Hello there! Now it’s fun time for some bee related riddles. Ready?
3…
2…
1…
What do you get if you cross a bee and a rabbit?
Answer: A honey bunny.
What do bees do with their honey?
Answer: They cell it.
What did the mother bee say to the baby bee?
Answer: Beehive yourself please!
What is more impressive than a talking dog?
Answer: A spelling bee.
What did the bee say when she was invited to the party?
For the answer, please stay tuned at knowledgebeatsignorance.com’s YouTube channel to find out!
A while ago I posted some experiences being a wildlife vet. I think it’s unfair if I exclude the experiences working at small animal practices. So today I’m sharing my experiences from small animal vet point of view. Here are 9 things you’ll likely experience if you’re a vet:
1. You accidentally mix patient’s name and owner’s name. Yes, it’s a very common mistake that every one of us do. Sometimes the pet’s name is easy to recognize as an animal name, such as Brownie, Fluffy, Princess, but most of times their names are very similar to someone’s names, such as Troy, Alice, Simon, etc.
2. You are not a pervert but you touch animal bums hundreds times a week, thousands times a month. Ewww… I know it sounds gross but admit it, taking your patient’s temperature is one of the most common exam you have to do on a daily (if not hourly) basis.
Come touch my cute butt! Source: pinterest.com
3. At first you might tremble when you do your first ever surgery, but as your skill improves after tens or hundreds of surgery, you now have a new hobby. Your itchy hands can’t stay away from scalpel and a day without surgery becomes a boring day.
4. When you see an animal with big protruding vein suddenly your mind says “What an easy vein to catheterize!” and when you see intact stray male dogs or cats your mind says “I’m gonna cut your balls!” I know for non vet readers it sounds crazy but trust me, it’s very normal for vets to say those things.
5. You become a detective, in some way. When you ask questions to your client regarding their pet’s health, don’t expect them to tell you the truth 100%. Instead, expect to play some detective game to see what they actually do to their pets.
6. You spend at least 6 years in vet school but ironically in your client’s mind your advice sometimes means nothing compared to those who come from pet shop owner. Moreover, your knowledge will be compared to Google, a LOT. Unfortunately a lot of misleading information is easily accessible from Google nowadays. Someone from engineer background writes an article about their own experience regarding their pet’s health and somehow it becomes a reference for your client to say your method is wrong.
7. You want the animals to be healthy, thus you are happy to see healthy animals, but hey life is a paradox. I know every vet has a favorite case and somehow you are glad to see an animal suffering from it. I have a friend who loves squeezing abscess and every time she has a patient who suffers from it she always exclaims happily “Yes, I love abscess!” I honestly don’t know which can make her happier: to see the animal heals quickly or to squeeze the pus every day for a month.
8. You are compassionate towards animals but have to be heartless sometimes. You love all your patients, but there are times when you have to put them in a deep peaceful sleep to end their pain. To say it personally, this is my weakest point.
9. There are quiet days, there are busy days. When you have no patients and have no work left to do, you complain about how boring your job is. Somehow someone hears you and within 3 minutes sends an emergency to your clinic. When you are busy scrubbing your hands for emergency surgery, another emergency comes in. Be careful of what you wish for.
Does anyone have interesting vet-related experience that you think we should know? It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced vet, a fresh graduated vet or even a future vet, you are more than welcome to share your experience by commenting below.
Woo hoo, it’s that time again this week for fun fact Friday! A fun fact a week keeps the foolishness away. Today’s topic is tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis).
This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on IUCN Red List and on Appendix I of CITES. The major threats to this species are habitat loss and illegal hunting for human consumption. Now here are 5 fun facts you probably didn’t know about Bubalus mindorensis:
1. They are dwarf giants. It sounds like a paradox and it is. Tamaraw is also known as Mindoro dwarf buffalo, but despite of their mini size, they are still the largest mammal found within Philippine, their native country.
2. They always have time for make-up. Covered mostly in dark colored fur, light markings can be found above their eyes, forming ‘eyebrows’ and some individuals have white spots on their lower cheeks.
Source: philippine-animals-mammals.webs.com
3. They are shy but curious creatures. They rest in thick vegetation during the day and active at night to eat grasses, bamboo shoots, saplings and other vegetation. They were formerly diurnal but changed their active hours to avoid human encroachment and have become nocturnal. They are solitary and known to show aggressiveness towards other tamaraws. They are also said to charge their pursuer.
4. “V” is their favourite letter. One of striking features of tamaraw is their horns. They are V-shaped, growing from the forehead, has flat back surface and triangular base.
Source: news.mongabay.com
5. They cannot lie about their age. The age of a tamaraw can be seen from its horns. The horns grow longer relative to the length of the ears and broaden at the base. Hence, the horn’s length and thickness can be used to age them. Enjoy reading the fun facts? Do you have a favorite animal or any other animals that you would like me to write the fun facts about? Let me know by commenting below. Spread the info and have a nice weekend! 🙂
Woo hoo, it’s that time again this week for fun fact Friday! A fun fact a week keeps the foolishness away. Today’s topic is gharial (Gavialis gangeticus).
Source: animalsvariety.ru
This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on IUCN Red List and on Appendix I of CITES. The major threats to this species are habitat loss and degradation due to dam construction and irrigation, and fishing which removes their diet resource and can accidentally kills them. Now here are 5 fun facts you probably didn’t know about Gavialis gangeticus:
1. Gharial is the only extant species from the family Gavialidae. They are closely related to false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) which is a member of the family Crocodylidae.
2. Their name, gharial, derives from the word ‘ghara’ which means Indian pot, a shape that resembles the male gharial nose’s shape.
Source: wikimedia.com
3. Among other crocodilian species, gharial is the biggest and the longest, measuring up to 6 m. They also have the narrowest snout which enables them to snatch fish underwater quickly.
4. Their weak legs are not able to support their body weight when they walk on land. This becomes a problem during dry season because unlike any other crocodilian species, gharial cannot walk far to find water.
5. Mother gharial does not transport their youngs in the mouth, but they stay together up to several months.
Source: animals.about.com
Enjoy reading the fun facts? Do you have a favorite animal or any other animals that you would like me to write the fun facts about? Let me know by commenting below. Spread the info and have a nice weekend! 🙂
Woo hoo, it’s that time again this week for fun fact Friday! A fun fact a week keeps the foolishness away. Today’s topic is about forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti).
This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on IUCN Red List and on Appendix I of II of CITES. The major threats to this species are forest destruction due to illegal logging for firewood and timber, encroachment for cultivation and settlements, overgrazing by cattle, and forest fire. Now here are 5 fun facts you probably didn’t know about Heteroglaux blewitti:
Two owlets at their nest hole.
1. Also known as Forest Owlet, Forest Spotted Owlet, Forest Little Owl due to their small body which measures only 23 cm length.
2. They are back from extinction. They were considered extinct before being rediscovered in 1997, 113 years after the last confirmed record. Before the rediscovery, they were only known from seven specimens collected during the 19th century.
3. They love sunlight and are not shy. Unlike most of its nocturnal (active during the night) relatives, forest owlet is diurnal (active during the day) and crepuscular (active during twilight hours), hunting preys in the morning and evening in open areas with low ground cover.
4. A kind of ‘big foot’ in the bird world. They have big disproportionate talons compared to their small body size. With their large and powerful talons, they have been known to take prey twice their size.
Source: edgeofexistence.org
5. They dislike their birthplace. It is thought that this owlet prefers subtropical and tropical dry deciduous forest. This is in contrast with most historic records of the species, which have come from moist deciduous forest or dense jungle.
Enjoy reading the fun facts? Do you have a favorite animal or any other animals that you would like me to write the fun facts about? Let me know by commenting below. Spread the info and have a nice weekend! 🙂
As the title suggests, a volunteer and I managed to turn a leopard into a kitty. Well, not literally, but we made him behave like a cat! Watch the video below to see how cute he was.
Want to know how we did it? Stay tune and I’ll share the secret this Thursday.
Meanwhile, you are more than welcomed to guess what ‘trick’ we did to the leopard 🙂
Woo hoo, it’s that time again this week for fun fact Friday! A fun fact a week keeps the foolishness away. Today’s topic is about Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer).
This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on IUCN Red List and on Appendix II of CITES. The major threats to this species are exploitation, incidental interactions with fisheries and vessel traffic, and degradation of habitat by water pollution. Recently the scientists have declared that this species is functionally extinct, meaning too few potential breeding pairs remained to ensure the species’ survival, or in other words they are going to be extinct soon.
Photo by Stephen Leatherwood
Before they are extinct, here are 5 SAD (not fun) facts you probably didn’t know about Lipotes vexillifer:
1. Their genus, Lipotes, derives from the Greek for ‘left behind’, referring to its limited range.
2. Baiji dolphins apparently lived and flourished in the Yangtze for more than 19 million years before humans arrived on the scene.
3. It is the first species of cetacean (marine mammals) to become extinct as a result of human activity.
Photo by Stephen Leatherwood
4. A recent November-December 2006 international range-wide survey failed to find any surviving animals in the Yangtze. It was declared extinct in 2006 but was last seen in 2007.
5. Baiji often swim with finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides), the only other cetacean in the Yangtze River.
Isn’t it sad to see another species is going into extinction because of human? Do you have a favorite animal or any other animals that you would like me to write the fun facts about? Let me know by commenting below.
As a wildlife vet, I feel there are some unique experiences that other occupations may not be able to offer. Sometimes it’s a funny experience, many times it’s a tough one, and most of the time it’s a very rewarding one. So here it is, my 6 personal experience being a wildlife vet:
1. You are more comfortable handling a baby animals than handling a baby human. Taking care of orphaned baby monkeys, baby bears, baby gibbons, baby orangutans, baby porcupine, and many other babies on a daily basis makes me so used to with handling baby animals, but when I was faced with my 6 month old nephew I didn’t dare to hold him. Then a scary question popped out in my mind: Am I a normal human being?
One of my babies
2. People think you are smart. Most people who ask what my job is are usually surprised when I tell them I’m a wildlife vet. Their common reactions are “Wow, you treat hundreds of animals!”, “So you understand the anatomy of each species?”, “How can you remember all the animals’ names?”, which eventually makes them say “You must be very smart to be that kind of vet”. I always smile and feel proud for a while before they ask random questions which leads to the next point.
3. You are forced to understand hundreds to thousands of animals of ANY kind. Small pets, farm animals, flightless birds, reptiles, marsupials, big carnivores, sea mammals, everything! The truth is, most of wildlife vets are specialized in some species and are not knowledgeable about other animals. Unfortunately, many people think you are not professional enough when you can’t answer their random questions about a specific animal. Now please inform me if there’s one vet who can answer all the following questions without asking Uncle Google: What’s the lifespan of Chairina scutulata? How many toes does an African elephant have? How long does a caiman incubate their eggs? Is Sumatran rhino crepuscular? How many teeth does a baiji have? Sounds fun right if you are faced with those questions? If you think I have the answers for all the questions above, I’m truly sorry to disappoint you.
Errr… You think I know the answers??
4. You cannot have a favorite. Taking care of hundreds of animals under your care, it’s not fair if you love some animals over the others. Everyone deserves the same attention. No matter how cuddly a baby tiger is, how cute a binturong is, how tame a bear is, you can’t make them your favorites. Now imagine a scene: when you give treats to your favorite animals, don’t you feel guilty when their neighbors stare at you with puppy-eyed face?
Why do you treat me differently?
5. Even though you are supposed to love all animals, there’s always one animal you prefer not to deal with. For me personally, I prefer not to deal with loris. Big animals are easier to treat because you can sedate them initially with darts. But with small animals like slow loris, you have to catch them by hand with a risk of being bitten, and when you do surgery, you have to be extra careful not to crush their tiny anatomy.
Slow loris surgery
6. You are forced to know about management. In the field most of the time you are not working with vet tech or vet nurses who understand about treatment and medication. More often than not, you are faced with illegal pet owners, keepers, or even your boss, who may or may not know about biology and animal science, but most of them don’t understand about medicating sick animals and selecting a drug of choice. When there’s emergency, you have to be able to control them no matter what, despite of age and experience, because you are the one qualified as a vet who knows animal medicine and surgery better than the rest.
Don’t miss the first part of this post. Read 6 more interesting experience here. If you also work with wildlife and have either similar or different experience with them please share in the comments below and let other readers know.
After watching a barking cat video that has gone viral (must see!) and a video of meowing dog, I was curious to see if animals can mimic human voice. To my surprise, they can! So here is the list of those 3 smart animals:
2nd runner-up – Chicken
This rooster laughs as if there was something very funny. Now doesn’t he make us laugh?
1st runner-up – Cat
The poor cat in this video is in a lot of pressure after Batman asks a question. However it’s still able to answer his question even though in fear.
Aaand…. the winner is:
Winner – Goat!
She sings more beautifully than I do! Well done, goat! You deserve it to be the winner.
Happy weekend everyone! I hope you enjoy those animal-cruelty-free videos on my blog 🙂
Woo hoo, it’s that time again this week for fun fact Friday! A fun fact a week keeps the foolishness away. Today’s topic is about Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica).
This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on IUCN Red List and on Appendix II of CITES. They are hunted mostly for human consumption and as traditional Chinese medicine. Now here are 5 fun facts you probably didn’t know about Manis javanica:
1. They don’t have to see any dentist. For you who hate dentist, you probably will envy this cute creature because they don’t have teeth. Their main diet is insect, with mostly ants and termites. Their stomach contains tiny stones to help with food digestion.
2. They have long attractive tongue. Their tongue is longer than their total body length and is sticky in order to attract ants.
Source: arkive.org
3. We should start biting our nails to keep us healthy. Their scale is composed of keratin, the same substance that builds our nail. They have same composition as reptile scale too. If their scale had medicinal properties, so did our nail. So why don’t we start biting our nails instead of killing them? Same fact applies for rhino horn.
4. They give pangolin-y back instead of piggy back. Mother pangolins carry their babies on their backs. Do you agree if I say it’s cuteness overload?
Source: telegraph.co.uk
5. They like to keep in shape only when they are in panic. They roll into a ball wen they are in danger. This safety mechanism is effective against predator, but not human! That’s why tonnes of pangolin are smuggled through the border every day, because they are an easy catch.
Source: pangolin.org
Enjoy reading the fun facts? Do you have a favorite animal or any other animals that you would like me to write the fun facts about? Let me know by commenting below. Spread the info and have a nice weekend! 🙂
Holiztic Vet 