Microchipping!

Trying to find a certain cat amongst many can be a task of sorts. Especially if you're not all that familiar with them yet. Today I needed to get a weight on a cat named George. He happened to be in a communal cat room where multiple cats are kept in an open space for potential adopters to come and visit openly! These communal rooms are practically a cat paradise: couches, chairs, scratching posts, vertical climbing posts, beds, windows, lots of toys, and of course, other cats. Most of the time, I recognize a cat's name and have a fairly good idea of who I'm looking for. This time though, I hadn't met George yet! In all of the communal rooms, there is a binder that has a picture, description, and some information about the cats that are in there so that if you are particularly interested in one, you can pop open the binder and read about him/her. I went to the binder and looked at his picture and then I looked around at the sleeping and playing cats to see if I could find him. I thought I had the right one when I noticed that there was another one in the room who looked very similar. Stopped in my tracks, I was stumped. I looked back to the binder to see who the other one could be and how I could distinguish them. Looking at these two pictures and information, they are both Shorthair Domestic, neutered males. 

George (above) and Toby (below)

No luck there! Finally, I thought of the most obvious way to tell in this situation. Not only are the communal cats disease free and spayed/neutered, they are also microchipped for indentification! I grabbed the microchip scanner and before scanning them I took my last and final guess based on the pictures alone. Turns out I was wrong! I had thought that Toby was George! After picking him and spending a little time with him, though, I realized that there were a lot of other ways to tell George from his doppleganger, Toby. Turns out George has a tooth that protrudes slightly outward and makes his lip crinkle up ever so slightly. He also was lighter colored on his belly and chest! 

Collars with name tags are a good way to distinguish your animal from another if lost and can be especially useful if there is contact information present on the tag as well. However, microchipping is one way that today's technology has helped the well-being of our companions today. Living on a college campus, I see posters up of Missing Pets every now and then and I usually take out my iPhone and snap a picture of the poster in case I see a stray dog/cat running around (one reason that I love technology, haha!) If I happen to find that pet and its collar got caught on something or fell off there is no way for me to tell who the animal belongs to or how to contact them. A microchip links the pet back to the owner and upon calling the microchip company, can provide you with a phone number to call to get a hold of them. You can get a microchip for your pet from your veterinarian for relatively cheap between $15-$40 depending on your location and source. Also, if you adopt your pet from a shelter or humane society, more than likely that animal has already been microchipped and is included in your adoption fee.

Today's lesson in disguise was reinforcing my appreciation for microchipping! Not only can it help me find a cat among many, but it can help YOU find your missing pet if the situation ever arises! 

Lymph Nodes

One of the best things about working with a group of people is that you learn more easily, and it doesn't feel like you have to work at it! One thing that I learned today is the names of the lymph nodes that we feel for. I knew where the general location of most of them were and what some of them were called, but today I locked it in! For example, the submandibular lymphs are in the area where the jaw meets the kneck. We also learned to use the salivary glands as a reference point. Some of the lymps are super tiny (like the axillary ones) especially on puppies and kittens which makes them hard to feel. The important thing, though, is to make sure they are both about the same size and that they aren't enlarged. This could mean that the animal has lymphadenopathy which is basically inflammation of the lymph nodes. It was pretty fun pronouncing the popliteal lymphs. Some people say "pop-li-teal" and others say "pop-li-tea-ole". We decided that we liked the sound of "pop-li-tea-ole" better! 

Some palpable lymph-nodes.

We also talked about some other practices used such as collecting blood samples. There are many reasons to collect a blood sample for an animal including testing for heartworm, a standard procedure that all dogs and even cats should be tested for. We talked about the importance of flashing the needles used to collect blood with Heparin, an antiocoagulant. If blood were to clot, it would make reading test results difficult and may cause a false negative. This is because a clot could mask the presence of a protein that indicates heartworm prevalence. Overall, it was a successful learning day!

Air Bubbles & The Little Guys

Today I learned how to run my first fecal! I’ve never tried to find a parasite in the microscope before so it was pretty intimidating. Especially when the lab supervisor had already looked to see, so she knew! I thought for sure that I had found some coccidia, and when I proudly declared my diagnosis, it was revealed that it was just a mere air bubble on the slide. Darn! I’m gonna look at it as being initiated into the fecal-world of veterinary medicine. I’m sure every great veterinarian once looked in a scope and thought an innocent air bubble was responsible for the gastrointestinal problems. At least I like to think so, anyway! 

Air Bubble vs. Coccidia

I went to go get a dog because he needed an injection of Cestaject (used to treat tapeworms). Going back I wasn’t afraid because I’ve dealt with many animals that I’ve never met before. Once I saw him, though, I thought to myself, "Great! He's a little guy!" Most people would be more scared of the big dogs with a loud bark. I, on the other hand, find the little scrappy guys the scariest! They're so unpredictable and always seem to have big attitudes. This same reason though, is exactly why I love them! I'm sure this comes from home. My 95 pound Great Pyrenees is a gentle giant and our Mini Australian Shepherd has the ugliest growl you'll ever hear. A bit wary, I knealt down to offer my hand. He wasn't feeling too good so I wasn't expecting much, but he did give me a little wag and took a few steps forward. Low and behold, this little guy was a sweetheart! We walked back to the lab together: him on his way to being parasite free and me on my way to putting a little more faith in small dogs!

First Day!

First day at the Humane Society! It was also the first day that it snowed so the roads were icy and I was 4 minutes late due to me being a chicken and driving super slow! It was okay though, because I didn’t miss anything! I, along with the two other interns, were introduced to some medications used around the lab as well as some standard procedures. I also got to do a few go-home exams which entailed looking over the animals for any signs of sickness, microchipping, and clipping nails for good measure! I swear, the animals know it’s their big day, too! Every one we did had a smile on its face and a wag in their tail! My four hours went by really fast and it was soon time to go home. I was bummed, but then I remembered that I would be back tomorrow morning!