I've known a friend of the family's since I was a kid. She's my mom's friend. She's had these two prairie dogs since I was a kid and I used to go over to her house to play with them all the time. Well, recently, one of them died, so she got three more. Well, anyway my mom called me this past weekend and told me that one of the prairie dogs she had gotten hadn't been eating properly. She had taken him to the vet for the 1st time about 3 months ago.

Anyway, their teeth grow throughout the life of the prairie dog similar to the way they do in rabbits. Well, the growth is normally kept in check by normal wearing action by chewing and grinding of opposing teeth. Well, to make a long story short, like I was saying, she took her pet to her local vet to have his teeth trimmed down a bit. The vet was supposed to anesthetize the prairie dog, but for some odd reason he didn't. After the procedure, he brought the pet back out to her, and told her that anesthesia wasn't needed. What also made it look bad, was his little nose was bleeding too. I don't know what would have caused that though. Anyway, that's not the big problem. That was over a month ago, and now his teeth are growing in a different direction causing major problems in his eating habits. The vet charged her $30.00. She didn't want to go back to that vet, so she'd been calling around to different vets to see if they could fix the problem, but none of them like dealing with prairie dogs. (they're illegal) not to have but to transport or purchase. Anyway, she did end up finding one. The vet she found charges $120.00. She had the procedure done again, properly this time. The problem is the teeth are still growing in the wrong direction. I told my mom that she's either going to have to pay $120.00/month to continue the trimming because I doubt they're going to grow back the right way now. They're eventually going to grow to the point where he won't be able to eat or drink properly. She's probably going to have to put him down. Some vet.

Unlike people, animals are unable to describe their symptoms and signs. I read some of the ealier posts, and was reading about some of the medications that are prescribed to patients. What I've posted above reminds me of how things can go wrong. Like when we go to the doctor, we assume that the drugs that are prescribed to us have been carefully tested to make sure they're both safe and effective. Most of the time they are, but sometimes the drugs can cause more problems then they solve. Probably because the FDA hasn't adequately monitored the pharmaceutical industry.

Six weeks of peds? Yikes - that's a lot to learn in so short a period.

I am looking forward towards OB a little bit. I had a couple deliveries while I was on family so I have some idea what to expect. Plus the resident on that service is AWESOME, so that'll be good.

I plan on taking both CK and CS in November, I've scheduled a month working with our student run clinic for that four weeks, so with only 8 clinic nights the whole month, I figured it'd be a great time. I'm waiting to hear from an away rotation at the moment which will totally alter my schedule if I don't get it. Considering it's in August, it's super frustrating that I haven't gotten a response one way or the other yet...

Other than that, hard to believe that I have less than 3 weeks of 3rd year left. Looking back it's been a really crazy year, and it's unbelievable the amount of stuff I've learned (and forgotten)...but it's definitely been a year that's reaffirmed my desire to be a doctor.

BigRedBeta question
 

I have a question for BigRedBeta. Last night I was watching the Discovery Channel and it was talking about how fetal cells may be able to keep breast cancer from developing. I don't remember everything, just some of the things that grabbed my attention. It said that fetal cells surviving in a mother's tissues may fight off breast tumors. I myself also read that women with children have a lower risk of getting breast cancer than childless women. It also said that during pregnancy, a small number of fetal stem cells cross the placenta into the mother's bloodstream and can survive for decades in her skin, liver, brain, and some other organ that I can't remember. I think it was the spleen. But anyway, it was just basically saying that fetal cells repair damage to some of the tissues. Have you heard of anything like this in your field of study?

Not sure about the fetal stem cell thing except that research as to what these cells do when they're there is pretty new (the fact that the cells do cross the placenta has been fairly well known for a while I believe).

As for the childless vs. children most of the "female parts" cancers have prolonged estrogen exposure as a risk factor. Therefore early menarche, late menopause and zero pregnancies increases your risk for endometrial, ovarian, and breast cancer. Given the newness of research exploring the function of fetal stem cells, I imagine there's little way to quantify how much of the risk reduction is due to their presence at this point (and I think even when there's a better idea of what they do, it'll still be tough to put a number on it).

Also, you don't have to be so formal about my "field of study"...I'm just a third year medical student (well a third year for two more weeks) who happens to read a lot of science news stuff rather than medical text books...

OK, I know nothing about prarie dogs-but can she just have those teeth pulled instead of putting it down? The reason I ask is one of my cats has maybe 12 teeth left because of dental disease. I just had the vet remove the teeth and it's been 6 years. He's a very happy, spoiled cat.

Rodents are very different when it comes to teeth. But she shouldn't be making pets out of wildlife anyways. Way to abuse an animal for its whole life.

Not to mention, the CDC has banned the sale, trade, breeding, and new capture of prairie dogs.

Thanks for this. I just thought it may have been a possibility that fetal cells stimulate the mother's immune system or something. I wasn't sure.

A 1st year vet student...well, 2nd year in a few months, chatting with a 4th year med student, makes it kind of hard to be less formal. I won't be as formal next time. lol :p

Thanks again.

RaggedyAnn, kstar is right. Most rodent and lagomorph species do well on diets based on commercial laboratory rodent pellets or rabbit pellets. Prairie Dogs can and usually are maintained on rabbit pellets, alfalfa or grass hay as well as assorted vegetables, so without their teeth, it would make it quite difficult for them to be able to eat. Plus, a few years ago pet prairie dogs were involved in an outbreak of monkeypox disease. Like kstar said, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint order that banned the transport, sale or release of pet prairie dogs. Shortly after that, I think the CDC along with the Food and Drug Administration made the rule permanent. I think there also may be some new restrictions as well, but I'm not all the way sure.

Where's that picture of the possum again where the person posts on a telephone pole about a "lost cat"...

Seeing my husband's face reading the sign--now that was funny...

It's like the Jack in the Box commercial were they had a spelling bee and the kid was asked to spell "Ciabatta" and he starts it off with "J"...

I've never heard of that one.

I think it was this one:

http://www.digyourowngrave.com/cat-f...very-friendly/

Best resolution of the ones that I could find.

o.k. lol lol now that was funny.:D

I wanted to post this. Tomorrow will be my 1st surgery I'll be assisting in. I was supposed to do my 1st teeth cleaning a few weeks ago, but that fell through, because the cat had severe dental disease. We had to send her to a dental specialist.

This one is a go though. This time it isn't a cat. It's a dog (a Labrador Retriever). We're going to be treating her for hip dysplasia. I'm really excited! This will be great experience for me too.:)

Good luck!!! What time is your procedure? How much are you going to help? Will you be making the incision or closing up? I know you will do well!

Okey, I just learned how to bleed 50 ul in a hematocrit tube from the saphenous vein of a live awake mouse... The trick for me was to gently grip the mouse like a "snake hold" so that they merely accept their fate and proceed to get to the saphenous.

Interesting procedure... Now to do live retro-orbital bleeding...