Lambing preparation

Nothing very interesting has happened as of late.  Here's the quick sum up:  I passed my first exams, classes run all day this semester it seems, the weather has gotten nicer, and I go lambing starting on Sat.

About two weeks ago we did our lambing practicals which was the first instance*; which is bound to be one of many; where I donned an OB glove.

 

These are the gloves that go up to your shoulder that are used to protect you during lambing/calfing or rectal palpation.

Here are some pictures of the ewes and newly born lambs.

There were three parts of the practical then a review.  The first part we talked about different scenarios that could happen while lambing and how we would handle them.  These scenarios included making sure the lamb got enough colostrum, how to foster, and castration/tail docking.  The next part showed us how to stomach tube, how to check for colostrum intake, and how to spot an ewe preparing for lambing.

*~*If you are the least bit squeamish, STOP READING NOW*~*

The last part was slightly disturbing but I can see how it helps us.  It involved a tub with a hole in the side, filled partially with water.  Attached to the outside of the hole was a plastic bag/tube which went into the tub, passing through the pelvic outlet of a salvaged sheep pelvis.  Inside the tub were two dead lambs.  The idea is that you take the lambs and position them in various ways and practice assisting the birth.

An example, although we had MUCH bigger ones that we worked with.

Now I understand the purpose of practicing but I'm a little unsure of why it had to be real lambs.  I think it would be fairly easy to make a realistic manikin instead.  There doesn't seem to be any reason I can think of why it had to be real dead lambs.  A manikin could easily be made that moves and weighs the same as a lamb.  

On Friday after class I leave for my 2 week lambing placement.  I will be 2 hours south-west of Edinburgh in a small town called Castle Douglas.  It's just a little down and to the left of Dumfries on this map.

View Larger Map

From the research I have done I will have no internet access. *gasp*!  If I have time between lambing shifts, studying and sleeping I will try to write some posts while I'm gone.  It will have to wait till I'm back home before I can post though.

That's all for now folks!

P.S.  I absolutely LOVE the pic I took of the lamb with the sun streaming in on the top of it's head.

* Technically it was the second.  The first time was during the sheep scanning, but that's not the same.  This would be the first time it was put on for the semi-intended purpose.

All I need is this receipt?

 

Today I decided, since it was probably my last chance for awhile, I would go and exchange my Canadian drivers license for a UK one.  Since Canada is considered a European union country (for some things), Canadians can pay £50 and hand over their Canadian license in exchange for a UK one.  Americans have to go through the whole system, writing a drivers test then do a driving test. 

I was trying to keep my additional driving certification and based on all the stuff on their website, their literature and the application that was possible.  So I filled out the application for the “Lorry” license, checked off the box for “I’m exchanging my non-UK license for a British one”, attached my picture and was all set.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is on the other side of town so I got to have the pleasure of driving across town.  When I walked in I was surprised to notice that it looked almost identical to the ones I have been inside in Canada.  A bunch of chairs in rows facing 6 windows with only 2 open.  Immediately inside the door was a button that you pressed to get a number.  All the numbers of people currently waiting are displayed on a large flat screen TV which has a scrolling display on the bottom that tells you the current time and the estimated wait.  When I got there the estimated wait was 8 minutes.

A lady employee (manager?) was trying to speed up the process by pulling the next person due up aside and getting them all set up with paperwork.  So of course I was the first person she did this to.  While everyone else was getting to sit down at the window and explain their situation to the person, I was standing holding my pile of papers trying to explain to this lady what I wanted all while feeling like she was just trying to rush me along.  She also didn’t know if I needed to just fill out the application for a lorry license or both that one and the regular car one.  Since she didn’t know and they aren’t the issuing authority she said she was going to call and ask.

She finally allowed me to go to a window, after I had shown her all my homework paperwork was completed.  Once I got to the window the lady then explained to the guy about me wanting to exchange my license and asked him if I needed to complete both applications or just the lorry one.  He also said he didn’t know and said she should call.  Apparently she hadn’t done that yet.  The guy explained that they aren’t the ones to issue the licenses, they are just a glorified post office for the applications.

The lady comes back after the phone call and tells me that even though everything else says I can, I can’t switch my Canadian “F" license for a lorry license here.  What would instead happen is I would be able to get an automatic car license with a provisional lorry license and I would have to do a driving test to get a full lorry license.  I would only be able to get an automatic car license unless I can show that I tested on a manual or I take a manual test.

I finally get through all this and the guy takes my applications.  In addition to the paperwork I also need to hand over my Canadian drivers license (which I won’t get back) and my passport (which they will mail back to me).  Plus I need to pay £50, oh and their debit/cash machine is down “so can you just drive to the nearby mall, walk all the way down it to find a bank machine and get cash?””

After doing that little unnecessary errand I drove back to the office and was glad that guy had told me to just wait for him to be free as the wait was now 28 minutes..  I handed over my applications, my £50, my passport and drivers license and was given this:

 

 

For the next 3 weeks (15 calendar days) other than my student card, this is my only ID.

Sheep Scanning

 

Farmers in the UK (and most likely in other countries) time their lambing season for when vet students are out of school.  In the UK this is because all vet students need to complete EMS placements – which are unpaid placements in various animals husbandry areas (sheep, cows, poultry, pigs, etc).  Animal husbandry is learning how to take care of the different animals including feeding, watering, cleaning and some reproductive aspects.  We need to complete 12 weeks of animal husbandry EMS before the end of Easter break in second year. 

So farmers time their lambing for easter break when vet students across the country can (cuz they have to) help out with the process of lambing.  Depending on a bunch of different factors some of these lambing placements are paid.

Now i’m off topic…Anyways, at this time of year the farmers want to know how many lambs each ewe is expecting because they feed them very specifically and it’s nice to know that there is still another lamb to go when the ewe is in labour.  Easter bush (the sheep farm) did sheep scanning (ultrasound) in mid January and an email was sent around to students asking if they wanted to help and watch.  “E” and I volunteered.

We started off with getting the ewes into the pens leading to the chute while the scanner guy got set up.  Once he “scanned” the ewe and determined how many lambs it was having it was marked and released and the next ewe went into the “crush”.  A crush can sound horrible, but really it’s just a box/crate that is about as wide as the animal and prevents them from going forward or backwards.  At Easter bush their marking scheme is as follows:

• Red on the back = single lamb
• Red on the head = bad…
• Blue on the back = twins
• Red and blue on the back = quads
• (blue on the shoulders mean that they were due earlier than the rest)

Now, as scanning dude (i’ll call him SD from now on) was setting up the group of us were watching him.  Most of us had never done anything similar and didn’t know how sheep scanning was done.  SD was wearing waterproof trousers over his pants, then he put on one of those gloves that goes all the way to your shoulder, then he added his waterproof jacket, then ANOTHER very long glove which he taped around the top to hold it up, then a latex glove, then completed his ensemble with a rubber apron.

The group of us chatted about what he was doing and how we thought this scanning might be done.  I made the comment that perhaps since he was gloving up and putting on so much protective clothing that maybe they did an internal ultrasound.  This girl – lets call her Ms. Gullible* – was like “wow! that makes sense, who would have thought.”**

E and I started off with helping to herd sheep into the chute and keeping them going as steady as we could since SD only needed about 10-20 seconds to determine the lambs in each ewe.

At the beginning of the chute, at the “bottleneck” so to speak.

 

 

Looking down the chute towards where the scanning was taking place.

 

 

A nice Suffolk posing for the camera.

 

SD had a container that looked like a pressurized fertilizer can that you would carry around while spraying your lawn.  Every once in a while he would pump it a couple of times and carry on.  I asked him about it and he said it contained ultrasound gel and the pressure would automatically pump the gel through the tube and down to the ultrasound wand. 

Most of the group rotated around helping with the different aspects of the day.  They needed people to keep the ewes moving – both at the bottleneck before the chute as well as along the chute because some didn’t want to go.  Two people to mark the ewes, and there was always the allure of watching the ultrasound screen to see if you could figure out what the blurry imagines meant.

Here’s an example:

Not a great picture, I pulled it off a video I took as I didn’t want to distract SD with the camera flash.  In the above picture there is one lamb laying sideways just above and to the left of the white half circle at the bottom.

Here’s a video of the procedure.  You’ll notice that I wasn’t kidding when I said he only needed about 10-20 seconds per ewe.  The first ewe was so glad to be out you’ll see she leaps from the crush.  The first ewe takes a little longer, but that’s because SD is explaining the image to the students watching.

 

 

So…about 10 ewes into the process I had figured out that indeed this was an external ultrasound.   Further confirming my updated assumption was the design of his ultrasound transducer.  It looked like the one below, and the cylindrical part on the end rotated.

 

Here’s a couple of the scanned ewes to show you their new markings.

 

Once we had made it through all the ewes housed indoors it was time to do the gimmers.  A gimmer is a ewe from 1st shearing to 1st lambing.  The gimmers are currently housed outside in the field.  The Sheppard went out with one of the border collies and rounded up the sheep and brought them in.  Because the gimmers haven’t gone through this experience before and are younger they are a little feistier.

 

After about 2 hours we were finally through all the ewes and had the last ewe still in the crush.  At this point the SD asked if any of us wanted to take a go at it.  A couple of us jumped at the chance, myself included.   This is where Ms. Gullible comes back into the picture.

So Ms. Gullible sits down after gloving up and is handed the probe by SD.  SD was nice enough to sit/crouch behind us to assist us and to help by taking our hand and placing it in the right place and right angle.

I find out later that Ms. Gullible at this point still doesn’t realize this ISN’T an internal ultrasound. 

Now Ms. Gullible tells me at this point she was looking at her hand, holding this probe, AND SD’s hand would be over hers – all together making what she believed would be a lot of stuff to “insert” to do this ultrasound.  She believed that this was why some of the ewes jumped as they left the crush as they were so glad it was over.  Not to mention that the ultrasound probe had that rotating head.

So Ms. Gullible takes her hand and places it between the ewes back legs and is getting into position to insert it. 

SD quickly says “that’s a little too high!”. 

Ms Gullible now thinks - *Ah, I must not have been low enough for the vagina, must have been up around the rectum.  I’ll just lower my hand and get ready again…*

At this point SD clues into what she is attempting to do, takes her hand and says “Nah!, I don’t think she’d appreciate that” (while winking at the Sheppard) and guides her hand down and to the underside of the abdomen.

*snicker snicker snicker*  Needless to say, it was pretty darn funny!!

 

• * May or may not be her real name. (and it WAS NOT me!)
• ** This story may or may not be exaggerated.

O Christmas Tree

My flat is the perfect size for me, but with a tree it might get a little crowded.  Plus a tree would cost money to have and decorate and since i’m a poor student that wasn’t a good idea either.  My Mom suggested a great idea.  She suggested I paint a tree on the big window I have.  So that’s what I’ve done. 


I thought at the same time I would show you the steps I took to make it.  I used acrylic paint since it will come off easily when I want to remove it.  I’ll apologize now for some of the pictures.  They are blurry because it’s hard to take a picture of a window.


Step one:   I took green and mixed it with brown for the darker shades and a little white for the lighter shade.  Then I just painted a tree mimicking the branches.  For the trunk I used brown mixed with black, and then mixed with white for the lighter part.

Step Two: Add lights, just like you were decorating a real tree.

Step Three: Garland next.  I forgot to take a picture with just the garland added. 
Step Four: I outlined the ornaments using the top of a pop can as a stamp.  I also added some ornaments with the copper color.

Step Five:  I filled in the ornament balls with white since I was going to shade them in color.

 




Step Six: Filled in the ornaments with some color.
Step Seven: I added the reflections of the “lights” into the ornaments.
Step Eight: Add Star. (and yes, I made that too.)

Here’s my finished tree:
At Night.

 

During the day:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

How do Canadians Rock? Let me count the ways...

 

This is the main street by the school today.

In case you haven't seen the news, Edinburgh is currently experiencing "arctic conditions" and "extreme weather" conditions.  To us Canadians, it's a regular day in the winter, probably Jan type snow.  Not too cold, the "arctic conditions" is 0C to -7C so far.  We have about a foot of snow in my area and more or less in others.  It does have a few ice layers within it.

 (See the snowman village out there?)

For the last 3 days I listened and cringed at those in my apartment complex getting stuck on the hill (~10 degree slope).  When they get stuck they hold their gas pedal down and rev the engine.  Not only is this extremely ineffective it also makes the hill ice for everyone else.

Today I desperatly needed groceries.  So I went down to dig my car out of the foot of snow it was buried under.  Did I mention that they don't plow parking lots here?  Now it should have been a clue when I was out shopping just before "winter" had started and I saw ice scrapers everywhere by no snow brushes; it's apparent now.  So armed with my plastic dust pan (the closest thing to a shovel I have) I headed to my car. 

First thing that was obvious when I was outside was a guy just uphill of my car stuck and another guy helping to push him out.  I started digging out my car while watching them struggle.  He was also following the "i'm stuck, hold the gas down" ineffective strategy.  After getting tired of watching and listening to "rrrrRRRRR, rrrrRRRRR".  I walked over and told them that it might be better to try rocking the car.  After explaining I was from Canada and was use to the snow of course.  I was going to offer to push but after they completely disregarded any of my advice there was no way I was going to potentially hurt myself by helping them.  So I went back to my car.

Another 5 minutes or so went by and he was still stuck but I noticed that they were starting to rock the car.  (hhhmpft!)  They finally got the car back into the parking space and were giving up trying to get it free.  Then they started questioning why I was cleaning my car off.  I explained that I needed to go shopping.  The guy looked at me and said "you must be brave after seeing what I just went through".  I laughed and said this is nothing.  Both guys then disappeared.

I admit it did take a while to free my car and it involved a few times of getting stuck, cleaning out packed snow and moving forward and back a bit BUT I got it free.  And not only did I get it free I made it up the hill no problem and went on my way shopping.

Here's the parking lot at the mall.  Compared to Canada this is a disgrace!  Parking spots filled with snow and piles of snow.

I ran into a few chatty people in the store and the subject of the weather always came up and they were all astonished that I had not only gotten my car dug out but had DRIVEN it to the mall.

I finished my shopping and loaded up the car and headed home.  I pulled into my driveway; drove down the hill with no problem around the bottom of the building and BACKED UP the back hill so that I could pull into a parking spot with my nose pointed out all ready for future snow fall.

So how to Canadians Rock?
1. dug out own car by myself.
2. didn't give up!
3. got car unstuck
4. drove to mall
5. drove back from mall
6. parked
7. IN REVERSE!!

 

Yeah, Eh!

And then there were two...

So my home-made live mouse trap has still not caught my intruder.  I'm pretty convinced that it doesn't spend all of it's time here.  Once I catch sight of it and see it; for example when I pulled out the bottom drawer and found it in the drawer, I don't see it again for a few days.

Once again I was sitting at my computer when I saw the blur of grey by the bird cage.  Thinking I could catch this mouse by hand into a plastic container I went after it.  I know where it hides, the bottom drawer.  I yanked open the drawer...

Even though I'm not scared of mice, when I saw this:

I admit, I screamed like a little girl.  Now if someone had been recording what happened next I may have been able to win on America's Funniest Videos.  As I screamed and tried to get my mind functioning again, the two mice sprung out of the drawer.  One leapt contorting it's body as it did so, hit the floor running and disappeared around the corner of the door towards my living room.  The other leapt straight up, contorting it's body as well, hit the ground upside-down, then ran in the opposite direction with me following right behind.  It hit the wall under my radiator like a car hitting a wall.  Regained it's footing and ran under my bookshelves.  Now I'm ripping stuff away from the bottom of the bookshelves looking for it.

So now I know there are two mice in my flat (at least some of the time).  Now the chance of having more appear has increased considerably.  Now it's war.

I made a second live trap, it's much simpler than the first.  It's a toilet paper tube folded flat on one side which hangs off a ledge, with peanut butter on the hanging edge.  The idea is that the mouse enters the tube to get the bait and the weight of the mouse tips the mouse off the ledge into a waiting bucket.

I have also admitted partial defeat to this wise, intelligent Scottish mice.  I went and bought a live mouse trap as well.  All are set and I wait to see what's there when I get home tonight.

A Mouse in the House

I live in a 6 story complex, on the 5th floor (4th level if you are from here).  According to my Mom this means that I didn't see a mouse the other day.  But let me start from the beginning.

On Tues evening I was in the kitchen and out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of grey and a swish of a tail before it disappeared under my fridge.  I wasn't convinced at what I saw.  I should add that I didn't jump or startle, but that's from working at Wild at Heart in the beginning when we had a mouse problem.  I'll save that story for another day.

In case I wasn't just seeing things I decided to build a homemade live trap.  It's a fairly simple concept.  You get a deep bucket (or something similarly shaped), a piece of wire that is long enough to hang over the edges of the bucket, a pop can or bottle and something to build a ramp out of.

You poke the wire through the pop bottle lengthwise and lay that over the top of the bucket.  Then build a ramp up to the edge of the bucket.  To bait it you simply put peanut butter on the bottle; I'm told that this is the best mouse bait.  Here's my set up:

Everything I have read and been told has stated that peanut butter is the best attractor for mice; after 3 days of having the trap set I was not convinced.  Now I was starting to wonder if I had imagined seeing it.


Last night I was sitting at my desk labeling photos of animal skulls for my anatomy workbook.  I usually have a TV show or movie playing on my computer as background noise but I was currently between videos.  Kaitee (my senegal parrot) was half sleeping on her cage when I heard a very quiet crunch.  I thought - I know that noise, that's a rodent chewing!  I stared at the cage watching Kaitee to make sure that it wasn't her that made the noise.

I heard it again!

I went over to the cage and pulled everything out from underneath it, searched through the box of toys I have underneath it, and...nothing.  Hmmmpft.  Now I'm starting to question my sanity, maybe I didn't see a mouse, maybe it was Kaitee grinding her beak that I heard.

But then I heard it again.  So I pulled everything out from under the cage and emptied the toy box.  Still nothing.  Then I heard it again, this time since I was standing so close I was certain it wasn't Kaitee.  Kaitee who at this point was actively watching me very closely.

I pulled the small drawer unit that is beside the cage out and...

in the corner of the room was a little grey mouse.  Now in case it isn't obvious the picture above is not a picture of the actual mouse.  I saw it long enough to get a description but not long enough to catch it before it ran out of the room.  It was facing the corner happily chewing a seed, unaware that I had just removed the drawer unit it was hiding behind.  It must have sense the change because it glanced over it's shoulder threw the seed down and took off.

So my trap remains set.  I added the sunflower seeds since this mouse seems to prefer them and I wait.

Neither snow nor rain nor sleet nor dark of night

You should have recognized that as the postman's creed- 

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

 Here they have added a bit nor sufficient postage.  Allow me to contrast the Canadian system as I know it to the Scottish system as I know it.

Canadian Post
If you don't put sufficient postage on an envelope it gets returned to the sender immediately.  As the sender you have defaulted the original postage as it's been "used".  You then put the correct postage on the envelope and mail it again.

Royal Mail
As explained to me by the guy at my local mail depot, so I can't guarantee this is completely accurate.  If you mail a letter here with insufficient postage it still gets sent.  The receiver gets a notice that they have a letter to pick up.  In order to pick up their letter they have to pay the difference between the postage already paid and the actual postage required.  As well there is a one pound administration fee added.  The mail depot holds the letter for 3 weeks and if it is not picked up it gets returned to the sender.  I'm not sure if then the sender would have to pay anything.  If there isn't a return address on the envelope it goes to a holding depot where they open it and attempt to find a return address that way.

I found this out when I was picking up a package from the depot and the gentleman ahead of me had to pay a 1.10 pounds for a birthday card. 

The Milking Experience

On Thursday our practical was milking at Langhill Farm.  The practical that I had been looking forward to since school started.  Everyone who had already done it had told me that it was messy and that they had to duck flying poo and swinging tails covered in poo.  Yet I was still anxious to do it.
Standard procedure once you get to either farm; Langhill (dairy cattle) or Easter Bush (sheep), you put on “waterproofs” and “wellies”.  (Translation: waterproof shirt and pants and rubber boots.)  Then we are broken down into smaller groups.  This week we were broken down into groups for milking, cattle handling, weighing and condition scoring and sheep handling. 
The milking parlour is a 28:28 Herringbone parlor.  It holds 28 cows at a time and milks them with it's 28 milking units.  In contrast there are parlours that hold 28 cows but only have 14 milking units.

First the layout of the parlor.

Aerial view.




Here's an example of a very clean, high tech milking parlour.  The keypads are the computerized milking units.

The cows are moved from the field or cow shed and into the collecting yard just behind the milking parlor.  Here they can become impatient and push at the milk gate trying to be the first in. 

Here's an example of the receiver (blue part) that they pass through before entering the parlour.  This identifies the cow for the milking machine and automatic concentrate feeder.

Each machine has it’s own milking cluster.

 

Now the process

The cows are herded into the collecting yard then let into the milking parlor 14 per side.  As they pass through the blue curtains they are identified.  The machines know by the identification number of the cow what their normal daily yield is and will alert you if you need to hold their milk from the bulk tank.  Reasons for not putting their milk into the bulk tank are if they have antibiotics in their system or they have just calved and you want the colostrum for the calves.
Once the cows are in the parlor you start with a dry wipe of the teats.  This is apparently the best way to prevent bacteria in the milk.




Then you attach the cluster which to reach the front teats requires that you lean right in. Sometimes the cows get antsy and kick their feet around a bit.  So you have to watch for that.





As the cows are being milked the feed troughs automatically feed the cow concentrate to supplement them for the amount of milk they are giving. It's a very fine line; they want to feed them enough for them to produce the milk but not too much that they gain weight.

At langhill the clusters are automatically removed.  They sense the decrease in milk flow past a set point and let air into the unit.  By doing this the suction is broken and the cluster falls off, at the same time there is a retractable cord that the machine winds up so that the cluster is pulled up behind the cow.  Some of the cows know that they are done and start to kick their back feet around.  At this point you can gently tug on the cluster to remove it if the cow hasn't done so already.

After the cluster comes off the teats are then sprayed with iodine to prevent infection.


In case you didn’t know, cows are indiscriminate poopers**.  They poop and pee whenever and wherever they feel like it, including during milking.  If you didn’t notice in the milking parlor picture you are standing 2 feet lower than the cows.  This puts their floor at mid-thigh to waist level.  This means that when they poop or pee it splatters and that means it splatters on YOU.  They are also really great at using their tail as a poop flinging device.  So at some point during the experience you will get poop on you.  Hopefully it hits the waterproofs and not your face.


Here is the reason Holstein-Friesian cows are black and white.



And where does condensed milk come from?

hehehehe.



**I’m borrowing this term from a friend.

A Thousand Words.

I was going to tell you about my awesome (early) Christmas present, but figure maybe I should actually use it before telling you about it.  So for now you have to wait.
Instead I shall share some pictures with you.  All are pictures that I took, so please no stealing! 

Sheep at Easter Bush

 































Heading out to the fields.

Cows!

Well the first two are calves…



I love the expression on this guy.


























Did you call?












 
Stopping on the way to the milking parlour to pose.












Everyone heading to the milking parlour.

Driving

 
One of the reasons it’s so confusing to drive here.  This is a street corner, notice the two signs pointing away from each other both say “Warriston Crematorium”.










Reason two: Notice the lights…showing green and red at the same time, plus multiple lights to pay attention to.

Shopping

You might have to click on this one to see it better.  There is a guy holding a sign that points to an checkout that is open or has less people waiting.  What a job!










I find this card hilarious.  In case you can’t read it:

“Leopards are easily spotted.  Just fill in the white circles with black ink.”

Sights

     
Edinburgh Castle.  The stands in front are for the Military Tattoo.











On the shores of Fife.  When my Mom and I first got to this spot the tide wasn’t in.  These waves are the result of the tide coming in and I managed to catch the wave breaking as well as the dogs reaction.

Scotland Weather

I shall end my picture showing with a picture that I feel shows the weather here perfectly.  I took this picture after a short shower from my balcony overlooking a park.  This is the complete image, no cropping, Photoshop or editing in any way has occurred.