A Life Less Ordinairy
Great day today.
Spent a whole hour and some learning about how to dope up animals with Prozac and Valium and the like. Then spent another hour in the afternoon learning how to kill em.
That's right.
I learned how to kill animals (as if I needed help).
We learned:
-how to shoot them
-where to shoot them
-how to kill something when you have no gun or drugs (involves a wrench or a tire iron- you get the idea)
-how to drug em out
-how NOT to drug em out
-how to 'pith' them
-how to gas them
-how to electrocute them
-how to cook them alive (not recommended)
-how to exanguinate them (bleed them to death)
and something about a stiletto I didn't quite get.
Gruesome but deadly interesting (no pun intended). My class got a bit hung up on the whole "shooting them" bit but otherwise, it was great (in a very morbid way. It's not the most glamorous part of the job and not the happiest by any means).
Turns out the hardest animals to kill are reptiles and turtles and they have a habit of not quite dying when you euthanise them. They've had lots of cases where they think they've euthanised it so the owners bring it home and bury it and next thing you know, the little iguana's running around their back yard trailing dirt behind it.
Kind of funny actually. My prof recommends freezing all reptiles after euthanasia (or attempted euthanasia) for 5-7 days and then thawing the things out to see if they'll come back to life (sometimes they do!) and then if it doesn't wake up, sending it home with the owners to be buried.
Weird.
The other lectures in my day consisted of Wildlife Veterinary medicine which was AWESOME!!!! I SOOOOO want to do that!
My prof is sort of my hero in that he worked all over the world on every species imaginable and together with his wife (who's a doctor) goes traipsying about saving and helping things. It's incredible! He's worked in Africa, Mongolia, other bits of Asia, South America, you name it, he's done it.
I sat there amonst all the slides of cheetahs with tuberculosis and sea otters from the exxon valdez oil spill and diagrams of where to shoot a horse in the head when the time comes and I realised that my life in vet med will probably never be boring.
And to think I could've been an accountant.
(ha. Actually, I coudln't cus my math sucks and I couldn't audit something if my life depended on it).
As an aside, some vet my prof knows was responsible for saving the hundreds of sea otters from exxon valdez- only thing was it cost $80,000 of federal money to save EACH otter. Those suckers aint so cute now eh?
And that's all for now folks.
It's getting late and I'm going to fail my pharmacology exam if I don't start studying soon. I might take up shooting someday just so I'll know how to use a gun should the time ever come. I think we might actually get a course in it sometime next year but that could just be a rumour.
Or I could just become a pathologist and work with animals that are already dead (pathologists do all the autopsies on dead animals aka 'necropsies'). Saw some dog in pathology seminar today that was poisoned with antifreeze and had vomitted so much that its guts involuted into its stomach. NOT COOL. IF I EVER CAT YOU LEAVING ANTIFREEZE ON YOUR DOORSTEP OR DRIVEWAY I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND LADLE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT. DITTO WITH STRYCHNINE.
There was also this little 5 week old puppy that had a weird genetic disorder where it couldn't shed its dead skin so it ended up developing scales like a fish on its face and legs. Sounds gross but really, the puppy was cute (except it was dead and it was all cut up and eviscerated).
OK. I bid you all good day.
Have fun and avoid le antifreeze!
-Vivian "save the wee otters!" Lau
PS: Lynda, when are you going to post up new pics on your pomegranate site?
PPS: ANh, I would totally take dance lessons with you if I were in town!
PPPS: Joanne, tell mom and dad I am out of cash. I can't even afford to fill up my car. I lived on bagels and old pasta sauce all week.
PPPPS: My camera is broken or I'd take a picture and show you all how empty my fridge is.
Spent a whole hour and some learning about how to dope up animals with Prozac and Valium and the like. Then spent another hour in the afternoon learning how to kill em.
That's right.
I learned how to kill animals (as if I needed help).
We learned:
-how to shoot them
-where to shoot them
-how to kill something when you have no gun or drugs (involves a wrench or a tire iron- you get the idea)
-how to drug em out
-how NOT to drug em out
-how to 'pith' them
-how to gas them
-how to electrocute them
-how to cook them alive (not recommended)
-how to exanguinate them (bleed them to death)
and something about a stiletto I didn't quite get.
Gruesome but deadly interesting (no pun intended). My class got a bit hung up on the whole "shooting them" bit but otherwise, it was great (in a very morbid way. It's not the most glamorous part of the job and not the happiest by any means).
Turns out the hardest animals to kill are reptiles and turtles and they have a habit of not quite dying when you euthanise them. They've had lots of cases where they think they've euthanised it so the owners bring it home and bury it and next thing you know, the little iguana's running around their back yard trailing dirt behind it.
Kind of funny actually. My prof recommends freezing all reptiles after euthanasia (or attempted euthanasia) for 5-7 days and then thawing the things out to see if they'll come back to life (sometimes they do!) and then if it doesn't wake up, sending it home with the owners to be buried.
Weird.
The other lectures in my day consisted of Wildlife Veterinary medicine which was AWESOME!!!! I SOOOOO want to do that!
My prof is sort of my hero in that he worked all over the world on every species imaginable and together with his wife (who's a doctor) goes traipsying about saving and helping things. It's incredible! He's worked in Africa, Mongolia, other bits of Asia, South America, you name it, he's done it.
I sat there amonst all the slides of cheetahs with tuberculosis and sea otters from the exxon valdez oil spill and diagrams of where to shoot a horse in the head when the time comes and I realised that my life in vet med will probably never be boring.
And to think I could've been an accountant.
(ha. Actually, I coudln't cus my math sucks and I couldn't audit something if my life depended on it).
As an aside, some vet my prof knows was responsible for saving the hundreds of sea otters from exxon valdez- only thing was it cost $80,000 of federal money to save EACH otter. Those suckers aint so cute now eh?
And that's all for now folks.
It's getting late and I'm going to fail my pharmacology exam if I don't start studying soon. I might take up shooting someday just so I'll know how to use a gun should the time ever come. I think we might actually get a course in it sometime next year but that could just be a rumour.
Or I could just become a pathologist and work with animals that are already dead (pathologists do all the autopsies on dead animals aka 'necropsies'). Saw some dog in pathology seminar today that was poisoned with antifreeze and had vomitted so much that its guts involuted into its stomach. NOT COOL. IF I EVER CAT YOU LEAVING ANTIFREEZE ON YOUR DOORSTEP OR DRIVEWAY I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND LADLE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT. DITTO WITH STRYCHNINE.
There was also this little 5 week old puppy that had a weird genetic disorder where it couldn't shed its dead skin so it ended up developing scales like a fish on its face and legs. Sounds gross but really, the puppy was cute (except it was dead and it was all cut up and eviscerated).
OK. I bid you all good day.
Have fun and avoid le antifreeze!
-Vivian "save the wee otters!" Lau
PS: Lynda, when are you going to post up new pics on your pomegranate site?
PPS: ANh, I would totally take dance lessons with you if I were in town!
PPPS: Joanne, tell mom and dad I am out of cash. I can't even afford to fill up my car. I lived on bagels and old pasta sauce all week.
PPPPS: My camera is broken or I'd take a picture and show you all how empty my fridge is.
posted by Viv at 11:26 p.m.
3 Comments:
I find it a bit odd that you get upset when you kill an animal yet you are very enthusiastic about learning how to kill animals. Growing up on an Elk farm and hunting taught me at a very young age to not be bothered by either (learning or the act).
Hey Viv,
All that death talk must be depressing! Am glad the most morbid thing I do at work is cut...commercials. Safe, hygienic, sterile, cookie cutter commercials.
Very strange about the reptiles though. Not sure how I'd feel about freezing them for a week just to make sure they were dead...probably kinda gross and less human!
Anyways, hang in there...wish you could take dance lessons with me! Maybe the next time you're in town?
Umm...so, instead of freezing them for 5-7 days, how about just microwaving them for 5-7 minutes?
Anyhow, mom and dad have no idea who this "Vivian" is that I speak of because this "Vivian" hasn't called home since they've been back. Whatsa matta? You can't pick up the phone?! TELL THEM YOU'RE FREAKIN SELF!!
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