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.
The full story of Hug’s rescue as told by Claudia Lifton, a kind lady who rescued him:
“In order to renew my Thai visa, I had to go to Laos before heading back to the GVI Elephant Reintroduction Project. I have always wanted to explore more of South East Asia, so I took advantage of this rare opportunity and asked for one more week off of project to see this beautiful country. What was supposed to be a simple, uneventful visa run to Laos turned into one of the oddest, and most life changing experiences. The cheapest, and (in my opinion) the best way to travel from Thailand to Laos is by boat. I fell in love with this stunning country within the first five minutes of my three day boat ride to Luang Prabang. I could never grow tired of sitting on that boat, watching the endless scenery of foggy tipped mountains and lush, exotic jungles pass by.
I have never before seen such a large mass of land so unexploited by man. It was encouraging to see small huts built into nature without destroying the scenery around them. I was impressed by the Laos people before I even met them.
Turns out my instincts were right. As soon as we arrived at our first overnight stop in the charming village of Pak Beng we were greeted by the kindest people, one of which was a young man named Bounma agreed to show me around his village. He took me to a beautiful waterfall and invited me to his home for dinner with his lovely family. The next morning the boat left for our final destination – the town of Luang Prabang, famed for its natural and man-made beauty. In just a day and a half I visited several striking Buddhist temples, reveled at the largest waterfall I have ever seen, hiked through an enchanted forest and watched an incredible sunset over the mountains from a small fisherman’s boat. I could have stayed in Luang Prabang forever, and was planning on staying for several more days before heading to Vientiane to apply for my visa, but my time was cut short by a very special little monkey. While on my way back to my hostel from Bounma’s home, I saw a three month old macaque in a small cage outside of a mechanic shop. I stopped to speak with the family that owned him and asked where they had gotten the monkey from.
They said they bought him from an illegal poacher who had killed his mother in the wild to sell the babies as pets and tourist attractions.
After much convincing, they finally agreed to let me take him for the same price they had paid for him. After much research, many phone calls and emails, and a huge stroke of luck, I finally got in touch with SayLin from ACRES Wildlife Sanctuary (now Laos Wildlife Rescue Center). I was excited to have found such a wonderful new home for the macaque, but, when I arrived back in Pak Beng from Luang Prabang, the family informed me that they had changed their minds and refused to let me take the monkey. After several hours of protest (and tears), they finally agreed to let me take the 3 month old baby in exchange for my camera. So, two nine hour boat rides, one eight hour bus ride, several sleepless nights, over two-hundred dollars, a lost (traded) camera, a run in with the Laos police and one CRAZY, unexpected adventure later, Nahuglai (which means forever loved in Laos), is finally at his forever home in Laos Wildlife Rescue Center. After a few days of veterinary care, he will be introduced to his new family of macaques with whom he will live out the rest of his life – rather than in a small cage at a mechanic shop. I am so grateful to have found such an amazing home for little Hug, and to have met the inspiring people that have dedicated their lives to the animals of Laos. SayLin is truly an inspiration, and I was honored to learn from his endless knowledge about the problems facing South East Asia’s animals. He works constantly to ensure that the animals at the sanctuary are well taken care of, and to fight against animal exploitation throughout all of South East Asia. Meeting SayLin and the rest of the dedicated people at Laos Wildlife Rescue Center, and seeing Hug go to such an amazing home was worth all of the trouble to bring him there. My trip to Laos turned into so much more than a simple visa run.
Like most things in my life, I have animals to thank for that.
Round the World Claudia Wednesday, July 10, 2013 – 09:02″
Find out how Hug is doing today with his new life at the rescue center here.
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.
It’s been a week since I gave training for police officers during my off day. I thought this week I could finally relax and have some me-time for one whole day but apparently I was wrong. One of the bears at our rescue center was badly injured and needed immediate treatment. So how could I say no when a bear was in great pain?
Thanks God the storm had stopped the night before so we could start the surgery in a sunny morning. It had been a while since I last did field surgery. Even though field surgery is not an ideal situation for surgery because of the lack of cleanliness and sterility, but I kind of missed it. I like the whole process is shone by the sun instead of surgery lamp. I like when the cool breeze blows instead of air conditioner. I enjoy the view of grass and trees and flowers in the background instead of cold surgery room wall. Overall, I feel more relaxed when I do surgery in the field than in the surgery room.
I’m not going into the details of the surgery. Long story short, the bear was darted successfully but it took a second anaesthetic dose to knock her down completely because I underestimated her body weight (Dear bear, it’s a compliment. I think you are slim but sorry, the truth is painful, you are fatter than I thought).
Once everything was set, I examined the wounds carefully. Her right hand was not too bad. There was only one cut that needed a few stitches. I examined her left paw and inhaled deeply. One of her fingers was exposed and I could see broken bone sticking out. I said sorry to the bear because I had to amputate the finger. I imagined the whole nasty process of debridement and amputation that I had to do, and silently asked myself, “Why did I become a wildlife vet?”
Ventral part of the bear’s paw. Trust me you don’t wanna see the dorsal part.
During the whole process two people almost passed out. One almost fainted because he saw blood and flesh and bone. The other one felt dizzy because it had passed our lunch time but the surgery was still ongoing. I was hungry and tired too, but of course I couldn’t stop halfway. Again, at that point I asked myself “Why did I become a vet?”
As I was bandaging the bear’s paws, I felt so relieved and happy at the same time that I had saved this bear today. As I saw the bear waking up from her deep sleep, I smiled to myself and answered my own question “Because I want to see the animals healthy and happy.”
Another off day is gone as I’m typing this post, but I’m glad that I lost it for a good cause. Get well soon my dear Bitey. Now that you’re awake it’s time for me to sleep.
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 🙂
Holiztic Vet 