For breakfast this morning we had boiled eggs, chutney, and uppuma, a rice flour that a lot of people compared to quinoa or couscous. Then we headed off to the vet school for another day.
I was on medicine rotation this morning. I had just started taking notes on a dog with a minor nasal discharge when a doctor told me to go to another case which was much more interesting. The dog was a suspected foreign body- he was believed to have eaten match sticks and was dull and lethargic. Match heads contain potassium chlorate which is toxic to dogs. The increased effort in breathing and lethargic behavior had the dog sent to the critical care unit. There they stabilized the dog and sent him for an ultrasound and radiograph. The doctor who preforms the ultrasounds is really great at describing what is going on in the patient and on the doppler screen. After seeing that everything was in normal limits, he then allowed me to preform an ultrasound. He was great at popping each individual organ into view quickly, but I was able to at least locate some of them on my own. Next it was on to get an Xray. I was suprised how much they rely on the owners for holding an animal, even in radiation, most of the time without complete protection. Everything seemed to be fine so we ruled out other issues and were able to treat for potassium chlorate toxicity. The toxicity causes methemoglobinemia which means that instead of regular hemoglobin, which holds 4 molecules of oxygen, it only holds half a molecule of oxygen, which can lead to hypoxemia. Methylene blue is indicated as a treatment for methemoglobinemia and was given to the dog. At this point I had been following this case all morning and it was time to break for lunch .
Lunch was jack fruit (a really good fruit that kinda tasted like slimy banana/mango) , yellow rice with veggies, onion dip (really good!!) and chips.
Then we headed back to the school for our afternoon course on pathology. We learned that the Indians have a philosophy that says that "pain is an integral part of life". For this reason, many Indians will avoid euthanasia and let a disease take its course. For this reason, you see a lot more end stage disease that is difficult to observe in the US. They also have a huge collection of pathological specimens housed at the school. We saw their labs and saw a short video on how to complete a necropsy from a suspected rabid animal. When we were getting ready to leave, a doctor came and said a suspected rabid goat had just died and we were to watch a necropsy be completed on it. However, the doctor first wanted us to sit and have tea. Tea is such a social thing here. Most offices and even some units have their own tea set in the corner and people stop often for tea time. We enjoyed tea with the pathology vets and then went to watch the sample collection. As the goat was being sampled, 5-6 cats appeared and looked on hungrily at the necropsy. Luckily they disinfected the area well, and the rabies virus is very fragile when it comes to UV light, so the sun helps to disinfect as well.
We went back to the hostel and just as I was about to jump into the shower, Dr. Subbiah and his wife, Ruby, came and told us that she was there to take us shopping for sarees! We got ready to head into town. There are 8 people in our group. Plus Dr. Subbiah and Ruby. With a little squeezing we fit 6 into a taxi van with the seating for 4, and 4 into a rickshaw with seating for 2, maybe 3. I was squeezed into the rickshaw. If riding in a car in India is scary, riding in a rickshaw is terrifying. Especially with a 4th person jammed in sitting on your lap. We made it out safe and went to the saree store. The place is overwhelming. There are so many people and different languages being yelled and whirlwinds of colors, everything is just crazy. Getting a saree is also way more of a deal than I ever thought it would be . Prices range from five dollars to thousands. Then you need to get a liner. We got both of those tonight, but we still need to go out to get a skirt. And, each saree is really just a long piece of fabric that needs to be tailored. So Ruby arranged for a tailor to come soon to measure us. While leaving Ruby bought all of the girls flowers for our hair :).
We got back to the hostel late and went straight to dinner. Dinner was tortilla bread (IDK what type), fried chicken bite things (similar to chicken nuggets), chicken soup, and plantains. We finished late so we all went to bed relatively soon afterwards.
-7/9/15
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