My “fact of the day” today is just a series of reflections on what was quite a varied day. We started out with two hours of ethics lecture. Mmm, ethics, one of my favorite things. This was the first lecture in this class, and it was enjoyable (despite the fact that I had missed out on the notice that we were supposed to do the reading ahead of time — oops).
We talked about different kinds of ethics: contractarian, utilitarian, relational, rights-based, and respect for nature. The contractarian discussion was the most interesting to me. Do we have relationships with animals based on a contract? The obvious answer is no, because animals can’t understand the concept of a contract and can’t knowingly enter into one. But I argued in class that species can have what is almost like a contract. For example, when we domesticated dogs, we traded food and medical care for work. Is this really a contract? Well, I think it is interesting that we only domesticated some species. Some have proved to not be domesticatable. Does that mean that some species (not the individuals, of course) chose to enter into a contract with our species, and other species chose not to? Only in a very abstract sense, of course, but I like the idea. Some theories of how canid domestication happened suggest that dogs made the first move in the relationship, choosing to start living near us for the benefits of our waste food. Did we domesticate them, or did they wriggle their way in first?
Next we had an hour of large animal medicine and surgery lecture about diseases of pigs. The lecture was given by a swine vet who works closely with intensively-raised pigs — pigs in confinement housing, what has been called a factory farm. She was not interested in discussing the ethics of confinement housing; when she put up a slide with an image of a sow gestation crate (in which the sow does not have room to turn around), she stated preemptively that any discussion about gestation crates could take place after lecture. In other words, she did not feel lecture was an appropriate place for that discussion. Phew. I completely understand her fear that lecture could get derailed in a debate on pig confinement, but I would have at least appreciated a few sentences about why she thinks it’s okay — some moral context. As it was, the contrast to the previous lecture was pretty stark.
Then lunch (I practiced the names of surgical instruments) and then one more hour of ethics lecture, and two more hours of pig diseases lecture. What an oddly-scheduled day.
The post-prandial ethics lecture/discussion was really interesting. It was about the question of whether the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) should extend accreditation to a Mexican veterinary school, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The AVMA already accredits multiple foreign schools, so this is not at all without precedent. UNAM is by many reports an excellent school. So what’s the problem? Apparently, some veterinarians are afraid that accrediting UNAM will result in an influx of Mexican veterinarians to compete with American veterinarians, willing to work for lower salaries. The argument against that viewpoint is that we already have protections in place, requiring that foreigners be paid the same as American workers.
Should the AVMA just get out of accrediting non-American schools all together? The arguments against that are that global standards are good things; and that high standards abroad help keep us safe at home, because it is foreign veterinarians who stand between American animals and the introduction of animal diseases not yet seen on this continent, like the dreaded foot and mouth disease.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I am missing some arguments on this particular issue, because some of the people arguing against accreditation for UNAM are people I otherwise really respect, so I’ll keep my ears pricked and report back here if I learn more.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Links post
- The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. (Matt Might)
- The Zen of Presentations, in at least 34 parts (Neurodojo): Neurodojo has apparently been writing about the zen of presentations for a while. This link is to all of the posts so far.
- Disrupting with data (Book of Trogool): The Journal of Neuroscience has begun refusing to accept “supplemental materials” (the researchers’ raw data). Dorothea Salo reflects on why this is good news for librarians and the future of scientific publications.
- Stop and think before greeting a strange dog (Pet Connection): Video about greeting a strange dog, one of my favorite topics. Flash is broken on my computer right now, so unfortunately I can’t preview this to make sure it's interesting, but I trust Pet Connection.
- Peer review, schmeer review (Lab Spaces)
- Meta-encounters and non-overlapping magisteria (or, why Virginia Heffernan wrote what she wrote about ScienceBlogs) (John Pavlus)
- If it bites, it must be a pit bull, right? (Pet Connection): More on media bias in pit bull reporting, written by a vet.
Veterinary fact of the day: chemodectomas
This is actually the veterinary fact of yesterday. During small animal medicine and surgery, a surgeon was discussing chemodectomas, tumors arising from chemoreceptors. A chemoreceptor is a cluster of cells which measures chemical changes in the body, such as oxygen level. The surgeon asserted that brachycephalic dogs (flat-faced dogs, like pugs and bulldogs) get chemodectomas more often than other types of dogs, possibly due to “chronic asphyxiation.” In other words, in his opinon (and that of other veterinarians), the fact that flat-faced dogs can’t really get enough air in through their tiny noses can actually result in cancer.
I’m not going to talk about the physiology behind how this would work, because we didn’t cover that in class. I will say that I think it is a failing of the veterinary profession as a whole to not discuss these kinds of issues more with people who are deciding what kind of dog to get. “That breed of dog is more likely to get this form of cancer” is a very different statement from “that breed of dog can’t get enough air into its system, which can cause all kinds of problems, including cancer. We should be encouraging breeders to breed a little more snout into these dogs so they can be healthy.”
What I did yesterday: Two hours of large animal medicine and surgery lecture. Two hours of small animal medicine and surgery lecture. Lunch! (Except I didn’t eat then, because I had a meeting. I ate during:) Two more hours of small animal medicine and surgery lecture. Suture practicing with friends! Gym! Home!
I’m not going to talk about the physiology behind how this would work, because we didn’t cover that in class. I will say that I think it is a failing of the veterinary profession as a whole to not discuss these kinds of issues more with people who are deciding what kind of dog to get. “That breed of dog is more likely to get this form of cancer” is a very different statement from “that breed of dog can’t get enough air into its system, which can cause all kinds of problems, including cancer. We should be encouraging breeders to breed a little more snout into these dogs so they can be healthy.”
What I did yesterday: Two hours of large animal medicine and surgery lecture. Two hours of small animal medicine and surgery lecture. Lunch! (Except I didn’t eat then, because I had a meeting. I ate during:) Two more hours of small animal medicine and surgery lecture. Suture practicing with friends! Gym! Home!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Veterinary fact of the day: fish medicine
Today we had a lecture on fish medicine. The veterinarian who gave the lecture told us that she went to vet school so that she could work with fish. It must have been frustrating to her to have only two hours total devoted to her species of choice. And here I get frustrated when I have to learn about pigs.
What should I share with you about fish? Turns out that if you want to draw blood from a fish, you are in trouble; phlebotomy is “not routine” in fish. You can do it with bigger fish (“bigger than a salmon,” she says, assuming we all know exactly how big that is) by drawing from the caudal vein (back near the tail). In smaller fish you have to draw from the heart, which is terminal. So if you have small but valuable fish, you keep an extra to sacrifice (a sentinel animal), for use in diagnosing problems that affect all or most of your animals.
Valuable fish? Sure, koi can get very valuable. Of course, fish farmers consider their stock to be valuable overall, even if individual animals are not. And laboratory research is done on fish, so you have herd health issues there, too.
Speaking of research on fish, the lecturer mentioned in passing that you can measure stress in fish by measuring the cortisol in the water. Then she left before I could ask for more information. Here is what went through my head: Cortisol in the water! They must pee it out. Wait, they don’t pee, I bet it comes out of their gills. I bet it is not cortisol, I bet it is cortisol metabolites. Amazing that they use cortisol just like us, not even a cousin like corticosterone. Why do people measure it, I wonder? Some sort of diagnostic reason — to tell if the fish is sick, maybe? Or is it used as part of stress research studies? How similar is the fish HPA to the mammalian HPA? Ah, if only I had time to wander Google Scholar, reading random papers, as I did a week ago.
What I did today
Up extra early. Gym! (It seems to prevent the stress headaches, which I imagine will go away when I readapt to the pace of vet school after a year away from it.) Suture practicing with classmates. Two hours of small animal medicine lecture (the last of the cardio unit). Lunch! (Tried to catch up on science blogs reading.) Two hours of anesthesia lecture. Two hours of zoo medicine lecture (fish medicine). Suture practicing with an ex-classmate who already knows it all. Home!
What should I share with you about fish? Turns out that if you want to draw blood from a fish, you are in trouble; phlebotomy is “not routine” in fish. You can do it with bigger fish (“bigger than a salmon,” she says, assuming we all know exactly how big that is) by drawing from the caudal vein (back near the tail). In smaller fish you have to draw from the heart, which is terminal. So if you have small but valuable fish, you keep an extra to sacrifice (a sentinel animal), for use in diagnosing problems that affect all or most of your animals.
Valuable fish? Sure, koi can get very valuable. Of course, fish farmers consider their stock to be valuable overall, even if individual animals are not. And laboratory research is done on fish, so you have herd health issues there, too.
Speaking of research on fish, the lecturer mentioned in passing that you can measure stress in fish by measuring the cortisol in the water. Then she left before I could ask for more information. Here is what went through my head: Cortisol in the water! They must pee it out. Wait, they don’t pee, I bet it comes out of their gills. I bet it is not cortisol, I bet it is cortisol metabolites. Amazing that they use cortisol just like us, not even a cousin like corticosterone. Why do people measure it, I wonder? Some sort of diagnostic reason — to tell if the fish is sick, maybe? Or is it used as part of stress research studies? How similar is the fish HPA to the mammalian HPA? Ah, if only I had time to wander Google Scholar, reading random papers, as I did a week ago.
What I did today
Up extra early. Gym! (It seems to prevent the stress headaches, which I imagine will go away when I readapt to the pace of vet school after a year away from it.) Suture practicing with classmates. Two hours of small animal medicine lecture (the last of the cardio unit). Lunch! (Tried to catch up on science blogs reading.) Two hours of anesthesia lecture. Two hours of zoo medicine lecture (fish medicine). Suture practicing with an ex-classmate who already knows it all. Home!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Mechanics of virtual blogging networks
I’ve seen a few posts lately about the possibility of virtual blogging networks. Sorry if this has all been covered in more detail already by others; I am way behind on my blog reading right now. But I did want to post about how easy making a virtual network is. The hard part is just getting the people together to do it.
- Everyone who wants to participate in the virtual network has their own blog wherever they want.
- When someone posts something that they want added to the virtual network, they tag it with an agreed-upon tag (“virtual post,” say).
- The person who sets up the network has an account on a blog aggregation site like Yahoo! Pipes. They aggregate all the blogs by tag. The exact way to do this will differ for each blogging platform For example, to aggregate all Dog Zombie posts (on Blogspot) tagged “veterinary fact of the day,” the URL http://dogzombie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/veterinary fact of the day would be added to the aggregator feed.
- Profit! Oh, wait.
Veterinary fact of the day: innocent murmurs
A two month old golden retriever puppy comes in for a check up, and the veterinarian auscults (listens to) her heart routinely. The vet hears a murmur, a II out of VI. Lower numbers mean quieter and less serious murmurs, so this one isn’t very loud. Does the veterinarian panic? No! Puppies often do have “innocent” murmurs, most of which go away with age. “Let’s wait and see” is an OK answer here (though not the right one in every case, of course).
Where do innocent murmurs come from? Puppies have less fat and muscle in their chest walls than adult dogs do, so very soft murmurs are easier to hear. They also have fewer red blood cells, which can make the motion of the blood through their hearts more turbulent, and that can also cause a murmur.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor of puppies yet. Please do not make any medical decisions based on these blog posts.
What I did today: Two hours of anesthesia lecture. Two hours of small animal medicine/surgery lecture. Lunch! (Goofed off and hung out with friends while I ate. Luxury.) Two hours of large animal medicine/surgery lecture. (Calf diarrhea!) Chased down friendly tech, got expired suture for practicing knots and suturing. Gym! Home! Lots of studying tonight, and what will hopefully be the for-reals-last thesis edits.
Where do innocent murmurs come from? Puppies have less fat and muscle in their chest walls than adult dogs do, so very soft murmurs are easier to hear. They also have fewer red blood cells, which can make the motion of the blood through their hearts more turbulent, and that can also cause a murmur.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor of puppies yet. Please do not make any medical decisions based on these blog posts.
What I did today: Two hours of anesthesia lecture. Two hours of small animal medicine/surgery lecture. Lunch! (Goofed off and hung out with friends while I ate. Luxury.) Two hours of large animal medicine/surgery lecture. (Calf diarrhea!) Chased down friendly tech, got expired suture for practicing knots and suturing. Gym! Home! Lots of studying tonight, and what will hopefully be the for-reals-last thesis edits.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Veterinary fact of the day: premedication
Welcome to a new feature: the veterinary fact of the day. See the bottom of this post for more information.
Today’s veterinary fact is a brief overview of pre-medication, or premed. (This is different from a premed student.)
What’s pre-medication?
It sounds like a very general term! But in a veterinary hospital, you “premed” an animal before general anesthesia.
What’s in a premed?
Premeds are tailored to the particular animal, based on age, species/breed, temperament, pre-existing conditions, etc. Generally, a premed will include an analgesic, a sedative or tranquilizer, and sometimes an anticholinergic.
Why would you give an animal an anticholinergic in their premed? Also, what the hell is an anticholinergic?
An anticholinergic is a medication which competes with a specific kind of neurotransmitter, part of the parasympathetic nervous system. When your brain sends out messages to your body saying “time to relax, to rest and digest,” the anticholinergic blocks those messages. This makes the body do the opposite of rest and digest (increase heart rate, for example). Why would you give one of those when you are about to make the animal lose consciousness? It helps keep the heart going at the rate you want, even when the rest of the animal’s body is being artificially put into what you can think of as close to the “off” state. Also, it makes the patient make less saliva. Apparently that can be important in ruminants (cattle!). I can only imagine.
Why would you give an animal a tranquilizer or sedative in their premed?
Well, first, what is the difference between a tranquilizer and a sedative? They are really two parts to the same equation; a tranquilizer makes you feel calmer, and a sedative makes you act calmer. Why give them? To make things easier on the animal, who is in a scary situation. To make things easier on the anesthetist, who is handling an animal that might be scared.
Why would you give an animal an analgesic in their premed?
Why a pain reliever? They aren’t going to be feeling anything while they are under general anesthesia, but they will certainly be feeling something when they wake up, unless they have an analgesic on board. Also, putting in an intravenous catheter (for the general anesthesia) can be painful.
Why are you telling me all this?
I just went back to veterinary classes after a year of research. I don’t expect to have much time to blog in detail, but I figured a quick report daily (if possible; I expect to slip to every several days at least) from the trenches of the third year of vet school might be interesting. I will call it the “veterinary fact of the day.” This is the year in which we learn how to fix what’s broken. I would love feedback — let me know if I am covering things that are interesting, and if you have any requests.
What did you do today?
Two hours of Anesthesia and Analgesia lecture. Two hours of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery lecture. Lunch! (Food and statistics; I am still editing my thesis.) Two hours of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery lecture. Home!
Today’s veterinary fact is a brief overview of pre-medication, or premed. (This is different from a premed student.)
What’s pre-medication?
It sounds like a very general term! But in a veterinary hospital, you “premed” an animal before general anesthesia.
What’s in a premed?
Premeds are tailored to the particular animal, based on age, species/breed, temperament, pre-existing conditions, etc. Generally, a premed will include an analgesic, a sedative or tranquilizer, and sometimes an anticholinergic.
Why would you give an animal an anticholinergic in their premed? Also, what the hell is an anticholinergic?
An anticholinergic is a medication which competes with a specific kind of neurotransmitter, part of the parasympathetic nervous system. When your brain sends out messages to your body saying “time to relax, to rest and digest,” the anticholinergic blocks those messages. This makes the body do the opposite of rest and digest (increase heart rate, for example). Why would you give one of those when you are about to make the animal lose consciousness? It helps keep the heart going at the rate you want, even when the rest of the animal’s body is being artificially put into what you can think of as close to the “off” state. Also, it makes the patient make less saliva. Apparently that can be important in ruminants (cattle!). I can only imagine.
Why would you give an animal a tranquilizer or sedative in their premed?
Well, first, what is the difference between a tranquilizer and a sedative? They are really two parts to the same equation; a tranquilizer makes you feel calmer, and a sedative makes you act calmer. Why give them? To make things easier on the animal, who is in a scary situation. To make things easier on the anesthetist, who is handling an animal that might be scared.
Why would you give an animal an analgesic in their premed?
Why a pain reliever? They aren’t going to be feeling anything while they are under general anesthesia, but they will certainly be feeling something when they wake up, unless they have an analgesic on board. Also, putting in an intravenous catheter (for the general anesthesia) can be painful.
Why are you telling me all this?
I just went back to veterinary classes after a year of research. I don’t expect to have much time to blog in detail, but I figured a quick report daily (if possible; I expect to slip to every several days at least) from the trenches of the third year of vet school might be interesting. I will call it the “veterinary fact of the day.” This is the year in which we learn how to fix what’s broken. I would love feedback — let me know if I am covering things that are interesting, and if you have any requests.
What did you do today?
Two hours of Anesthesia and Analgesia lecture. Two hours of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery lecture. Lunch! (Food and statistics; I am still editing my thesis.) Two hours of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery lecture. Home!
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