RANT HERE thread

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I didn't have the energy to say the above earlier, but yes that's exactly why it didn't make sense to me. You're not really "essentially evaporating" the animal by scraping off the water... It's not water coming off the animal that cools it down. It's the transfer of body heat to the water causing it to evaporate (the vaporization of water), that cools it down. If I remember correctly, of conduction, convection and evaporation, evaporation takes the win every time. Which is part of the reason why you pour alcohol on animals that are in heat shock (low bp fluid). But then again, the earth revolves differently for horse people (gravity, science, evaporation, puh puh!), so perhaps this is one of those things 🙂. Whatever your horse likes I guess, as long as it's helping to cool them down so they're not overheating!

I wonder if there's any other reason why it might be beneficial to scrape the horse though, other than that it'll dry off faster.

Interesting. Shows how much I learned in physics. I just think of it as the heat from the horse's body transfers to the water (since the horse's body is warmer than the water), you scrape that water (and thus the heat) off the horse, add more water which takes more heat, scrape again, add more water, scrape, etc. until the horse is cool. It's always worked for me. I have one particular physics lab in my mind right now that we did my sophomore year of undergrad regarding heat transfer that I just can't remember exactly. That's what I get for taking physics lab at 9 pm.
 
I am not a happy camper right now.

For the past two months, my eligiblity for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship has been pending. So, I decided to give them a call.

The problem? They said my GPA was past requirements - said it was a 2.36.

WHAT?! :scared: My GPA has never been that low. I repeatdly told the guy I'm looking at my grades on my student account right now and it's showing a MUCH higher GPA than that. He told me I still had to send in another transcript.

Went to my University, told them about it, and they told me the Department of Higher Education has been extremely unorganized lately. My university even told me I never had a GPA even close to that low. They sent off another transcript electronically, I call the scholarship people back, and all they say is "Well, your university is the one who sent us the 2.36 GPA in the first place."

Can we just stop pointing fingers and give me my scholarship? 🙁
 
Interesting. Shows how much I learned in physics. I just think of it as the heat from the horse's body transfers to the water (since the horse's body is warmer than the water), you scrape that water (and thus the heat) off the horse, add more water which takes more heat, scrape again, add more water, scrape, etc. until the horse is cool. It's always worked for me. I have one particular physics lab in my mind right now that we did my sophomore year of undergrad regarding heat transfer that I just can't remember exactly. That's what I get for taking physics lab at 9 pm.

yeah, if you keep scraping and then spraying more cold water, then it'll work better than just leaving the old water there. But if you're just spraying once, i don't think leaving the water will heat the horse, and I don't think scraping will cool it any more. Then again, I could be wrong.

haha, yeah... that intro chem ii was the worst grade i had in my entire college career, which is why i also make stupid comments like evaporation will always cool better than any other cooling method too (which is obviously dependent on many other factors).
 
It seems scraping and dousing with cold water would help (and would definitely feel great!), I'm just saying that it's not going to be as efficient as letting the sweat evaporate on its own. Here's a chart of the energy required for a phase change of water.

WaterPhaseChanges.gif


It takes far more energy to actually evaporate the water than it does to merely raise the temperature of it, meaning that letting the original sweat evaporate is actually going to cool the animal better than scraping warm water off and putting cold water on. And it will evaporate; just think of us when we're running around outside on a warm day. We run, we sweat, and eventually we're dry. It doesn't have to be 100 degrees C for our sweat to evaporate.

ETA: Since it's the rant thread, and this really isn't a rant, I'll actually post a frustration of mine today: spiders on couches.
 
It takes far more energy to actually evaporate the water than it does to merely raise the temperature of it, meaning that letting the original sweat evaporate is actually going to cool the animal better than scraping warm water off and putting cold water on.

Interesting!

That might (Probably? Is? I slept through physics so I'm just going to grant that you know what you're talking about and I don't.) be true if by "better" you mean most efficient in terms of how much water you need to transfer a certain amount of heat away from the animal. But the animal probably wants to define "better" in terms of how damn quickly my human owner can cool me down, so HurryUpWithTheWater already, human servant-fool!

If you look at it from the perspective of what will cool the horse most QUICKLY, I can see where repeated rinse, squeegee, repeat might be most effective, even though it's not the most thermodynamically efficient.

It's always worth remembering that "better" can usually be defined all sorts of ways. 🙂
 
I wonder if there's any other reason why it might be beneficial to scrape the horse though, other than that it'll dry off faster.

Like I said earlier, it keeps them from dripping all over the aisle in the barn when you bring them back inside! :laugh: Some cranky old instructor probably told this to her students to make them scrape the horses well enough before bringing them back through the barn and making a wet mess.

I mean, I'd do it if those darned kids were messin' up my freshly swept aisle. :whistle:
 
\ But the animal probably wants to define "better" in terms of how damn quickly my human owner can cool me down, so HurryUpWithTheWater already, human servant-fool!

lol. I didn't realize you understood the equine-owner bond quite so well, LIS!
 
lol. I didn't realize you understood the equine-owner bond quite so well, LIS!

Well, you know, I don't know much about horses, but I've groomed for my sister so I've observed.... 🙂

I suppose since this is the rant thread I should bring it home. Um. Alright, here we go. Only fool horse to ever bite me is my sister's. Black and blue upper arm for a hella long time after that beast took me to task for looking away briefly.
 
Like I said earlier, it keeps them from dripping all over the aisle in the barn when you bring them back inside! :laugh:

Also stops the buggers from shaking (please tell me it's not just Coquette that does this). And generally being cantankerous. Coquette can't deal at all with water dripping down her legs. She prances and kicks at the drops. :laugh: It'd be funny if it wasn't quite so pathetic looking.
 
Also stops the buggers from shaking (please tell me it's not just Coquette that does this). And generally being cantankerous. Coquette can't deal at all with water dripping down her legs. She prances and kicks at the drops. :laugh: It'd be funny if it wasn't quite so pathetic looking.

Are you talking about yourself or your horse? 😉
 
Are you talking about yourself or your horse? 😉

Watch it. 😛

ETA: Rant - there's about $500 floating around in this world that's mine, I just can't lay my hands on it. Agreed to sell my saddle to my riding instructor since I won't have much need for it over the next four years, under the agreement that she'll get the money to me when we see each other next - which won't be until Aug 6. Government GST rebate cheques went out in Jul 5, but mine went to my old address (my fault for not updating with Canada Revenue), so I had to get that reissued on Jul 19, and it hasn't arrived yet. My employer was supposed to reimburse me for mileage. I submitted the request for it on Jul 8 and still nothing. I want my money!
 
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saw my most horrific case yet last night. one of our patients downward spiraled over the course of a few hours (although to be honest the poor dog was probably doomed when the owners decided to cut it at the RDVM for the splenic mass) and eventually coded. i've seen codes before, but NEVER have I seen an animal blow up with air like a balloon. literally every inch of the lab was inflated. the ER vet is thinking either a tracheal or pulmonary tear but we have no way of really knowing what caused it (other than this animal was headed down hill and body systems were failing). totally horrifying thing to see though 😱
 
This isn't so much a rant as a bit of sadness...

My mom's boyfriend (been together 10 years, own a house together, basically married) broke up with her last night. I just feel so awful. Now she has to move out of the house and find a place to live and I just keep thinking about how she's going to be able to afford a place on her own, how she's going to feel coming home to an empty apartment/house/whatever. No one saw this coming and her bf says he just feels like they've grown apart and should do their separate things, which is fine except I just don't want my mom to be sad. Break ups always suck, but when you're young I feel like you know thats part of life and that you can/will find someone else. I just don't want my mom to feel like she'll be alone forever now. I hope she doesn't think that. 🙁
 
This isn't so much a rant as a bit of sadness...

My mom's boyfriend (been together 10 years, own a house together, basically married) broke up with her last night. I just feel so awful. Now she has to move out of the house and find a place to live and I just keep thinking about how she's going to be able to afford a place on her own, how she's going to feel coming home to an empty apartment/house/whatever. No one saw this coming and her bf says he just feels like they've grown apart and should do their separate things, which is fine except I just don't want my mom to be sad. Break ups always suck, but when you're young I feel like you know thats part of life and that you can/will find someone else. I just don't want my mom to feel like she'll be alone forever now. I hope she doesn't think that. 🙁

It definitely sucks to see someone you love go through that, but just know that there are probably people cheering for her who you never thought would. A few years ago, I talked to an ex of mine from high school who asked if my mom had found anybody yet. When I said no, he told me he hopes she does because she's awesome. I hope everything works out for her :luck:
 
This is definitely true, although I'm not sure what she was talking about with one specific breeds of dog. Many, many dog breeds with long hair are double coated, meaning they have a layer of soft, fluffy undercoat and a layer of coarser guard hairs which act to protect the coat. In the summer, much of the undercoat is shed out (and often must be combed out, especially in a dog with a thick undercoat), allowing the dog to stay cooler without this insulating under layer. The guard hairs also provide a layer of protection against the sun and insects. If you shave the coat of these dogs, the body's hair production system kicks into overdrive, sensing the lack of protective guard hairs, and begins to make massive quantities of undercoat to try to compensate. To make matters worse, as the new guard hairs come in they become entagled with the mass of undercoat, often leading to a dog that is a matted mess, and is even hotter than it was before you shaved it. The proper approach to handling a double coat is to "strip" it when the dog is wet, using a fine toothed comb to remove the loose undercoat. Products like the furminator work for this task also, but may damage the coat or skin if overused.
(My mom is a professional groomer specializing in large and giant breeds, so this is a topic I have heard a lot about!)

I was going to ask this and crap. I finally caved this summer to shaving (not really shaving, I left about 1-1.5in of hair on her) my little mutt dog and I thought to myself "I'll bet the undercoat actually helps keep her cool" but with everyone on my back about how hot she must be I finally buzzed her. She's fine but I won't do it again.

My rant for the day: Not everyone is going to be a puppy and kitty vet. I understand that's the most visible part of the profession but I have to bite my tongue at work (at a small animal clinic for the summer paying a heckuva lot more than my lab animal job) when someone says, "Well when YOU do this" or something like that. I don't want to seem ungrateful for the job by saying, "I don't actually plan to do anything of this sort" but it irks me.
 
Also stops the buggers from shaking (please tell me it's not just Coquette that does this). And generally being cantankerous. Coquette can't deal at all with water dripping down her legs. She prances and kicks at the drops. :laugh: It'd be funny if it wasn't quite so pathetic looking.

The Real Breenie does that too. She sticks her nose out as far as it goes and kinda shakes/rolls her whole body so her hooves skid on the concrete and water flies everywhere. She's done that before when I was on her, and it felt like I was riding an angry washing machine.
 
She's done that before when I was on her, and it felt like I was riding an angry washing machine.

👎 That sounds like a situation I want to avoid.
 
Oh my word. That's certainly a rant. Can you give any details?

We completely worked it up and they went somewhere else - we wanted to amputate the necrotic tail and they were unsure of it. I'm glad that they at least called and said they were going to amputate. I just hope they do all the other antibiotics on top of it.
 
The water can't warm them because it has to get its heat from the horse. You overheat in a hot tub because the temperature of the water in the tub is higher than your body.

I remember answering this question in grade 9 physics... what I meant by the hot tub thing, was that the water is warmer then your body and so you can't sweat when you're submerged in a hot tub... because energy goes to where there's less energy- your body can't cool itself off, or in other words you can't sweat.

And I think the scraping/cooling/warming thing is one of many folklores in the horse world. Everyone and many disciplines tend to do things in completely opposite ways! Its a bit of a headache really :S
 
I remember answering this question in grade 9 physics... what I meant by the hot tub thing, was that the water is warmer then your body and so you can't sweat when you're submerged in a hot tub... because energy goes to where there's less energy- your body can't cool itself off, or in other words you can't sweat.

You do sweat when you're in a hot tub, assuming it's actually hot, causing your body to utilize it's only cooling mechanisms (like sweating, vasodilation). The reason your body can't cool itself is because now, you're submerged in a tub of hot water.

http://www.health.uab.edu/17849/
 
I've been trying to catch up on my lab notebook all day today.... and I'm still on 7/21/11. I started my day on 7/19/11. crap....

Once that's done, I still need to run 6 full realtime plates and work out a brand new endpoint assay and run 4 full plates,... as well as a few other things... and writing up SOPs for everything I've done in the past year. It really wouldn't be so bad if my last day of work wasn't this Fri, or if I didn't have to pack up all my crap and move out on Mon...

I've taken 5 days off at most in all of June and July, and have worked an avg of at least 12 hrs/day, 7 days a week otherwise. I feel like a zombie and want to cry about now. But rather than being productive, I'm posting on SDN. FML.
 
When you're in fourth year....I don't care if you don't like my rotation. I really don't - my job is not to make you like necropsy. But that doesn't give you the go-ahead to pout, slack off, talk back, question my authority, write crappy reports when you have been shown multiple times with ample feedback how to prepare them.....ARGH!!!!

I swear sometimes. I like teaching overall, but some students just make me want to tear my hair out. I had one, who had previously been giving heavy sighs and saying stuff like "only three more days...." (of the rotation left) tell me "Yeah....I just really don't like your profession...." with a grossed-out look, and th. Do you realize I am the one grading you? Unbelievable. I don't care if you feel that way, but have some respect and tact for your superiors. Don't be like that, future students/vets.
 
My rant for the day: Not everyone is going to be a puppy and kitty vet. I understand that's the most visible part of the profession but I have to bite my tongue at work

Yup. It's not their fault though....many people simply aren't aware of the many paths you can take in vet med. I still get asked if I do "small animals or big animals..." to which I just say "Oh, I do them all, exotics too...." (I just don't mention that they are either dead or I am looking at biopsy tissue on slides) 😀
 
When you're in fourth year....I don't care if you don't like my rotation. I really don't - my job is not to make you like necropsy. But that doesn't give you the go-ahead to pout, slack off, talk back, question my authority, write crappy reports when you have been shown multiple times with ample feedback how to prepare them.....ARGH!!!!

I swear sometimes. I like teaching overall, but some students just make me want to tear my hair out. I had one tell me today "Yeah....I just really don't like your profession...." with a grossed out look on her face. Do you realize I am the one grading you? Unbelievable. I don't care if you feel that way, but have some respect and tact for your superiors. Don't be like that, future students/vets.

Have to admit, not my favorite rotation, but I really respect you for being able to do it day in and day out.

I had 7 people in my rotation (normally 4) and EVERYONE except for 2 of us was case dodging. It got to the point where someone told me that even though I had taken the majority of cases that week I should take the case that came in at 5 on a Friday so she could pack for vacation and have the weekend off. I pretty much lost it at that point.

Learned a lot though. Still gonna send it off to you guys.
 
I still get asked if I do "small animals or big animals..." to which I just say "Oh, I do them all, exotics too...." (I just don't mention that they are either dead or I am looking at biopsy tissue on slides) 😀

I love that question. One of these day's I'm just going to answer "very big animals - elephants and blue whales only" and see what they say. Or maybe I'll do the opposite and say "very small animals - as in bugs only." - to see if they even think a veterinarian can work with those animals.
 
I love that question. One of these day's I'm just going to answer "very big animals - elephants and blue whales only" and see what they say. Or maybe I'll do the opposite and say "very small animals - as in bugs only." - to see if they even think a veterinarian can work with those animals.

I've had this conversation several times:

Client on phone: "I have a goat...*launches into a goat story*"
Me: "Oh I'm sorry, our clinic only sees small animals."
*pause*
Client: "well he's not very big..."

:laugh:
 
When you're in fourth year....I don't care if you don't like my rotation. I really don't - my job is not to make you like necropsy. But that doesn't give you the go-ahead to pout, slack off, talk back, question my authority, write crappy reports when you have been shown multiple times with ample feedback how to prepare them.....ARGH!!!!

I swear sometimes. I like teaching overall, but some students just make me want to tear my hair out. I had one, who had previously been giving heavy sighs and saying stuff like "only three more days...." (of the rotation left) tell me "Yeah....I just really don't like your profession...." with a grossed-out look, and th. Do you realize I am the one grading you? Unbelievable. I don't care if you feel that way, but have some respect and tact for your superiors. Don't be like that, future students/vets.


Argh I've had this too!!! Thankfully not as often as you though! Here at Murdoch, as part of the practical component of the course you have to spend 14wks of your holidays doing externships in clinics. You get to CHOOSE where you go.

We had one girl come to our clinic who couldn't have cared less. She had no interest in observing or helping with consults, case work ups or surgery. She point blank REFUSED opportunities to learn (no, i dont want to try that intubation/dental/catheter) because she had no interest in GP. I don't give a **** if you have no interest in Gp, you CHOSE to come to our clinic and WE assess YOU on your attitude and williness to learn. In the end she had such poor work ethic and attitude that my boss made her pull apart capsules of antibiotic, count out a portion of the beads inside and put it back into capsule shells. :laugh: We would be more than happy to teach... but don't waste our time.

Note: She wanted to go into internal medicine. Many residencies here wont take applicants straight out of school (they want them to have 2-3 years experience) and certainly not with an attitude like that. And it never seemed to occur to her that in internal med, she still needs to be competent in the vast majority of things GP's do... and they're gonna be the ones sending her cases...? She said she found our caseload "boring" - we also have one of the biggest medical case loads around (for a GP practice - lots of DKA, IMHA, ITP, really bad renal failure, pancreatitis, megacolon, cushings and addisons etc. To the point that a nurse friend at a different practice said we must put something in the water lol! We're also in a VERY wealthy neighbourhood - think most expensive house in Australia wealthy - plenty of opportunity to see treatment and workup too!)
 
Necropsy/pathology/lab services is a rotation everyone is required to take here. And yeah. I know what you mean.....I really understand that not everyone finds it as interesting as I do. I totally get that. Heck, I HATED internal medicine, surgery, etc. But I sucked it up and worked and put on a positive attitude and tried to learn. I'm not upset that some people don't like necropsy/histology/etc...I get upset when people slack and pout and make others pick up the slack.

And yes, you won't be looking at histology slides when you go into, say, general practice. But when a client presents you with a dead puppy....you need to know how to do a (very basic)necropsy, you need to know what samples to send to the lab for viral/bacterial/etc testing, how to send them, how to take and send a proper biopsy etc...or you're doing surgery on a colic and see OMG dark red and black lesions on the ileum, it's necrotic! No, if you had paid attention in necropsy, you would know that is hemomelasma ilei, and is totally incidental....etc.....so it's not totally irrelevant (at all), even to someone who wants to be a GP, even though some (not all, just some) students act like it is.
 
I didn't have the energy to say the above earlier, but yes that's exactly why it didn't make sense to me. You're not really "essentially evaporating" the animal by scraping off the water... It's not water coming off the animal that cools it down. It's the transfer of body heat to the water causing it to evaporate (the vaporization of water), that cools it down. If I remember correctly, of conduction, convection and evaporation, evaporation takes the win every time. Which is part of the reason why you pour alcohol on animals that are in heat shock (low bp fluid). But then again, the earth revolves differently for horse people (gravity, science, evaporation, puh puh!), so perhaps this is one of those things 🙂. Whatever your horse likes I guess, as long as it's helping to cool them down so they're not overheating!

I wonder if there's any other reason why it might be beneficial to scrape the horse though, other than that it'll dry off faster.

Dating myself, but before the '96 Atlanta Olympics, a study was done through the University of Illinois by Dr Foreman and some other vets that showed that the fastest way to lower the core temperature of a horse was ice water and scraping on a continual cycle until the horse's core temperature decreased. As I recall, it was the process of continually applying ice water and scraping the newly warmed water and then immediately reapplying the ice water etc etc that cooled the horse. Leaving the water on the horse did turn it into an insulating layer and would not allow the horse to cool as quickly. It was this research that got many of the eventers to stop using wool coolers in August after XC, which I don't imagine most of you are old enough to remember being a common practice. As far as I know, vet checks still follow much of his protocol using ice water, constant scraping, and misters to lower core temperatures.

I think this might be the paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9561696# but it's a bit hard to tell as the online journals seem to only go back to 2002.
 
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Dating myself, but before the '96 Atlanta Olympics, a study was done through the University of Illinois by Dr Foreman and some other vets that showed that the fastest way to lower the core temperature of a horse was ice water and scraping on a continual cycle until the horse's core temperature decreased. As I recall, it was the process of continually applying ice water and scraping the newly warmed water and then immediately reapplying the ice water etc etc that cooled the horse. Leaving the water on the horse did turn it into an insulating layer and would not allow the horse to cool as quickly.

That's exactly what I was saying. That if you keep dousing over and over with cold water, then yes, it would be faster. But if it's just a douse once and scrape, vs. douse once and leave, it just didn't make any sense that the latter would make the horse any warmer. The scraping in an of itself shouldn't cool the horse.

At least with people (and from what I've witnessed in one place with dogs) the best way to cool core temp is either ice packs where large vessels travel like armpits, groins, and neck, or to douse with alcohol for evaporative cooling. You want to avoid ice everywhere, because that will just result in vasoconstriction of smaller surface vessels, which will end up insulating core temp. It sounds like the hosing down with cold water thing in horses may be a compromise. Using water cool enough to cool down the horse without shunting all their blood internally, but not cold enough that you need to keep scraping off and exchange the old warm water with cool water.
 
The fish that lived that I posted about in the rave thread a few days earlier, died again. And stayed dead this time. 🙁

And I'm writing (or trying to) a resume to get a job during undergrad and it looks very sad. I haven't been able to get a job because of residency issues/greencard... So it is very empty. Sad sight.
 
My truck is dead. Put 2 new batteries in it, ran great for 2 days, now it's dead in the water again. I just want my truck back.

🙁
 
I just saw this and wanted to offer my deepest sympathies. I am so sorry that you had to go through this. It's amazing the bond we share with our horses. She was loved and she definitely knew it. As much as you were comforting her, she was trying to comfort you and let you know that she loved you so much.

I hope you can find some peace and comfort in that.

Take care.
 
I just saw this and wanted to offer my deepest sympathies. I am so sorry that you had to go through this. It's amazing the bond we share with our horses. She was loved and she definitely knew it. As much as you were comforting her, she was trying to comfort you and let you know that she loved you so much.

I hope you can find some peace and comfort in that.

Take care.

I think this was directed to me...

Thank you for the kind words. It has not been an easy couple weeks. Looking to vet school starting and being able to focus on something else!
 
@Trilt:

I'm so sorry about your dog. 🙁 I think my Husky is finally on the verge of turning that corner, and I'm dreading the next year.

I was going to suggest a new thread for these posts, because calling them rants feels ... wrong on behalf of the animals. But I suppose it's (thankfully) infrequent enough that it'd just slip off the bottom and nobody would remember to find it.

I'm always sad to see these posts.
 
Found out that one of my friends had to euth her dog today - she'd had her for 14 years. I knew this dog when I was a kid, too. So depressing.

5 minutes later my boyfriend spotted a cat in our parking lot. A young cat, hobbling around like injured, and crying. Of course. So I go down and this adorable orange tabby kitten comes hobbling up to me at top speed.

Guys, this kitten is missing the lower half of a rear paw. Just the paw. He's not more than 4-5 months old, he's covered in fleas, wearing a new collar but without tags or a microchip, and is not neutered. I got permission from the boss to stash him at the clinic for the weekend - treated him for fleas, tested him for FELV/FIV (negative), and fed him. I'm going to pretend to hope to find an owner, then try to find him a new home. Honestly, if he has an owner and he's in the condition he's in, I'm going to have some serious reservations giving him back.

All this after this morning we had a cat in a carrier in front of our clinic's door when we arrived. And way, way too many stupid people. So glad it's a weekend. What a rough couple of weeks.
 
I tried to offer advice to someone and got called "bitter," "over the top," and was accused of trying to drive off the competition. Seriously people? One person will not make a difference in the 1000s of applicants that apply to vet school.

I'm really depressed right now. I think I'm going to take a break from the forums because everyone reads way too much into stuff. I have been nothing but friendly and helpful in the two years since I've joined, and people always try to jump on you for one stupid thing that they read out of context.

Good luck with your apps this cycle, everyone. Or maybe I shouldn't say that because I want to secretly stop every single person from applying to vet school so I can get a guaranteed seat? Oh wait...didn't I already say that somewhere?

/end sarcasm.

Peace out folks.
 
Here's the thing about online anonymous forums: there is nothing preventing people from being complete ***holes.

Likewise, there is nothing indicating that you should actually take what someone who is clearly being rude for the sake of being rude to heart. Don't let people get to you.
 
My older (22 years) mare has been on and off lame for the past year and a half or so. It's that extremely frustrating kind of lame where sometimes she's perfectly fine, sometimes she's off, and sometimes she takes a few steps that look off before she's fine again. The vet can't seem to find anything really wrong; he thought she might have had an abscess last summer but nothing ever blew. I put her on a joint supplement thinking she might be having some arthritis and that actually seemed to help some, and she's been pretty sound all summer while this girl who is doing 4-H with her has ridden her 3-4 times per week walk/trot. Then a couple weeks ago we went to a practice horse show and the mare stepped on a rock and bruised her foot and had to be pulled from her last couple of classes. The vet had me put her on some bute and I ordered some Easyboots to protect her little bare feets, and they came in the mail yesterday. I put them on her and she was AMAZING. Moved better than I've seen her in a while. Today, she got a hoof trim. Nothing major, no invasion of live sole, just a normal trim. Put her in her boots and sent her off trotting on the lunge line-lame AGAIN. :boom:

I don't know what to do with this mare. She leaves for the fair tomorrow and her classes are on Wednesday. I'm hoping she will be alright on Wednesday so this poor kid, who has worked so hard all summer with her, can just show in her 3 classes and be done and then I can work on trying to figure out what's wrong with her. Obviously if she's hurting I won't let her show, but there's just no telling. She could be gimpy earlier today like she was and then be perfectly fine when I go to turn her out tonight. You just never know with her. Blahh old horses 🙁
 
Sounds like she has some sensitive feet, if nothing else, Ellie! Sometimes they're tender after a trim, regardless of the surface they get worked on/if they have boots on. If she's just foot sore, she'll probably be okay by the fair. *hugs* I know how obnoxious this mysterious lameness stuff is. My mare gets likes to throw a head-scratcher at the vet and me every year or so. 🙂

Good luck with her!
 
I tried to offer advice to someone and got called "bitter," "over the top," and was accused of trying to drive off the competition. Seriously people?

I already apologized in the other thread but want to do so here, too. My post was out of line. I wasn't trying to be mean for the ski of being mean. I was tired and cranky and yes, I very much read things into your post that weren't intended. So hopefully you'll forgive me. I think this is the time of year that we are all a little stressed and on edge; definitely don't want to do anything to make that worse. 😳

Back to the topic: there's a hole in my exhaust, so my car sounds like a monster truck. I don't have time to get it fixed for about a week or two and it is SO embarrassing and SO loud. I can't even hear the radio. 👎
 
Sounds like she has some sensitive feet, if nothing else, Ellie! Sometimes they're tender after a trim, regardless of the surface they get worked on/if they have boots on. If she's just foot sore, she'll probably be okay by the fair. *hugs* I know how obnoxious this mysterious lameness stuff is. My mare gets likes to throw a head-scratcher at the vet and me every year or so. 🙂

Good luck with her!

Thanks breenie =) I went out today and bought one of those kneeling pads that people use when they garden and I cut pads out of it that fit inside the Easyboots. She was much better today wit those on. I'm not wanting to jinx it so refuse to get excited but if she can stay as sound on Wednesday as she was today she should be good to go 👍
 
Thanks breenie =) I went out today and bought one of those kneeling pads that people use when they garden and I cut pads out of it that fit inside the Easyboots. She was much better today wit those on. I'm not wanting to jinx it so refuse to get excited but if she can stay as sound on Wednesday as she was today she should be good to go 👍

Woohoo! Glad to hear she's doing better. 🙂 Fingers crossed she stays that way and rocks the fair.
 
When you're in fourth year....I don't care if you don't like my rotation. I really don't - my job is not to make you like necropsy. But that doesn't give you the go-ahead to pout, slack off, talk back, question my authority, write crappy reports when you have been shown multiple times with ample feedback how to prepare them.....ARGH!!!!

I swear sometimes. I like teaching overall, but some students just make me want to tear my hair out. I had one, who had previously been giving heavy sighs and saying stuff like "only three more days...." (of the rotation left) tell me "Yeah....I just really don't like your profession...." with a grossed-out look, and th. Do you realize I am the one grading you? Unbelievable. I don't care if you feel that way, but have some respect and tact for your superiors. Don't be like that, future students/vets.


Wow! That sucks big! I think pathology sounds interesting. Probably due to my desire to answer the eternal question of what/why.
WTF--I would never complain...perhaps they are just not mature enough yet😀
 
Ran a butt load of errands this morning in preparation to move to Scotland on Friday. Costco was the last stop for Rx filling, a years worth. Go to pay, thought maybe I should charge it because I was just at the bank transferring money and didn't want to overdraw the old account. Hand cashier my Mastercard, he responds "Oh I am sorry, we only accept American Express." ONLY AMERICAN EXPRESS? I stared at him flabbergasted. I refused to pay them today and said I would be back tomorrow when I figure out my financial situation. Only American Express... 😡
End of pointless rant. That felt good.
 
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