Interesting facts - related to veterinary med

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Kota1000

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I learned from a veterinarian that Collies have a high allergy rate for a majority of medicines especially if they have a specific gene mdr1. This occurs in 75% of both rough and smooth collies. If your dog has this they cannot pump specific drugs out of their brain and cause neurological defects and can result in death.

What interesting facts have you learned?

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That the majority of the general public is stupid....
I snorted, DVMD.
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I'll play. Can't resist.

The stomachs of rodents and horses are almost identical histologically.

Most species of bird only have one functional ovary, and it is almost always the left. Male birds usually have a larger left testis as well, compared to the right, with the exception of roosters.

Male camels have an inflatable sac called a dulla in their throat that they push out of their mouth to attract females. It's gross looking.

Llamas have adorable livers with crazy scalloped edges.

Most chihuahuas and other inbred toy breeds have at least a small degree of incidental hydrocephalus, an enlarged foramen magnum, or both - even if they are outwardly normal their whole lives

Reptile hearts can continue beating for hours even when removed from the body.

Armadillos are the only species that can be infected with leprosy (outside a laboratory environment) other than humans.

Ruminants with black skin/fur or black points can also often have black coloring on the surfaces of their brains.
 
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I learned from a veterinarian that Collies have a high allergy rate for a majority of medicines especially if they have a specific gene mdr1. This occurs in 75% of both rough and smooth collies. If your dog has this they cannot pump specific drugs out of their brain and cause neurological defects and can result in death.

What interesting facts have you learned?

Wrote a 30 page paper and gave a 17:22 minute speech on said paper for my senior thesis class on this subject. To this day, my bio professors will tag me on Facebook in anything even remotely related to this. It's also featured in an episode of House.
 
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Horse's kidneys are shaped like hearts - and the ligament that connects the left kidney to the spleen has a terrible habit of grabbing sections of intestine and refusing to let them go - leading to colic that can (often) be resolved by injecting adrenaline to cause a splenic contraction. Because horses.

There's like a million others I have picked up in my first year of vet school, but for some reason those two are always what I go to for fun facts haha
 
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Ask as ye shall receive
I expected nothing less from you!

What I've learned: The vast majority of the population either doesn't know the proper terminology or is too immature to use medical terminology for the reproductive organs. Seriously people, stop talking to me about your dog's 'bird'. Unless your dog has a pet budgie. In which case, still don't talk to me about it cause I'm horrible with avian medicine.
 
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Horse's kidneys are shaped like hearts - and the ligament that connects the left kidney to the spleen has a terrible habit of grabbing sections of intestine and refusing to let them go - leading to colic that can (often) be resolved by injecting adrenaline to cause a splenic contraction. Because horses.

There's like a million others I have picked up in my first year of vet school, but for some reason those two are always what I go to for fun facts haha

Only the right one! :D

(ok, ok they both kinda are, but the right one more so. The left kidney is slightly less bulkily shaped which supposedly can also contributes to nephrosplenic ligamenet entrapment. Also certain breeds of horses appear to have a larger "potential space" and can have that type of colic more often. I believe TBs are one)
 
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I expected nothing less from you!

What I've learned: The vast majority of the population either doesn't know the proper terminology or is too immature to use medical terminology for the reproductive organs. Seriously people, stop talking to me about your dog's 'bird'. Unless your dog has a pet budgie. In which case, still don't talk to me about it cause I'm horrible with avian medicine.
Funny story about this, once a coworker and I were releasing a dog post-spay to the adopter and when we were explaining the procedure/post-care the adopter kept pointing to her neck like "So what did you do?". We started out explaining what had been removed (using relatively common words like uterus), switched to saying we took out the reproductive organs, switched to saying we "fixed" the dog, switched to saying we made it so the dog can't have babies any more ever, and I think tried a few other things as well and this lady just wasn't getting it. She spoke perfectly good English so it wasn't a language barrier, and she was also wearing scrubs as she had just gotten off her job as a technician of some sort in a human medical field. I still to this day do not know what exactly she thought we did to the dog's neck but I'm pretty sure she didn't understand what we were talking about until we told her something about being unable to have puppies. That was a confusing day at work.
 
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I learned from a veterinarian that Collies have a high allergy rate for a majority of medicines especially if they have a specific gene mdr1. This occurs in 75% of both rough and smooth collies. If your dog has this they cannot pump specific drugs out of their brain and cause neurological defects and can result in death.

What interesting facts have you learned?
It's not an allergy, it's a genetic mutation that slows the metabolism of those drugs.......and I wouldn't call it "a majority of medications".

It used to be called the MDR1 mutation, but now they've gone and changed it and I can't remember what it's now called.
 
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It's not an allergy, it's a genetic mutation that slows the metabolism of those drugs.......and I wouldn't call it "a majority of medications".

It used to be called the MDR1 mutation, but now they've gone and changed it and I can't remember what it's now called.

I think it's ABCB1 now.
 
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The sensitive laminae of a horses hoof ..........

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....look like fish gills....

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I can't unsee this now.

It's not an allergy, it's a genetic mutation that slows the metabolism of those drugs.......and I wouldn't call it "a majority of medications".

It used to be called the MDR1 mutation, but now they've gone and changed it and I can't remember what it's now called.

I think it's ABCB1 now.

Beat me to it.

Yeah, not an allergy. It's a malformation of the MDR1 protein in the blood brain barrier due to a premature stop codon. It pushes ivermectin into the brain, but gets stuck and can't pull it back out. It can also cause GI upset.
 
* A giraffe has 7 cervical vertebrae in its neck which is the same number of vertebrae in a human's neck (although the giraffe's neck is much longer due to the elongated vertebrae). Their neck also contains special blood valves (to stop the backflow of blood) and special veins that prevent giraffes from passing out when giraffes lean over to drink water.


giraffe.jpg


* A crocodile can hold its breath underwater for about 10 minutes.


croc.jpg


* A lion's roar is so powerful that the roar can be heard from 5 miles away.


Lion.jpg


* An African elephant's sense of smell is so strong that the elephant can smell water from 3 miles away.

elephant.jpg
 
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* A blue whale's heart beats around 8 times/minute. The blue whale's heartbeat can be heard from over 2 miles away.
[Compare that to a blue-throated hummingbird's rate of about 1260 beats per minute.]


whale.jpg



* A female bald eagle is around 25% larger than a male bald eagle.


baldeaglebird.jpg
 
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I can't unsee this now.





Beat me to it.

Yeah, not an allergy. It's a malformation of the MDR1 protein in the blood brain barrier due to a premature stop codon. It pushes ivermectin into the brain, but gets stuck and can't pull it back out. It can also cause GI upset.

Not just ivermectin; many drugs.

And, the protein doesn't "push" the med into the brain; the protein is a pump responsible for transporting substances out of the brain.

And (in regards to the OP), it doesn't mean they can't clear those meds at all, it just means they have a significantly delayed clearance, which allows accumulation to potentially toxic levels. I use a number of those drugs in MDR1-sensitive breeds all the time. You just have to be cautious and aware of what you're doing. It isn't a black/white "safe" vs "neurotoxic" type of deal (unlike what many breeders will tell you).
 
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Not just ivermectin; many drugs.

And, the protein doesn't "push" the med into the brain; the protein is a pump responsible for transporting substances out of the brain.


I knew I should've looked at my old paper. But it's on the old computer who doesn't like to stay charged. :(. Thanks for the correction; you would think I'd remember this stuff with how much time I spent writing that thing.

Fun fact for those who go to Washington: the doctor who did a ton of research on MDR1 is a clinician/researcher at WSU. Dr. Mealy, I believe it was.
 
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* Horses can't vomit because it can't breathe through the mouth
* Animals generate 30 times more waste than humans which is 1.4 billion tons every year
 
Only the right one! :D

(ok, ok they both kinda are, but the right one more so. The left kidney is slightly less bulkily shaped which supposedly can also contributes to nephrosplenic ligamenet entrapment. Also certain breeds of horses appear to have a larger "potential space" and can have that type of colic more often. I believe TBs are one)
Tb's and warmbloods!
 
And on the topic of vomiting, rats (and possibly mice and some other rodents?) can't really vomit, either, because they lack some of the neural connections between the area postrema, CTZ, and other important structures that allow them to properly coordinate the muscles involved in the physical action of vomiting. They also are similar to horses in that they have a reduced ability to relax the lower esophageal sphincter due to its strength and pressure. Obviously, they are capable of regurgitation.

One of the few questions I actually got correct on my last GI phys exam. :rolleyes:

I also know that lagomorphs are nonemetic, though I cant remember off of the top of my head if it is for the same general reason.
 
Wrote a 30 page paper and gave a 17:22 minute speech on said paper for my senior thesis class on this subject. To this day, my bio professors will tag me on Facebook in anything even remotely related to this. It's also featured in an episode of House.

Cool! Is you paper uploaded anywhere? I'd love to read it, I find genetics super interesting.
 
Cool! Is you paper uploaded anywhere? I'd love to read it, I find genetics super interesting.

It wasn't published or anything. But I can see if I can get the old computer to live and pm it to you. No guarantees though; the old computer hates coming out of retirement. You an search for Dr. Mealy (Meely? I can't remember the spelling) from washington to get the original primary sources.
 
Oh so many :laugh:. Here's two.

Vomiting is a very common clinical sign of hyperthyroidism in cats. However, no one knows why the vomiting happens. Ideas range from high T4 directly activating the chemoreceptor trigger zone, to T4 increasing stomach acidity -> gastric irritation -> peripherally-triggered vomiting, and everything in between. The mechanism matters because it impacts what antiemetics you could use to reduce the vomiting while the hyperthyroid treatment takes effect (some affect the central vomiting pathway, while some affect peripheral).

Cattle have ridiculously complex blood types to the point where they can almost be used as individual identifiers in a herd. It's som complex that it becomes simple again - find a healthy animal in the same herd, start the transfusion slowly, and you're probably OK for the first transfusion because the receiver cow hasn't had an opportunity to build up antibodies.
 
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Oh so many :laugh:. Here's two.

Vomiting is a very common clinical sign of hyperthyroidism in cats. However, no one knows why the vomiting happens. Ideas range from high T4 directly activating the chemoreceptor trigger zone, to T4 increasing stomach acidity -> gastric irritation -> peripherally-triggered vomiting, and everything in between. The mechanism matters because it impacts what antiemetics you could use to reduce the vomiting while the hyperthyroid treatment takes effect (some affect the central vomiting pathway, while some affect peripheral).

I do. It's because cats are dicks.
 
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Vomiting is a very common clinical sign of hyperthyroidism in cats. However, no one knows why the vomiting happens. Ideas range from high T4 directly activating the chemoreceptor trigger zone, to T4 increasing stomach acidity -> gastric irritation -> peripherally-triggered vomiting, and everything in between. The mechanism matters because it impacts what antiemetics you could use to reduce the vomiting while the hyperthyroid treatment takes effect (some affect the central vomiting pathway, while some affect peripheral).
Interesting! My cat was diagnosed hyperthyroid a couple months ago after I brought her in for acute vomiting, but the clinician didn't go into that much detail with me. The vomiting stopped on its own without antiemetics. :shrug:
 
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