Apologies in advance for any typos or misspellings in my posts! I think my old computer is finally reaching its end; my o, t, and y keys are not registering part of the time and I keep having to back up to fix things.
Anyway, phew! First week back is done, but man has it set up for a doozy of a semester! It feels like they're keeping everthing secret from us so I don't know what I'm going into until I'm in there, and then I have to figure it out on the fly
I did get my typodont, which is a fancy word for a realistic mouth model that will allow me to practice my instrumentation without torturing some poor soul if I mess it up at first
I'll also be taking my first radiographic images on Tuesday, also on a model called a DXTTR (pronounced like Dexter; it stands for Dental X-ray Teaching and Training Replica) so that no one has to be exposed to crazy amounts of radiation for us to practice. I'll see if I can get a picture of them to share (unless I do a truly terrible job, and then I might be too embarrassed to share
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Along with being a rather tough week from classes, it's been extra tough because a few of my older hens came down with various ailments that I was juggling dealing with while dealing with classes. Unfortunately, I did end up losing Rangi, Lydda, and Maisie this week.
Rangi's crop stopped emptying, and I think her advanced age (she would have been 13 in May) made the flush treatment for getting things moving again too harsh for her to tolerate. She passed away Friday morning after moving inside to a warm hospital cage a few days prior. She was a particularly tough loss because my niece absolutely adored her, and breaking the news to her after everything else that happened over the past few weeks was hard. I was able to let Rangi sit in my lap for a long time the evening before she passed, so hopefully she knew she was well loved and cared for even if I couldn't get her crop back up and running again.
Lydda just hadn't been herself for weeks, honestly. I realized mid week that she had lost a significant amount of weight, which is alarming particularly for that bird because she had always been my feathered stomach, but she didn't really have any other symptoms beyond that. She passed during the day yesterday.
Maisie went down very quickly, which unfortunately seems like a common trend in these Cochins if they pass younger. I noticed her not perching with the others around the middle of the week, and two days later she was gone before I'd even had the chance to find anthing wrong with her. I will have to make sure I'm selecting for longevity in my lines as I'm working with these birds. Wish I had a better picture of Maisie, but I think this is it.
I suspect Vivi, my last Marans hen, will be gone by this time next week because she also hasn't been well and I've been keeping an eye on her. And my last large Cochin, Caz, has been acting totally fine, but has some duskiness in her comb similar to what I've seen in birds whose hearts are starting to give out, so she may not be with us much longer, either.
This is the hard part of having so many old, old hens around.
The rest of the flock is thriving, however! Flint laid her first egg this week while I was at class, confirmed yesterday when she laid her second egg! Johnnycakes, who had been acting a bit iffy since starting to lay, is back to her usual and laying like a champ. Now all of the Easter-eggers (including the green queens) are laying, and Pudding is as well, so the last holdout of the corn crib gals is Chicha, who has shown absolutely zero signs of even approaching lay.
We're hunkered down at the moment because of the cold, but I do have just a few pictures of the birds from this past week to share!
Pudding left her egg like this on Monday, a total surprise because it wasn't even the equinox!
(She likes to lay her eggs next to the nest boxes instead of inside them for some reason
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An unnamed cockerel who seems a bit confused about this whole perching routine
Flinty preparing to lay her egg yesterday
I didn't get a great picture of this, but she kept taking pine shavings and flinging them over her shoulders on either side
Inara, Georgia, and Margot sitting together the other morning. Don't mind the big poo pile in the background, they all squeeze onto that ladder and poo all night there instead of sitting comfortably on their perch at night
