Small Mammals Practical - Blood sampling and nasolacrimal duct flush

We had our second Small Mammals practical this afternoon and learnt all about blood sampling in rodents and rabbits.

We were able to take blood from the medial and marginal ear veins and the saphenous vein in the back leg.

I got the ear vein straight away as we've done that quite a few times before but couldn't get the saphenous; the vet tried afterwards and he struggled too so I didn't feel too bad!
The other rabbits saphenous was much more prominent and other people got that one fine.

We also did nasolacrimal duct flushes which is when you place a catheter in the nasolacrimal duct in the bottom eyelid. It is then flushed with saline which comes down the duct and out the nose to remove any blockages or pus.
The flushed material can be collected and sent for microbiological culturing.

Anatomy Dissections

We've moved on from Splanchnology to Blood Vessels in Anatomy for the past few weeks which seems more logical but tricky learning where all the blood vessels come from, lead to and the inter species differences.

Group photo around the thoracic limb pre-credit test!

Maxime and I dissecting the hind limb of a goat

Falconry Club at Exotics Clinic

The university is having their EAEVE accreditation inspection this week so a few of us from the Falconry and Raptor Rehabilitation club were asked to come to the Exotics Clinic to speak to them about our birds.

We took along Mrs Clarence the Kestrl and Duckie the Peregrine Falcon who were both very well behaved and posed for photos!  

Diseases of Reptiles practical

We had another Diseases of Reptile practical this afternoon where we learnt all about husbandry with common problems and how to prevent or treat them.

After that we were able to handle a variety of reptiles and then take blood samples from each.

I was able to take blood from the front cervical sinus of a turtle, a large boa and a Savannah Monitor 

Quail Hatching and Rearing

We hatched 30 Japanese and Italian Quail down at Falconry Club a few weeks and they've been thriving.

We're a self sufficient club so have to provide our own equipment and food for the birds.

Usually we feed day old chicks, pigeon and sometimes hare or rabbit.

Quail is a really good source of food for the birds but quite expensive to buy frozen. I've reared quail and poultry for years so thought we'd give it a go.

The plan is to keep back a group of about a dozen which we will breed from to rear the offspring as a food source.

Here they are at a few days old and later on at a few weeks old:

Luiz the Italian Quail:

Brooder:

and at a few weeks old...

Blood Vessels of the Head

This week we have been looking at the arteries and veins which supply the head.

We were warned that it was one of the hard weeks but I thought it was actually really logical and the names made sense according to the parts of the skull we learnt last year

And a view of the aorta and head

I've had a really busy weekend but not really got anything done... It's been 4oC and really windy so feels even colder and its only October - can't wait for the snow!

We had a training day for new members of Falconry Club so that took up all of yesterday.
Went out for a classmates birthday but I'm not drinking until Oktoberfest and managed to resist € pizza on the walk home while everyone else got three slices!

Today we were back at Falconry fitting Frantiska's new equipment - I bought a set of anklets, flying and mews jesses and got her a new leash.

She ripped the mews jesses within two minutes of being perched outside and was about to swallow it before I ran into the weathering area and pulled it out of her mouth.

We made some new ones with thicker leather but she was still going at them so we're going to have to keep a close eye on her while she's perched out...

Took Molly and Denny the resident clinic dogs for a walk in the park then came back and watched Supervet - should really get some studying done.

Northern Goshawk necropsy; Aspergillosis and Trichomonas

I saw a necropsy of a juvenile wild Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis gentilis) today, which sadly died after being brought into the clinic last week.

He had anklets put on his legs so that he could be perched and fed on the glove but was found collapsed on Sunday afternoon.

The bird died from chronic Aspergillosis seen as spores and large granulomas in the air sacs.
They think the bird had been ill for several weeks as the granulomas were so big and that would coincide with his capture and being brought into the clinic.



He also had secondary Trichomonas gallinae parasites seen in the mouth which were probably elevated due to immunosuppression.