End of 6th Semester

What an unbelievably stressful semester! Convinced I failed, I gave my mother my password to check my grades.

I have no idea how I managed to get through Small Animal Medicine 2. Word on the street was that every one in my class did miserably, and there was a substantial curve. I'm sold on the fact that I'll never be a dog and cat vet, even though they are cute and cuddly. If anything, I attribute my passing grade to never missing class, not even one, and studying my little tail off, hence no substantial postings this month.

My Large Animal Medicine grade surprised me though! I did not expect an A at all this semester, and yet, somehow (I assume a huge curve) I excelled in it; probably because I'm still so horse crazy.

The combo of these, plus my Small Animal Surgery course, enabled me to maintain a B average, which at this point, I am more than content with.

Papaya Trees

My papaya trees are growing like giant weeds! They are now taller than me and one is producing fruit!

When they started budding, I decided to learn more because I had been told that papayas are separate sexes, unlike most plants which are hermaphrodites.

As it turns out, papayas can be male, female, or both! Male papayas produce stalks with clusters of small flowers, while female papaya flowers are very large, pear-shaped, and sprout from the trunk of the plant. Bisexual flowers are supposed to be large, distinguished from females, because they are cylindrical rather than pear-shaped. I have both male (LEFT) and female (RIGHT) papayas blooming. Female papayas must be cross pollinated by either bisexual or male plants, but bisexual plants are self-pollinating.

The type of papaya that I have is native to tropical America, more specifically a Mexican cultivar, but were spread south by Indians, and to the Caribbean by Spanish explorers. Papaya trees regularly grow 20-30 feet tall, so mine are doing well at a less than a year old and being 8 feet tall. Plants usually begin bearing fruit at 6-12 months old, which takes 5-9 months to mature. Papaya fruit look like large oval yellow-orange melons, are soft to the touch. The interior flesh of the fruit is several inches thick, orange in color, and surrounds thousands of little black seeds that resemble caviar. Apparently Hawaiian papays are sweeter and smaller than the ones grown here, but I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things.

What does matter about Hawaiian papayas is that they (the Solo cultivar, introduced to Hawaii from Barbados in 1911) produce no male plants, only bisexual and female in a 2 to 1 ratio. Currently Hawaii is the only state in the USA to commercially produce papayas successfully; however, the Hawaiian industry has declined due to Papaya Ringspot Virus. This virus devastated the Florida papaya industry in the early part of the 20th century, and threaten papaya crops elsewhere around the tropical globe.

Fortunately, biotechnologists at the University of Hawaii inserted a gene into the papaya making the Sunrise Solo cultivar resistant to the Papaya Ringspot Virus! This successful adaptation into Hawaiian agriculture allowed papayas to be the first genetically modified fruit crop used for human consumption.

Sources:

California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc.

University of Georgia

Wikipedia

My Surgery Dog

Since Ross ran out of dogs for our spays, I went out into the community and picked up a few dogs that needed to be fixed. One is an old Pitbull (Dog A) staying with my surgery partner, Vanessa. She (the dog) will be another group's dog. Our dog (Dog B), a tri colored border collie looking Kittitian Coconut Retriever, is staying with me.

Jossie, Vanessa, and I went to pick them up on Monday after our Small Animal Medicine exam. The two dogs belonged to the neighbors of the guy I raised the Pitbull pup for (last summer). That little pup, I should add, is HUGE! Not even a year old, he's such a big goofball! The owner told me that the pup remembers me (as he was slobbering and jumping all over me), to which I told him naw, that it wasn't possible, and the owner said oh yes, he doesn't act that way or get that excited with anyone else. Made me feel so WOVED!!!

I named the two dogs 'Dog A' and 'Dog B' because that's just what I do. Vaness and Jossie wouldn't tolerate unnamed dogs, so, on the drive home, they named them 'Alberta' which became 'Alithenia' (I think), and 'Bernice' which became 'Bernadine.' Yeah, I donno, I'm just calling them both 'Dog' which they seem to respond to.

Anyway, so the first day or so with the new dog (Dog B) was a little shaky. She was very nervous about being in a new place, and very hard to catch, but eventually she warmed up to me. Now, she's like the rest of the monsters that trape around my house, and she's glued to my side. She comes when she's called, sits when asked, and watches me pee every single time I go to the bathroom (as if I might escape out the window and leave her). But, she's a sweetheart.

Her/Our spay is scheduled for April 3rd. Hopefully it will go much better than our partner's spay on Friday, which hemorrhaged pretty severely. (We were the anesthetists, they were the surgeons. In April, we'll be the surgeons, and they will be the anesthetists.) The dog, an old Rottweiler, was in surgery for 4 1/2 hours because her blood would not clot properly. Uber stressful and has kept all four of us on call and busy ALL weekend, but fortunately, all is well and she pulled thru. Our dog is young and has a high platelet count, so we don't anticipate having those complications with Bernadine.

Goat #7

I'm now definitely known as the goat girl. A girl in 7th semester called me up to tell me she found a baby goat. (To which I responded, super.) It was attacked by dogs or hit by a car or some sob story, and since she didn't have a car, she asked me if I could pick them both up (and maybe watch the goat).

So I went to pick them up, and brought them home, cuz I'm a big sucker. The goat appeared to be about 4-5 months old, so wouldn't need to be bottled. Her front left leg was totally dangling, and we couldn't tell if it was nerve damage or broken. We made the decision to call the agricultural vet here on island (since if we didn't report it, we would be stealing). He told us to meet him at his office.

He decided it's leg was just dislocated, then handed us some vet wrap to tie up the leg. We put it in a pen for his assistant to pick up later, so it wouldn't have to live at my house for the next 6-8 weeks. Problem averted!

Ultimate Island Hopping

If ever you want to see the Caribbean in a flash, why go on a cruise and lesisurly see maybe 3 islands when you could fly and see a whole lot more? I just returned. Here was my route:

1. St Croix (1:40pm)
2. St Maarten
3. Antigua
4. Nevis
5. St Kitts (5:25pm)

That's FIVE islands in less than FIVE hours. I'm convinced that Liat is master of the skies, and MUCH more organized than American Airlines. There's a tropical storm blowing cold from the north around here, so flying and landing was quite... exciting. I feel really sick now.

If you've ever traveled more than this in one day, leave a comment!

Suprise Suprise!

Happy 60th birthday Dad!

Linda got a ticket for me to island hop via Liat and I'm arriving at the airport now! I have to go back to St. Kitts tomorrow though. Can't skip school!

Update: Here are pictures of the cake and party! It was a success despite everyone's plane running a little behind schedule. He was very suprised! I was on St Croix for about 24 hours.

Hill's Science Diet Dinner

Have you ever watched those commercials or heard the blurb on the radio about X out of X+1 veterinarians recommend Hill's Science Diet Dog/Cat Food? Well there's a reason for it, lol, but they do make pretty good food.

Hill's graciously donations more to the average veterinary student than probably any other company on the market. Not only do we get to buy our dog food at a much reduced rate, the entire proceeds of our purchases go to our own scholarships (which I think are given out by the student government). Each vet student also receives two (HUGE and pocket sized) Small Animal Clinical Nutrition books, a back pack, notebooks, folders, school supplies, and such. (I think my ear thermometer came from Pfizer, and my stethoscope timer came from Fort Dodge.)

Tonight, I was one of 150 students invited to a free buffet dinner with 2 free adult beverages! It was a blast! I really like Hill's food so i wouldn't feel unethical for recommending them, but I certainly appreciate all Hill's does to support vet students! (All my dogs and cats are on one prescription Hill's diet or another, which has done wonders for Sage's kidney stones.)

The first picture (above) is me with the lovely redhead in my class, Melissa, who happens to be single! This next picture (bottom left)is of me with Laurie, who is also in my class.

Jossie was also there (we sat together) but we somehow didn't get any pictures together.