More exotics practicals

The last two weeks we had two more exotics practicals.

The first practical was learning how to do physical exams of exotic animals.  In March I will be examined on my ability to complete a physical exam on a rabbit but we were also taught how to complete physical exams on reptiles.

For those who don't know or don't remember I am not particularly fond of snakes (also referred to as the "shoulderless ones" by one of my professors).  So naturally the snake was the first animal we had to work with.  According to the professor the snake was a very friendly snake (Kellogg the corn snake... catch the pun?).  He started by showing us how to do the physical exam, where to look for the heart beating (you can see it beating through the skin), what to palpate for, and how to open his mouth.  And then he passed the snake around.  When it came to be my turn to hold the snake and do the physical exam he was getting a little fidgety.  My physical exam on Kellogg was umm... less than thorough.  I was more focused on not dropping the snake or have it slither all over me.

Next we moved onto the bearded dragon.  Again, not a huge fan of lizards but they are way better than snakes.  He let us watch the bearded dragon eat.  They are slightly perverse animals.  They refuse to eat the cricket unless it is moving.  There was a standoff while the cricket remained stationary about 4 inches from the bearded dragon's mouth, but the dragon refused to go for it because it wasn't moving.  Once the cricket finally made a break for it the dragon snapped.  It was incredible how fast it could move.

Tortoises were next.  They are definitely more my thing.  No sudden moves and the ones we were working with don't bite.  A physical exam of a tortoise is somewhat limited because of their shell.  One thing we did learn is you can listen to them breath.  You put them next to your ear (not advised in a tortoise that bites!) and then listen.  They make this really adorable sighing noise.

After the reptiles we moved onto the rabbits.  The rabbit we were working with was a little fidgety.  At one point she tried to run off the table but because we were holding her all that happened was she pushed the towel off the table and it flew across the room.  All in all it went pretty well.  We have a review session in a couple weeks which will hopefully refresh everything before the exam in March.

Our second practical was another cadaver practical.  This time we were working with quails.  Birds are another animal I am not super fond of so I wasn't really looking forward to this practical.  But it was actually really enjoyable.  We got to learn where to give injections, how to flush their sinuses and how to put a catheter in their bone to give them fluids in an emergency.  The most interesting thing we got to do was put an air sac tube in.  The bird respiratory system is incredibly complicated.  In addition to their lungs they have things called air sacs which fill a lot of their abdomen, chest and even their neck.  So if you need to help them breath and you can't put a tube down their throat you can put a tube in an air sac and ventilate their lungs.  We made an incision into its abdomen and inserted our tube.  We then attached an ambu bag  (think of the bag they put over patients faces in all the doctor shows when the patient is crashing).  When you squeezed the bag your bird would inflate if it was in the right location and luckily when we squeezed our bird inflated!  Birds are definitely not my thing but this made them a little less scary.

We have officially finished our exotics course until our exams in March.  Now onto horses.