First Rotation... Clinical Pathology

My very first rotation was a clinical pathology didactic. Clinical pathology supports the diagnosis of disease using laboratory testing of blood and other bodily fluids, tissues, and microscopic evaluation of individual cells. A didactic means that it was classroom lecture and laboratory work. This was great review of my clinical pathology course that I took second year especially since I felt really rusty in it. We got lots of practice looking at lab work, diagnosing disease, going through blood smears, fecal floats and other fluid analyses! 

Parasite identification galor

Strongyle egg (hookworm)

Trichuris felis

Toxocara cati

Aelurostrongylus absreusus

Cystoisopera felis

Large animal strongyle type egg

Parascaris equorum

Eimeria

Trichuris

Teania like egg

Cestode (Monezia)- Large animal tape worm

Checking out those leukocyctes

Also during this two week rotation, I got my very first patient. We don't have patient duties during this rotation, but one of my instructors texted me asking if I "want to play with fish today." My response was YES!! Meet Mopy Dick (the special species department gave him that name). He is an adult male koi fish who decided to try and eat a tank mate of his a pleco. Plecos have spines in their dorsal fins. Well one of those spines went right through Mopy Dick's mouth. I had seen him in the store a couple weeks prior and had talked to an employee about him a week earlier. He hadn't been eating for at least a few weeks! So the pet store contacted the vet school to see if there was anything that we could do to help him. Of course, our group of crazy, wonderful animal lovers said yes. And of course I said yes to taking over his care!

Our awesome resident doing endoscopy to check out his mouth and gills!

Getting some much needed food into him with an orogastric tube

Not dead, just under heavy sedation to keep him safe during the physical exam, endoscopy procedure, and initial medicine injections

Isn't he a handsome boi?! (See what I did there... a boy koi ;) )

This is what my daily treatments looked like for Mopy! Of course Emil got roped into helping me. Mopy got two injections once a day, an antibiotic and pain relief. We didn't anesthetize him to do this because that would be too stressful on a daily basis. So how to you restrain a fish for injections? Have a plan and be quick about it! I would draw up the medications while Emil got gloves and towel. I would sink one towel in the tank with Mopy and wrap him in it. The towel helps to protect his mucus layer that covers his body and it helped me grab him gently without him slipping away. We kept his eyes covered so he stayed clam and Emily just made sure he didn't flop while I gave him his injections in the muscle above his spine. We got this all done in less than two minutes and Mopy was back in his tank.

After Day 3 of his antibiotics he wasn't so mopey anymore and his abscess began to heal. After a week he was able to close his mouth all the way and started eating again! He was a great first patient.