Hey y'all. I'm sorry. Hey yinz.

The moment 2nd semester ended.

So it's pretty much going to be typical of me to wait 3-4 months in between blog posts. And frankly, most of 2nd semester was a blur- a blur of one exam per week for 9 straight weeks and then a week off only to have finals. I know, I'm horrible. This is the semester that you begin to wonder if you are cut out for vet school, if you even have the capacity to retain any of this information they cram into your head week after week. But literally, there have been hundreds of thousands of people in your shoes and they have all become veterinarians. There is no reason you can't make it through. Because I did!

I had a slight panic attack on Christmas Day when I came out to
feed my horses and found Bebe lying down- something I've
NEVER seen her do in 6 years other than to roll. She got a bit
 mad at me when I ran up to her but she was just napping. :)

So then I made my way home for a well-deserved 3 week break for Christmas and New Years. Most of it was spent riding two-three horses per day, catching up with family and friends, the usual stuff. But best of all, Matt (long-term boyfriend) was able to visit me for a week! Even got a little bit of snow.

But as it would have it, I was reminded once again how horses are "one flimsy stomach on four flimsy legs waiting to die." On my last Thursday before my Saturday flight, I walked up to the barn to bring the horses in and get a nice ride in before I left. We only have about 3 acres total of fenced pasture, the rest of our 84 acres is woods, trails, and some lawns, so it's normal that we allow the horses to free-range on the lawns near the house while rotating out our pastures. I called out for them and whistled- nothing. Walked up to my open pasture gate and checked the overhang where they normally go to when I call- missing. At this point I start panicking. Because several times in the past, the horses have made their way up my driveway to the bar across the street, where patrons will give them beer and snacks (Mare's favorite is Guinness, by the way.) I hop in my truck and speed up my driveway, and they're still not there. I get back into my truck and drive back down the driveway to the house to get my cellphone, and magically there they were- standing inside the fence at the top of our upper pasture. Relieved, I called out to them again, but they still didn't move, and I had that horrible sinking feeling that something was wrong. I made my way up the hill and walked towards them.

"Hmmmm...all three seem BAR (bright, alert, responsive), normal positioning and stance, even breathing, Quinn and Mare seem fine. But why hasn't Bebe walked up to me yet like she normally does?"

The day before Bebe's incident, and about 20 min before dinner.

And then she starts to. And I see that the inside of her flanks, her stifles, both inside gaskins/hocks and the front of both hind cannon bones have wounds all over them, as if she had tried to jump something and got her hind end stuck and then panicked. FYI: Bebe loathes jumping. To this day I have NO clue what she had done- we don't leave any machinery out, all of my fences/gates were intact with no signs of damage or struggle, water tanks were fine, no logs out to jump. I ended up using a Betadine TM scrub and a triple antibiotic ointment/standing wraps on the wounds, gave a little bit of bute, and put her back in her stall. And the next day- the day before I fly back to St. Kitts- Bebe is off her feed (wouldn't eat her grain) with a swollen and hot left foreleg from the knee down to her fetlock. I then called my vet (also a Ross grad!) out that afternoon for x-rays to make sure she didn't chip or fracture anything in her carpal or metacarpal region (easily a $6,000 surgery at our nearest teaching hospital). Luckily, she had neither of those- it was a slight puncture wound causing the cellulitis/swelling.

The list of drugs my horse was on:

Lasix (furosemide)

Banamine (flunixin meglumine)

Bute (phenylbutazone)

Sulfamethoxaole

Trimethoprim

Gentamicin

Penicillin

Nitrofurazone (topical application)

So basically, her daily regimen was one shot of Lasix IV every 24 hours for 2 days, one shot of gentamicin IM once a day and one shot of penicillin IM twice a day for 7 days, 2cc's of Banamine orally twice a day then switch to Bute (2cc's orally twice a day) for a total week. When the gentamicin and penicillin run out, crush sulfa/trimethoprim tablets in feed twice a day for 11 days, cold hose the leg 2x a day for 20 minutes, wait for the leg to dry, and apply a stacked Nitrofurazone sweat wrap overnight.
The day before I leave.

Luckily for me, my parents were able to step up to the plate and help out a bit more, although I had a friend come out to give the shots since she was more familiar with and not afraid of the needles. My mom sent me a video of Bebe walking in hand last week and you can't even tell that she's lame anymore!
...
...
...
Anyways!
3rd semester so far has been a blast. Currently, I'm taking Pathology, Virology, Bacteriology and Mycology, and Pharmacology. I'm staying on top of all my work (mostly!), getting sleep (more so than last semester), and working out / eating way healthier (down 7 pounds since the beginning of the semester and am now averaging 3/4 miles per day on the treadmill.) We have our first set of exams tomorrow and Thursday, but I feel surprisingly ready for them. A quick rundown:

Pathology: Extensive and inclusive, you finally use all the knowledge from 1st and 2nd semester (yes, even the parasites) to begin learning how to evaluate, describe, and diagnose lesions. Was my most challenging class until I caught up with my work for BacT and Viro and learned how integrative all these classes are with each other. Studying for this class is difficult- there are no example questions that we could use as a guide, so we're kind of going into this exam blind. But thank God for multiple choice and deductive reasoning :)
Pharmacology: So far, almost exactly the same material as what was taught during my Vet Prep semester. Not worried about this class, but you should try and stay on top of the material. Plumb's Drug book will be your best friend.
Virology: It's nice and refreshing to see someone be as eager for students to learn as he is excited about the material itself. Dr. G is fantastic, and I always retain so much info from just attending lecture that studying the material later is almost relaxing.
Bacteriology & Mycology: Dr. R is very nice, very straightforward, and very fair. Additionally, we were her inaugural class here at Ross during VP, and she gives you the material from the clinical perspective (Rhodococcus equi is the most common bacteria you'll see causing foal pneumonia; Streptococcus canis is most common isolate and can be pathogenic/opportunistic in dogs and cats, etc.) It's a pleasure any time she lectures.

So far in my free time, I was able to go full-moon paddle boarding last week! A group of us were celebrating my friend S's birthday so we hopped in an car and drove to Whitehouse Bay. I happened to get the record of falling off the most (4 times in the first 30 minutes), but apparently my luck changed since it started raining and the waves got choppy enough that most people just sank to their knees and paddled that way. It was much more intense than what is normal for paddle boarding- so much so that the owner contacted us afterward and gave us the option of our money back or going out again on a free tour. Guess which one I picked? ;) Besides, it's a killer full body workout! Additionally, I was able to go on another trail ride on Nevis with a bunch of friends and ate at the amazing Turtle Time Beach Bar & Grill. Seriously. Go to this place.

That's it for now!