Madras Day 13 : Surgery Ward + Biotech Lab

Today was our last day in clinics. I've had such a good time at Madras and learned a ton. To cap off our last day I spent the day in the surgery ward. I saw a prolapsed rectum for my first case. Afterwards I caught up with the blocked dog from yesterday. He got another radiograph and an ultrasound, this time showing radiolucent uroliths in the bladder and urethra. As I left for lunch he was headed for surgery. I checked in the afternoon when we came back and he was recovering from surgery. The afternoon lab was on a flow cytometer. The researcher there also didn't seem to know we were coming but after calibrating for around 40 minutes we were able to see it in action. It was neat on that it could evaluate the cellular contents and diagnose cancer in a very short amount of time.
In the afternoon we got help from some of the Madras students in wrapping our sarees! It took a lot of work. I had no idea they are so complicated. It took around an hour and a half and 4 students to get 8 people dressed. I'm hoping we'll catch on and it won't take near as long. We had fancy dinner all donned in our sarees and then took some group photos.

-7/21/15

 

Prolapsed Rectum

Puppy with a bindi!!

Native Breed: Rajapalayum

Ultrasound for my blocked dog 

Recovering from surgery

Caitlin, our class PhD, modeling the flow cytometer

Close up

Saree Selfie

All the girls :)

Madras Day 12 : Surgery Ward and Biotech Lab

Back to the grind today. We started our last 2 days of clinics at the vet school today. Since we were assigned to LA surgery, but they don't get started until around lunchtime, most of my group decided to go where ever they liked most. I went to surgery ward. That was slow to start out with though so I went to opthal and found a dog with periocular  alopecia. We completed a skin scraping to look for the presence of mites but saw none. The vet took a sample and expected fungal origin. I headed back to surgery and found a dog with urinary blockage and followed it to radiology. While there I saw a crazy dog with carpal hyperextension. He was 6m old and had a nutritional deficiency with Ca:P. Usually this is correctable if it is treated early but this did had this condition for 3 months and the owners just brought the dog in. They will try to correct but there is no guarantee. Luckily the dog didn't seem to be in pain and was jumping around and acting like a normal puppy. The blockage dog showed no stones and an enlarged prostate. However, some stones are radiolucent and are hard to catch on X-ray. We tried to catheterize it but was unsuccessful. I had to leave before a cystocentesis was performed, but we were told the dog would come back the next day for an ultrasound.
The afternoon lab... Oh my. The PhD student didn't know we were coming and instead of just giving us an overview of a procedure he used to extract RNA from a tissue, he performed it all. A two hour procedure. Caitlin recognized the protocol as the same she used for her PhD, and was able to explain the steps to us but otherwise he just kinda mumbled through the procedure. It was the worst lab. We went back to the hostel and took some trips out to the pharmacy and a street bakery. That night we worked on our SOAPs.
-7/20/15

Carpal Extension

Due to nutritional deficiencies

Urinary Blockage dog

Pipetting Lab

Relaxing + Shopping

Today we had a free morning. We could go to clinics if we wanted or we could just hang out at the hostel. I decided that I would not set an alarm and see if I got up on time. I ended up walking up at 8:30a so I guess I needed the sleep. The beds here are stiff. Even if I get 7-8 hours of sleep (what I'm typically getting) I am still tired because of not sleeping well. So I didn't go to clinics. Instead I read and thought about doing course work. Then Dr. Subbiah arranged for us to go shopping again. I'm not sure why we are shopping so much but at least it's something to do. The Madras students that came to VT said he was obsessed with shopping with them too. He took them to Walmart and Sam's Club as outtings. We aren't allowed to go on trips without a chaperone so we go on what's arranged. We did get to wear our new outfits! At the mall we mainly just walked through some shops like a bookstore and a liquor store. I think we were all sick of clothes. Heidi and I bought a bottle of rum to share for around $6 each. We also finally got our saree under skirts, so note we have everything to complete our ensemble. We just need help putting it all together. We got home a little late and had dinner. At dinner, Mutu asked about my nails and said he wanted some. Michael said he would so it too so I painted 2 nailed on each of them. I'm still not sure why.

-7/19/15

I want this scotch.

Michael's pretty nails

Dakshina Chitra + Shopping

It's the weekend! We were ready to go by 9a to travel about an hour and a half by bus to Dakshina Chitra, an area kind of like Jamestown for those who have been there. It had traditional Tamil Nadu houses and mannequins showing daily life. Eden and Heidi had their fortune told by a bird. All good things. They would become successful and famous, etc. They also had craft sellers that were making pottery, blowing glass, weaving silk, etc. Towards the end they had some street shops where they sold jewelry and other items. Caitlin bought a glass figurine and I asked which one she got. She exclaimed "Oh, I got the little elephant! " The looks on everyone's faces was priceless as someone whispered to us "That's our god!"
We had another hour and a half drive back to the hostel and had a late lunch. Then we went out to shop and get more Indian clothing (a churidar and leggings). We went back for the night and celebrated Amber's birthday by drinking the rest of our beers and playing cards.
-7/18/15

Madras Day 11 : SA Obgyn + Rabies talk

Today was another day in SA Obgyn. The doctor that was there yesterday was unable to make it today so no more awesome lessons. We did see a dog with a vaginal prolapse. Afterwards we went to see the spay and neuter clinic. I found it funny that compared to the OT (the place with all the major surgeries) this spay and neuter clinic was way more strict in regards to taking out my notepad during surgery or even having my stethoscope draped across my neck. They also made us switch out of not only our shoes, but out of our socks, in exchange for flip flops. I didn't like the fact that my feet were exposed to what ever they last person may have had on their bare feet. I much preferred general surgery. Amber, Kelly, and I watched for a bit and then joined the rest of our class to watch hemodialysis on a dog. The dog had severe leptospirosis which attacks the kidneys. The hemodialysis takes the place of the kidneys to clean and filter the blood and remove the lepto bacterial organism. We watched for a while as it ran. After a while I went up to watch another surgery. When I came in I saw a wound laceration repair and a parrot that had recently lost most of its wing to a cat.
I headed back to the hostel for lunch. In the afternoon we had a talk on rabies. I feel like the labs and talks in general have gotten kind of thrown together last minute. We toured their rabies lab, but our guide didn't even work in in the lab. We did see what a postive Fluorescent Antibody Test appears like under the microscope. We headed back to the hostel and Heidi, Caitlin, Julie, and I went out to Spencer's, the nearby grocery store. While out it started pouring and we had to walk back in the rain. I did get the Indian Magic Masala chips to try. They are kinda like a spicy barbeque. The rest of the evening was relaxing and hanging out inside because of the rain.
-7/17/15

Fluorescent Antibody Test for Rabies

Madras Day 10 : SA ObGyn + MMC Lab

This morning we were scheduled for SA Obgyn. There was not a lot on the schedule but the doctor there was an amazing teacher and has written her own text book. She went through an hour+ lesson on the dog heat cycle. While we have all completed therio in school, we skimped on dog and cat repro and focused more on LA as most of our SA in the US are spayed and neutered. Here, almost none of the dogs I have seen have been spayed or neutered. We had a couple of pregnancy checks that came in and we were able to tell the age of the fetuses by measuring the head diameter or gestational sac and applying it to a formula. We also saw a case of pregnancy termination, and a dog who has been unable to become pregnant in for evaluation. The lights went out halfway through the final dogs evaluation and we had to be home early so we headed out.
Today was another day at the Madras Milk Colony. We saw their zoonotic lab and got to watch leptospirosis spirochetes wiggle around underneath a DOT 3 microscope. We also went to the campus's breeding facility for lab animals. There they had tons of mouse, rat, and guinea pig litters that they produced in a sterilized environment to prevent outside infection that they can sell to companies and use at the university. Everything that came in was clean. We had to wear autoclaved shoes, gowns, caps, masks, and gloves and take a 20 second air shower before viewing the litters. Even things like bedding is autoclaved and food is air-showered. We went back to the hostel- on the way we saw a coconut truck with people sitting way up on top of the stack. I would have ben terrified to sit up there. We returned and read/ did case notes as some were still not feeling okay. Michael went to the doctor and was prescribed some antibiotics to start (Norflox). It is funny though that things like antibiotics, and even codeine cough syrup are readily available over the counter at the pharmacy down the street.
-7/16/15

Vaginal cytology to show current time of cycle

Madras Day 9 : LA Ward/Sx + Public Health Lecture

Today I was scheduled for another day of LA. I saw a cow with a rumenal collapse. The vet allowed me to complete a rectal exam and feel for the rumen. You could actually place your hand over the dorsal sac of the rumen (usually cannot do) and feel the motility. They were able to help the cow be prescribing Magnesium sulfate which soaks up the liquid in the rumen and solidifies the contents to help with the collapse. I also saw a cow with mastitis treated with several antibiotics. At this point I had been in LA for 2 hours and had seen 2 cases... I decided to head up to SA Operating Theatre again. Today I saw a mammary growth removed and a mouth growth that was inoperable get rescheduled for a rostral mandibulectomy. I also saw the set up for a dog which was getting several tumors removed and then using excess skin from the dorsum to replace removed skin. Unfortunately I had to run to lunch. On the way back I saw lots of goats including 5 squeezed into the rickshaw. I also saw a beautiful Indian breed of sheep.
After lunch we had a lesson on public health and zoonotic diseases. It was more interesting than a lot of the more recent talks, but still a lecture. We stopped in as they were closing on a cow surgery. If you check out the photo, they were using a phone camera as a light.  We returned back to our hostel. Things have been a little slow this week as far as evenings. Four of us (including our professor, Dr. Subbiah) got food poisoning from the wedding and have been resting from that. Luckily I'm still in the clear.  The tailor returned tonight with our sarees. My blouse fit, but some didn't. However we don't really know how to put on the sarees so some students are coming over later in the week to show us.
-7/15/15

Inoperable mouth growth

Excess skin used as graft

5 goats, 1 child, 1 rickshaw