Poop

I did my first fecal flotation today! If it had been up to my own dubious expertise I would have said that Pita (Alona's cat) had tapeworms and coccidia, but Dr. H assured me that the plant fibres and bubbles in my slide were not at all threatening, nor even remotely parasitic. Apparently Alona's cat is parasite free, though we did learn that he's been eating her houseplants, as evidenced by the large amount of plant material in the feces of an indoor-only cat. I still think those bubbles are plotting something deadly.

Actually, all the samples brought in by students and all the samples from the school dogs came out negative (a shock given the stool quality of some of them). Makes me feel much better about Hero licking my face when I know that his medication is actually getting rid of the giardia. We did get to see both giardia and coccidia on a sample that Dr. H brought in from his clinic though, and it came with a very cool tidbit of information. Everyone in veterinary medicine shudders at the word "parvo", but the parvovirus that is so debilitating and deadly to dogs has recently had some new studies done on it that show it may be far more of an opportunistic disease that is less harmful than the parasites in conjunction with it. To that end, the fecal sample he brought in was from a parvo positive lab puppy and it was FULL of parasites. I mean, even I couldn't miss them. Quantitative statements on parasite load are noted in the records with - or + symbols, and the number of +'s indicates severity of infection. One + means a few were seen, 2 means many, 3 means significant numbers and 4 means "WOW! Everybody come look at THIS!". This sample was a ++++ coccidia and a ++++ giardia. He also brought in a sample from a bearded dragon that had whipworm larvae visible to the naked eye after it was spun. It also contained hookworm ova which were very cool to look at.

Yesterday was yoga and then nursing and restraint. Yoga wasn't half as bad as I was expecting and while it certainly isn't a class I would take if I didn't need the extra credit, it may be tolerable. She held off on some of the more ridiculous portions of her own "relationship" with yoga and we got through a decent number of poses, though no complete sun salutations to my disappointment. Actually, my biggest complaint about the class was her forgetfulness or ignorance of the note I made under the "injuries or other concerns" portion of the form she gave out on the first day of class that stated "my hamstrings are approximately 2 inches long. If a pose stretches them, I will do my best, but don't expect much." Twice she came over to me and attempted to push my legs into a more demanding version of the pose (which I don't like anyway, let me work at my own pace!) and they just wouldn't go. I think I'll talk with her before next class to make sure she understands this. I know she'd read the forms because she started out the class by taking attendance and then asking people about what they'd written on the form. In detail, and in front of the rest of the class. There were a lot of uncomfortable responses until she read out "Dave" and then asked how many months along he was before realising what she was saying. "Dave" assured her his "pregnancy" was meant to be a joke but also pointed out that if it wasn't, he might have wanted it to be confidential. She got the hint and stopped reading out everyone's personal injuries.

Nursing and restraint was another fun-packed hour of Henson's blend of jokes, mass volume information and anecdotes. It's a little like stand-up comedy for tech students and I really get into and enjoy her lectures, as well as learning a lot. I also have this real urge to not appear stupid in front of her so when I have to answer a question I get some momentary panic. Like yesterday, during a discussion on CRT (capillary refill time) and the significance of bruised mucous membranes. She asked what those might mean and I, expecting everyone else to call out an answer at the same time, immediately said "clotting disorder!" while from behind me I hear pure silence. Oh crap.
So, she turns and says "What's that?"
"Uh....clotting disorder..hemorrhage...not clotting....um..."
"Right, possible cause....?"
"Uh...rat poison?"
"Yes!"

Woohoo, not an idiot! Thank you CVVH!

Anyway, I had intended to get pictures of Drake being bathed, but it ended up being a 3 person job, not the two we'd scheduled to do it, so taking my hands off the dog in order to grab the camera wasn't possible. We did manage to keep him in the tub for about 80% of the bath, but I think I got more water on me than he did, and Cat looked like she'd just gone swimming in her clothes. Still, we got him all clean and fluffy and he forgave us as soon as he had his feet on the floor again. He is such a lab.