Jungle Fever: The Summer I Spent Wrangling Coatis

Entry, Experiences
Lea Mehrkens, UC Davis

My field assistant in her make-shift mosquito netting

I spent the summer of 2011 in Monteverde, Costa Rica thanks to two research grants I received through UC Davis. I had lived there in 2007, when I studied abroad as an undergraduate, and had always wanted to return. I maintained contact with my professors in Costa Rica, and began brainstorming new research ideas after being accepted into veterinary school. It was with their help, along with my advisors in the Wildlife Health Center here at UCD, that I designed a research project investigating the prevalence of a zoonotic blood parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, in the white-nosed coati population of Monteverde.

My living experience this summer was something I’ll always remember. I stayed with a homestay family for two weeks and then was able to rent a “house” in the jungle from one of my professors.  I use the term “house” loosely, because she called it the “Casa de Higueron”, or house of the fig tree. The house was located underneath a giant fig tree, so when it rained or there was a breeze, stone-like figs pelted the tin roof, making it impossible to make phone calls, watch movies, or even talk to my research assistant. One of the many, many giant bugs around our houseWe also had several scorpions, tarantulas, wolf-spiders, cockroaches, and rats as roommates.  The fruit from this tree enticed countless butterflies and even some monkeys to pay us visits, so we couldn’t complain too much.

Click to read more ...

"Iron Lion Zion"

Entry, Creative Corner
Caitlin Majeczky, UC Davis

Acrylic painting

Winner, Experiences
Michelle Sanborn, writing as FARM Club Publicity Commissioner, UC Davis

In California, not many veterinary students are interested in a career in food animal medicine. Most students have very little food animal experience; many have never been to an actual farm or handled a large animal. The Food Animal and Reproduction Medicine (FARM) Club at UC Davis is the club that encompasses students with bovine, small ruminant, and swine interests. UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has about 130 students in each class. Each of the students must pick a species interest, which allows the student to focus their education in their 3^rd and 4^th year. There is an average of 3 students per year that track solely food animal medicine, though there are others who choose mixed animal. Even with the small number of students tracking food animal medicine each year, our club has many student members who are interested in learning more about food animals. We have a tight network with UC Davis students, California, agricultural organizations, food animal veterinary organizations, and local media and community that have led us to a huge victory for our small club. We would love to share our story with other veterinary students.

Click to read more ...

The Weight of a Heart

Winner, Life as a Vet Student and Overall Best Entry
Lea Mehrkens, UC Davis

Today I held a dog’s heart in my hands.

I did not hold a dog’s beating heart. I did not massage said heart back to life. This heart was from a dog who had been dead for five years. By the time I found this heart, it was an old, preserved specimen in a library of macabre, floating organs. It was one jar unceremoniously stacked amongst many. The label read, “Bernese Mountain Dog. 5 years, 2 months. Female.” I winced when I read the word “female”. This dog was a male. He was my dog.

I don’t know why I expected to recognize it right away, why I thought that there would be some reflection or semblance of the dog I loved and grew up with in that heart. There wasn’t. In fact, the only reason I found it was because I recognized my own name on the jar’s label. This was a shock in and of itself; as a first year veterinary student, you really don’t expect to find your name on a jar nestled in the depths of Pathology.

Click to read more ...

'A Turd Treatise' by Pickles da Goat

Honorable Mention, Foot in Mouth Disease
David Kim, UC Davis

Deep in a forest, where life was simple and free

A young monk sat, meditating under a tree

To an audience of gathered birds and bunnies

He asked with a tranquil smile, why is poop so funny?

 

As life is ever changing,

So too does a doody’s shape.

There’s cow pies, pellets, and pudding

Footlong logs, leaving mouths agape!

 

Or what of its colors of various hues

Drink some Hypnotiq and watch it turn blue

Sterco stains brown, c-phyll creates green

Add crack in your diet to give it some sheen!

 

And let’s not forget its wondrous smells

Eat and digest; soon, a surprise scent will dispel

Over 31 flavors from rankly rancid to sickly sweet

Baskin Robbins? Pshaw, them feces have you beat

 

Praises we sing of this divine inspiration

O humorous gods, how great is your creation

And that is why, my dear animal brethren

That to talk of turd is to speak of heaven!