RAVE HERE thread

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Sorry. I realized after I posted that I should have clarified. That's the latest (and last!!) in our family. Our third kid. Ian Charles, born 4/14/11, healthy and (so far) not too upset at facing the colder 'outside' world.

Congratulations on the new arrival... what a handsome little guy! 😀
 
TT! What's with the lack of funny+cute avatar? How will I recognize you? 🙂

Temporary for a game, no worries.
Sorry. I realized after I posted that I should have clarified. That's the latest (and last!!) in our family. Our third kid. Ian Charles, born 4/14/11, healthy and (so far) not too upset at facing the colder 'outside' world.

Very, very cute. 🙂
 
Today, I am going to draw blood on a goat. Awesome. Closest I've gotten to goats is a pat in the head. Should be fun! Rumor has it that they have a pretty big jugular.

OH - and (sorry to you smokers) my upstairs neighbor always sits on the steps above my door and blows her cig smoke into my house. (YUK) but last night when i got home, she had somehow dropped her box through the stairs and in front of my door. (She could have easily gotten to them - don't know why she didn't pick them up) I just soaked them in the sink and threw them in the trash.😀 I HATE SMOKING!!!
 
I am exactly 1 rotation away from being done. And we get new 4th years for the last 2 weeks of the rotation. I am so ready to be done!

Also, my brother's baby was born and is at home now. I've already skyped with my brother and the little guy, and he is amazing.😀😀😍😍
 
CAPSTONE IS DONE!!! Wrote the paper, printed the poster, defended it for two hours, DONE! Okay, so I got taken to task for daring to use quotation marks in my bibliography. IT'S STILL DONE!!! 😀
 
No more Physics lab or Immunology lab EVER!!!

:laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
Although, I'm hopefully :xf: going to vet school in the fall, I don't have a drop of large animal experience. Well, tomorrow in anatomy lab, we're going to the dairy to play with cows! (Not actually play, but we're putting in catheters and taking blood samples!)

SO excited! 😍
 
Although, I'm hopefully :xf: going to vet school in the fall, I don't have a drop of large animal experience. Well, tomorrow in anatomy lab, we're going to the dairy to play with cows! (Not actually play, but we're putting in catheters and taking blood samples!)

SO excited! 😍

Drawing blood from cows is SO much fun! I got to do for the first time last summer and loved it 😍(granted it was my first time drawing blood on anything.) That's so awesome you get to do that in anatomy! Jealous😉
 
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So I have been having a pretty crappy week and got some great news today.

My dog was a guide dog puppy that I raised who was released from the program. When he was about one he started gagging and coughing whenever pressure was put on his collar. They took him to the Guiding Eyes animal hospital where he was diagnosed with a soft/collapsing trachea and was signed off the program. They pretty much handed him to me with the only instructions of "don't use a collar anymore."

I was excited that I got to keep him, especially since it was a manageable condition. Then when he was 2, he started to get worse. I couldn't take him on walks if it was over 65 degrees out and he would almost pass out from excitement whenever he saw my boyfriend, whom he loves. I was getting pretty bummed because I knew we would have to do corrective surgery in the next few years before his quality of life deteriorated. The surgery is very expensive and very invasive, requiring a lot of time in the ICU afterwords.

So a little while I took him to the vet for an unrelated reason (he ripped off his dew claw) and she was skeptical of his diagnosis. One year old labs NEVER have collapsing trachea. We got his old medical files and found out that guiding eyes did no diagnostics, they judged him only based on symptoms! He went in to my vets this morning for a bunch of diagnostics. I just picked him up and it was determined that he does not have a collapsing trachea but...

wait for it...

allergies.

His larynx was very red and inflamed and they swabbed and found signs of an allergic reaction. He has been suffering from tracheitis for almost two years and that is why he gets out of breath and coughs/gags!

This means he doesn't have to have surgery!
This means I can finally take him on runs!
This means he can wear a collar again!
This means he can play with all the other dogs in the dog park!



Joke's on you Guiding Eyes! You have me a dog because you thought he was broken, when in fact, he isn't! Muahahahaha!


:soexcited:
 
Drawing blood from cows is SO much fun! I got to do for the first time last summer and loved it 😍(granted it was my first time drawing blood on anything.) That's so awesome you get to do that in anatomy! Jealous😉

It was so fun! We also got to put our hands (or entire arm, rather) in their rumen!
 
So I have been having a pretty crappy week and got some great news today.

My dog was a guide dog puppy that I raised who was released from the program. When he was about one he started gagging and coughing whenever pressure was put on his collar. They took him to the Guiding Eyes animal hospital where he was diagnosed with a soft/collapsing trachea and was signed off the program. They pretty much handed him to me with the only instructions of "don't use a collar anymore."

I was excited that I got to keep him, especially since it was a manageable condition. Then when he was 2, he started to get worse. I couldn't take him on walks if it was over 65 degrees out and he would almost pass out from excitement whenever he saw my boyfriend, whom he loves. I was getting pretty bummed because I knew we would have to do corrective surgery in the next few years before his quality of life deteriorated. The surgery is very expensive and very invasive, requiring a lot of time in the ICU afterwords.

So a little while I took him to the vet for an unrelated reason (he ripped off his dew claw) and she was skeptical of his diagnosis. One year old labs NEVER have collapsing trachea. We got his old medical files and found out that guiding eyes did no diagnostics, they judged him only based on symptoms! He went in to my vets this morning for a bunch of diagnostics. I just picked him up and it was determined that he does not have a collapsing trachea but...

wait for it...

allergies.

His larynx was very red and inflamed and they swabbed and found signs of an allergic reaction. He has been suffering from tracheitis for almost two years and that is why he gets out of breath and coughs/gags!

This means he doesn't have to have surgery!
This means I can finally take him on runs!
This means he can wear a collar again!
This means he can play with all the other dogs in the dog park!



Joke's on you Guiding Eyes! You have me a dog because you thought he was broken, when in fact, he isn't! Muahahahaha!


:soexcited:

Aww. Good Story 🙂
 
I have a job! And the pay is pretty good!

Whoo! Congrats Dyachei!!

ETA: I guess I have a few raves myself.

My metabolism quiz on Wednesday went so well. I was surprised I remembered it all, but for some reason I do really like the material.

I got the rest of my braces off on Thursday and went to Mizzou's ZEW club meeting that night for their bird handling clinic where I got to meet some current vet students as well as a fellow c/o 2015er, so that was a pretty fun day.

Graduation is two weeks from tomorrow!!
 
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So I have been having a pretty crappy week and got some great news today.

My dog was a guide dog puppy that I raised who was released from the program. When he was about one he started gagging and coughing whenever pressure was put on his collar. They took him to the Guiding Eyes animal hospital where he was diagnosed with a soft/collapsing trachea and was signed off the program. They pretty much handed him to me with the only instructions of "don't use a collar anymore."

I was excited that I got to keep him, especially since it was a manageable condition. Then when he was 2, he started to get worse. I couldn't take him on walks if it was over 65 degrees out and he would almost pass out from excitement whenever he saw my boyfriend, whom he loves. I was getting pretty bummed because I knew we would have to do corrective surgery in the next few years before his quality of life deteriorated. The surgery is very expensive and very invasive, requiring a lot of time in the ICU afterwords.

So a little while I took him to the vet for an unrelated reason (he ripped off his dew claw) and she was skeptical of his diagnosis. One year old labs NEVER have collapsing trachea. We got his old medical files and found out that guiding eyes did no diagnostics, they judged him only based on symptoms! He went in to my vets this morning for a bunch of diagnostics. I just picked him up and it was determined that he does not have a collapsing trachea but...

wait for it...

allergies.

His larynx was very red and inflamed and they swabbed and found signs of an allergic reaction. He has been suffering from tracheitis for almost two years and that is why he gets out of breath and coughs/gags!

This means he doesn't have to have surgery!
This means I can finally take him on runs!
This means he can wear a collar again!
This means he can play with all the other dogs in the dog park!



Joke's on you Guiding Eyes! You have me a dog because you thought he was broken, when in fact, he isn't! Muahahahaha!


:soexcited:

That's awesome! And yet another reason why vets have the awesomest job in the world . . . 😍
 
Easter candy coma. Ahhhhh...nothing like the holidays. 😉
 
We've got a little colony of semi-feral cats in the horse barn at my parents' house. One of them has appeared ready to pop for a couple days now, and tonight when I went out to feed my horses, she was curled up in a ball in a pile of hay. I walked up to her cautiously, because the barn cats usually aren't very friendly, and she let me look under her tail, and a kitten was coming out! She gave me the privilege of sitting with her for an hour watching her produce two gorgeous little kittens. There looked to be still a couple more in there but I decided she'd been generous enough to let me watch that long so I got up and left, but it was SO COOL 😍 It's so amazing to watch animals give birth. It's mind-blowing how they just KNOW exactly what to do. Makes us humans seem pretty wimpy in comparison! What a wonderful way to end my Easter.
 
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Makes us humans seem pretty wimpy in comparison! .

I am going to abandon my misanthropy for a second and defend homo sapien females giving birth! Other animals don't have to force that ridiculously large head and shoulders through their narrow pelvis like homo sapiens do! They might not be quite so relaxed if they did.

Then again they don't have painkillers to help out either :laugh:
 
I second this! No matter how many times I see it, it is always amazing!👍

The last big agro exhibition I went to, one of the beef cows gave birth. Lots of people standing around (at a safe distance) watching her, she was tied to the wall with lots of other cows... and she was totally chilled about the whole thing. I've never seen such a totally unstressed cow. Totally amazing to watch.
 
I am going to abandon my misanthropy for a second and defend homo sapien females giving birth! Other animals don't have to force that ridiculously large head and shoulders through their narrow pelvis like homo sapiens do! They might not be quite so relaxed if they did.

Then again they don't have painkillers to help out either :laugh:

My wife will tell you that not all women use pain relief, either. 🙂

BTW, $309 for a pediatrician to walk in the room at birth, give your baby a 2-minute exam, and 30 seconds of gastric suction. She might possibly have been in there a total of 6 minutes, and most of that was waiting for the midwife to hand her a baby. Who says vet exams are too expensive, again?

I am so thoroughly disgusted at the costs associated with human medicine that .... ok, I probably should get out of the Rave thread and go over to Rant.
 
I am going to abandon my misanthropy for a second and defend homo sapien females giving birth! Other animals don't have to force that ridiculously large head and shoulders through their narrow pelvis like homo sapiens do! They might not be quite so relaxed if they did.

Then again they don't have painkillers to help out either :laugh:

Haha this is true! But I was more thinking of the instincts of animals...like, this little cat had a few contractions, gave a couple of big pushes(accompanied by a bit of howling) and the kitten just plopped out. Immediately she started removing its sac, stimulating it to breathe, and chewing off the cord...I am fascinated with how they just know. Humans are really helpless in that regard. Like, we require an entire army of doctors and nurses to help take care of our newborns and this cat had 5 kittens (final count from my father's morning report) all by herself and made sure they were healthy and breathing and detatched from her insides. Just neat, neat stuff.

However, note that I will not be caught pregnant. Noooo thank you. I find human childbirth...well...ugh.
 
Although I'm really enjoying the discussion about childbirth (give me drugs, pleeeease!), I just want to say that I finally officially committed to a wedding dress today! I can't say I bought it, because I didn't -thanks Mom-, but the dress-I-picked-but-hadn't-purchased-yet is no longer being made (in just a matter of weeks after looking at the darn thing). Since the one I tried on was the size I need, we went ahead and got that exact dress. So excited!
 
Humans are really helpless in that regard. Like, we require an entire army of doctors and nurses to help take care of our newborns

I think if you had a kid you might feel differently. Humans aren't actually any more helpless - we've just surrounded ourselves with so much technology that it looks that way because it looks like it's lost its 'naturalness'.

With each of our kids, my wife has known exactly (mysteriously, to me) when it's time to push. She's known how to encourage the babies to latch/nurse without someone telling her. She's known to trim the babies' fingernails with her teeth so they don't scratch themselves, without having to read a book. I think all those instincts are alive and well in humans, if we'd just LISTEN to them.

If you ever do decide to have a kid, you'll find that you can approach it from any viewpoint ranging from "totally natural home birth in a tub" to "this is a medical crisis event - give me my epidural" and you'll find health-care providers to match that approach.

Anyway. Not trying to distract from the very cool kitten birth. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I have never been present for the birth of puppies or kittens. Cows, yes. Horses, yes. Alpacas, yes. (Odd, since I have no real desire to go large animal....) But not a typical home pet. I'm jealous of your experience! 🙂
 
With each of our kids, my wife has known exactly (mysteriously, to me) when it's time to push. She's known how to encourage the babies to latch/nurse without someone telling her. She's known to trim the babies' fingernails with her teeth so they don't scratch themselves, without having to read a book.

Your wife sounds really hardcore - it's nice to hear about a woman that follows her instincts instead of panicking at everything. 👍

Personally, I want to do a home birth whenever I decide to have a baby. Y'all should watch "The Business of Being Born." Eye-opening. 😱
 
Yeah, LIS, your wife sounds awesome!! My mom's been a labor and delivery nurse for almost 15 years so I have spent my life hearing stories of some wonderful moms and even more stories of some moms who make you just want to bang your head into a wall. If I were to ever have a kid I would probably pass out and would be of no help to anyone involved. I will probably opt for adoption or just turn the child-bearing duties over to my lovely partner, who is far less terrified of the whole process than I am!

This is actually only the second critter-birth I've witnessed. I saw a horse give birth last year (and blubbered like a little kid-they're even more amazing than kittens because they can get up and run around in just a couple minutes!). I look forward to watching more through this career I'm so lucky to get to be a part of 😍

Can you tell I'm in a great mood today? I aced my Companion Animal Fundamentals exam, had an awesome workout, made a delicious dinner, and have enough WW points to splurge on some sweets tonight. All that plus I got an email from a second-year vet student who has an apartment I'm really interested in (we're going to look at it Wednesday) and my roommate actually went grocery shopping for herself so she'll stop eating my food! It's a good day 😀
 
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I saw a yellow warbler and a black-headed grosbeak today! Didn't get a good look at the grosbeak, but I recognized its call (which was also super exciting, 'cause I'm working on that). I texted my sister about the warbler, because I was beyond excited about it--I've been watching videos of their nests for two years, helping on a research project about their behavior, so it's about time I saw one!--and all she had to say was "creep." :laugh: She just doesn't understand the fun.

I need to get a pair of binoculars, so that I'm not just standing around staring into trees and willing the birds to come closer so I can actually get a decent look at them. 😛
 
So...is there an introductions thread around here, or do you just jump in and start posting while everyone wonders who you are? 😉
 
So...is there an introductions thread around here, or do you just jump in and start posting while everyone wonders who you are? 😉

The second one!

Or you can start a new thread to say hi and introduce yourself...if I recall that's what I did. Welcome!
 
I need to get a pair of binoculars, so that I'm not just standing around staring into trees and willing the birds to come closer so I can actually get a decent look at them. 😛

Yes, you do! I've just sent mine off to be repaired and it's hard to get used to not being able to see things really well, especially right now with all the spring migrants coming in. It's still great finding new birds as they arrive - yellow-rumped warblers and tree swallows here two days ago, white-throated sparrows today, winter wrens, kinglets, juncos and song sparrows singing, ruffed grouse drumming... Spring is definitely my favourite season. 🙂

Congrats on the warbler and grosbeak too! I'd love to see a black-headed grosbeak, but they're pretty rare here.

Also: congrats Coquette!!! Rejoice in your newfound freedom!
 
I cut my finger making dinner tonight and it bled and everything and I didn't pass out! This is a definite improvement for me. One time I slipped and fell on some ice on my way to the car to go somewhere with my mom, cut my hand, and ended up puking in the plastic bag the newspaper comes in.

I'm going to make an awesome vet 😳
 
Anyway. Not trying to distract from the very cool kitten birth. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I have never been present for the birth of puppies or kittens. Cows, yes. Horses, yes. Alpacas, yes. (Odd, since I have no real desire to go large animal....) But not a typical home pet. I'm jealous of your experience! 🙂

I've never experienced the miracle of canine or feline birth either. When we took in a pregnant stray back in 2002, I was so looking forward to the "big day"... but she ended up having to be sectioned. I was thrilled with the outcome (all six are alive and well today), but couldn't help feeling slightly cheated. 😉
 
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We got a "pop group final" today in Bovine Therio elective = A discussion in which we answered basic questions and all got A's!!!! Yay for one less final!

Afterwords I asked the professor (who is the Dean of Admissions and a Diplomat of the American College of Theriogenologists) if he had suggestions where I could get a copy of Barth's "Abnormal Morphology of Bovine Spermatozoa" book since its been out of print and he had an extra copy he would let me have! I've been trying to get my hands on a copy for like a year now!

Now if the Pens win their series tonight, it will just be the best day ever!
 
^^^ugh so nervous, game 7 at home...not good...

I am going to abandon my misanthropy for a second and defend homo sapien females giving birth! Other animals don't have to force that ridiculously large head and shoulders through their narrow pelvis like homo sapiens do! They might not be quite so relaxed if they did.

That's why bulldogs need c sections. :laugh:
 
^^^ugh so nervous, game 7 at home...not good...

I am pulling for you guys for two reasons... first being the boyfriend is a Pens fan so I try to be supportive. Second, I want the Flyers to CRUSH you if we get matched up at some point :meanie:

RAVE = I LOVE PLAYOFF HOCKEY.
 
I had a great run today, saw a number on the scale that I haven't seen in at least three years, got a little scholarship for vet school, and my GF and roommate and I are going to check out a promising apartment in about an hour! Wheeeeeeeeeeee 😀
 
EG - Your posts always make me smile. You're always so positive! And yay for scholarships! Every little bit helps!

Small rave: My Philosophy of Biology prof took pity on me. I was officially 0.2% off an A, but she gave it to me anyway. 😀
 
I would rave about the Caps, but I think you all might be a little sensitive right now :meanie:
Here's some salt to pour on the wound while you're at it. 😛 You just wait until next year when we aren't lacking our top scorers!

Guess I'll throw my weight behind the Canucks now.
 
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