Patches

It's simple really. I was going to the Bat Caves with Salty, Rudder, and a classmate. We got lost, it's a small island but an even smaller sign. We pulled the car into a really nice road that had a house with a fabulous yard. I asked if it the guy was a gardener, and he replied, no he sold fish!

Well, one of my professors told me about him, so I told him I'd come back to look. Meanwhile, the four of us turned around and headed back to the Bat Caves. We saw 6 bats. It was quite anticlimactic.

We returned to the fish farm to learn that the plants were, of course, for sale as well. As I made my rounds through the plants and cement fish ponds, I saw a hutch full of little fuzzies! Guinea pigs!

I was in debate, do I dare get one, or do I not? I picked out some onions, mint, peppers, and some stunning red spotted yellow cannas. Then I ran back and convinced myself to get a guinea pig! I got the prettiest one. She looks like a calico cat!

The guinea pigs he had were huge (twice the size of Patches) and well cared for. I wonder if he raised them for meat. Healthy as Patches was, she still had guinea pig lice. I collected some for my collection and examined them under my microscope. Ran a fecal on her to check for worms too. Didn't find any little wrigglies. Added a little Revolution to her shoulders (don't do this at home) and was good to go.

Showed Patches to Jossie (who now lives above me) and Jossie wanted one too! So we went back and got a second one! Her's looks like mine in the face, but is almost solid black with a white butt. She named him Wee-Bee (short, and more politically correct for White Butt). Aren't we creative?

Oh and almost forgot to mention, Patches is pregnant! Guinea pig gestation is something like 9 weeks, so by her size, I'm hoping for piglets in late May!

Frogger

I've been trying to clean my [very messy] apartment, the patio, and the pool. Internet, again, is patchy. Thought I'd share this miniature version of the Loch Ness Monster: Frogger al la Fungus.

Ah, but he died happy!
If you click on him (above) you can see his big froggy smile!

He's about an inch long. Typically they live in the two ponds, but somehow this guy ended up in my pool. I don't know if he drowned or if the bleach [that I poured in] got to him. He was completely surrounded in this really weird mold. Scored a 9 out of 10 of my really gross things meter... that's below the horse shit I chunked in my little brother's mouth as a kid, and above checking my vet school buddies for worms (barely)... only because I was swimming with the croaker for an hour before it floated over to me.

The most exciting event over break has been a wire transfer gone wrong. Several grand (US, not EC aka monopoly money) ended up in Scotia Barbados, rather than Scotia St. Kitts. Oopse, wrong off-shore account! Was a big problem since my landlord needed rent!!!

Otherwise break has been pretty good. Jossie moved in above me. Her mom is in town so I get to tease Jossie! Yesterday I spent the day at the beach. BBC's are my new favorite drink: Bailey's Irish Cream, Banana something, and Coconut Cream. Fabulous. I went to Carabella's Batik and Brimstone Fort today ($5EC to get in, what a steal!). Still scared of heights though! Everyone laughed.

Tenance

Today coming home, I noticed a horse on the side of the road with cops. Oh dread... so I went home grabbed my vet kit, called for backup, and returned to the scene. Sure enough, a bus had hit a 2 year old chestnut stud colt. His cannon bone was broken and his leg dangling. It was sick. I was very impressed at how calm he was during the whole ordeal, and he wasn't even in shock!

We buried him at school and the kid that takes care of the horses is going to give me a rock to mark his grave. Sad sad. His name (from what I understand) was Tenance. He had a star on his forehead and two matching white socks on his back legs.

Living the Good Life

I passed all my classes! (Yes, I was worried because I fell asleep during my last final! Yikes!) So after 3 solid days of sleep, I have resumed working in the lab on the Heartwater Project. Thought I'd brag about my fantastic yard! (Watch carefully!!!)

The Box Monster

Exhausted. Studying.

Monday: Bacteriology
Tuesday: Virology
Wednesday: Pathology
Thursday: Pharmacology

Have boxes stacked to help a friend moved. Heard a noise, look…

The horror, the horror.

Day 108 of my captivity. Last night started out normal enough. I wanted in, cried at the door, was allowed entrance. I wanted out, scratched on the furniture, was let out. This went on about 20 times, just to show her that I was THE CAT.

Then around midnight, as I was gorging myself on the disgustingly addictive cabinet kibbles, my captor reached in to snatch me. I tried to evade, but was unsuccessfully thwarted as the two mongrels cornered me. I was carried to the door and so rudely flung outside into the dark of night. The lights went out and despite my desperate screams, I was not allowed back in. Soon, the rain came and wouldn’t stop until morning. I had no choice, but to find a safe dry place to wait it out. This haven happened to be under the concrete stairs where I commonly look for mice, although, this night there were none to be found.

Morning came; the world was still sopping wet. I was cold, wet, and hungry since my midnight snack had been interrupted. The door swung open, and the two huge monsters ran out. As they were distracted hiking a leg on the basil, my informal plant breath mint, I saw my opportunity to sneak back in. I craned m neck out, the coast was clear; I sprinted back to the safety of the safety of the food filled cabinets. I hadn’t realized quite how hungry I was until the first nugget had hit my delicate pallet.

Just then, the cabinet doors flung open and she grabbed me! I squirmed, but then was shoved into a small bag, trapped. I could hear her calling the mongrels, lock the door, and get into a car. What was happening? Where was I going? Why?

Soon the car stopped. It was pouring down rain now. She was a fool if she was going to brave the downpour, especially with me in it! She did.

I was carried like a football as she bounced through the rain. Then it all stopped. As she talked with some unknown human, I poked my head out to have a peek around. I was horrified! This was the same place I was two weeks before when they stabbed me with needles and extracted my urine. What fate was I in for this time? I was to soon find out. She left me, shoved into a cold metal cage. A few hours into my solitary incarceration, someone came to stab me with a needle. Whatever was in it knocked me plum out.

I was groggy when I awoke. Felt woozy, like I’d been spun in circles, and never more famished in my life. I staggered to stand, but was sore from whatever experimental procedure they had preformed (since Ross has eliminated Small Animal Surgery from the curriculum, see petition), then I laid down to sleep.

Later, my captor was back. I couldn’t believe how excited I was to see her. All I could think of is how I wanted to be out of this place. The one who stabbed me with the needle came in. She told my captor that the experimental anesthesia had worked smoothly. Ah ha! I knew they were experimenting on me, a poor defenseless animal!

This time I was loaded into a pet carrier, rather than a bag, and taken home. I took a nosedive into the kibble bowel, gorging myself. It was then that I noticed it!

Too terrible to think possible, what horror do you think had befallen me? I think the dogs may have been involved.

Idiopathic Viral Leprosy-like Disease

What I have learned in vet school is when it doubt, call it idiopathic (meaning you have no clue), SO, I'm calling it Idiopathic Viral Leprosy-like Disease (distantly related to Karla Syndrome).

As you can see, my finger has gotten worse, but on the plus side, my ear has stopped bleeding!

If you remember, I went to the human doctor and neither of them knew what was eating my finger. I ignored it (always a good policy) then it started to crack one day. When I looked closer, I noticed that the spots had spread. So what do I do? I ask a vet. My profs didn't have a clue, so after class on Friday, after Bacteriology, we're standing around looking at my weird holy finger disease. We decided it was probably fungal or viral from my garden and suppressing my finger's immune system. I needed a way for my finger to recognized and kill whatever was eating my finger. But how do you go about treating something if you don't know what it is? You guess!

One friend declares "it's wart seeds." I was thoroughly amused by this. Whatever it was, warts are viral, and they sell wart medicine at the grocery store here, so why not?

Friday evening I stabbed the spots with a scalpel blade to see what was in them: clear transudate.

Sunday, I got Dr. Scholl's Liquid Corn/Callus Remover (Salicylic acid 17% w/w, Alcohol 18% v/v, and Ether 53% v/v) for $20EC. I slathered the clear liquid all over my finger where the spots were one time. I'm glad I didn't follow directions by adding the stuff 3-4 times per day! I thought, this doesn't really work. Covered it with a band-aid, and ignored it.

The next evening I uncover my finger and it's pale. At first I think it's because of the band-aid, but then I realize it's due to the corn/callus remover. I'm impressed and cover my finger back up.

This morning I was showing my finger to all my fellow back-of-the-class classmates during Bacteriology (mainly to gross them out). It was really creepy because the whole tip of my finger was numb! Then the skin started to slough off, so of course, I picked at it. Eventually I was able to go to the nurse and put a fresh band-aid with Neosporin on it (don't want to complicate this finger any more than I already have).

Right now I'm re-wrapping it. The initial picts didn't turn out as good, but I thought I'd post the ones from today. Looks pretty bad doesn't it!? Can you see the spots??? (Click on the picts to make them larger.)

The nurse said I take the cake for weird problems: the idiopathic nightly rashes 1st semester, the cardiac problems, the bleeding ear, the holy finger.