made some hot chocolate and jumped in the truck. Considering that the last thoroughbred head-meets-trailer-gone-wrong-incident I sutured up was "allergic" to "all medications" so I was unable to sedate him (I did use lidocaine to block the wound area, though I believe if the girl - who was NOT the owner - had known what I was doing before I did it she would have insisted he was allergic to that TOO) to suture his forehead together, I thought that fixing up the 7 month old heavily sedated quarterhorse went pretty smoothly!

Driving back to the hospital to do night treatments, I was THRILLED to discover that neither my back nor my sciatic nerve hurt at all! My chiropractor's a genius!!!

Sunday morning, I completed treatments on the alpacas and then headed to the YMCA to get my basketball fix for the weekend. The pager didn't go off ONCE during the 2 hours I was playing. I managed to do something to my left (unsurgerized) ankle. I'd say I sprained it but it's not swollen, black and blue OR painful like a typical sprain... I kept playing and overall had a lot of fun.

Since I was nearly in Chardon, I went in search of a petfood store with ferret supplies, was misdirected by my GPS and ended up nearly to Lake Erie. It was a beautiful day for a drive, my back/sciatic were fine and the pager didn't go off, so no complaints! I took myself to lunch at Pizza Hut in Chardon, where I vaguely watched the first quarter of the Browns-Lions game (which started out well for Ohio, and turned into a rather embarrassing upset. I mean "go lioins"...er... nevermind, who cares? football, bah!) Just as I finished eating, the pager went off.

This horse was some arab national champ recently; all I could understand over the phone from the barn manager who speaks with a VERY thick spanish accent was that the horse was lame and the owner wanted radiographs. I called Dr. L to see if he'd meet me there (shock: he said sure), stopped by the clinic to get the radiograph machine and check on my patients, and headed south. Turns out the mare was tying up (severe muscle cramps in the back/gluteals).

As I was there I got a call from another client (well, actually, the wife of the guy who owned the boarding stable I was at) that her [also recent champ or something] arab gelding had been kicked in the pasture and had a very swollen front leg. The radiograph machine and I headed back north. Turns out that horse was fine (no fractures to the radius), so I headed back to the clinic to check on the patients.

Pager. Head south. Corner of the lip laceration. It was the weekend of arab champ lamenesses and horse head lacerations (Dr. K who was on call Monday night actually had another horse with a similar lip laceration!) Once I finished putting that horse back together, I met Dr. L and some pharmaceutical representatives at a local restaurant to review the radial radiographs and to eat a delicious dinner. While there, I managed to lock the keys in the truck (genius) and was rescued by my housemate bringing the "bag o keys" from the clinic, which luckily had a spare key in it!

The weekend sure beat the one at this time last year!!!

As I was driving through the Village of Burton yesterday, I was shocked to see cut-out reindeer, santas, snowmen and carolers set up in the town square where only a few days ago scarecrows and leaves occupied the space. There are festive wreaths with lights on every lamppost. It was nearly 70 degrees out yesterday, hence my surprise with these holiday decorations. Then I got to thinking about it: Duluth's Christmas City of the North Parade will be in two weeks. Today the temperature is dropping, and we had snow last week. I guess if the town is decorated by volunteers, it's easier to do it early in nice weather than later in snow and ice. It still seems too early for this!

On another note, we didn't get to play with a rooster today because the owner was unavailable. Perhaps later in the week...

I spent about 45 minutes at the end of the day playing "PIG" (rather than HORSE) with my boss on a 8.5 foot rim. I've never shot at a short rim, and haven't really messed around with trick shots. I think we each won 2 games. We had fun. Because I have a game tonight, I finished up shootin by raising the rim back to 10 feet. I'm not sure if this bit of practice will help my shooting tonight, but the way things have been going, it can't really hurt.

For those of you unfamiliar with facebook, there's a quick way to let people know what you're doing called a status update. There's a limited number of characters, so there's no pressure to write a whole bunch, and people can easily make comments on your status. For this Sunday night blog post, I decided to copy and paste my week's status updates and expand upon them somewhat... Maybe if it works (let me know!) I'll try to do this a little more often as an attempt to post more often.

- November 1 at 9:04am: enjoying the extra morning light, but not looking forward to darkness at 16:00.
Ok, so it doesn't get dark at 4pm, YET. More like 5:00, which is still too early.

- November 1 at 5:54pm: couch potatobug.
While I WAS on call all weekend, the pager only went off once on Sunday: to see a lame horse around 11am. (She was doing much better when Dr. L say her on Monday). I spent the afternoon laying on the couch watching country music videos, reading "Pride and Prejudice", playing online and bezzling whatever food I could scrape together.

- November 1 at 10:07pm: having spent the majority of my day with Darcy and Eliza at Pemberly and Longborne, I believe I shall try to sleep. Until the pager goes off that is.
This may be one of my new favorite books. If I had been forced to read it in high school, I would have HATED it. This is similar to my opinion of "Moby Dick", which I'm listening to on audio CD: it's actually quite funny. It is the only book I was supposed to read in high school that I never finished. Mind you, I made it further than everyone else in my class when I put it down after Chapter 32... It really makes me question the goals of high school reading syllabi.

- November 2 at 6:16pm: bah loans and interest capitalization.
Checks were sent in to pay off the interest before it capitalizes. Loan payments themselves start at the end of the month. Basically, a monthly house payment. Joy.

- November 3 at 9:22pm: for someone who strongly believes that if heaven doesn't give you straight answers to lifelong questions, it'll be eternal hell, no necropsy allowed on a patient that suddenly died is torture.
THis post referred to the alpaca that died in our care. It turns out that they let us perform a necropsy (autopsy on an animal) Wednesday morning. He died from DIC, a coagulation disorder caused by something else. We don't know what that something was, but the DIC explained why all of his organs shut down and why he didn't respond to any of our treatment Tuesday. It was a rough day: rather than heading to a bar after work, I drove to the gym (blasting loud angry rock music the whole way) and ran a sub-7 minute mile on the treadmill. I think that's an OK coping mechanism...

- November 4 at 11:12am: my excitement over snow coming from sky today in northeast Ohio is getting me in trouble with my co-workers...
Snow flurries fell for about an hour before turning to a disgusting sleet/rain/hail mixture. No one here is too thrilled about the impending winter. Maybe it's the fact that I've never had to work outside all winter that has me still loving the cold, but I figure someone needs to not be grumpy for the next several months just because it's winter!

- November 4 at 10:32pm: my success in keeping the heating pad on my back again tonight will determine just how much fun I have playing bball tomorrow night.
My back was touch 'n go all week - some days better than others. I was awake for several hours one night because I couldn't get comfortable. I'm grateful for the heated seats in two of the vet trucks, because they allow me to keep heat on my back during the day. It's much worse sitting, and lately my sciatic nerve's been involved so it's more my leg than my back. Dr. L recommended a chiropracter/physical therapist, but I don't know that I want to spend the money and/or become dependent on regular "adjustments". I've managed flare-ups with my back in the past with stretching/strengthening/ice/heat and ibuprofen and hope to do it again now.

- November 5 at 7:51pm: note to 18+hand percheron named Tiny Tim: wrapping barbed wire around your hind leg is unnecessary to gain attention. You're plenty cute for that without being injured.
When I met Tim, the wound was several days old and looking ok: starting to heal and not too badly infected. I started him on antibiotics, gave him some pain medication, cleaned it really well and bandaged it. His owners changed the bandage yesterday and didn't call with concerns regarding pus or a fever, so hopefully when I see him midweek he'll be continuing to do well.

- November 6 at 7:11am: sigh. back on the heating pad after a nice treadmill workout this morning. I thought bball would be bad, but apparently running is what my back currently disapproves.
I ran another sub-7 minute mile, which felt great on my back. However, it tightened up in the car on the way back to the house. It felt really good after my nap on the heating pad before work.

- November 6 at 9:00am: TGIF
As you've read, it was a long week!

- November 6 at 10:14am: who hasn't not spent an odd morning researching anesthesia and spur amputation in roosters?
Hahaha, Friday morning in the office was really slow. Dr. M had called me THursday afternoon wondering if I was game to try and remove spurs from an aggressive rooster at one of her clients'. I agreed and set to researching how we're going to do this. THere are some really funny discussions online if you start googling about roosters. I found it interesting how many problems had two solutions listed by owners: "surgery or eat him... so we ate him". I'll have to keep ya'll posted about this adventure in vet med!

- November 6 at 6:28pm: hmm a whole Friday night free, how to pass the time when my back's unhappy, I don't want to spend money and the only person I know within 2 hours is busy?
I decided that heading to the gym would be better than laying on the couch all evening. I went with the intention of seeing who was playing ball and maybe just getting in the pool. Upon my arrival, I decided to play some ball with a pretty relaxed group. Somehow I ended up being a captain to pick teams, which I HATE. It's even worse because I dont' know anyone's name... So I think the other captain (who I've played with before) thought I was nuts when I chose some of the smaller, younger players. I knew the one kid cut really well, and figured the other needed some confidence. I knew I could guard the other captain, so figured we'd be decently matched. I was right: we kicked butt. I had a ton of fun mostly running point and passing to the younger kids, who were thrilled that they were "playing really well today!" It also was easy on my back because I wasn't mixing things up in the post with a bunch of bigger stronger guys like I usually am (there weren't any in the gym!)

- November 6 at 7:59am: a whole saturday free and I'm awake at 7:30. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep in! Off to treat patients, feed alpacas then to Rachel's for some fun!

- November 7 at 10:06am: RIP jack o lantern...

- November 7 at 7:19pm: enjoyed a relaxing day with Rachel, Anthony and the adorable Juliet :-)
They made a delicious lunch of grilled burgers, homemade deep-fried french fries, and salad. Rachel and I took Juliet for a long walk in the local park, which was beautiful! It was so fun to just relax and enjoy the nice weather.

- 11 hours ago: slowly getting sick and slowly going insane.
I don't know if I'm gettin sick or not. My throat's been a little scratchy, and sometimes my tonsils seem to be a little sore like when you're sick, but not quite. My temp is low (96.8 on two different thermometers), and I'm not really lethargic. However, worried that I am getting sick, I spent the day not wanting to expose people unneccessarily. Thus, no gym (bball or pool). I don't want to spend money, so no shopping or movies. My knee's a little sore for some reason, so no hikes in the woods... I really didn't know how to spend my day...

- 4 hours ago: baking pumpkin to get puree = success. Butterless, milkless, sugarless (I don't have any of those things in the house...) pumpkin bread made with said puree = [shock] weird.
So, I decided to bake. The bread would pass as a discuss. It's not bad warm with butter on it, but is rather odd. I froze the extra 4 cups of puree (which would be more of a puree if I had a blender...) I also worked on the t-shirt quilt that I started in 2002 (or so). I almost have the front done, but ran out of fusible backing (see the not wanting to spend money bit above...) Overall, the day passed rather rapidly. I had to go pick Dr. L up from his out-of town trip, made pasta for dinner and am watching a bad made for tv movie (the prince and me: honeymoon, which has NONE of the same actors/actresses as the original movie...), enjoying the heating pad and considering the fact that I should ice my knee. Eventually I'll go to bed. I should get up and run in the morning if I don't feel worse...

So much for my resolution! It's already Thursday. The first part of this week dragged by at a painflly slow pace. We had a really rough time of it, which I'll maybe get into at some point (suffice to say we lost a patient in a rather difficult manner who happens to be a bigtime breeding alpaca owned by two of our biggest clients who was uninsured), but then it's somehow the end of the week and I've hardly written, worked out or done much of anything really...

Today my life was made much brighter when the loaner dental dremel motor (ours broke Monday) arrived a day early, making it possible for me to work on some teeth! Hooray!

I went and saw a 4 yr old 18+hand percheron gelding (name: Tiny Tim HAHA)who was just purchased and moved by these owners but cut his back leg on barbedwire about a week ago. It was mildly infected, but starting to heal, so I cleaned it up really well, placed him on antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and bandaged him. He was pretty cute. His owners were very nice and enthusiastic (newer to horses). It was kinda fun!

We had a bball game tonight. For the first time in about a month, we had 7 players. We're rather incapable of rotating in any organized fashion (mainly: keeping track of who's guarding who), and got our butts handed to us by 30+ points. The other team was really quite impressive (nice passes, cuts and good shooters, even with a hand in their face). We have 2 games next week. It's fun to play, and I try not to get too frustrated with things: just mainly try to hustle my butt off so I know I gave it my best. Tonight wasn't the greatest breathing night. My knees and ankles have continued to feel better than previously now that I'm taking the glucosamine/chondroitin supplement (in juice form!) So I guess I'll continue to spend the money each week for that.

Since the grace period on my loans ends the 9th, I've just paid off all of teh interest before it capitalizes and am thus a bit broke at the moment and really watching my spending (more than normal if you can believe it!) THe good news is that with taking two weekends on call this month, I have a pretty nice "emergency" bonus coming my way! Considering that my PAYMENTS start coming due next month, that's probably a really good thing (why just in time for the holiday season do loans have to start being due?!)

Well, Josh just called, so I'm gonna go.

unlikely, but I'll post something because I'm sitting on the couch with the laptop, country music video countdown on the tv, sunlight streaming in and belly full of cream of potato soup & baked cheetos.

This morning I enjoyed the fact that the sun was up when my alarm went off at 7:15. I hit sleep until 8 which made it even better. I will NOT be happy to see darkness around 4 this afternoon though. It's always a difficult evening adjustment in the fall.

Yesterday morning a client told me that the high was supposed to be 28 today. That would have been quite a drop seeing as it was 65 yesterday! No worries, it's 50 or so, sunny and beautiful outside. A perfect day for an autumn trail ride. If I had a horse here.

I went to see a horse with a swollen leg this morning. 35 year old mare. 3 week history of being 3-legged lame. She's been seen by two other vets, radiographs earlier this week didn't show much, no luck finding a hoof abscess or even pain where one may be brewing. Anyways, starting last night her leg from the hock down is hot, tender to the touch and moderately swollen. Looks like a cellulitis secondary to whatever the problem is (still likely an abscess.) So, we started to cold hose her, at which point she slipped on the mat and fell. This was great: there was a gate that didn't open AWAY from her directly in front of her, so try as she might, she couldn't get up. We tried spreading shavings under her. Eventually she slipped and fell enough to have turned 180 degrees and be pointing towards a gate that DID open away from her and she got up. We put a sweatwrap on her, gave her painmeds, started antibiotics and still have no idea what's going on. sweet.

Brad Paisley's videos are usually pretty good. The "Welcome to the Future" video is really cute: lots of kids telling the camera what they want to be when they grow up. One said a cardiothoracic surgeon. I know many adults who couldn't say that word, let alone know what it meant...

There's now an ad for a home test that will tell women which 2 days they're most fertile due to ovulation. If someone invented that for animals repro vets may be out of a job. Though you'd still have to be able to get them to pee on it, so maybe it'd only put cow and sheep vets out of work as they're the only ones we can reliably get to urinate... Horses and alpacas tend to run away if you're sneaking up on them for a sample.

Lol this post is getting really random, huh? Maybe I'll stop now. :-D

Happy Halloween!

view from Josh's boss's future house site:

Sun through skylight...

View west from Lookout Mt!

I'm so far behind posting as usual. I really need to figure out how to post more often. The problem is that while I'm at work, I don't want to post because I don't want the website easily searchable on those computers. I should type into my email and then copy/paste from my laptop when I get a chance. Perhaps that shall be my goal for this coming week. Along with eating healthy and working out...

LAST Friday I flew from Akron to Denver. My back was KILLING me on the plane. I couldn't sleep for more than about 4 minutes despite having only gotten about 2 hours the night before (stayed up too late watching Finding Forrester on HBO after a bball game in which we were slaughtered by 25 or 30). I kept shifting around, at one point I had my knees up by my chin curled up in the fetal position while sitting buckled in my spot (no small feat when you're 6', let me tell you!) The guy across the aisle (I ALWAYS get aisle seats so I can stretch one leg out) kept glancing warily over at me, surely wondering whether or not I was about to hurl the three cream-filled donuts I'd had for breakfast on my drive to the airport. I tried to focus on the identity of the two guys behind me. They were speaking a very natural GERMISH. I'd have thought for sure they were Amish, but they sure didn't look it. Never did figure it out...

Anyways, our plane got in nearly half an hour early, but Josh adjusted to the time shift quickly and got there pretty much as I walked to the ground transport area. We went back to the house for breakfast (hey, those donuts were about 5 hours ago, and I needed some substance to take Ibuprofen).

I decided to tag along with Josh and Paul as they delivered a door they'd made to their boss's house. While they worked, I visited with his wife and made friends with their two dogs. Nice family! We then headed up to the possible future house-site of the boss. While the guys investigated and schemed, I laid flat on my back (ah, relief from pain!) and enjoyed the mountain-top view and clear blue skies.

We headed into town (Loveland) for lunch at the pub owned by the company. I was pretty impressed with the place: Josh and Paul did beautiful work there and the food was YUMMY. After the guys fixed a few things (and I met all the bartenders/waitresses who'd "heard so much about Josh's wife"), we headed back to Denver. My back didn't appreciate the truck ride any more than the plane ride, so I spent the afternoon on a heating pad on the couch napping while Josh and roomies watched tv. The evening was mostly spent in like fashion. Josh and I took a trip to the grocery store for some essentials like ice cream and doritos. I'm not sure what we ate for dinner... probably were still full from lunch!

This will take forever if I continue in like fashion...

Saturday we slept in. I decided to make Apple Cake. It turned out pretty well. I'd looked up how to adjust for the altitude and while it was a little dry, it all disappeared before too long! Then we headed downtown ("to work") where we investigated the brakes on the truck. They'd been squealing and we needed to know if they were functional in case we decided to drive into the mountains. I played with the camera (pictures to be posted eventually) after bugging Josh to explain what we were looking at, while he took a back tire off. We walked to "The Mall" (16th st or ave or whatever in downtown denver), took in the street performers, hustle and bustle, window shopped and enjoyed a yummy lunch at Einstein Bagels (yay pumpkin cream cheese!). Eventually we drove to another shopping center where we walked around (ProBass, Halloween USA, etc) and headed back to the house.

For dinner we followed a recommendation to go to Casa Bonita, possibly the oddest dining experience ever. This mexican restaurant in a strip mall was more like an amusement park than a restaurant. You go in, order at a cash register but don't pay. Walk through a cafeteria-like setting (get a tray and roll of silverware, walk to kitchen where your food comes out, walk to soda fountain), and are seated in one of MANY rooms on multiple levels (they can seat up to 900 people!). Most of the tables are in a room that has a 2 story waterfall into a dive pool. Every 15 minutes the show changes: pirates, gunfights, high dives (I'm talking from handstands and including flips, spins etc.) There's a live "mexican" band. Drinks, chips/salsa and sopapillas/honey are brought to the table, where you pay. Food was mediocre, price was high. There's also an arcade (actually, 2) with tokens and prizes. Kids seemed to love it. Lots of highschoolers there too. Intersting, just odd.

After dinner, we went downtown to one of the bars near work, had a few drinks and played some pool before headed back to the house. Sunday Josh made french toast (YUM) and a roommate made candy bacon (YUM! even though he burnt it!). We went to see "Amelia". It was ok. Interesting, well acted, really neat scenery, but overall slow. And, as predicted, the ending left you wondering (hmm, dunno why that could be!) To kill a little time before dinner, we went to a ski shop where Josh got a new skijacket on sale and talked to a sales guy about what type of skis he may want. TOo many choices, so no decisions were made...

We met Johnny and Gretchen for a fabulous dinner (yummy food and wonderful conversation!) at Maggianos. While we were enjoying ourselves, it snowed outside: it was beautiful! I'm the only one at the table who thought so. Josh groaned, Johnny nearly choked when he looked out the window and saw big white fluffy flakes floating down and Gretchen got a bit moapy ;-) Don't worry, by the next morning it had all melted away (only to have 18-24" land by Wednesday morning!)

Monday, Josh and I got up at a decent hour so we could drive west. We went to Breckenridge, which is virtually a ghost town until the slopes open (2 weeks). It was a refreshing 20 degrees up in the mountains with a few inches of snow. We walked around the touristy shops, found some shirts on sale, contemplated lunch but didn't like the choices and drove up to the ski resorts to check things out. Josh couldn't decide if he'd ever been there before, but one of the ski passes available includes Breckenridge. The snow machines were going strong, and the houses/resorts were pretty impressive. Enjoying the views, we drove back to Silverthorne to have lunch at the Dillion Dam Brewery, which is where I ate with Dr. Bowman 2 years ago on my first trip into the Rockies. We ordered way too much food: the nachos hardly looked like we'd touched them and neither of us could eat another bite after our lunches! Driving back to Denver, I kept falling asleep and Josh kept stopping at various places (I think to stay awake) so that we could have adventures. We wondered around Idaho Springs, and went to check out Buffalo Bills' gravesite. That has an AMAZING view of the Denver area to the east and the Rockies to the west!!!

Josh dropped me off at the airport, and following a turbulent (but less painful!) flight, I was in Akron by midnight and Burton by 1am.

It was a great weekend: a nice relaxing getaway that I wasn' too keen to leave...

Rubbing the nose on a successfully-vaccinated normally flighty horse.

Cool and crunchy Honeycrisp apple.

An impromptu walk in the woods among the treetops at ravine's edge, the crunch of leaves underfoot and smell of autumn forest filling my head.

A pond, a perfect mirror of the sunset, sprinkled with similarly-colored maple leaves.

Baseline spin for a layup.

Meteorites flashing across Ursa Minor at 4am.


...Just a few moments that kept me sane in the past 24 hours. My on-call weekend ended at 8am this morning. Thankfully.

Friday night I saw an impaction colic who was doing better by Saturday morning when I called her owner bright and early before she had to leave for work. This was a relieving phone call because I'd dreamt (between "snoozes" on my alarm clock) that I'd called and she WASN"T better an the owner was very upset that she'd paid me to come out the night before and I hadn't fixed her horse... Crazy dreams

Saturday morning a mare with an infected uterus came into the hospital. Dr. M came in (she'd seen the horse earlier in the week and was planning to have her come in for treatment Monday) to help me flush it out and start her on antibiotics. Saving you some grisly details, let's say when we were done she was feeling much better and I was smelling much worse. I just realized I posted about Saturday already... sorta.

Just as I finished hospital treatments and was considering basking in the glory that is a sunny Sunday morning in October, I was called to euthanize a horse. He had lived a good life but was in serious pain due to laminitis, so I was really helping him, but it certainly put a damper on the morning.

Make that day. Dr. M came in again to help me flush the mare's uterus, which was looking much improved and her attitude much brighter. She'd discovered the alpacas on the other side of the barn and seemed perplexed by the fact that these odd critters wouldn't talk back to her when she whinnied to them. A call came in to see a lame horse.

Since I had to go through town en route to this less-than-critical emergency, Dr. M invited me to join her with her husband and 2-month old daughter at the restaurant owned by her mother-in-law for lunch. Lunch was nice: I sat quietly at the table while everyone fawned over her cute and TINY daughter. It was great :-)

Lameness. My nemesis. Maybe it's my bad attitude, background, disinterest, disenchantment with figuring out aches of atheltes, inexperience, lacking education, etc. But I feel like I have NO idea what to do with them. I do, really. I can palpate tendons and joints, find out where they're sore, jog them, flex them, manage a passable palmar digital block (make the foot numb to see if they stop limping), but still feel like I know NOTHING. That said, I *think* this horse pulled minorly injured some tendons/ligaments in his lower leg will running around in the mud (at least SOMEONE got to enjoy that sunny fall morning!), but haven't talked to Dr. K about what found upon examining him today. So, treat it like I'd treat a sprained ankle. Sort of. No "E"levation on the RICE program possible for a horse... But, throw in anti-inflammatories to the "R"est, "I"ce and "C"ompression, along with a good-old-fashioned sweat wrap. [I wonder why we don't sweat wrap people. Or do we? To draw the fluid out? Sometimes I think it's nonsense, but we've been doing it for hundreds of years. Note to self: check into that sometime when it's not 4 am and I'm awake.]

Then I sat around all afternoon. Well, first I stopepd for a pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen. YUMMY. So I spent the afternoon not quite sleeping, but curled up under a blanket, sunlight streamin in, stupid movies on the tv and uploading photos (need to post some here sometime).

Until just before my movie was done and I was getting ready to go do night treatments up at the clinic: my pager went off. 20 year old female donkey down in the pasture. Hypothermic. Sick sick sick. I referred her to the specialty hospital for further evaluation (ultrasound, bloodwork and abdominal tap if warranted) where she could remain on constant IV fluids if they decided to treat her. It took a while to get her on the trailer. In the meantime my phone battery had almost died so I turned the truck 1 click on to charge it and managed to kill the truck battery.

At least the stars were beautiful.

I returned, completed night treatments in the clinic and was called by a client with a severely hypothermic newborn cria they found down in the pasture. They were already working on reviving him with warm water bath and rubbing - there wasn't much I could do from an hour away, so they decided to continue on that course. Returning to the house, I showered & ate dinner. Starting to fall asleep, I decided to call and check on the hypothermic cria. To my delight (and moreso, the owners') he was doing very well and his momma was very happy to see him back out in the barn with her! Quite content, I started to drift off when the pager went off again to once again destroy my contentment. The donkey's owner wanted to set up a euthanasia with their regular vet (Dr N) for today because she was indeed very sick.

How'm I supposed to sleep after that call?

I couldn't. I paced. I ate oatmeal. And cheetos. And shredded coconut. Finally, Josh answered the phone in a half-asleep stupor and listened to me rattle on about my crappy day before telling me about his drive in the mountains... I managed to fall asleep.

Didn't go work out.

Dragged my butt up to the clinic by 7:30 to do treatments.

Today I was out on the road with Dr. L. We castrated a horse, vaccinated a bunch, had lunch at a yummy chinese place in Middlefield...

and my alarm just went off. Well, really it went off a while ago and I've been hitting snooze for 15 minutes. I'm going to go run. Probably not lift. Just enough of something to make me sleepy enough to get back here, shower quick and sleep for an hour before having to get to work.

reflections.

Monday morning I was called out on an emergency to see a quarter horse who'd removed the skin from the back of his front leg. He was incredibly lucky to have left all of his tendons and joint capsules intact, as they are all very superficial in the area above and over the fetlock. It took a few hours, and the help of Dr. K, but I got it all sutured back together. Thursday, I saw him again to change the bandage. Everything was staying together nicely and he was walking well. I saw him again for a bandage change this afternoon. Everything is clean and healthy looking, but the edges have pulled apart somewhat. This was expected due to piecing the skin back together, but will definitely slow his healing time as he'll have to all everything to granulate in. I'll see him again Monday for another bandage change. I hope to remove the drain at that time (still too much drainage today), and then have the owner do bandage changes over the following week. It gets pretty expensive to have me out every few days to take care of it, so once everything's healing well, I hope to save her that money...

Tuesday evening I'd just showered and sat down to dinner when I got the call: alpaca dystocia an hour out. By 10:00 we were at the surgical facility around the corner for a c-section. By 11:30 we had a healthy baby cria and were headed back to the clinic where they'd be hospitalized. By 1:00 I'd managed to sufficiently answer or dodge all of the questions the owners could come up with to drive me insane, by 1:30 drinking a beer from the 6-pack my boss brought (he had to leave the surgical facility for a colic before returning to the clinic) which was disgusting but I didn't care, and by 6:30 I was going to sleep. By Thursday we were ready to send momma and baby alpaca home. As the owners were on their way, baby got colicky. Stuck with them again. By Friday afternoon, they'd been home 2 hours when momma prolapsed her uterus. We met them in the parking lot of a stable we were floating teeth at and replaced her uterus in the back of the minivan. By this morning, the owners had the baby nursing and when I saw them this afternoon, both momma and baby were doing well.

All week we've had an alpaca in that has a uterine infection. We placed an indwelling catheter that we use to infuse antibiotics into her uterus. This morning (I'm on call this weekend), a mare with a pus-filled uterus came into the clinic to be flushed, placed on antibiotics and stay with us a few days. It's interesting how all of the species are different... A dog with a pus-filled uterus (pyometra) is a surgical emergency. Horses can die not from the uterine infection, but from the toxins released by the infected tissue - they'll get laminitis and their feet will fall off. A cow or a sheep or an alpaca... well, they're pretty healthy, they just can't get pregnant. And since that's pretty much their purpose in life, it becomes a frustration or inconvenience that needs to be fixed so that they can earn their keep.

Never dull, that's for sure!

I'm not planning an entry. I'm just writing. It's been some time since I've posted and I feel that I should. It's been raining nearly non-stop for two weeks. Yesterday the sun fought through the clouds to place spotlights upon the brilliant leaves. It was a cool crisp fall day. Xero was visiting from Chicago so we drove around enjoying the countryside, ended up wandering through an outlet shopping center and generally enjoyed the day.

She's gone again. Two weeks until I get to visit Josh. I recently met a long-lost (or, more appropriately, unknown to me) cousin who lives nearby with whom I may go hiking some evening if the rain stays in the clouds. Though I try to combat this loneliness by jumping on the phone, heading to the gym, reading books, listening to music and watching any stupid movie or tv show I can find, I'm annoyed with my general listlessness.

This isn't a plea for sympathy or visits or any such thing. It's just stating my current ambivalence. I think I'll try to go to sleep soon. It's not quite 9pm. One hour into the Sunday night Folk Show on the radio. I shouldn't start a movie because I'll stay up too late. Perhaps I'll read awhile. I'm currently reading Pride & Prejudice. I've never read Jane Austen. I'm enjoying it, but not so wrapped up in it that I can't put it down. That's how most of the things I've read lately have been. This includes my audio books in the car and work truck. I'll go days without listening to them. Just singing along to the same 5 songs that all of the radio stations play as I drive in and out of their broadcast ranges. Or riding in silence staring at the road disappearing under the front of that big white hood.

I pulled the quilt out of the garbage bag it's filled since my May move. We don't have snow, or even frost here yet, but the nights are getting chillier. It's refreshing. If I had the energy to spend them outside. Or a reason to do so. Horses to ride. Or feed. Stalls to muck. Someone with whom to stroll and stargaze.

A buggy just trotted (or paced) by the house. Clip-clop. Though this is common place, I try to soak in the sound. In the grand scheme of things, I'll soon be far from an area where horses and buggies on the road, parked outside the Walmart or slowing traffic, are common place. I'll miss that. How could I not? It's so nostalgic. To a simpler, slower time and life. Or so we like to think. In reality, an arduous, secluded life. No high school trips to Germany, graduation cruises to Alaska, last minute flights to Atlanta to drive cross-country. No move to MI or OH for a few years to return. It'd be permanent. We're pretty lucky. I try to remember that. Try not to get TOO mad at my GPS when it loses satellite reception having just directed me off of a dirt road in the middle of Geauga County to the nearest gas station on a road that it informs me has a speed limit of 50mph. It's amazing it works at all, yet I get annoyed when it drops service for 2 minutes. spoiled.

Wow. This is depressing. I think I'll stop. My plan for tomorrow is to get back to eating healthy after a weekend of junk food and stomach-ache, go run & lift in the morning, probably grab a quick nap, then to work. Dr. M returns from maternity leave tomorrow. I'm excited to have her back but have trepidations regarding my schedule that's now empty. It's time to get back to learning what I can while I'm hear, but it's been pretty nice being on my own time somewhat while I'm on the road myself. Anyways, if it's nice tomorrow night, maybe I'll go hiking with Patti (cousin previously mentioned). Otherwise, I'll head to the gym in hopes of finding some pick-up basketball, pitiful as it may be... Or I'll still be working and come back to the house in time to heat up some soup for dinner, shower and fall asleep.

Which I intend to do now. 'night. :-)

I'm really not going to say much. It's 9:51: nearly my bedtime goal of 10pm. Today was rather slow; I was done with calls by 3:30 or so. I hung out at the office until 5. I'm not sure why I do this. I think I feel obligated to be available until then, which is really silly because I'm actually available all the time - just a phone call away from the receptionist, on call doc, whoever... Anyways, I stayed until 5 (mostly playing online!) before returning to the house to change into basketball clothes and put my recycling in the car.

Recycling in Ohio is pathetic. Coming from Michigan, where there's a monetary incentive to return things, the fact that most people just chuck things in the garbage here is quite a shock. While I found a rather convenient drop-off point for most of my stuff, I haven't found anywhere that takes cardboard: so I'm stacking it in my closet and trunk until I figure that out...

I ran to the bank, which is located in the grocery store, dropped dvds off at the library, stopped by the recycling place and headed to the gym.

Since there's now a hoop in the clinic, I go not just to shoot, but in hopes of finding someone to play with. After shooting for a while, a game started up. It was mostly high school kids, though two of the better players may have been in middle school. It wasn't pretty basketball, but I did get to run up and down and play ball for nearly 2 hours, so I'm content.

Walking stiffly back out of the YMCA, I was surprised to find that the wind that had been blowing a million miles an hour since around midnight yesterday had calmed down to reveal a rather lovely fall night. I returned to the clinic, changed my laundry over (i'll pick it up from teh dryer when i go to the gym in the morning), showered, let Tyson run around, made pasta for dinner and am now full of pasta and 3 glasses of water on the couch watching tv and checkin email :-)

I gotta remember to take some ibuprofen before I fall asleep - my knees and surgerized ankle are rather stiff and will be really sore in the morning, but I had a good evening and will sleep well. Time to go: 5 am comes around quick!

After my first weekend on call, I've been pounding the roads thinking of what I should write. However, upon returning home each evening, have found that I have no energy to write. Maybe it's because I don't get to put off other things (ie phone calls) that I would like to at work, so I must put off my recreational writing. Or perhaps, as I've been rising at 5 to go work-out, I'm too tired to do much else besides grab a bite to eat and fall asleep. Either way, I'm sitting here now (on call for the evening...) and trying to come up with some way to explain the weekend to those of you who are actually reading this...

Friday night, I had curled up on the couch next to the pager and was talking to Xero on the phone. PAGER. Gotta go. Hanging up, I grabbed a pen and paper and called the answering service. The woman was trying [unsuccessfully] not to laugh when she said she had a call from a horse client whose goat at wet cement. I was trying [unsuccessfully] not to laugh as well as I repeated the message and phone number back to her to be certain I got the information correct. Now, we can all see that if this goat had eaten, say, a bags-worth, or wet cement and it set at ALL, things could go very badly for the little caprine. We don't really treat goats, but I suppose I could offer a radiograph (sand shows up nicely in radiographs - the same color as bone), or tell her to go to OSU for surgery to remove said foreign material. Taking a deep breath, I dialed *67 (to block my number) and her number. It's usually a good thing when the CLIENT is laughing as she answers the phone. Turns out that little guy ate about 2 tsp of cement and then went on to eat some more normal food. Given that ruminants eat nails, cans, etc with little ill effect (well, actually, we force-feed them large magnets to collect sharp hardware so that it doesn't puncture their stomach...) even if the cement did set in his stomach, 2 tsp shouldn't hurt him. I told her to monitor him for decreased appetite or signs of colic (stomach ache) indicating a blockage somewhere in his intestines. She laughed and agreed to call me if any further problems developed. Nearly a week later, I haven't heard back from her. In my line of work, no news is usually good news.

Off the phone with the client, I considered sitting back down on the couch when PAGER. This time a horse who'd colicked earlier in the day was painful again. I told the owner I was on my way and headed for the clinic to get the truck. Most vet trucks (the one I drive included) are equipped with a special box in the bed that is heated to keep things from freezing and has a refrigerator to keep other things cool. The box runs off of the battery, so the truck must be plugged in when it's sitting for long hours. It's easiest for me to plug it in at the clinic rather than in front of the house here, so I take my car (or walk, but not usually in the middle of the night...) to the clinic and get the vet truck (remembering to unplug it AND open the garage door before backing out).

Now, I've had little rants about the fact that Ohio does not believe in street signs OR fire numbers posted in plain view. I spend a great deal of my day creeping along roads trying to figure out why the numbers on the left side of the road are going UP as those on the right go DOWN or some such nonsense, the insanity of which is amplified by the fact that only 3/10 houses have NUMBERS visible (often only from one direction and NOT reflective). Anyways, after turning around twice and finally asking someone on a fourwheeler for directions, I found where I was headed. The little mare had QUITE an impaction in her small colon. She wasn't horribly painful, but I was afraid could become so the next time that her intestines tried to move it along. I passed a nasogastric tube (up her nose into her stomach) to make sure she wasn't backing food up into her stomach (she wasn't: horses cannot vomit and will rupture their stomach if food can't pass through!) and administered some fluids to try to soften the impaction. I also placed an IV catheter (which got a little exciting when my clippers didnt' work and she's already got a thick winter coat) and ran 5L of fluid into her veins to keep her hydrated. Naturally, there wasn't anywhere to hang the fluid bag, so I got a bit of a shoulder work-out as I leaned against the spider-covered garage trying not to scream everytime I saw something move. PAGER...[I'll return that call when I'm done with this mare]. Luckily, the owner brought up the fact that her husband's terrified of spiders, so I told her of my own fear of the eight-legged, eight-eyed monsters that suck their prey's insides out (at which point she looked horrified and said "I didn't know half of that!") and kept glancing furtively at the webs along the eves...

I left strict instructions to check her throughout the night and call me if she got painful again. I wearily drove back to the clinic, spoke with an owner whose horse had smacked a tube of bute into the wall while she was to receive a dose and potentially got a couple of doses {I decided she'd be OK, and told her not to give the morning dose}, plugged in the truck and headed for the couch. I fell asleep watching some "Scrubs" reruns, woke every hour or so wondering when I'd here the pager because the mare was down, and slept until morning.

I dragged myself off the couch (my stiff back reprimanding me for being too lazy to turn off whatever spanish movie was playing around 3 when I last fully awoke and walk to my bed), showered, medicated Tyson, made eggs for breakfast and headed up to the clinic. I was just thinking I should call and ask about the little mare, when her owner beat me to it: she'd passed an ENORMOUS pile of manure and was bright and eatin (!why owners insist on letting their recently constipated horse eat the second they want to is beyond me!). I told her that was great, asked her to keep her off pasture for the day (no grain either!) and said I'd be out sometime that day to remove the IV catheter I'd left sutured in (assuming that she'd need to see me again during the weekend!)

I talked Kelli into helping me fix the latches on the vet box when the phone rang - a "draft pony weighing 1500 pounds" had been competitively pulling the night before when the trace broke, hit her in the butt and she took off, broke the harness and ran straight into the wall. They decided to haul her into the office ($15 for an office call vs. $55 for me to drive to the farm). We set up what I thought we'd need (radiograph machine, sedation, etc) and waited for her to arrive. The belgian (maybe cross, but unlikely) mare was skittish as an Arab as we led her into the outpatient room. Her poor nose looked like yours or mine would if we took a good elbow to it: it was all swollen, her lips and gums too with some bruising, and she made a lot of noise and whistled when she inhaled. Upon examining it, PAGER I decided that if it was broken, it was minor and there wouldn't be anything to do about it. She had what looked like a cut on the inside of the left nostril, so we decided to sedate her and pass an endoscope (camera) up there to determine if there was a foreign body lodged in there. Despite the sedation, she didn't much appreciate me putting a camera up her nose, so kept throwing her head around. I didn't see anything resembling wood or metal sticking out, just some torn tissue and discharge. I then passed the scope back to her throat to make sure that her nasal passage was clear. Swollen: yes, clear: yes. I sent her home with anti-inflammatories and anti-biotics. When I checked with the owner Monday, she was doing well: swelling decreasing and less noise upon breathing.

Returning the page that'd come in while looking at the nose, I agreed to drive out to look at a miniature who had been seen for respiratory problems (possible vaccine reaction) a few days previously and who wasn't quite himself. Upon arriving at the farm in the pouring rain, I was informed that the little guy, whose paddock consisted of the back yeard, had failed to wake his owner up in the normal fashion of whinnying under her window (!!), and she was concerned that the medication he'd been prescribed for his cough was overdosed. Upon examining him, PAGER I assured her that he appeared to be healthy: his lungs sounded good and he hadn't coughed in two days. I also measured him with the weight tape (an estimate made by wrapping a marked tape around his body) and to her astonishment informed her that he did indeed weigh the 400 pounds estimated by the other vet and not the 200 that she'd guessed. With his owner and her daughter feeding him his medication in bits of apples, I went on my way.

The page I"d received while looking at the mini was to go sedate a few horses for a farrier competition. This was taking place in the arena of a local boarding stable (which also holds a variety of competitions and shows). I pulled up to find a parking lot full of farrier vehicles (everything from pick-ups and vans to box trucks with trailers!). I found a spot near the front, and looked for the guy running it (who I'd met before). He was standing near a podium in the middle of the arena surrounded by forges, horses and men (yes, they were all men) bent over one of the two former. Smoke and the sound of metal on metal filled the air. Most of the horses seemed to be taking it all in stride: standing calmly while one or another foot was lifted, filed, measured or fit to a shoe. I was informed that the two that they'd called me for had settled down, but was asked to stick around for a few rounds (lasting 20 minutes each in which each farrier shod 2 hooves for judging) in case I was needed. I had no where to be: sure. Plus, the offered me lunch (burgers, crackers and pop!). I headed to the truck to grab a few syringes, needles and sedatives PAGER.

Standing in the pouring rain, I was informed by the answering service that I was needed to euthanize a horse at a big farm south of the clinic. I tried to call the farm manager back to find out if I had time to stay for a round or two or if it was a dire emergency. The number I was given didnt' work. I called Dr. L to get another number. That was a wrong number. I decided to stick around for a round (ended up sedating one horse who was not fan of the smoke), grab lunch and hit the road. I called Dr. M to confirm the location of the farm and headed south.

Upon arrival, no one seemed to be waiting for me to put a horse out of its misery. I asked a woman who looked like she worked there, who had no idea what was going on. After a few phone calls, it was determined that the manager was waiting at their OTHER farm (?! who knew...) with a horse in the field. First, she had so to speak to me. I cringed as I was handed the phone; knowing full well that the manager has a very thick spanish accent which I struggled to understand when I was standing next to her, let alone on a cell phone in a field in the rain... I followed enough to realize she needed information about cremation. A few calls later, I tracked down a place in Columbus that cremates horses for $1100-1200 each. I headed east. PAGER

Colicky horse northwest. TOld her I'd be at least an hour.

Pulled into the driveway of the OTHER farm and didn't see the manager or a horse in the field. I pulled up to one of the barns where I was given a baffled wave by the farm owner. Hesitating (knowing his reputation for being a... mule's mother...), I asked if he knew where they were. Surprisingly, he was very helpful and pointed me in the right direction... I climbed out of the truck into the pouring rain and tall wet grass (WHY did I insist on wearing my old running shoes instead of boots?! Oh, because it's Saturday and I didn't feel like "dressing up"... I wouldn't cut it in the business, or MD, world...), at which point the manager asked if I had her cell phone charger (no, the guy with the trailer for the horse was bringing it) and informed me that I could go unplug the electric fence and open the gate because SHE wasn't going to be shocked again by it. Awesome. Glad I went to school for 21 years so I could be the one to be soaking wet and grab the metal gate that may or may not be touching electric wire...

The euthanasia went as smoothly as I could have asked for, and I rushed to pack PAGE the truck. This page was actually a call because the Amish client didnt' have a phone so they patched him through to me. I headed for the cab to write down his info where my paper wouldn't be mush when I lost reception. I went back out into the rain with a marker and my hand and waited for the call. "Sorry sir, my phone cut you off..." His buggy horse had run away with him, nearly causing an accident, and was now coughing up small amounts of blood and mucous. We discussed the phenomenon in racehorses (thoroughbreds and standardbreds) of their lungs bleeding upon exertion. I offered to see the horse if he'd like (thinking to myself that he should be more concerned about a buggy horse taht takes off with him and his family through traffic than about a little blood), at which point he said he'd go check on the horse and call me back if it continued to be a problem. Thoroughly soaked, I climbed back into the truck and carefully turned around in the tall grass, thus avoiding the ditch on one side, the pond on another and the recently passed horse in the corner...

Driving for nearly an hour, I closed in on the colic. I was startled out of the monotony of the windshield wipers and my book on tape by the sight of 3 horses, whose riders wore the formal red coats of fox-hunters, surrounded by a pack of hounds standing in the mist and fog. I shook my head, half wondering if I'd been dreaming, or if the narrative regarding rural England in the late 1800s to which I was listening had come to life, and slowed to take a better look. I pulled out the camera, but decided that they were too far away for a picture (especialy through the rain-streaked truck's passenger window!) and continued down the road. I came upon 2 or 3 other horses, riders in red, stationed along the way. I don't know if they were training, practicing or actually hunting (?coyotes? I'm not sure...) but it was certainly like stepping back in time to another world...

The colic was a mild impaction: I tubed him as I had the mare the night before, left instructions not to feed him until that evening and then only if it was watered down, and went to take the catheter out of the mare.

I arrived (passing the drive in the light just as I had in the dark!) just as the owner was throwing evening feed to turn the horses in. As I hadn't been paged (finally...) en route, I was in no hurry, so told her not to rush: I'd wait. I was a bit nostalgic standing there as normal barn chores went on around me... Hopefully by next summer that'll be part of my daily routine again...

Actually, I didn't get paged again until about 8pm Sunday night. Colic. This horse (an app!) had just returned from a show, had a history of gastric ulcers, and wasn't quite right. I examined him, gave him a few pain meds, stomach protectors, loved on the app stabled next to him, and headed home. At 8am Monday morning, my first weekend on call alone officially ended.

Follow-up calls Monday revealed that all of teh colics were doing well. Sigh of relief. On to the next adventure...

OCTOBER has 5 weekends.
1. Amanda and Aaron are coming to visit
2. Xero is coming to visit
3. I'm on call alone
4. Flying to Denver
5. On call

should fly by. I still don't know my holiday schedule. boo.

"To float" is to make the surface level or smooth. Derived, if I recall correctly from a fascinating conversation with Johnny, from masonry when the putty was floated between layers of stone/brick.

"Hypsodont"
- "Hypso-" being Greek for height or top, for example, hypsometry is the study of elevation
- "-dont" literally meaning teeth (unfortunately both my Greek and Latin dictionaries are in Duluth, or I'd give you the origin), as in orthoDONTics and endoDONTics.

I digress. Due to the nature of their evolved diet (stemmy grasses), horses (and most grazing animals, including elephants) are hypsodonts. In grinding their food, the wear away the crown of their tooth. Thus, they are born with a large (or TALL, relating to "hypso") tooth which lies below the surface of the gum (known as "reserve crown"). As their teeth are worn down, they continue to erupt so that they are always "in occlusion" (they meet). This process continues UNTIL the tooth wears out (anywhere between 20 and 40 years of age, depending on which tooth, the diet and dental care of the animal, etc.) [Please note, this is different than rodents, who's front teeth continue to GROW throughout their lifetime and will never "wear out".]

The horse's skull is such that the maxilla (upper jaw) is wider than the mandible (lower jaw). They chew, not in an up-and-down motion, but in a side-to-side motion, thus mashing and crushing the stemmy grass. However, do to the discrepency in the width of the two jaws (and actually, the teeth themselves!), the top teeth do not touch the inside of the bottom teeth, nor the bottom touch the outside of the top teeth. Thus, neither the entire top nor bottom tooth is worn "flat" through chewing. As the tooth continues to erupt so that the parts that DO touch remain in occlusion, the areas that do NOT touch, get longer. Thus, "enamel points" are formed: on the lingual (tongue) side of the lower teeth and the buccal (cheek) side of the upper teeth.

As the points become more pronounced they cause other problems... The side-to-side chewing motion becomes "locked" and the horse must chew more up-and-down, exacerbating the problem because less of the upper and lower teeth are in contact to wear each other down - creating somewhat of a lopsided wagon rut in the teeth.

That's where the float comes in. Traditionally, it looked like a huge nail file. Now, it's been refined in some forms, but less so in others... The idea is that a large file is used to grind away the enamel points, allowing the horse to chew from side-to-side. Effectively, flattening, or "floating" the surface of the tooth.

At this point, I'm sure you're asking "so what do wild horses do?" First of all, horses that are eating their natural diet (aka, grazing on stemmy plants for up to 18 hours a day) have much fewer problems with points than horses who are fed a meal of oats or grain twice a day. The nature of grain requires more of an up and down rather than side to side chewing motion. Also, horses in the wild are not required to work with a bit in their mouth OR expected to live 30+ years!

I'll not delve into it at this time (if anyone's even still reading this...), but I do want to mention that working on the teeth is more than just "floating". Due to a number of reasons, horses will acquire other abnormal wear patterns (malocclusions, or incorrect bites) due to the fact taht their teeth continue to erupt and grow long wherever they are unopposed. For example, if a horse is missing a bottom tooth, the top tooth opposite of it will continue to grow because there is nothing to wear it down. Because enamel is the hardest substance in the body, it will continue to grow even when it meets the toothless gum. And the bone below that gum! Thus, we must wear it down for them, using a float or a burr of some sort. Effectively, we're changing the interactions of the teeth, like an orthodontist. These procedures are called "odontoplasty" - literally a procedure to change the way the teeth work together...

Also, horses can get cavities and may receive fillings and root canals - endodontics (endo- meaning "within", thus, "work within the tooth).

Getting back to the topic at hand, I believe the question that started my excited explanation (I AM a dental nerd... ) was regarding floats. There are hand floats, which do look like big files, that come in a variety of sizes and angles to reach all of the various corners of teeth in the mouth. More recently there are "power floats". These come in a variety of shapes, sizes and designs, most of which are very useful for certain areas of the mouth or certain malocclusions.

Perhaps the most popular is the spinning disc. It's a flat piece with diamond (or carbide) chips on it, that spins (much like a power toothbrush spins). Alternatively, there are burrs - cylindrical, either cut like a file, or with chips on it, that spin (think Dremel). There are also reciprocating floats - they are flat like the hand floats, but mounted on a Sawzall type motor that moves it back and forth. This makes the same motion that a person would make with a hand float, but much faster and thus more efficient. Some of these run on batteries, others (like the one that shocked me) are plugged in. There are also pneumatic systems, though I've never seen or used one...

Right, so you're thoroughly bored and I've just skimmed the surface :-) I'll see about finding some pictures... ( Click here for pictures related to this lecture )

I don't really know what to write about. All week I've thought about posting, but wasn't really inspired by anything going on to bother, which is a bit silly really.

Wednesday night I stayed up way too late trying to devirus my computer. I knew better: we had an alpaca in the hospital we'd induced labor in and I wanted to have the computer working to watch the alpacacam so I didn't have to go up to the clinic in the middle of the night. By 3 am I had it working, but may as well have gone to sleep at midnight and gone up to check on her at 3... Needless to say, I failed to drag myself out of bed Thursday morning to go to the gym. I did know, in resetting my alarm from 5 to 7, that I had a basketball game that night, so I'd get a work-out and hopefully wouldn't be exhausted.

We lost by 20. Looking back, we really didn't play too well, but during the game I didn't have the overwhelming frustration or despair that I'd normally feel in such circumstances. I can't explain why, maybe because I knew I was working hard, or maybe because I was too mentally tired to care. Or maybe because I knew it wasn't worth wasting my breath to tell the guys they needed to cut more and stop throwing up threes after one pass. I think my biggest regret of the game was not standing up and telling them I'd guard the big guy who was killing us. I tried a few times to pick him up when subs created the opportunity, but one teammate or another would wave me off to the little guy in the corner. I HATE that. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I have to guard the other team's least active player! Next time we play that team, I think I will tell them I'm guarding the big guy. I can't do any worse than my teammates, and might just box him out and keep him off the boards. I'm pretty sure it was me, and not any of them, that spent 4 years practicing against 7 different centers: 5 of whom were All-Americans, 1 who weighed twice what I did and 1 who was 6 inches taller than me... But how do I say that to some guy who's name I might know and not sound like a total donkey?

Electrical problems marked Friday. Well, first paperwork problems... I get to take care of the hospital records even though they're not my patients. Love it. Anyways, once I finished that crap, I headed to a nearby camp (incidently, where they rent out canoes and kayaks, the owners have family in MSP and Duluth, and have been to the BWCAW...) to work on four horses' teeth. The first horse was an 18 yr old thoroughbred who I was told by the owner is very high strung. I dosed him closer to the high end of the dose rather than the low end, and naturally he was weaving a little. Not much to worry me, but the owner was freaking out a bit. *sigh* I got to work, he had a few problems in his mouth, but I got him taken care of in a decent amount of time without having to resedate him.

The second horse I was warned is terrible, fights through tranq and hates having his teeth worked on. Of course, he's an old thoroughbred, so I can't give him too much sedation or he will get really wobbly, plus he had an awful mouth. He was missing teeth all over, which means that the opposing tooth has nothing to wear it down, so it just keeps growing - smashing into toothless gum. I don't really have the equipment I'd prefer to work on his mouth (a reciprocating float - basically an overhauled Sawzall with a rasp on the end), so took a deep breath and figured I'd get to work with he rotating disk (diamond chip) that I usually use. As I put it in his mouth, it shocked my hand (and I'm assuming his tongue!) So, I put that down (unsure whether it was my equipment or the barn circuting) and started working with my hand floats. I have no problem with hand floats. Providing I'm in a straight-forward mouth that just needs points smoothed out and that I have decent quality floats. Neither or which was the case with this big guy. I was nearly run over three times, resedated him again, worked for nearly an hour and until my entire body was numb (nice workout!) and I felt that I may have made some progress in improving his comfort and chewing ability... Two more to go.

I messed with the power equipment before starting the third horse, decided to give it a try (straight forward mouth, should be really quick with that equipment) and as I was preparing to put it in his mouth, it REALLY shocked me. I yelped, dropped everything, unplugged it and put it away. My hands still tingling, I picked up the hand float and got to work. Thankfully, the fourth horse had an easy mouth too. My hands were beginning to cramp from holding the floats...

Friday night, Dr. J and I went to walmart and purchased a basketball hoop for the clinic! I would've been happy with the non-adjustable, regular rim, but he insisted on a rim that had springs for dunking and a a hoop that could be lowered from 10 feet down to 8. We unloaded it into the garage so that Dr. L could approve our choice in the morning.

After dinner (Dr. J brought eggplant parmesan from home, it was really yummy, and who knew eggplant was a squash?!) I went to the gym. I was hoping to find a game of pick-up ball, but was content shooting on my own for the better part of the hour. I'm trying to expand my left-handed range, I'm out to about 8 feet. My biggest problem isn't my left arm, it's my right not being sure how to be a guide and just kinda stopping mid shot, leaving me shooting one-handed! I also worked on my free-throws. It's been 4 years since I've played an organized game of ball (ok, I guess I played in an alumni game or two...)and quickly realized that my rhythm was really thrown off by not getting the ball until I step INSIDE the three point line. [Amanda, I know you're loving this discussion and am honestly quite impressed if you're still reading]. So, I worked on my rhythm looking to get the ball after I step over the line and finally felt comfortable and started shooting more like I usually do. It's insane how much of a difference the tiniest changes make. I guess that's what keeps me coming back to the gym (and hopefully again someday, the dressage arena).

Yesterday we had some alpacas come in to the clinic. The owner's a school teacher and can't get here during the week. I didn't ask how a school teacher affords these things... Anyways, we preg-checked four (3 pregnant, one not), drew blood on the babies (alpacas have this whole DNA blood testing thing required for registration...) and then took radiographs of a jaw abscess. I was hoping I could try a dental-radiograph technique that I goofed up last time I tried it but have since spent an hour or so studying. Dr. L was probably thinking aloud when he asked how we were going to shoot the radiograph when I said "can I try something?" He was game, so I set him up and it was a BEAUTIFUL shot - highlighted the abscess nicely and showed us that she was missing her first molar there. YAY!

After admitting her to the hospital for treatment, Dr. J and I started setting up the bball hoop. At first, I was just going to help, but when he was only half-reading the directions and we put the base together backwards (and having skipped the first 2 pages of assembly!) I sort of took over. I love following directions to build stuff - guess that's why I always built Max's lego kits for him... I had to leave after we had the pole together to help Dr. N take radiographs of a foundering horse.

Later in the evening, Dr. J and I finished the bball hoop and I got to shoot around. The rafters in the garage start at about 11'6", so when the hoop's set at the full 10' the backboards between the rafters. I can shoot up to about 8 feet away before the ball hits the rafters as it travels along its arc, unless I'm on the "baseline"... But I can definitely work on my inside shots :-) The alpacas weren't too sure about all of the commotion!

This morning I went up to do treatments and then shot around for a while... I don't know what the rest of the day brings. I need to find a home depot or lowes or something to find an extension cord (or atleast adaptor) with a ground fault interuptor in it. I have 9 horses to float tomorrow and will be more efficient and do a better job with the power equipment!

So... As I was unsure about what I'd write, I guess I was complaining a bit in this post. Sorry about that. It's been a decent weekend so far. Our next bball game is Tuesday, and I'm hoping my extra practicing will show :-)

Thursday

After a morning of appointments, I picked Josh up from the airport. Originally, it was thought I'd be on call all afternoon. When things stayed quiet, and we tired of watching bad movies on tv (most notably "Dude, Where's My Car?!" we headed to Middlefield for a late lunch/early supper at Pizza Hut, where we were annoyed with the jukebox playing Celine Dion. We then explored Burton (namely, the historic village and a few art shops), drove randomly around northeast Ohio and ended up at the all-American Walmart getting some food. Finally, I convinced Josh that we needed ice-cream, so we decided to try a place we'd seen in Burton that boasted homemade ice cream. I enjoyed maple while Josh had a cookies 'n cream shake. YUM

Friday

Though I was supposed to have the day off, the office had to schedule me for an appointment way south in Kent. Luckily, it wasn't until 11, so we got to sleep in (ok, I slept in, for poor Josh it was still somewhat early given the time change...) I figured it would be an adventure when we pulled up and the donkey and her day-old foal were hanging out in the middle of a 2 acre pasture... There was a sign written on the fence "Gladie had her baby!" and neighbors from the apartments across the street starting showing up to see the foal. The owner came out, didn't think we'd need a halter, wasn't sure if it was a colt (boy) or a filly (girl) and had a plate of sweet rolls to temp the mare (who was eyeing us suspiciously by this time).

Thanks to a nice donkey and Josh's round-up skills, we didn't chase them around TOO long before capturing them in the barn. I did a quick physical exam of mom and baby, determined the new critter is a boy and gave them the "healthy" verdict. We then had a good laugh about the fact that the new ass was to be given the same name as the owner's brother-in-law and would eventually need to be castrated... Ah, donkey humor :-)

Josh and I enjoyed a leisurely walk around downtown Kent, called Mom and Dad to wish them a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY from the town in which they met, discovered a unique ebony elephant for sale in the back corner of an art gallery/antique shop (where I was engaged in a lengthy conversation about Greek Mythology with the owner while Josh eyed the solid ebony pieces), and slowly recalled the black squirrel history of Kent State... We hit up Dairy Queen, ran into Dr. M there (she got me hooked on the tagalong blizzards...) and then headed south for the potato festival.

Now, in picturing a potato festival, we envisioned stands with mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries in every shape and style, shoe string potatoes, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, gold potatoes, potato pancakes, lefse, etc etc etc. Alas, twas not so. Well, there were potatoe pancakes and potato perogies and lots of regular greasy fair french fries, but no mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries and certainly no lefse. One of my coworkers was working the beer booth, so we stopped and talked to her, wondered around the fair booths and eventually settled on potatoe pancakes and chili fries. After a rest, we also enjoyed a funnel cake. Upon returning home, our stomachs complained about our less-than-bland dinner while we watched "Mr. Deeds" (which may never cease to be funny).

SATURDAY

Having fallen asleep with grumbling tummies, we slept in. Then, I'd promised Kelli that I'd come take a look at the 9-day old kitten that her daughter found and adopted. They're bottle feeding it every several hours, and it's doing well. Since we'd walked up to the clinic to check on "Booger", we also dewormed the new clinic kittens (yet-to- be-named orange male kitties who are meant to be mousers, but at 1 pound, are terrified of baby mice...) and played with them for a while.

Since I was still "back-up" on-call, we couldn't wander too far from the clinic. We walked to the neighbor's produce stand, bought (and subsequently devoured) pumpkin bars before returning to sit on the porch. After a while, Josh decided to disinfect the water cooler that has been upsidedown on the porch since my failed attempt to clean it a month ago. I tried to help, but mostly just got in the way as he bleached, scrubbed and rinsed. A couple hours later, we were rewarded with cool, clean, drinkable water right here in the kitchen! After some debate, we went to dinner at a local restaurant where we sat on the patio overlooking the river and nearly froze to death as night set in... Very refreshing! We returned home and watched "The Borne Identity", which apparently I've only seen all the way through once because I had NO idea how it ended. I guess that's a series of movies I could watch again in order and potentially make some sense out of...

SUNDAY

I dragged Josh out of bed way-too-early by his standards so that we could pack, feed the alpacas and drive to Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH). Josh finally got to see an alpaca spit (which he was VERY amused by), and then slept en route to the amusement park. What a GREAT time of year to visit! There were hardly any lines; we drove up, parked very close, bought tickets without a line and then had to decide where to start. I should clarify by saying that both of us have tendencies to motion sickness and neither have been to an amusement park in about 8 years (and never together). I wanted to start with the Carousel, but there wasn't anyone riding it or waiting in line... So, we headed to the Blue Streak (oldest roller coaster of the 17 at the park), walked up and climbed aboard.

To our delight, we both had fun, weren't sick and headed off to more rides: bumper cars, Iron Dragon coaster, Wild Cat single-car coaster, Gemini Coaster, Power Tower (240 foot drop straight down), Mean Streak Coaster, Snake River Falls water ride...

We eyed the Top Speed Dragster, decided it looked fun but we'd need to wait until our stomachs settled a bit and decided to find some lunch. En route to lunch, we made the mistake of looking at a spinning horror ride which made both of our stomach's turn. We opted for the least greasy thing we could find: burgers from Johnny Rockets. After lunch, the ferris wheel, a really calm coaster and the racing carousel seemed like a good start. However, the after effects of the very jarring Mean Streak weren't leaving: we both decided that we needed more of a break before any more coasters (or the dragster...) So, we rode the train around the park a few times. I took a nap. Still not feeling 100%, we mutually agreed that it'd be more fun to stop while we were ahead than to get sick because we insisted on proceeding with the thrill rides. We found some ice cream and headed for the car.

Checking into a hotel in Vermillion, we headed for downtown on Lake Erie and found some delicious mexican food (so worth not getting sick at the amusement park to enjoy dinner!) and wondered around near the lake (which is very warm compared to Superior!)

MONDAY

After a delicious breakfast at the hotel (ok, I dont' have very high standards, but can't get enough of the cinnamon rolls at Holiday Inn!), we headed for the Science Center in Cleveland. The biologist in me came out as I became enthralled with the Darwin exhibit, while the carpenter in Josh came out as he examined the construction of the Darwin exhibit... Then he proceeded to boggle my mind when he could figure out all of the physics demonstrations "cuz they make sense".

Once he was finished amazing me in his boredom with the "obvious" exhibits, we headed south towards the airport, made a detour for local pizza, and I dropped him off in time for his flight back to Denver.

Because I had the rest of the night off, and to distract myself from loneliness, I headed to the movies. I've wanted to see Harry Potter 6 again since Amanda and I saw it opening night, and finally did. There were only 2 other people in the theater. The second time around, I think I liked the overall movie more but found the added scene even more pointless and annoying than the first time through...

TODAY

5:00 up and to the gym, ran 30 min, biked 4 miles - knees happy
7:00 back at home, showered, took a quick nap before work
8:00 to the clinic for Dr. meeting, stocking truck and preparing for day
9:30 on the road, first stop = alpaca with displaced cervical (neck) vertebrae. Very bizarre looking, I referred her into the clinic for radiographs and a neck cast. I really need to get pictures, it looks like something out of a cartoon... HOpefully she'll recover.

Stop 2 = vaccinate some barely-halter broke percherons. Luckily, didn't get kicked.
Stop 3 (via Chipotle in Kent) = new cria exam and adorable bunnies nearly adults now!
Stop 4 = meet Dr. L for health certificates, ultrasounds on bunch of alpacas
Stop 5 = coggins on yearling going for training
Stop 6 = tranquilize rescue mare with chronic hoof abscesses for farrier

6:40 back to clinic, run bloodwork, check on hospitalized alpacas, check morning schedule
7:30 back to house... technically I'm on call with Dr. L tonight.

TOMORROW
The morning schedule has some vaccinations. We have two alpacas coming in for labor induction, so I suppose I'll be checking on them throughout tomorrow night. In between, I'm attending a local continuing education event about equine nutr

Thursday

After a morning of appointments, I picked Josh up from the airport. Originally, it was thought I'd be on call all afternoon. When things stayed quiet, and we tired of watching bad movies on tv (most notably "Dude, Where's My Car?!" we headed to Middlefield for a late lunch/early supper at Pizza Hut, where we were annoyed with the jukebox playing Celine Dion. We then explored Burton (namely, the historic village and a few art shops), drove randomly around northeast Ohio and ended up at the all-American Walmart getting some food. Finally, I convinced Josh that we needed ice-cream, so we decided to try a place we'd seen in Burton that boasted homemade ice cream. I enjoyed maple while Josh had a cookies 'n cream shake. YUM

Friday

Though I was supposed to have the day off, the office had to schedule me for an appointment way south in Kent. Luckily, it wasn't until 11, so we got to sleep in (ok, I slept in, for poor Josh it was still somewhat early given the time change...) I figured it would be an adventure when we pulled up and the donkey and her day-old foal were hanging out in the middle of a 2 acre pasture... There was a sign written on the fence "Gladie had her baby!" and neighbors from the apartments across the street starting showing up to see the foal. The owner came out, didn't think we'd need a halter, wasn't sure if it was a colt (boy) or a filly (girl) and had a plate of sweet rolls to temp the mare (who was eyeing us suspiciously by this time).

Thanks to a nice donkey and Josh's round-up skills, we didn't chase them around TOO long before capturing them in the barn. I did a quick physical exam of mom and baby, determined the new critter is a boy and gave them the "healthy" verdict. We then had a good laugh about the fact that the new ass was to be given the same name as the owner's brother-in-law and would eventually need to be castrated... Ah, donkey humor :-)

Josh and I enjoyed a leisurely walk around downtown Kent, called Mom and Dad to wish them a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY from the town in which they met, discovered a unique ebony elephant for sale in the back corner of an art gallery/antique shop (where I was engaged in a lengthy conversation about Greek Mythology with the owner while Josh eyed the solid ebony pieces), and slowly recalled the black squirrel history of Kent State... We hit up Dairy Queen, ran into Dr. M there (she got me hooked on the tagalong blizzards...) and then headed south for the potato festival.

Now, in picturing a potato festival, we envisioned stands with mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries in every shape and style, shoe string potatoes, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, gold potatoes, potato pancakes, lefse, etc etc etc. Alas, twas not so. Well, there were potatoe pancakes and potato perogies and lots of regular greasy fair french fries, but no mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries and certainly no lefse. One of my coworkers was working the beer booth, so we stopped and talked to her, wondered around the fair booths and eventually settled on potatoe pancakes and chili fries. After a rest, we also enjoyed a funnel cake. Upon returning home, our stomachs complained about our less-than-bland dinner while we watched "Mr. Deeds" (which may never cease to be funny).

SATURDAY

Having fallen asleep with grumbling tummies, we slept in. Then, I'd promised Kelli that I'd come take a look at the 9-day old kitten that her daughter found and adopted. They're bottle feeding it every several hours, and it's doing well. Since we'd walked up to the clinic to check on "Booger", we also dewormed the new clinic kittens (yet-to- be-named orange male kitties who are meant to be mousers, but at 1 pound, are terrified of baby mice...) and played with them for a while.

Since I was still "back-up" on-call, we couldn't wander too far from the clinic. We walked to the neighbor's produce stand, bought (and subsequently devoured) pumpkin bars before returning to sit on the porch. After a while, Josh decided to disinfect the water cooler that has been upsidedown on the porch since my failed attempt to clean it a month ago. I tried to help, but mostly just got in the way as he bleached, scrubbed and rinsed. A couple hours later, we were rewarded with cool, clean, drinkable water right here in the kitchen! After some debate, we went to dinner at a local restaurant where we sat on the patio overlooking the river and nearly froze to death as night set in... Very refreshing! We returned home and watched "The Borne Identity", which apparently I've only seen all the way through once because I had NO idea how it ended. I guess that's a series of movies I could watch again in order and potentially make some sense out of...

SUNDAY

I dragged Josh out of bed way-too-early by his standards so that we could pack, feed the alpacas and drive to Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH). Josh finally got to see an alpaca spit (which he was VERY amused by), and then slept en route to the amusement park. What a GREAT time of year to visit! There were hardly any lines; we drove up, parked very close, bought tickets without a line and then had to decide where to start. I should clarify by saying that both of us have tendencies to motion sickness and neither have been to an amusement park in about 8 years (and never together). I wanted to start with the Carousel, but there wasn't anyone riding it or waiting in line... So, we headed to the Blue Streak (oldest roller coaster of the 17 at the park), walked up and climbed aboard.

To our delight, we both had fun, weren't sick and headed off to more rides: bumper cars, Iron Dragon coaster, Wild Cat single-car coaster, Gemini Coaster, Power Tower (240 foot drop straight down), Mean Streak Coaster, Snake River Falls water ride...

We eyed the Top Speed Dragster, decided it looked fun but we'd need to wait until our stomachs settled a bit and decided to find some lunch. En route to lunch, we made the mistake of looking at a spinning horror ride which made both of our stomach's turn. We opted for the least greasy thing we could find: burgers from Johnny Rockets. After lunch, the ferris wheel, a really calm coaster and the racing carousel seemed like a good start. However, the after effects of the very jarring Mean Streak weren't leaving: we both decided that we needed more of a break before any more coasters (or the dragster...) So, we rode the train around the park a few times. I took a nap. Still not feeling 100%, we mutually agreed that it'd be more fun to stop while we were ahead than to get sick because we insisted on proceeding with the thrill rides. We found some ice cream and headed for the car.

Checking into a hotel in Vermillion, we headed for downtown on Lake Erie and found some delicious mexican food (so worth not getting sick at the amusement park to enjoy dinner!) and wondered around near the lake (which is very warm compared to Superior!)

MONDAY

After a delicious breakfast at the hotel (ok, I dont' have very high standards, but can't get enough of the cinnamon rolls at Holiday Inn!), we headed for the Science Center in Cleveland. The biologist in me came out as I became enthralled with the Darwin exhibit, while the carpenter in Josh came out as he examined the construction of the Darwin exhibit... Then he proceeded to boggle my mind when he could figure out all of the physics demonstrations "cuz they make sense".

Once he was finished amazing me in his boredom with the "obvious" exhibits, we headed south towards the airport, made a detour for local pizza, and I dropped him off in time for his flight back to Denver.

Because I had the rest of the night off, and to distract myself from loneliness, I headed to the movies. I've wanted to see Harry Potter 6 again since Amanda and I saw it opening night, and finally did. There were only 2 other people in the theater. The second time around, I think I liked the overall movie more but found the added scene even more pointless and annoying than the first time through...

TODAY

5:00 up and to the gym, ran 30 min, biked 4 miles - knees happy
7:00 back at home, showered, took a quick nap before work
8:00 to the clinic for Dr. meeting, stocking truck and preparing for day
9:30 on the road, first stop = alpaca with displaced cervical (neck) vertebrae. Very bizarre looking, I referred her into the clinic for radiographs and a neck cast. I really need to get pictures, it looks like something out of a cartoon... HOpefully she'll recover.

Stop 2 = vaccinate some barely-halter broke percherons. Luckily, didn't get kicked.
Stop 3 (via Chipotle in Kent) = new cria exam and adorable bunnies nearly adults now!
Stop 4 = meet Dr. L for health certificates, ultrasounds on bunch of alpacas
Stop 5 = coggins on yearling going for training
Stop 6 = tranquilize rescue mare with chronic hoof abscesses for farrier

6:40 back to clinic, run bloodwork, check on hospitalized alpacas, check morning schedule
7:30 back to house... technically I'm on call with Dr. L tonight.

TOMORROW
The morning schedule has some vaccinations. We have two alpacas coming in for labor induction, so I suppose I'll be checking on them throughout tomorrow night. In between, I'm attending a local continuing education event about equine nutrition...

This weekend I was once again an official show vet along with a colleague from the office. Overall, things were uneventful (good for everyone, makes for slow weekend for us). Thus, Dr. J and I spent the majority of our weekend sitting in the show lounge reading newspapers, completing (with heavy cheating) various crosswords and sudokus, and eating yummy free concession food. It was the two Dressage judges that brought any excitement to things...

Judge encounter #1:
I was sitting at our table and looked up to see Cheryl (barn owner where I boarded Joey for the past 3 years) walking across the room. I was momentarily confused "I know that person, but not from here, Cheryl? huh..." running through my head before I greeted her. She asked after Joey and informed me that Clara (the big Belgian mare with whom he lived for the past year and bossed around...) cried for a week after he left (!sad!) and now won't tolerate any horse near her. Oh dear... Anyways, it was good to hear of news at Nottingham, but very surreal to see a "MI" face here in the heart of Amish country Ohio...

Judge encounter #:
Major General Jonathan Barton. Graduated from MSU 1942 ("long before [I was] born" he kept reminding me: "long before my PARENTS were born" I kept thinking), and thus, a big fan of me (in a place where every other vet bleeds red and grey or whatever OSU calls their colors...). His list of accomplishments are long, and when you try to get him to sit still (at 91 years old!) he soon realize why: the man just keeps working! In the five minutes he sat down all weekend, I found out that he graduated from what was then Michigan Agriculture College after being a member of the ROTC, which was then a calvary unit! They used to play polo indoors all winter, travel to other Big 10 schools, and spent HOURS sitting the trot without stirrups (calvary was trained in the European style). Following graduation, he joined the army and reportedly led the calvary not only on the US-Canada border during WWII, but also the reconnisance missions starting in Australia at the end of the war. He was in the military for 37 years. Did I mention that he also competed in the 1948 AND 1956 Olympics on the equestrian team?! A google search readily reveals his laundry list of accomplishments. Thus, you can imagine my lack of answer when he looked me in the eye and said "we're proud of you: an MSU-trained vet." er... thanks General?

Ok, some of the pictures. My camera died half-way up the mountain Sunday afternoon, so the rest of the pictures are still on Josh's camera, which I forgot to copy to my USB before I had to fly back to the midwest...

Quick rundown:
Saturday we drove up to Estes Park, CO. We wandered around downtown, bought our backpacking permit, checked into the lodge with the spectacular view, ate yummy pizza and ice cream.

Sunday morning after pancakes for breakfast (TOO MUCH in the tummy for the hike ahead) we drove into RMNP, parked 0.7 miles from the Fern Lake trailhead, strapped on our backpacks and started hiking. 4 miles in, 1000 feet up, many breaks for my poor altitute-weak cardiovascular system later, we arrived just before the rain at the top of the mountain and made camp. Once the rain stopped for a while, we hiked (WITHOUT packs! so free!) to Fern Lake and explored its banks. Josh brought spaghetti with homemade sauce & garlic bread for dinner, so I tried to help him as he cooked over the stoves in the dark and rain. It was yummy!

Monday morning, the storm clouds had cleared and sun was out. I packed camp while Josh worked on his masterpiece french toast over the stoves! We hiked back down the mountain (easier, but still quite a work-out!) and got out of the park just before the rain hit! We drove back to Denver in time for me to get on the plane and return for a night of little sleep and a day full of emergencies.

Jean, thought of you when I got this picture of this big blue bird that hung out at the birdfeeder outside the lodge. What is it? We saw several of them while hiking...


Spectacular view along the trail!

Carrying the heavy pack, Josh took a well-deserved break hiking up while I played with the color settings on my camera.

Fern Falls half way up the mountain. Another break from the backpack...

More of the stunning views from the trail! Unfortunately, I spent most of my time looking at where my feet were rather than around me...

- Meeting cousins and sister at a Mexican Restaurant in the pouring rain. Four distinct ways of eating fried ice cream. Who would have ever guessed the four of us would be able to drive for an "evening with the girls?!" Discussions ranging from giant hampsters to eloping during the hours that flew by...

- Akron/Canton airport carside service. Tailfin-animals and personal card-swiper of Frontier Airlines. Stan the Ram and Larry the Lynx got me safely from A/C to DEN and back.

- Josh packing the cooler and box of food so we can go "NW" for "a while".

- Purchasing a sleeping bag at REI. Backpacking or camping? Temperature rating? Men's or women's? 6' or taller? Right or left handed? Salesman pulling a colorful bag off out of the collection and telling me to try it out. Me looking at Josh in disbelief that people actually crawl into sleeping bags in the middle of a store and him laughing. Me cocooned inside a lightweight (down, for backpacking), 15-degree F, women's extra long right-handed sleeping bag on the "trial" platform. Marmot AngelFire - now mine.

- Wondering the main street of Estes Park trying to resist the wonderful smells of tourist trap ice cream, pizza and candy places. My insistence on visiting the store with the mold of a tricerotop skull for sale in the window! Josh preteding to be as excited about the mammoth mandibular teeth as me. Decision that the whole town is like a carnival, but overall impressively organized to be tourist friendly (lots of public bathrooms and free parking...)

- Discovery upon visiting the "backcountry office" to purchase our backpacking permit that people use LLAMAS for pack animals! Me expressing concern about dark clouds stacking up over the mountains and Josh telling me we're not hiking in until tomorrow: time to find our hotel!

- McGregor lodge 11B - a fully stocked 1 bedroom apartment ("the last room available as of 2 days ago") that has better kitchen utensils than the house I live in, a fireplace, grill and an AMAZING view of the mountains. Watching thunderstorm roll over the mountains, across the valley and through town. Dinner at a pizza place in town, over-priced ice cream, rental of a "bearkeg" canister in which to put our food

- Homemade pancakes for breakfast, camping gear packed into 2 backpacks, realization that "squiggles" on map are switchbacks, discovery that we can't park within a half-mile of the trailhead, understanding that the partial pressure of oxygen at 8000 feet is much less than in the midwest especially when there's any incline

- Comprehension that it can take 3 hours to hike 4 miles, awe with surroundings, trust instincts regarding dark clouds piling over mountain, appreciation at having tried setting up the tent for the first time in lodge 11B as we got inside just as the rain hit

- Pumping water with a functioning filter doesn't have to be a workout. Don't let it detach from the bag or it dumps frigid mountain-stream water all over Josh... Panic at the edge of the mind when realize take wrong "trail" back to campsite as thunder and lightning return and downpour starts - calm at seeing Josh on trail off to the left.

- Counting towering Ponderosa Pines killed by the Pine Beetle that have the potential of falling (or not) on the tent. Reading "ways to handle a bear or mountain lion encounter" in the parks complimentary newspaper. Final instruction: "if attacked, fight back". Mutual decision to strike nose or eyes if it comes to that.

- Hiking pack-free to see Fern Lake. Mirrored water sans mosquitoes aboslutely stunning. Soaring mountain basin, complete with snowcaps. Follow stream to outlet in lake. Contemplation of ranger cabin ideal local.

- Finding 3' circle of dry earth under pine branch. Creation of bench as rain starts. Cooking pasta, spaghetti sauce, garlic bread over 2 propane stoves in the dark with rain pouring down. Losing return trail when burying wash water & charred crust of garlic bread. Trying to explain position of moon peaking through the clouds to where we started. Comfort in hearing stream we can follow back to trail. Recognition of down trees for trail - thrill with seeing reflection of tent in headlamp light. Tag team and pace-counting trips to "outhouse" and to store the bearkeg away from camp. Missing a fire.

- Waking at 10:30 to realize I fell asleep somehow a few hours ago and am now warm enough to uncurl from fetal position and unzip top of sleeping bag. Josh sound asleep in bag beside me. Silence outside: rain stopped. Falling back asleep comfortable and content.

- Waking at 6:30 to see sunlight highlighting pines and enjoying the birds singing. Understanding why the silence was so irksome yesterday: the animals must have known a storm was coming. Falling back asleep on top of the mountain miles from civilization.

- Surprise in discovering that Josh wasn't making scrambled eggs, but FRENCH TOAST - DELICIOUS! Purpose as I could pack camp while he cooked.

- Work-out of hiking back down the mountain. Still need to look up species of young buck completely unperturbed by our presence as he browsed. Disappointment at seeing "town" again. Even moreso in seeing "city".

- Don't eat at Sol Azteca in Boulder.

- Another farewell.

- Trying to find food after midnight in NE ohio. Yay for burgerking somewhere between akron and parma.

- THANKS to Rachel and Anthony for taking excellent care of Tyson, allowing me to crash on their very comfy couch Fri and for staying up until 1:30 for me to retrieve said Ferret...

- Blind alpaca recheck. Still blind.

- Second dental in as many workdays leading to discussion about bits - yay for those presentations I studied for!

- Mare who failed attempt to jump out of paddock. Suturing up leg gash as trainer nearly fainting.

- Swollen jaw, colic, sick cria... just wanting to sleep more than the 3 hours I got last night.

- Trying not to sound smug when saying "I played 4 years of DII college ball; hopefully that's ok" in response to phone call from YMCA bball league team captian's statement that the other team members don't want a girl playing because of an embarassing show of their female teammates last session.

- Disappointment with news that there's no bball game this week. That's pretty much the only reason I was able to walk away from Trusty the Truck last night in Denver. Even my boss thanked me for returning this morning. It's NOT getting easier, this long-distance thing.

- utter exhaustion. Only wednesday. 4am. SIGH

I have no excuses for not posting in the past week other than I've been too lazy to. I've had plenty of time to jot SOMETHING down, but haven't... Let's see about some key points...

- Friday I went out on my own to see an acutely blind 2 month old alpaca. All weekend I heard from the owner about his fever, and she came to pick up meds twice. By Monday morning, he'd become neurologic (circling, stumbling, head tilt) and was admitted to the hospital. Dr. M and I tapped his spinal fluid and put him on more anti-inflammatories. He's still in the hospital and has improved neurologically, but is still blind. THe poor thing is terrified of life and isn't too interested in eating... I went back up to the clinic tonight to find that his owners let themselves in for a visit (!?!!). He may go home tomorrow, where they have a young alpaca they want him to be friends with so that he can follow it around... Fingers crossed, but I don't know how this is going to turn out. He's going to be a LOT of work.

- Friday, after work I went and shot baskets for 90 minutes or so

- Then... a premature llama came in for a plasma transfusion. I placed the IV catheter. He's been doing well since then - standing and walking yesterday and nursing today! His poor owner's had a rough spring (remember the baby with the broken neck? Her baby. She had one stillborn Sunday too...)

- Saturday we got an alpaca and her cria in... The cria had been having heat stress so they shore (shore, sheared? shore...) her and then her mom didn't recognize her and wouldn't let her nurse. We put them in a dark isolated stall, sedated the mom and held her every few hours to let baby nurse. By Saturday night things were going well, and baby was gaining weight by Sunday morning. We sent them home this afternoon.

- The key event Saturday was that I got a library card! I rented a dvd (The Women, which was mildly entertaining until the last two chapters wouldn't play!) and an audio book (The Valley of the Horses, the second in the Earth Children series - sequel to The Clan of the Cave Bear, a fictionaly evolutionary story...) THe book has made driving to the gym in the mornings much more enjoyable than flipping between cookie-cutter morning shows!

- Sunday I finished reading "THe Pillars of the Earth" and went to Walmart to get the sequel only to find that they no longer have it. I bought another Phillipa Gregory book (The Other Queen - about Mary, the Queen of Scots at the time of Elizabeth I's reign...) and Inkheart. I spent the evening watching "Remember the TItans" one of my favorite movies.

- Monday night emergencies were a bit crazy. First, there was an amish buggy horse hit by a car. She fractured her right radius. We euthanized her, poor thing. Then we had a colicky pony WAY south of the clinic. We thought we'd have to euthanize too, but her owners wanted to see how she did overnight and last I heard she's just fine... If she'd have been a bazillion dollar warmblood, she'd have died. In between checking on her, we saw a mare who'd gotten into a kicking contest with another mare and lacerated her vulva. So, we sutured her up. Driving back to the clinic, we stopped at Wendy's (frosty = yum!) and then had to go see an acutely neurologic stallion who was stumbling all over the place... Lots of anti-inflammatories, and today he's looking much better. Radiographs MAY be consistent with arthritis in his neck, but that doesn't really explain everything we're seeing.

- Tuesday night I had my bball league meeting. Well, I'm the only "free agent" player this session (everyone else signed up as a team), so I was the only one at the meeting. They're putting me on the "grey" team with 5 other players. Games will be Tuesday nights, once a week for 14 weeks starting next week! After getting this info, I went and shot LEFT handed for about 90 minutes. OH! How could I forget. Tuesday we got our new radiograph machine. While trying to figure out the set-up, Dr. A asked if I needed anything checked! Finally! I got my ankle radiographed (the one I had surgery on that was really bothering me all last winter but I didn't find anyone I could talk into shooting a picture). It wasn't the GREATEST shot (technique wise, can't see much of the tibio-tarsal joint) but CAN see taht there's a spur and boney remodeling of the tarsal-metatarsal joint consistent with mild arthritis. On a good note: my left knee looks clean (and who knew people had fabellae?!)

- Now, it's Wednesday night. I ran/walked 5.5 miles on the treadmill this morning and walked another 1.5 with my trips up and down the drive this evening. The gym is closed for resurfacing the floor. I've sort of packed for my trip to Denver (!) this weekend. Tyson got his nails clipped AND a bath. I was going to wash his laundry but the washer (which was fixed yesterday and worked last night) is broken again. Grrrrrrrrrr. Then, Dad called because Darlin's colicking. Not major (yet or now), but I'm worried about her and haven't really been able to concentrate on much this evening. I'm half-heartedly watching Pleasantville.

I should be reading or sewing. I have all but one (I need an address from Josh) of the wedding Thank You cards done and mailed. My next big project (besides the quilt, which I'm still tracking down signatures for) is photo albums from vet school, alaska and this summer. I started organizing my digital photos a few weeks ago, but honestly don't have the money to get them all printed at the moment anyways, so no big rush.

In reality, my biggest project is keeping busy in my "down" time (I'm still on call pretty much 24-7) WITHOUT spending a ton of money or eating a ton of food. I should study more, but often don't have the energy to do that... I've been crabby the past week or so, I think it's time for this vacation. I haven't had a night OFF since Becca came a few weeks back. So, this Friday I'm off at 5, am heading to Cleveland for a "Cousin's Dinner" with Beth, Rachel and Amanda. I've been looking forward to it all week and can't wait for some good company and yummy food. Then, I'm sleeping over at Rachel and Anthony's, who are kind enough to ferret-sit while I fly to Denver Saturday morning through Monday night. Josh and I don't have any big plans for the weekend. Weather permitting, we're going to go hiking somewhere, perhaps meet up with the Conants Sunday for a visit and generally NOT work... :-D