and then i end up choosing Iron Man to watch while i eat lunch.. ohh u unconscious mind u!

the two strangers i've spoken to today are both Tony/Anthony...

ewe post-mortem

*please do not read on if you get woozy with descriptions of organs/anatomy/medical convo..

Did a very cool post-mortem today on a ewe with a 2 week history of inappetence, weight loss, down on several occasions and arthritis in its right fetlock joint (thank you G for letting me practice doing a necropsy on a sheep that was going to be euthanised anyway). She was already dead when we came, so I was spared having to exsanguinate a live animal (to drain the blood supply to the brain to render them unconscious), but I was taught and got to actually practice the technique, and he also gave me a tip to hyperextend the neck to reveal the spinal cord to be severed to ensure that the animal is really unconscious/dead after severing of the carotid. Also, make sure you have a really sharp knife so that this process can be done as quickly as possible and cause least stress to the animal. 

Anyway, the abdominal cavity was unremarkable besides some barber's pole (the spiral-y pattern on the worm) in the abomasum - she still had plenty of fat as she was well conditioned before she was sick. Looked for signs of Johne's disease as she was originally from a part of NSW that the bacteria likes (cut through the two leaves of greater omentum so that the abdominal organs weren't displaced and more easily identified), and could not find any. She was a young ewe anyway. Then we opened the thoracic cavity and immediately found that there was an adhesion from the R middle ventral lung lobe to the chest wall - still haemorrhagic and not fibrinous so probably not so old. The apex of the right caudodorsal lung lobe felt nodular, and contained purulent material in the airways when the lung parenchyma was sectioned. Another tip that I was taught was to ask the farmer to help cut the top of the ribs, and then use the rib cage as a board to inspect the organs. Then we inspected the heart, and everything externally was normal, but on opening of the heart, the tricuspid valve was extremely proliferative and cauliflower-like - she had endocarditis! 

Those cauliflower growths on the valves aren't normal. Contrasting red and green colours yo.

Not sure if the tricuspid valve is more commonly affected in sheep, like in cattle (unlike dogs/cats where the mitral valve is most commonly affected).The mitral valve was also infected, but less so. We also checked her mouth, as she was inappetent, and her tongue, pharynx and teeth (both incisors and cheek teeth) were normal. So she most likely died from the endocarditis, which could have spread causing the pleuropneumonia and septic arthritis (we were rushing for time so did not open up the fetlock joint).

*why am i posting such a long description of the necropsy? well at first i was just excited at all the findings, but then thought that i might as well write everything down so that i don't forget what I learnt, particularly the necropsy technique tips.

miscellaneous pics

Tunnel of Hope by DW and the Benevolent Society (Sydney VIVID festival 2013). Bees by Jon Voss (VIVID festival 2013). Rubber duck by Florentijn Hofman in Darling Harbour (Sydney Festival 2012).

specs yo

le specs Swizzle in matte copper

(*background info: i have pterygia in my eyes that i'm currently managing with topical eye drops)

i don't normally wear sun/glasses, and the only pair of sunnies (actual UV blocking ones) were the ones i got from Wicked the musical.

so at least now i have a less weird looking pair to wear while i'm outside.. even when i'm in the shade. (yes i'm gonna be one of those people.)

good day ;)

laksa, fresh juice, books, the voice US, nap.

first proper weekend since a while ;) made corn fritters with bacon/avocado/sour cream/sweet chilli for breakfast, and watched life of pi and the amazing spider man.

rainy day, lazy day. time to listen to some John Legend and work on my assignments!

insect bite hypersensitivity, please dampen down. only a week at a vet clinic and already getting itchy swellings from fleas jumping off the animals T__T...

super soft super cropped cardi (in jupiter) from Metalicus. it was on sale so i got it for $45 ;)

post-xmas sales shopping ;)

- rabbit shadow (T-bar)

- unteal tomorrow sticks & bones jean (ziggy denim)

- calendar, notebooks (typo)

merde. i think i'm gonna change my mind again and not give another craft project away as a present. this is the problem with picking things i like as presents & them taking a while to make!

guess i'll have to go present shopping tomorrow...

merry xmas everyone!

pic source: ungt blod

bun update

it's been a really long time since i've posted any bunny pictures on this blog. mostly cos i never take my phone/camera when i go outside to their area (and that they're always moving around and hard to take pics of..) 

news since the last time:
- Bernie is actually a girl. i've never bothered to look at her genitals ever since the previous owner told me (4 years ago) that she was a boy and that he's been desexed.. i assume this desexing history is accurate, since she's not moody/aggressive like girl bunnies and she doesn't have a dewlap, which my friend told me is a secondary sex characteristic (ie. needs oestrogen to maintain).
- Mimi got desexed cos i got paranoid ever since our exotics lecturer told us how common uterine cancers were in rabbits as they get older. but then this was followed by TWO bouts of gut stasis and inappetence (ie. super stressful time for her and me). had to force feed her five times a day with special food and give her a gut motility thing (which made me feel like a drug dealer cos i had to empty the capsule and divide the powder into one-fifth portions using a name card). obviously i thought often whether i would have gotten her desexed if i had the chance to go back in time, and if i was advising a pet owner i would really warn them about having to make an effort to feed them every few hours and staying calm when you wait for the medicine to work. she even gained weight after this (cos she only lost 0.01g when i took her back to the vet, and i'm sure the uterus they took out was much heavier - apparently it was big and took longer than usual to take out). i was so grateful she was still willing to swallow the food that i squirted to the back of her mouth... but yeah. it's been nearly a month since the operation and she is a different bunny! less anxious / trying to assert her dominance on Bernie/her area - which means that she's not humping Bernie, more willing to come to me and be patted on the head (though having her wrapped in a towel and on my lap while getting force fed several times a day probably got her used to me -_-"), and generally seems calmer and enjoying life more (obviously i'm just guessing..).

ok. finally pics-time!

short bun feet XD

same colour!

bernie looks like a grandpa haha big eyebrow area

mimi's been licking my toes since yesterday. i don't know why.

Mimi just licked my toes. thanks?

cat pouch necklace

a.k.a. the 'cat guardian secret keeper' - taken from the craft tutorial by Cat Rabbit in the latest issue of Frankie magazine (which has a special craft section! on similar paper to their cake recipes section in the previous issue).

(this was supposed to be a birthday present for a friend, but i can't get over how cute it is.. so now it's not a present..)

i get why a crafter should like cats more than dogs. when you get bored during your project, you can turn most things on your desk into cat toys to play with: pens, string, strip of paper, anything strand-y.

hmm, seeing as there's a family history of diabetes, maybe i shouldn't hv hot chocolate at night, cereal for breakfast, and chocolate croissant for lunch..

other diseases i just realised are in the family: liver dz, sickle cell anaemia.

the things u learn when family is around..

I can't believe one of the possible written assignments for Veterinary Public Practice is reviewing the NATION'S Emergency Disease Response Plan. I know it's a tedious job which is "perfect" for an intern, but should you really leave it to a 5th year uni student who doesn't have any on-the-job experience for it?

Also, the Unit of Study handbook needs some SERIOUS EDITING. So far I have summarised 114 pages into 36. I still have another 172 pages to go. It was prepared by a person who made a movie of an audio recording of herself reading word for word, university policies with powerpoint slides displayed on the screen. We had to listen to this audio with the script on the screen for 30+ minutes; but at least we could listen to her struggling to say various veterinary words.

need sleep... apparently, 5 hours after 2 all-nighters isn't enough.