Toxicity and other ramblings
| May 21, 2012 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
1. Toxicology, or, “everything can kill your pet so give up now”
Toxicology started off like this:
“mmm….I have that plant in my pasture…and that one….and that one….and that one. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that in my hay. I’m positive that my dog has at some point eaten that. OMG they are all going to die!!!!!!”
Merged into this:
“Let’s see here. Studying tox and how to treat. mmm…..supportive care and prayer, supportive care and prayer….oh goodie –> if I have a cow that has eaten a nitrite thingy I can give it methylene blue.
And ended like this:
“Oh look. Tess *may have consumed a partial bottle of fuel additive that claims to clean injectors. Oh well. She seems fine. I guess I should look up the MSDS. No tox info. She’ll be fine (and well lubricated!)”.
*empty bottle found in backseat floor boards because I forgot to actually use it. Cap was off, bottle empty, no oily stuff on the carpet. Tess spends time in the car during boot fittings without supervision….
We can contrast this to her consuming a single out-of-the-box red velvet cupcake and me immediately doing an exposure assessment and contemplating inducing emesis (never mind the fact that any cake mix that must add red food coloring to get the “red” in a red velvet probably doesn’t spring for anything resembling real, significant chocolate content.
How far I have fallen.
What I’ve learned in tox can be summed up like this: lots of stuff that looks like food can kill your animal. Lots of stuff that looks like scary chemicals is perfectly harmless.
2. My version of putting a picture on my mirror.
Please forgive the lighting –> it would have been inappropriate to ask the professor to increase the lightening during the lecture while I took the photo…..
This is one of the pictures I adore, and some day, me and Farley will do it again.
We will ignore the fact that I wanted to cry when I saw her the other day –> she’s dropped weight again, probably because I’m not riding her and she’s just standing around (her appetite is stimulated when she’s moving around, she has PLENTY of hay in front of her), her butt and shoulder muscles are GONE and there’s no top line. I worked on not panicking and reminded myself that oil+beetpulp/stable mix+regular riding does wonders and it’s the journey that counts, not the fact that I have a scrawny ugly nag and just because she looks thin does NOT mean she’s going to drop dead like Minx did. No siree –> me and Farley can get into shape together and I’ll lose weight while she gains it and everything will be A-OK (and if I’m being an ostrich and sticking my head in the sand, I don’t want to be told that just yet).
I sat down last night and put together a summer schedule for us both and I hope that this means I have FINALLY gotten my act together. If so, it’s only taken a FREAKIN’ YEAR!!!!!!! I blame it on the lack of backpacking. And loss of income. And a little thing called VET SCHOOL.
OK – deep breath.
3. And now, I want to talk about YOU, my dear READER
When I write posts, the Reader is always first and foremost in my mind. I am writing FOR YOU, my dear Reader. These posts are never (OK –> rarely) intended as personal journal-like ramblings. So it’s not like I’m totally naive to the fact that you are actually a REAL person, reading this blog, and (of course) making judgements and decisions about me based on what I write.
BUT, it’s always insanely weird to me when my friends from “real every day life” remind me that they read my blog.
Somehow I forget that The Reader = people who are not my family that actually know me in real life and aren’t necessarily other bloggers.
I usually stop, do a nervous giggle, and then frantically wrack my brain to see what embarrassing, self-revealing subject I’ve posted on recently.
The “Going Commando” seems to be a rather popular one for my friends to point out……in which case I combine my nervous giggle with a reassurance that I AM wearing underwear for whatever important, public event that we happen to be at……
I’m flattered that you’all are reading and I constantly amazed at the perfectly normal, amazing, talented people that actually read this blog. Especially those of you that know me in real life –> extra koodoos to you that put up with me here AND in real life!
You make me smile.
And, I love your desktop photo.
Great post, Mel. Really made me smile. I love your blog. I am currently looking at what I’m pretty sure is deadly nightshade in my horse corrals and thinking, I should pull all this up and get rid of it. The horses never eat it. Its been here for oh, maybe twenty years. But every now and then I think, well, they COULD eat it.
By the way, acorns are said to be bad for horses and my horses eat them every fall when they fall off the oak trees in the corrals. After twenty years here, I’ve yet to see a bad result from this–the horses get fatter and shinier, that’s all (knocking on wood).
You guys are so kind. I crack myself up writing my posts so it’s nice to hear that’s how they are received.
Btw I went and rode today and she’s not as skinny as I thought. Just lost all her muscle mass so she looks so much smaller than she did. Got a decent dressage session including canter so we havent lost technique — just fitness.
My desktop is my Christmas card pic – Dixie wearing the wreath on her neck? 🙂
It is neverendingly weird to have In Real Life Blog Readers. I promise to never ask you about the state of your nethers (unless we’re actually training or endurance riding together! then it’s fair game!)
Of course!!! We have to know whether we have to warn onlookers before stripping off those tights before the paramedics cut them off!!! That’s need to know info ’bout your ride partner IMO….
Someone (you, you’re better at lists) should write up a handy checklist of Stuff To Ask One’s Riding Partners In An Emergency. “Where do you keep your insurance card?” and “who should I call on your cell phone?” is pretty obvious, but “are those irreplaceable tights?” is something I might not think to ask! I mean, what if I let the paramedics cut off your last pair of old-style Tropical Riders – you’d never forgive me!