Friday to Wednesday Catchup

Friday morning we packed up the car and I went to the clinic for the first part of the day. We saw a few appointments and then Kelly and I got to sedate four horses and pull fox tails out of their lips, gums, and tongues. The poor horses had eaten the hay before the owner noticed the foxtail weeds in it. Two of them were slobbering, one of which had blood-tinged saliva. The owner just wanted the other two checked as well, since they'd been eating the same hay. The first horse was horrible. The prickly little weeds were embedded all over her mouth and she had a wad stuck under her tongue that had rubbed her tongue raw and ulcerated. It almost felt futile as we tried to flush and remove as many of the plant pieces as we could, but many of them were already burrowed under the mucus membranes. She was the first one that we did and was the worst. One of them barely had any lesions and the other two had a fair amount that we had to pull. It was a good lesson in not knowing what the heck you're doing and being willing to try various methods to see what works. Hopefully these horses never have to go through this again. In the afternoon, dad came to pick me up at 2:30 and we headed out for a 6+ hour drive south to Laramie. It was sad to leave the clinic as I really enjoyed my time there, but I was excited to see Ryan and Jackson in Laramie (both are guys I've met from Paradise and have been friends with for years) and I was also excited to just go home and sleep in my own bed with no traffic, trains, or sirens going off. We stopped in Casper to eat and then drove through the Shirley Basin. I've been through the basin once before and it was gorgeous then, but it was even more gorgeous this evening with the storm clouds behind us, a rainbow in front of us, and an ever changing sunset to our right. AMAZING!

We got to Laramie and headed to Ryan's apartment where we were staying for the night. We watched the movie Buck and got caught up on each others lives before calling it a night. 

Saturday morning, we got up and met Jackson at a local restaurant for breakfast at 7:00. It was so good to see him! There's something about Paradise people. I hadn't seen Ryan in 15 months and Jackson in 8 months, but it was like we'd just been together yesterday. That's how you know people are lifelong friends :)

After breakfast we drove out to see where they kept their horses and I was amazed at the progress Jackson had made with his mare. When I last saw her in July, it took us about an hour to even catch her. His hard work has paid off. Dad and I headed out and made it to West Liberty, Iowa around 9:00 their time and stopped for the night. Got up early Sunday morning and spent Easter driving about 8 hours to Aunt Carrie's in Bellbrook, OH where dad had left his truck. We visited with her and two of my cousins for awhile before heading out, dad towards home and me towards Columbus. I was exhausted when I got back and had to take care of a few things like bills and laundry before falling asleep, not bothering to unpack. 

Monday morning was a harsh reality. My alarm went off at 6:30 am but my Wyoming brain said it was 4:30 am. I headed to school for my first day of Preventive Medicine. We spent most of the day in the University Laboratory Animal Resources building (ULAR) getting a tour and then doing some hands on work with mice, rats, and rabbits. It's not something we get to do elsewhere in school so it was a good experience, except one of the mice promptly died after we were finished with him, which was sad. I spent the rest of the day catching up on other important things and still didn't make it around to unpacking even though I could barely walk through my room. 

Tuesday was pretty boring. We talked about managing outbreaks and then had 4 hours of lecture on poultry and their diseases. It made for a long afternoon. 

Wednesday, we went to the zoo, which was fun, but we didn't get to really see anything or do anything out of the ordinary. I did see 2-3 week old baby lynxes through a window... And Brutus and Buckeye the grizzly bears were tussling around in the cool morning air which was fun to watch.