And then, the buses stopped running

So, I know it's been snowing for about a week and I have yet to blog about it and show the pictures. Today, for the first time, all of the buses just stopped running!   It was kind of strange because it started snowing a week ago Saturday and today's snow snuck up on us.  It snowed a bit each day until this past weekend, when the sun actually came out to play for a bit. It was cold though.  I really did not even know it was supposed to snow and then it started and didn't stop.

Interestingly, only 2 afternoon labs/practicals were cancelled.  The first one was a dissection that we made up two days later and the second was a practical out at the farm.  As I think I've mentioned, we are moving out to Easter Bush campus next year, as they are completing the project now.  3rd-5th year students are already out there in the older facilities. However, 1st and 2nd years are in the city at Summerhall.  Easter Bush is a bit 'out in the country' and all of their classes were basically cancelled the entire week, whereas ours were 98% on.

Here are some pictures of my neighborhood.  The first was taken just out of my flat door overlooking my front  'garden'.

This one is looking down my street towards the Meadows.

And, my walk to the vet school has been just beautiful:

Notice the pathway in the middle.  Ok, it's snowing and covered up...I get it.  But, it has remained this way for over a week and we have not had blizzards, just a few inches here or there.

Me and the Bingo Boyz' park, the Meadows, covered up:

The snow removal system here is not the best, to say the least.  I saw all of about 2 plows all week and the footpaths were essentially never cleared or shoveled.  It's kind of strange, but the sidewalks are basically ice covered with packed snow.  Which, once the packed snow gets even more packed, it becomes icy again. They use sand some, but this only creates brown slush about 6 inches thick, which is no good either.  The side streets in my rather busy neighborhood did not see a plow.  In all fairness, this weather is not typical here.

I was amazed we had virtually an uninterrupted schedule last week considering staff and students come from all over (even from around Easter Bush).  I'm glad we don't have a ton of classes to make up because frankly there is no time, but I did feel badly for those having to commute, as I've heard some horror stories.

Our class did manage to decorate Summerhall for Christmas.  Each year of classes has certain duties assigned to them, one being to decorate for Christmas. First year students always are responsible for this, as we are for putting on the Christmas party.  A great job was done and many smiles were had in the dissection room, as the Christmas spirit was alive (but not kicking...yuck yuck yuck):

Speaking of Anatomy, we turned our Anatomy workbooks in today.  Whew, that was a LOT of work.  Basically, it's a record of all the dissections, a few histology labs and a few dry labs we've done up to this point.  I took pictures of the end result of dissections, downloaded the pictures and labelled all structures that we could identify.  It came out really good and I'm very proud of it.  I could not have/would not have put this much effort into this project as a younger student.  Many of my peers were up literally all night printing, labelling and putting on the finishing touches.  That was me 20 years ago!  I was on the ball and did not procrastinate for once and it came out beautifully.  We have to do a Volume 2 and our first required entry is our histology  lab we did today on the skin, so I'm going to get to work on it now so I can stay ahead of the game. My first volume was 79 pages if that tells you anything...

Oh, we had our first Clinical Skills Lab today.  It was basic stuff, but I learned.  We discussed items we would need for future clinical classes such as: clean lab coat (as opposed to using our nasty dissection room coat), digital thermometer, pen torch (light), notebook and pen, and stethoscope. We did the beginnings of how to do a physical assessment of a dog. We learned how to SOAP a dog. This acronym stands for Subjective (what you see ie. attitude, physical appearance), Objective (What you actually feel, ie Temp, Respiration, Heart Rate), Assessment (list of 'problems', what your 'assessment' is of the situation. Not a diagnosis) and a Plan (What are you going to do next.  ie. order labs, send home, check 4hrs post op).

The session was given by an equine senior lecturer here who is a specialist in his field.  I met him in NY at our reception last February, as he was a speaker on behalf of the Dick Vet.  There was another speaker there, who concentrates on small animals, and together they were absolutely hysterical.

The introduction to clinical skills today was just that and mostly a group discussion. What was fabulous, was that he threw in some real clinical items and got us thinking as vets...already.  Not that we know cow patties from horse dung, but he really drove home the point that in a few short years, after a massive learning curve, we WILL know these things. He also was apologetically adamant on driving home professionalism, what it means and how we are already in the profession. He emphasized what a small community vet med really is and gave advice that I felt was crucial. I hope my colleagues heard him.  Very interactive and just what I needed today. I am also looking forward to working with him in the years to come, as I think his teaching style speaks to me very well.

Wow, I've had diarrhea of the digits tonight. I must get to work.

Over-N-Out

Week 2 is overrrrrr and Cows...mooooo

Can you believe it?  Wow, time is already flying. 

This week was fun.  My dreaded lab was actually really neat and a learning experience....imagine that!  It was a good ole chemistry lab on separating proteins using electrophoresis and then measuring some stuff.  Without question, it helped me get into my tiny pea brain the differences with some methods of separating proteins.  The lab was explained very well and there were several professors wandering around to answer any questions on the procedure and/or explain results.  It was my most dreaded block of time this week and ended up being a delightful surprise.

Thursday afternoon was my favorite, however.  I got to go back out to Langhill farm to get a tour of the dairy cow operation and then over to Easter Bush to do the same with the sheep.  I looked for my beloved cow (I can call her by name on Sunday), but did not see her.  I brought a picture of her, but really needed her ear tag number since that is how they keep track of the herd. 

My group stopped at the dairy farm first.  It was basically an investigative trip. We had to gather a bit of information regarding the farm, herd, feeding, breeding, selling and management of the dairy cows. 

This is before we left, waiting on our bus outside of Summerhall.  It was a gorgeous day!

The farm is 240 ha, which includes the sheep farm.  It's not an easy farm to manage because it's very spread out. Dairy cows do not like to walk and they must walk a lot to get to/from their fields and the milking parlour.  They are milked at 5am and then again at 3pm. The highest yielding cows are milked around 430-5pm.  This gives them more time to produce.  The herd is comprised of 80% Holstein Friesan cows, which look like this:

These ladies are in the calving barn and are within 1 week of giving birth.  Holstein Friesan's are an extreme dairy breed. They have the highest average milk production over all breeds and are very good tempered.  They try and keep them 'in calf', as they produce more milk that way. 

The herd replacement rate is 30%.  We have about 220 cows in the milking herd, and about 160 'followers', which are the younger generations. There are about 80 calves (0-1yr old) and 80 Heiffers (1-2yr old).  Once they are milking, they are called a 'cow'.  They do not sell the dairy calves even though that is a goal. They all end up being used as herd replacement due to unforseen deaths in the herd, lameness, mastititis, etc.

The lactation period of the dairy cow is 305 days, and their 'down time' is dedicated to doing AI (artificial insemination) in order to try and get the cow pregnant.  It normally takes 2-3 times per animal for it to take and each insemination cycle is 21 days.  Average milk production is 30L/cow per 305 day lactation.  After a calf is born, it only stays with mom for a short while and then it's moved to a calf barn.

Because the fields are so spread out at Langhill, they use an ATV to round up the cows for milking.  This is a picture of the cows doing the Milk March to the parlour in the afternoon.

I tried to take a picture of the beautiful scenery in the background, but my buddy decided I needed a picture of his mug and my camera focused on him rather than the really pretty landscape behind the barns....

It is past my bedtime and I will have to cover the sheep tomorrow. I need my beauty rest, for I am FINALLY headed out to do some mountain biking tomorrow morning with the University's women's mtb team.  See, I am prepared:

Good Night All