Update from the sheep farm in North Yorkshire...

So, I arrived at Darlington station in North Yorkshire safely on the 27th. The train ride was absolutely beautiful with views of the ocean all the way along the East coast. The train even had WiFi available for use, which was very convenient. While I was on the train, I met this guy Evan who was from California and is going to culinary school in Edinburgh. Him and I talked for the entire ride to North Yorkshire. Exchanged info and will meet up for a pint when I get back. He was going to London to cook for a party. I arrived at the station and Ellie and Adele (Scottish girl in my class) picked me up. Ted, the dog, also came along and was very cute, but hyper. I had no cell reception and no access to internet. Boo! Since I have been unable to write on my blog, I am writing on my computer every day and keeping track of what goes on each day:

March 27th:
Today I was picked up from Darlington Station by Ellie, the farmer. She took me to her home in town and we gathered the two dogs we drove to the farm. The farm was absolutely muddy from the past few weeks and was very difficult to walk in. Ellie showed me around the farm and I met Jeffrey, which was very nice. Apparently he was in the hospital a while back from pulling poison ivy from his yard and it affected his nervous system. Ever since then, he has been slightly slower with his thought processes and speech. While checking the sheep for signs that they were ready to deliver, we spotted one that had a water bag hanging out. We sat down and observed for a bit. A lot of people thing that you are supposed to reach in right away and pull out the lamb, however, you only assist when it looks as if the ewe is having problems delivering the lamb. Ellie noticed that on front leg was out and still in the water bag. The ewe needed assistance so I jumped right in and lubricated my hands. I reached in and orientated the lamb so that both front legs and the head were positioned to come out. It was a big lamb so I had to pull quite hard! I mean, I really had to pull! The lamb came out breathing right away and I had to clean him off a bit and place him in front of mum so they could bond properly. Adele named him Wee Man Dan. Ever since his birth, I’ll say something in the sheep shed and he responds to it and bleats so loud! Was a very nice chap though. No sheep decided to deliver today. The caravan we are staying in is very small and sleeps only three people. It is actually quite nice and there is a stove/oven for cooking and there is TV as well with MANY channels! We watched CSI and NCIS tonight and had a glass of wine each. We went to bed and Adele and I took shifts checking the sheep. I checked at 3am and 5am.

March 28th:
Today we woke up and fed the chickens, ducks, horses and sheep. We had a false alarm today when one of the ewes began bleating and looking up towards the ceiling. Two indicators that the ewe may be ready to deliver the lamb. Was quite uneventful today and we watched CSI and NCIS again over dinner and wine.

March 29th:
Today was an interesting day. We did the routine feeding of the animals. We drove to Ellie’s daughter’s farm and took care of Ellie’s older flock. There were supposed to be 19 sheep but one was missing. We walked around a bit and finally found the straggler. She had apparently fallen asleep on the hillside and didn’t hear us come with the food. We finished with the sheep and headed back to the farm. Adele, Ellie and I walked out to the ram field and had to catch 10 rams for hoof trimming and deworming. We caught all but two. The two that we didn’t catch were too smart and stayed in the field. I spent a good 1.5 hours flipping the rams on their backs and trimming their hoofs. My back was so sore by the time we had finished all of the rams. We headed back and Ellie and I went to the store to get dinner while Adele stayed behind to watch over the sheep. While we were at Tesco (grocery store) Ellie received a phone call from Adele saying that one of the sheep began to deliver. We rushed to get our dinner and headed back to the farm. By the time we had gotten back to the farm, the lamb was already out. Apparently Adele had seen that the bag was still over the lamb’s face and quickly popped it so that the lamb wouldn’t suffocate. Adele had no towels so she ended up taking off her sweatshirt and used it as a towel. Was quite disgusting looking with placenta material all over it. Ellie and I headed to her home once the lamb was situated and taken care of. I finally got my shower and felt so refreshed afterwards! We headed back and ate dinner in the caravan. We went to bed and took shifts to watch for any signs of lambing. I stayed up until 1am and went out again at 3am.

March 30th:
Today we stayed in quite a bit because of the rain. We fed the animals and watched the sheep cameras. Towards the end of the day, we fed the sheep and I had to put the battery hens away. I got all but one into the hen house. I was chasing this hen around for about 10 minutes and finally gave up. Adele came out and attempted to do it by herself and couldn’t, so I helped a bit and we chased it into the hen house. Ellie made this amazing seafood pasta dinner with prawns, scallops, mussels and squid in a rich creamy white sauce. Was very good!!! Wee Man Dan began to feed on his own after I guided him towards his mum’s teat. Mum kept on battering him away and wasn’t being very motherly with him. We had chicken and potatoes tonight and waited for the lambing to start, which it didn’t again. I was up around 1am and fed the lambs. There was no activity for the rest of the night.

March 31st:
After a night of no lambing activity, we woke up and Gary, the man Ellie hires to come out and help with the farm work, was feeding the animals. We went out and fed the lambs and then went into town, a town called Stokesly and went into a fish and chip shop where I met Roy “Chubby” Brown. He was very funny and apparently he is a very famous comedian. Google him and you will see. Also, was having a conversation with Ellie and she is close friends with (Tanya and Lisa may be slightly jealous) Robert Patterson. They invited the family and kids for a reunion next week and he will probably be coming up as well to the pub around the corner from the farm. I watched the first Twilight but still haven’t finished the second and don’t think I will, was not very into it. So meeting him will be just like meeting any other average person to me. I’ll try and get a picture or two for you guys though. The rain has been coming down like crazy here and apparently back in Edinburgh, it has been snowing. The weather has been horrible all over the UK right now. The East Coast Rail from Edinburgh to Newcastle has been shut down because of landslides. Good thing I wasn’t coming down today, I would have been stranded at the rail station! It started hailing a bit here, but not for very long. We are now watching the news and are waiting for a man to come and relieve us while we head back to Ellie’s home and shower up and eat dinner.

April 1st:
So, today we woke up to the sound of bleating lambs and ended up lambing 8 ewes!!! We got absolutely no sleep and have been up since about 2am…blah! Ok, I know when you are reading this, it won’t be but April Fools!!! So still no lambs have been born and we are waiting for the worse, when all the ewes decide to deliver at the same time… Hopefully that won’t happen at all. This morning was uneventful and Gary came by to feed the animals once again. He feeds only on the weekdays and on the weekends we feed. Ellie and Adele went out for a bit today while I stayed behind and watched the sheep. I talked with Kristen for a bit and talked about when she is coming down to visit me while I am here. We are going to take a train to Whitby. Apparently, Whitby is the place where the story of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein took place. Totally cool! They came back and Ellie and I went back to her house where I had a wonderful shower! Was nice to sit down and relax. Actually, we have been doing a lot of relaxing since the ewes haven’t decided to lamb yet. Adele and I were feeding the chickens today and something hilarious happened. Adele was inside the chicken coop and one of the battery hens jumped up on top of her head (she has a lot of hair which may have looked like a nest to the hen). I had to grab the hen and set it back down and within seconds of letting it down, the hen decided to go to defecate. If I had waited any longer, Adele would have had white droppings in her hair. Ick! After feeding the animals tonight, Ellie made this fantastic dinner of risotto and prawns in a onion/garlic/tomato puree/Niersteiner sauce. Was excellent! We watched a bit of NCIS and now I am going to head to bed since I have the 4am shift. Going to get a bit of sleep now and hopefully tomorrow day, we will have some lambing activity going on.

More to come, have to go right now but will post more. Hope all is well and talk to you all soon! Will have pictures up in a couple of weeks when I return to Edinburgh.

Exams are OVER!!!! Now, to start studying for the next exams...

Woohoo! Exams are finally over! I have never felt so antisocial in my life for the last few weeks. Basically, most of my days consisted of sitting in the living room or my room and studying for 12 hours non-stop (except when I was eating). This was probably the most intense studying I have ever done in my life. Kristen and I haven't been able to do a whole lot like going on random trips because we have both been so busy. She made me a bunch of pre-made dinners so that I would have dinner for the whole week. She is amazing! The dinners were curry and rice, so I was eating quite healthy too. So, for this exam, we were basically examined on the entire animal body (neurology, urinary, digestive, cardiopulmonary, metabolism (with a lot of biochemistry, blah!), reproduction, auditory and visual. I started out studying and thought that there would be no way I would be able to fit all that information in a couple of weeks. I basically went through the notes and shortened the professor's lecture notes from about 60 pages to about 28 pages. There really was a lot of fluff in the professors notes that we didn't need to know and a lot of pictures as well. It's always nice to cut back on the professors notes and go from 60 to 28 pages, what a feeling of relief! I managed to get through all of my self-typed notes and answer past-exam questions, which were very helpful.

The exam on Tuesday was the essay questions and I am hoping I did good on them. I managed to answer all 4 with no major problems. There was one question on describing the respiratory system of mammals and the structures throughout and describing what the major structures functioned to do. The next question asked for the mechanisms by which calcium homeostasis is regulated. The third question was asking to describe the conscious proprioception, unconscious proprioception and pain pathways from the limb to the brain. The last question asked about Glomerular Filtration Rate. I remembered information for all of the questions and did not get stumped once. Hopefully all of the information I wrote down was correct. Before Tuesday's exam began, there was a girl outside of the exam hall doors that was on the floor crying. I felt so bad for her, can you imagine how embarrassing that would be? Apparently she did not have major exams back at her last university and instead they had the students do projects and papers. That's horrible to do to students and not expose them to an exam, because that's usually what grad school is going to give you, LOTS OF EXAMS! I went to lunch with a couple of people after Tuesday's exam and as we were waiting outside of this cafe, there was a very cute dog walking by. It almost looked like a black lab/corgi mix. I made a very light whistle and the dog looked up. I didn't think it would come over, so I began talking to Nicole and all of a sudden I felt this paw on my leg. I looked down and it was the dog I had whistled at and he was sitting on his back legs in a begging position. He was extremely cute and very friendly. His owners were walking away and weren't paying attention, except for the little girl that was with them, she was calling out for her little dog to come back. This dog was enjoying all of this attention and forgot that it's owners were way ahead. The dog finally noticed that the owners were far away and he scurried off in a hurry to catch up.

Yesterdays exams were the short answer and multiple choice question. The multiple choice question section was slightly horrific, with a lot of biochemistry questions. Out of everything we learned over the past few months, they want us to know the recycling carrier molecule in the urea cycle? Really? Come on! I would think questions pertaining to cardiopulmonary or neurology would have been more important for us to know. The short answer was okay. I answered all questions and left none blank, so that is good. The question that I had been hoping would show up, did show up on the short answer portion. It was to describe the path of CSF flow from the site of production to the site of absorption. EASY! There were 5 other questions as well. I left about 30 minutes before the exam was over and went straight to the gym since I hadn't been since before Christmas! I am now regretting that I worked out so hard because I am extremely sore today... I now have to begin packing for North Yorkshire because I am leaving at 8.35am on Saturday. I also have to begin organizing my lectures from the Animal Health Welfare and Food Safety lectures because as soon as I get back from lambing, we have another big exam...ugh! I am done with exams already, jeesh! Well, I better get going, will try and post some more pictures today while I have a chance. Talk to you all later!

Revision Week...

So, a little over a week and I will be taking my third major exam for this semester. The exam encompasses neurology, urinary, endocrinology, cardiopulmonary, digestion, reproduction, metabolism and histology... Wow, basically the entire animal body for one exam... Why do they do this to us? Beginning to get slightly stressed with all of the information we must know. I will be going over past exam questions tomorrow and hopefully similar questions to those will show up on this exam. The weather has been great this past weekend and it looks like it will be good weather all this week as well (according to the forecast). You know how Scottish weather is... I finished cardiopulmonary today and will start digestion or metabolism tomorrow, not quite sure. I will most likely be sitting in my room this entire week studying...Actually, I have been using the sun room (when my flat mate doesn't take over the room) and the sun comes right through the big window and heats up the entire room. I manage to get up much earlier than my flat mate so I am down there first and get to take over the room before he does. Anyway, I am going to head off and upload some more photos. Hope everyone is doing well!

Finally, initiation into vet school...

It's about time that they initiate us students into the veterinary program! Today was very cold and I had a dissection lab where I dissected a lamb from the uterus and dissected the lamb once removed. Afterwards, there was a 4 hour break until our practical. We took the bus to Langhill Farm where there were many cows waiting for us...

We walked into the teaching shed and they proceeded to discuss the uterus of the cow and palpating the cervix and uterine horns and ovaries. How do you palpate for the uterus you ask? Well, it involved me getting a plastic apron on and putting on this very LONG blue plastic glove. I walked into the shed where there were about 20 cows all lined up next to each other. I squirted some lubricant onto my arm and proceeded to insert my arm into the cows rectum...

All I have to say is that it felt very warm inside and thawed my arm quite nicely from the cold weather. Apparently my arm had been so cold that when I was palpating the cow's rectum, the warm temperature actually made my arm sting a bit at first. They said that the ovaries would be the most difficult to palpate but that was the first thing that I felt. The contractions of the rectum were so strong that my arm was getting very tired after a while and the cow I had was moving quite a bit, which meant that I moved with it. Quite a bit of students got a lot of gas expulsion in their face, I was lucky enough where that didn't happen to me... So I can successfully say that I have been properly initiated into vet school! Now it actually feels like I am in vet school and not just studying lecture after lecture... Sorry everybody, no pictures were taken for obvious reasons...my phone could have easily been mucked up quite a bit. Well, I must continue with the studying of neurology. Only two weeks remain until the next set of exams and only 2.5 weeks until I begin my lambing placement in North Yorkshire, England. Hope everyone is doing well and I posted more pictures of things through the photo link. I will keep adding more as I get free time here and there.

Mary King's Close

One thing I did forget to mention that I did on Saturday evening was that I went to Mary King's Close with Kristen and a couple of her friends. It was a tour of the underground city where the black plaque took place. Apparently 1/3 of the population died in just a few days, which is absolutely crazy! The tour started at 9pm and lasted until 10pm. The tour guide was a student and was hilarious. I recorded the tour on my iphone voice recorder, so I'll try and upload the file so you can hear it. There was a funny part of the tour when the tour guide warned us of the metal hanging from the top of the door frame and I looked up to see where it was and he looked at me and said that I need not to worry about hitting my head...short jokes...really? Was a lot of fun though. Scary at times but the room that was Annie the ghost, which was filled with dolls was really cool and creepy at the same time. Anyway, back to studying...

Beautiful Day...FINALLY!

So I managed to get out this weekend and take a break from studying. I've gotten halfway through neurology stuff and still have cardiopulmonary, reproduction, digestion and histology to review. There is quite a bit of histology to review too...A LOT of reproduction slides that I need to review. Histology for reproduction is VERY important to know because you never know, ONE day, I just MIGHT be looking at the slide of a cross-section of the epididymis...you NEVER know!

This week is slightly laid back with lectures. Two lectures in the morning with a 4 hour break in between (time to study neurology at least) and then two lectures at the end of the day. On Friday, we had a lamb handling practical that was awesome. We went out to the Easter Bush Veterinary School's sheep flock. Well, half of us went to the sheep shed and the other half went to the teaching shed where there were giant tubs (simulating a pregnant sheep) and a lot of water inside. Inside of the tub, there was a bag, representing the uterus and the bodies of lambs (they used lambs that were still-born for us to use, for those of you feeling sad about the dead lambs). We had to practice pulling lambs out using rope around the head/legs and how to orientate the lambs when they were in a breached presentation or if the legs/head were not presenting correctly. It was a lot of fun maneuvering the lambs around and trying to figure out how to get the head and front legs in the correct position. After we were finished doing that, it was our turn to go to the sheep shed and learn lamb handling.

The shepherd was there describing how to handle the lambs and giving us tips for when we are doing our lambing placements over the Easter break. We then got to practice feeding the lambs with bottles. In the beginning, there were several students that jumped forward when the shepherd asked if anyone wanted to practice placing a feeding tube in the lamb...there were too many and I didn't have a chance to, however, near the end I felt that it was something that I needed to do and experience. So I asked the shepherd if I could place a stomach tube in one of the lambs. So he picked out a lamb that had a semi-empty stomach. The tube was VERY easy to place and the lamb just swallowed the tube with no problem. I was the only one that got to actually put milk down into the tube, which was very cool. Afterwards, the lamb's stomach was nice and full and it looked like the lamb was going to go into a food coma! It burped a couple of times and then plopped down and decided to go to sleep... Gotta admit, lambs are extremely cute!

Well, I better get going so I can work on studying, have to be up for lectures in the AM and prepare myself for a long week of studying. Hope everyone is doing well and I will try and post a video of the sheep shed that I was at.

The Story of Haggis...

So at the end of our reproduction lecture this past week, Alastaire (man teaching lecture) told the class the story of the Haggis. If I can get it right, this is what it was:

So, way back when the ocean was above the mountains existed large amounts of sea life and large sea creatures. As time progressed, the ocean receded and the mountains that we see today in the Highlands began to show. Some sea creatures adapted to land and were required to endure the harsh climate. One such creature took to the mountains for protection and spent a large amount of its time grazing. Because it lived on the mountains and the mountains were mostly cone-shaped, the creature "Haggis" adapted a unique physiological feature. On one side it would have long legs and on the other, short legs. Because of this adaptation, the Haggis could only walk around the mountain in one direction.

Man came along and discovered this creature when hiking through the mountains one day. The first Haggis was caught and killed and man realized that the Haggis was a prized catch. More and more Haggis were captured and killed for food. Man realized that the easiest way to catch a Haggis was to use it's own physiological advantage against it. The method for catching a Haggis involves three men, usually. One chases the Haggis around the mountain, another hides in a bush and the third waits downhill with a bag near the bush the second man is hiding in. When the Haggis gets close enough to the bush, the second man would jump out and scare the Haggis. The Haggis would then get frightened and turn around......

Now, the Haggis has two long legs on one side and two short legs on the other, so when the Haggis would turn around after being frightened, the short legs would be going downhill instead of uphill and would tip over into the bag the third man was holding.

Ok, not sure if that is 100% correct, but fairly close, I am sure of it. Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting, have been busy studying and preparing for exams that are in 3 weeks. Have a lot to review and am getting stressed. Trying to finish Neurology right now, and there is quite a bit to review too. The weather this past weekend was absolutely rubbish! The weekend before that was absolutely beautiful and Kristen and I were unable to go out because we both needed to study. Go figure, this whole week has been completely sunny out and getting warmer. Who knows, I may even start getting a slight tan back.... I'm going to need to get rid of this paleness I have developed since I have been in Scotland. Darn clouds.......

This last weekend I made Kristen and I a beef roast with red wine and shallot sauce, which was amazing! Sunday we made fresh crepes for dinner and watched Big Daddy. Have been going to reproduction lectures all week and next week we get to do our cattle rectal exams. Unfortunately, I think they are having us use a fake cow rectum, which I find to be completely pointless as we should be examining a real cow. Oh well, maybe they don't trust us quite yet and are going to have us wait until next year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AUNT LORIE today!!! I miss you and hope you are doing well! I have added more photos to my Picasa web albums from the zoo and Norway, enjoy! I will keep uploading more photos when I have time. Hope everyone is doing well and will talk soon!