So my last blog was about my volunteer work, and since then I was able to talk with the vet that was there, and she told me that the colic case that came in ended up having a neurological problem instead. However, they are not sure whether its due to the current virus or not. But the owners took the horse home instead.
The baby alpaca probably wont make it, as she was very weak and born premature, however the owners took her home for the lat of her days i guess. As for the grannie alpaca, she died =( not sure how mom alpaca will cope with that as she was very attached to grannie.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
A day at the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Camden
I volunteered to help out on a sunday from 8am -4pm at the clinic, mainly the horse unit. Once I got there, the first thing they told me to do was to do a physical exam on this horse named King that is a regular blood donor and also had a sinus trephination(holes drilled into her sinus for drainage. I then gave him some oral meds.
I then helped the intern to restrain a mom alpaca so she can do warm compression as she has mastitis. Then she milked out the coagulated milk. The mom alpaca was quite agitated and kept trying to run away. While i was restraining her, i can hear her getting ready to spit! but thank god, she didn't.
We then went to Gran alpaca (the mom's mom), she was in to keep the mom company but developed diarrhoea while she was in hospital. But all her vitals were normal. After we finished with her, we had to disinfect ourselves before doing anything else.
We then went to help the vets hold a mare while they checked on the foal with corneal ulcer. I was able to take a good look at the ulcer close up after the intern gave him a nerve block to prevent the eyelid from shutting. Later, the intern gave the foal meds through this flush through the eyelid. After that was done, we took the mare and foal back to their box. The mare was a little rowdy, and tries to bite and stuff especially when we are doing things with the foal. But this occurs to most mares with foals...
Around 10 am we took the cria (baby alpaca) out to have some fresh air, she wasn't doing so well. She would just lie there. It seems like she was very very weak. She was born 4 weeks premature and she is now 2 wks old. At first, she wouldnt drink the milk and seemed to have a head tilt. She also would'nt pee by herself! The intern stimulated her to pee, but whenever she stopped stimulating her, she would stop peeing! Also whenever we tried to make her stand up, she had a funny gait, but that could be because shes still a baby but she had some proprioceptive defects in the right hindleg (she actually stood on the top of her foot instead of the right way around). She would also hang her head down when she was standing. Hwever, when she is sititng down, she was able to lift her head up, so I'm not sure if shes just lazy or if it is weakness.
But since she was born premature and she was the first for her mom, her mom didn't let this poor baby suckle her so the cria had a failure of passive transfer (failure of transfer of maternal antibodies) thus she is weak. We finally got her to suckle and she ended up nearly finishing the bottle till she fell asleep.
Afterwards, a horse came in who seemed to have colicky signs, but the vet is not really convinced. Kept him in hospital to further monitor him. He pawed at the ground slightly, and also got down into sternal recumbancy but got up shortly after.
THis is when it was very busy possibly around 12- 1pm. We got alot of cases to follow up and to administer meds but now we got to take care of this case that just came in. So then I did a TPR (temp, pulse, respiration rate) and the intern took some blood and gave some flunixin (anti-inflammatory drug) to see how it goes.
We then changed bags of fluid for "winter" who has neurological signs which is suspected to have west nile which is not in australia and is transmitted by mosquitos. She liked to bite! I was holder her while the intern checked her TPR, and dring that time she will try and bite me! so i had to be aware of what she is doing with her head at all times.
By now, I have helped out with alot of blood work. Mainly spinning down blood and getting a PCV and TPP value for the horses and the cria (alpaca baby).
Now is around 2pm, so its time to do another round of TPRs with the above animals again, and this time King requires flushing of the sinuses. Quite messy job. It involves having the horse in a crush, and a small hose to run water through the holes into the sinuses to flush watever is in there such as pus or any material left inside the sinus. The water squirts everywhere, the vet who was using the hose and the intern who was restraining the horses head got splashed! I was lucky, i was out of the way at this time =P
I just observed!
Then I went to help the vet with the alpacas, but this time the vet restrained the animal and allowed me to do the warm compression on the mom alpaca for around 5-10 mins and then to try and milk out the coagulated milk form her udder. THis time she was alot calmer.
At this time the intern had to go to the lab and get a PCV and TPP of another horse, and so the vet told me to do a TPR on the cria and to feed her milk, this time she suckled and had the whole bottle!
Now it is around 3pm where we helped out with "winter" again to check her TPR, collect blood sample, and change her fluid bags again. Then we also checked on the horse that came in, did a TPR on her again, and this time we felt that he had alot of muscle twitching which is quite abnormal without the presence of flies, and the horse got a little irritated with the twitching as well. The vet is still unsure about what is going on with this horse, and wants to do blood work and stuff, however the lab for the other tests is only open tmr. So the owners will have to wait!
Alas, its 4 pm! Time for me to go home:) and it was raining...=/
Phew that was a longgg dayyy! But it was fun and very interesting!
I like how they let me do things too~
Also the intern i was working with, her shift was 24hrs! so she'd be done tmr morn at 7.30am! Crazy @_@
I then helped the intern to restrain a mom alpaca so she can do warm compression as she has mastitis. Then she milked out the coagulated milk. The mom alpaca was quite agitated and kept trying to run away. While i was restraining her, i can hear her getting ready to spit! but thank god, she didn't.
We then went to Gran alpaca (the mom's mom), she was in to keep the mom company but developed diarrhoea while she was in hospital. But all her vitals were normal. After we finished with her, we had to disinfect ourselves before doing anything else.
We then went to help the vets hold a mare while they checked on the foal with corneal ulcer. I was able to take a good look at the ulcer close up after the intern gave him a nerve block to prevent the eyelid from shutting. Later, the intern gave the foal meds through this flush through the eyelid. After that was done, we took the mare and foal back to their box. The mare was a little rowdy, and tries to bite and stuff especially when we are doing things with the foal. But this occurs to most mares with foals...
Around 10 am we took the cria (baby alpaca) out to have some fresh air, she wasn't doing so well. She would just lie there. It seems like she was very very weak. She was born 4 weeks premature and she is now 2 wks old. At first, she wouldnt drink the milk and seemed to have a head tilt. She also would'nt pee by herself! The intern stimulated her to pee, but whenever she stopped stimulating her, she would stop peeing! Also whenever we tried to make her stand up, she had a funny gait, but that could be because shes still a baby but she had some proprioceptive defects in the right hindleg (she actually stood on the top of her foot instead of the right way around). She would also hang her head down when she was standing. Hwever, when she is sititng down, she was able to lift her head up, so I'm not sure if shes just lazy or if it is weakness.
But since she was born premature and she was the first for her mom, her mom didn't let this poor baby suckle her so the cria had a failure of passive transfer (failure of transfer of maternal antibodies) thus she is weak. We finally got her to suckle and she ended up nearly finishing the bottle till she fell asleep.
Afterwards, a horse came in who seemed to have colicky signs, but the vet is not really convinced. Kept him in hospital to further monitor him. He pawed at the ground slightly, and also got down into sternal recumbancy but got up shortly after.
THis is when it was very busy possibly around 12- 1pm. We got alot of cases to follow up and to administer meds but now we got to take care of this case that just came in. So then I did a TPR (temp, pulse, respiration rate) and the intern took some blood and gave some flunixin (anti-inflammatory drug) to see how it goes.
We then changed bags of fluid for "winter" who has neurological signs which is suspected to have west nile which is not in australia and is transmitted by mosquitos. She liked to bite! I was holder her while the intern checked her TPR, and dring that time she will try and bite me! so i had to be aware of what she is doing with her head at all times.
By now, I have helped out with alot of blood work. Mainly spinning down blood and getting a PCV and TPP value for the horses and the cria (alpaca baby).
Now is around 2pm, so its time to do another round of TPRs with the above animals again, and this time King requires flushing of the sinuses. Quite messy job. It involves having the horse in a crush, and a small hose to run water through the holes into the sinuses to flush watever is in there such as pus or any material left inside the sinus. The water squirts everywhere, the vet who was using the hose and the intern who was restraining the horses head got splashed! I was lucky, i was out of the way at this time =P
I just observed!
Then I went to help the vet with the alpacas, but this time the vet restrained the animal and allowed me to do the warm compression on the mom alpaca for around 5-10 mins and then to try and milk out the coagulated milk form her udder. THis time she was alot calmer.
At this time the intern had to go to the lab and get a PCV and TPP of another horse, and so the vet told me to do a TPR on the cria and to feed her milk, this time she suckled and had the whole bottle!
Now it is around 3pm where we helped out with "winter" again to check her TPR, collect blood sample, and change her fluid bags again. Then we also checked on the horse that came in, did a TPR on her again, and this time we felt that he had alot of muscle twitching which is quite abnormal without the presence of flies, and the horse got a little irritated with the twitching as well. The vet is still unsure about what is going on with this horse, and wants to do blood work and stuff, however the lab for the other tests is only open tmr. So the owners will have to wait!
Alas, its 4 pm! Time for me to go home:) and it was raining...=/
Phew that was a longgg dayyy! But it was fun and very interesting!
I like how they let me do things too~
Also the intern i was working with, her shift was 24hrs! so she'd be done tmr morn at 7.30am! Crazy @_@
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