Goat wrangling

Yesterday was another one of our "clinical" cases. This is a graded assignment in which the clinicians "pretend" to be clients and we "pretend" (or totally fake our way through) to be doctors and we work through a case as a group. Then we type up our "S.O.A.P" or list of potential problems/diagnoses/plan for treatment and turn it in for a grade. We cycle through four of these assignments in first year, each one a different species. I did a horse and a cat last semester so this time it was my group's turn for the goat. While I do have a relatively impressive "farm animal" background, I know absolutely NOTHING about goat medicine. I do know quite a bit about sheep, things like: they have no will to live, they will eat anything electric within 50 feet of them, they can die from a disease known in lay terms as "overeating disease" (yes they literally eat themselves to death), they should usually have twins, and never never never get in a confined box with a pissed off ram...but that's another story for another day. The goat case was interesting. We are getting better at pretending to be doctors, and our classes are definitely starting to sink in. We know more than we did last semester, and for the most part we can intelligently answer questions when asked (about stuff we know). I was the only person in my group brave enough to retrieve our goat from it's pen with it's "roommates" (if you know the ram story you're probably impressed that I would ever attempt this again). I picked the smallest goat in the pen, just intelligence if you ask me, in case it decided to throw a fit and I would have to wrestle it...the way everyone else was. This poor goat must have known I was prepared for all her antics. She just stood quietly, let me pick her up, never bawled, never really even tried to get away. She was perfectly sweet for over an hour while we all poked and prodded her, I wanted to take her home.

Overall, I really enjoy these little case study days. Its a way to put everything we currently know into some useful format. And a way to work with live animals and clinicians that actually practice. I have a good group too, except for one. This particular individual is not my favorite person, I've never been very fond. (for discretion sake I'll just say "Billy") Billy is a kiss ass, he is always asking questions in class just to show the lecturer that he knew enough about the topic to ask that question, and most of the time his nose is so far embedded in ones crack he could probably tell what they had for lunch. But, I digress... "Billy" was chosen to be the doctor that preformed the exam, to do so he needed a thermometer which he did not have, so I lent him mine. (Which I made a special trip to Target at lunch to get because my old one had been misplaced). Our clinician put us on the spot in the middle of the exam and wanted to grade us on who was prepared. He asked us all to show our stethoscopes, thermometers, pen lights and writing utensils. "Billy" never missed a beat and pulled out MY thermometer, pretending it was his, that he was prepared. Which left me standing there thermometerless looking like an unprepared imbecile. The clinician looked me in the eye (ready to dock my grade) and asked "Where's your thermometer?" "In Billy's hand" I replied. "He forgot his, and I was kind enough to lend him mine so that he wouldn't be unprepared for the exam" UUUGGGHHH!!! I know this is a little thing, it's just a thermometer, but I think it's the small things that people do that really show you who they are. Billy was ready to have me thrown under the bus just to save himself---over a thermometer! I didn't like him before, and I really don't like him now. But, in the Christian spirit, I've got another 3 years with him, so I better just get over it and try to find some endearing quality in him.

Today we started rounds again. This is my favorite thing about Wednesday's and I am committed to going on a more regular basis than I did last semester. As I stood today listening to the clinician go over each case in the food ward, I was astounded at how much I have learned since last semester. I would have been totally lost this time last fall with the cases that were in the hospital. Today, not only was I able to follow what was being presented and how it was treated, I was able to answer questions and form intelligent one's of my own. Good to know all this information is actually sticking somewhere--if I just knew where, I could access it on a more regular basis.

And my favorite thing so far about this week...the calf that was in the hospital today. She was a mastitis calf and severely malnourished, she had to have a ruminal fluid transfer among other procedures. She was about 6 weeks old, but only looked a few days old. She was soooo small but overall doing very well. She wasn't doing well on milk and therefore had to be transitioned to roughage (hence the ruminal fluid transfer). She was bright, alert, healthy probably for the first time in her whole life, and completely un-phased by 15 vet students standing around her pen watching her "chew cud". She just stood, staring at us like, "Hey, what're y'all doin?" I loved her. Generally, we don't name food animals, they are profit not pets. But I'm pretty sure she's just a pasture ornament anyway, and she was so darn cute I couldn't help it, I named her Ophelia.