you know you're a vet student when you read the following story and only gasp at the end of the story when the police killed one of the dogs.

http://news.com.au/world/african-painted-dogs-kill-boy-3-at-pittsburgh-zoo/story-fndir2ev-1226510348304

fyi vets in Australia do not earn as much money as most people think due to the 'expensive' fees clients encounter. yes, i have to agree the fees are high, but compared to other health services they are way lower. most services are undercharged and practices have to pay to buy the equipment, drugs and pay to maintain the property and pay employees etc etc etc. they are basically a small business with no subsidies from the govt.

here is a picture of a newspaper article comparing the costs of human v's veterinary vet care. 
(click for a larger picture)

most people don't realise how much things cost cos their health insurance takes care of it, but it's ridiculously expensive! i was also surprised the first time i heard about the consultation fee for my cousin's paediatrician - it was $300! most vet practices i know charge $60-90, and though they may not have the specialist title, they also do their own procedures like dermatologists, surgeons, radiographers, radiologists, etc etc etc do..

from silent spring to silent night

**this video should be watched by everybody. because everybody who's drinking water is affected and you should know why.

would you treat a disease but not get rid of the cause?

analogy derived from the video: would you treat people for broken bones and internal organ damage, and then leave them to walk across highways amongst speeding motor vehicles?
watch this video and you will change the way you think about chemicals in our environment and what they are doing to us.

This is taken from a presentation given by Dr. Tyrone Hayes on the effects of Atrazine (a herbicide) on frogs.  But don't forget (also pointed out in the video), these effects have been demonstrated in other animals too: birds, rodents, fish, reptiles and ALSO MAMMALS (humans are mammals). 

Why are there so many different types of cancers affecting people, at such greater numbers today than before? Why are people getting fatter? Why is there a mass depletion of amphibians occurring in the world (Clue: it's not Chytrid fungus. It's another primary cause, leading to the secondary Chytrid infection)? I don't want to spoil too much, cos the video is seriously enlightening - i didn't plan on watching the entire 58 minutes (i'm supposed to be studying T__T), but it went by so quickly.



what the video enlightens: the general public not involved in the science industry cannot easily access scientific information. you can't go into a bookstore and read leading journals like "Nature", or "Science". there is no easy way to assess whether pharmaceutical companies and government agencies are telling the truth or not, because where you find the information - the scientific articles - are not easily accessible. 

for Corn and Money, generations of human health are being compromised. why don't they care? Europe, the manufacturer of this chemical has banned it. If you are in a position of power to change things, why risk your own life too and ignore what facts are telling you?

Gladstone Harbour Dredging

[Source: The Economist]

A short and generalised summary of what's happening at the Gladstone Harbour (Queensland, Australia).

Interview with Dr. Matt Landos - an independent researcher (a veterinary scientist) who will soon release a report on data collected from the Harbour - if you don't have time to watch it all, probably start from 13-14 minutes to get the more generalised explanation.

[Source: The Gladstone Observer]

To prepare the harbour for coal seam gas (methane) export (money) -  e.g. boats/equipment entering/leaving, the sediments are being dredged (dug up) and the material acquired dumped in the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, that Great Barrier Reef (link 1, 2). Excavation waste is being dumped into a UNESCO World Heritage site, a biodiverse and complex ecosystem (UNESCO wasn't notified when the project started). In addition, you'd think the government would consult experts before potentially disrupting an ecosystem - e.g. a vet in regards to animals, a coral expert, a water quality expert. Let's release the cane toad.

But the more immediate concern, is that as a result of all the digging, the water is being contaminated and to no surprise, the animals living in the water are now diseased and dying. Water to sea creatures (or anything living underwater, for that matter) is everything - how it gets its oxygen, how it gets its food, minerals, nutrients, essential ions, its toilet... it's everything. It's surrounded by its environment all the time and it cannot get away from it. The dredging is releasing materials into the water that is not usually there e.g. metals (such as aluminium) and nutrients from stirred up soil. Now, nutrients are good, but anything in excess can be toxic (seriously) - organisms like algae which produce toxins flourish in excess nutrients. This is kinda why you don't pour garden fertiliser into your backyard pool, or you don't wanna administer insecticides/fly-spray into your home aquarium. 

The government has collected some data to say that levels of some toxins (eg. some metals) are not above the levels considered to be 'toxic'/harmful. But what wasn't mentioned was the data was collected from a large body of water - ie. samples collected from where the toxins were coming from, and also further (and further and further) away from that site - where the water is only slightly contaminated. Then they combined all the numbers together and produced an average. So instead of revealing that: yes, the water is contaminated (eg. 20 times toxic levels) - the results were figuratively diluted out. Also, we/people don't entirely understand how chemicals (e.g. toxins / other substances in the water) interact with each other - even though the measurement of a certain substance may be "under" the harmful level, it may interact with something else and cause harm.

You've heard of lead poisoning and how it affects the brain, nerves and basically how the body functions. If the body cannot function well, well.. the animal cannot survive. The coral, fish, turtles, dugongs, crabs, dolphins and everything else living in or using the water - even people working in the area (such as fishermen) - are all being affected by the contaminated water (by affected, I mean getting ill and/or dying). 

When you get sick, you are more susceptible to getting more disease - the body's immune system becomes compromised (immunocompromised). Some of the authorities (govt, dredging company) are attributing some of the disease and mortalities to secondary diseases that the animals are getting, which are highly likely due to the contaminated water in the first place. (In short: contaminated water > unwell/sick fish > get secondary diseases eg. because they are less able to fight off 'the usual' load of diseases such as parasites). And the Queensland Government (their Environment department) are saying fish caught from these are still fit for human consumption. I don't think many people would want to eat emaciated fish with heart disease, fluid leaking into their body cavities, inflamed guts, brain disease; crabs with holes in their shells.  

A report that will soon be released collected data to see what the situation is actually like. Mortalities have increased, coinciding with the start of dredging. (nothing else besides that have changed - "what about the recent Queensland floods?" you ask? Well, as was mentioned in the video above by Dr. Landos, ever since that Harbour ecosystem existed (e.g. hundreds/thousands of years), there has probably been flood events - and monitoring has not seen deaths like current levels. 

(Personally, when I first heard of the situation, which was only yesterday. I naively was surprised and thought back to when I first saw the Asia Pulp and Paper (the destroyers of rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia and probably leading to its inhabitants' (eg. orangutans) extinction) TV advertisement being played in Australia  - how bluntly the public was being misled.)

Some web links (plenty more out there to research, as well - Google Scholar effects of contaminated water / heavy metal poisoning on fauna/flora, coral health etc etc etc - everything in the environment is interconnected, there is no way affecting one thing will not affect something else). Ok, enough of my rant. Spread this topic and raise awareness if you'd like.
- Courier Mail
- Weekly Times Now
- The Economist
for less objective links (not news articles):
- GreatBarrierReef.org - related blog posts
- GetUp! campaign page

*update: here's a link to the abc 7:30 queensland report news segment (the site won't let me embed the video elsewhere) - there's also a transcript of the video as well
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-04/commercial-fishermen-in-gladstone-harbour-call-for/3636740

some points to clear up (mentioned in the above news report and/or by Leo Zussino, from Gladstone Ports Corporation (working for the Port / the dredging project))
1. Overflow of barramundi, that came with the overflowing dam water (due to the floods) are increasing competition for food, and this is why the other fish are getting sick and dying - due to starvation.
No. Independent scientists (soon to be released report), not ones working for the government who approved this situation, found that there were plenty of fish for the barramundi (and other fish-eating fish) to eat, right next to where the barramundi were swimming. 

Also, it's not just fish competing with barramundi who are getting sick; dugongs, crabs, people, sharks - they're all affected and they're not competing with the barramundi for fish to eat. So this argument is moot.

2. Leo Zussino said: "We are causing an impact upon commercial fishermen's harvest in Gladstone harbour while we are dredging. But we're not causing in our view and all the scientific evidence we've seen any impact upon fish that's causing disease in fish."
Key words to take note here: "...all the scientific evidence we've seen...". I don't think "all the scientific evidence" that him and his Corporation has seen, can be compared to "all the scientific evidence" that scientists producing a peer-reviewed scientific report have seen (and to that add: and probably read and understood). 
It's like saying, 'there is no evidence' - when you didn't look in the right place!

3. the Gladstone Ports Corporation also said that diseased fish were there before the dredging started, so dredging could not be responsible for disease and deaths seen now.
Who do you believe: Fishermen who are working in the water and experiencing the problem first hand, or a Corporate Businessman who probably has not stepped foot in the actual waters or seen and touched the animals affected?

One of the fishermen interviewed said, "I caught 15 tonne of barra before the dredging started and not one of them had any sign of disease and about a month after the dredging started they started getting diseased."


You've probably now gotten a sense that the Gladstone Ports Corporation, and some  representatives of the government backing this project are willing to say things that's not backed by a lot of scientific evidence (i.e. untrue things, a.k.a lies). I really hope that someone high up gets their head screwed on right and realise what precious things they are destroying.

cute zoo babies!

videos from Uzoo's youtube channel

Camden Avian, Reptile & Exotic Pet Hospital

go here for cute baby wombat photos: http://macarthur-chronicle-camden.whereilive.com.au/photos/gallery/baby-wombats/


(but the real message is: slow down when driving in country roads at night so crossing wildlife are not hit)


this is the vet next to the uni btw! they've stopped receiving university funding, and so are in desperate need of donations. especially since they treat n care for wildlife (with no owners to pay for medical n husbandry costs). please help if you can - donate or be their client! they do have really good vets :)


>> Avian, Reptile and Exotic Pet Hospital

felt sloth

made this for an upcoming friend's "silly headgear"-themed party ;D (yes, the sloth will be sloth-ing on my head XD!)

it's supposed to be a three-toed sloth, but i didn't want the claws to poke my head / fall off from being handled too much, so temporarily (or more likely, permanently, since i'm too lazy to add the claws) it's a no-toed sloth!

as usual, i used pipe cleaners to make the internal scaffold: one for the body and a loop at one end for the head, and one each for the forelimbs and hindlimbs (looped around the body pipe cleaner). and then i just wrapped a bunch of wool fibres around the pipe cleaners, kinda like applying a thick bandage, and then just poked it with the needle until it's tight enough. and then just kept on building with more wool fibres until it had the right shape and the right colour. and i also added some green wool on the surface, since sloths are so slow-moving that they have moss growing on their fur XD!

another parry gripp video! 

another one: and then he's all, o-nom-o-nom-o-nom-nom

knit knit knit!

i LOVE winter...layers and snuggling in a warm place x)

 
 agnes crochet cardi (rodeo show, via made590)

(on an unrelated note, new link: ourlifeinvetschool.tumblr.com)

easter show 2012

went to the easter show yesterday! paranoid about using trains so ended up arriving half an hour early -_-"

yesterday was a non-competition cat day - where breeders and feline associations came to show diff breeds, and so my day started with some intense cheek muscle exercise smiling stupidly at the kitties which we had to check before they were allowed to be exhibited - mainly for ear mites and fleas. and i got to see BRITISH SHORT HAIR KITTEEEEENS!!! T___T omg they were sooo cuuutee!! and i got to hug one T___T and before that, this breeder brought his selkirk rex cat and kittens which i didn't even know existed as a cat breed!! and it was also omg-i-can-die-now cute!! they look like british shorthairs but MORE FLUFFY (how is that even possible) and have WAVY / CURLY HAIR!!! D: and hence they don't shed as much D:!!!! omgggg i want one. but on a serious note, i don't know whether i'll get a non-adopted pet when i do end up looking for one... but anyway, back to gushing. GO GOOGLE SELKIRK REX KITTEN PICTURES (not as cute in real life :() ok.

for more medicine-related vet things... we followed the horse vet there and looked / helped do basic stats checking while he was going around the stables. we saw quite a few cases actually and he was happy to give tips on practical skills etc. we saw: poultice for a bruised foot being put on, swollen foreleg ligaments, 'thoroughpin', a quite severe sway back on a horse. and along with the very official badge which we were given (which meant gate-openers opened gate for us :O and catered breakfast and lunch :O), we also got to watch the show jumping finals from the "vet box" ie. good view, man. 

anyhoo, showbags:

got the tiny teddy ($15) and purina supercoat ($5) showbags. i forgot that biscotti is technically a 'senior' now, but oh well, i'll just give the food as a treat - since she seems to find it tastier than her usual food..

funny video of the actress, Kristen Bell, overwhelmed about meeting a sloth on her birthday XD (interview on the ellen show, via the featured creature)

parry gripp

other ridiculously funny themed songs by parry gripp at his website and youtube channel

sydney aquarium

i finally saw the dugong (only 1 now..?) at the sydney aquarium a few days ago :)
here are some non-blurry pictures from the day

horse placement

so last week i went to my horse placement out at mendooran for five days. we took a train to lithgow then a coach from dubbo and arrived at 11:15pm -_-! the couple who owns the farm picked us up from the bus stop and drove us to their property and we were dropped off at the cottage where we'd stay for the week. i was so amazed when we stepped in cos i still remembered the poultry placement with the dusty bed (& everything else) and the spider webs. it was more like a guest house than a 'cottage'. there were 2 bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, living room, tv room, lots of couches, shower, toilet, washing machines, and CLEANING PRODUCTS T__T yayy! basically it's a normal house - not what we were expecting!

the next morning we had to walk down to the main farm area since we didn't have/know how to use the ATV (all-terrain vehicle) yet. and saw the 2 donkeys, cattle (brahman cross something..) and 1 horse that the woman said was around the cottage. the donkeys were so cute (one's a boy. he tried to mount the other one once, and the girl resisted and kicked him hahahha)! it was also the first time i ever heard their vocalisations! sounded like some rusty engine starting up..

anyway, at the farm we learnt how to use the ATV which was basically just pressing the accelerator near the handles and met the stud manager and the helper (this year 12 student on her holidays) who we'll be following. the uni horse handling practicals (and the various stories from lecturers of rude horses) kinda made me extra cautious and suspicious of them, but the horses there were so friendly and calm..! the first few days we didn't really do anything but then we had to move the horses from the paddock to the day yards and the stables cos the farrier and the vet was coming, so we 'herded' the horses on our ATVs. horses are not like other prey animals, since they're more like pets ('companion animals', nowadays) and so not as intrinsically scared of humans so you can't really herd them by just moving closer to them.

anyway. we keep on getting these really relaxing placements for some reason where most of the day is just watching. we brushed the horses and got rid of burrs from their hairs (made them have a unicorn looking forelock), caught them from the yards with head collars, lead them and fed them, but that was it. didn't pick up their feet/rug/drench/vaccinate them :(

the most interesting thing at the placement was sitting on the back of the ute and going to the middle of this huge paddock to the hay shed to collect some hay bales. the shed was elevated so that the ute could reverse park to the platform in front of the shed door (which was made of flimsy-looking, half-broken wooden planks D:) so it'll be easier to load the hay onto it. anyway, so we walked onto the platform to enter the shed and started lifting hay bales. seriously they were so heavy for someone who doesn't do any form of physical exercise besides finger movements on the laptop. and thank goodness i was given gloves cos the string tied around the bales which we held onto dug into our hands so much! i wore gloves and i still got a rope burn. my friend who only wore knitted gloves cos the work gloves didn't fit got cuts which bled! but at least the weather was so cold that it numbed any sensation..

anyway, when we were loading up the hay bales, we saw this truck approaching us from the distance carrying the TALLEST HAY LOAD EVER. think the front end of a truck where the people sit in, and the hay bales were stacked so high that the guy had to climb on the roof of the truck above where you sit in, and climb onto the hay bales, so he could start rolling the hay bales down onto the shed for us to carry in & stack... (the first bale he rolled down literally smashed nearly a quarter of the wooden platform where we stood D: i felt like mario walking on a wobbly surface. the hole was patched up with some hay bales... and then they kinda made a stair with the bales so the hay can actually roll down from the truck into the shed). the view of this huge hay truck in the middle of a seemingly endless field on a blue-skied day, the people lifting bales into the shed and the amazingly cute charolais cattle which were so furry and had clean white fur surrounding the vehicles stealing hay was so picturesque! i wish i could have taken a photo with my eyes!! everything was so beautiful!

the rest of our days were spent watching tv and eating biscuits at the cottage XD the woman asked if we wanted to get some dvds from their house so that we weren't bored, and so we did. and migod that house was so warm. you open the door and felt the sudden temperature change ahhh heaven... and then she showed around the house and the art that they collect. and the closet filled with designer clothes and handbags and watches and hats etc. not your typical farmer ei! apparently the man's dad introduced the charolais breed into australia and they developed some cattle breeds like the 'square meater' (yes, they're one square metre big!), tropicana and mandalong special; and they also have cattle in Russia and China so they travel there a lot. (apparently they go overseas every month!) and the woman talked of her 'friend', benjamin netanyahu. THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL. omg.

one night we went down to their place to ask some questions about the management and husbandry of horses, and it was so nice hearing them talk about their animals and you got the sense that they care and respect their animals and not treated them just like some stuffs (he was saying that the animals are always telling you something, if it's not working, you're not doing something right and you have to change your approach. they've got a brain this small, you have to be the one understanding them). then they told a story of how some of the cows that had difficulty giving birth would come down to the house and bellow for help! and there was one cow that was by itself vocalising to them so they would notice another cow further away that was stuck giving birth.

there were also so many different animals at their place! there were 6 dogs (1 white fluffy house dog), chickens, cats, KITTENS! to control the snakes and rodents ( they mentioned so matter-of-fact-ly how, "there's probably gonna be only a few left by the end of the year" 0_0. but anyway, they were SOOO SMALL! when we left the house, the tiny fluffy persian crosses would follow us T__T but they ran away when we started the ATVs), a fox (that they have to shoot cos it was trying to eat the kittens...) as well as the horses and cattle and the 2 donkeys. and the green tree frogs that were in the rainwater tank. i flushed the toilet one day and a green leg extended from the edge of the toilet bowl! and then the entire frog later got flushed down in another toilet session.

the ride home was another coach for seven hours since there were strong winds that week and a bunch of trees fell down and crushed a train that was on our line (we passed it on our way back and the train carriage roof was half crumpled!). and then i got home. and saw biscotti. and she seemed so large cos i've been looking at kittens all week.

some photos of biscotti sleeping & warming my lap (the only calming thing during the exam period).

i heart cat tote

another bag came in the mail today! (they were my birthday presents btw - not from a random shopping frenzy xD)


this one was made by mirishilo (em by miri) from etsy
it's canvas (less brown than in the photo) and larger than most totes i've seen! it also came with instructions on how to clean it etc

i can't wait for the holidays when i can finally get out of the house & start using them ;)

typing study notes and just remembered a funny quote from the fish lecturer:

(apparently, some shellfish have a really pointy tooth that they use to stab and kill other shellfish with)

"next time you eat a mussel, and you see a hole in its shell, you know it has been MURDERED."

lol

from the lecturer who has a folder titled "funny videos" in her computer and doesn't want to give us too much time in an exam in case we get bored and start 'pea-shooting with a straw'.

veterinary information websites

some useful vet links that i've come across so far. this list is mostly for veterinary students, but for paranoid pet owners who can't stop thinking about a potentially minor problem, the merck vet manual might be a good place to start before then asking for your vet's advice (remember, even a phone call to the vet can be beneficial - better to know all the possibilities in case it is something serious)

General
Merck Veterinary manual
- quick guide to animal care, diseases, management

WikiVet
- online veterinary education! wikipedia created by UK vet schools.

Veterinary Information Network (VIN)
- collection of recent news, articles, forums where you can talk to other vets from around the world (and help solve cases /search for specialist knowledge). it's free to join if you are a vet student - to get you addicted and join at a fee after graduating.

Veterinary Information Portal (VIP) (University of Sydney)
- another site with articles (including animal behaviour & welfare science essays created by 3rd year students, summarising recent research findings)

Anatomy
Carnivore Dissection (University of Minnesota)
- labelled images of a carnivore dissection

Horse Dissection (Cornell University)
- labelled images of a horse dissection

Pathology
PathPedia
- this is a human website, but has useful histopathology images describing many disorders

WebPathology
- also a human website

Embryology
Normal & Abnormal Mammalian Development (University of Carolina)
- actual scanning electron micrographs! very useful when static images from a book are too unclear

Reproduction
Pathways to Pregnancy and Parturition, 2nd edition
- download link to the textbook by Senger

Neurology
Atlas of Veterinary neuropathology (Cornell University)
- haven't used this, but another resource for the complex brain can't hurt

Genetics
Introduction (James Cook University)
- inheritance, coat colours, population genetics etc etc (can't remember what else was learnt in that subject -_-")

Human Molecular Genetics, 2nd edition (Tom Strachan & Andrew P Read)
- free online version of the textbook

Parasitology
DPDx (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)
- wonderful life cycle diagrams with explanations

Sustainable Control of Internal Parasites of Sheep (University of Sydney)
- basics of integrated parasite control, including a section on anthelmintics

Australian Wool Innovation
- another site for integrated parasite control, mainly on

Cats
Felipedia
- haven't used it myself, but it's CATS!

Amphibians
Articles on Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis: the amphibian chytrid (James Cook University)
- extensive lists of journal articles & other publications about the chytrid fungus and the decline of the world's frogs :(

Pocket Pets
Diseases of Research Animals (University of Missouri)
- mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, gerbils, hamsters. not the nicest connotations, but useful nonetheless.

Guinea Lynx
- one of the best sites for guinea pig owners, even has a forum to discuss with other owners.