1/4/18
Day 9
Woke up at 3:30 in the morning. Okay jokes, 3:50 I finally dragged my butt up and clothed myself lol. We drove to a Mennonite village, but like the bougie ones, and saw a dairy farm. It was still dark when we got there, I think all of us passed out in the van lol. Two pups greeted us and then an cute old man. He showed us the feeding slots and poured molasses across the feed. Then into the shed, we saw the babies which were so shy. And the equipment to milk the cows. We all got to try milking the cow and it was so cool (does that sound dumb lol) but like I’ve never milked a cow before so lol, only goats – love goats lol. The worker and the old man explained how they use iodine before milking on the teats to make sure not to spread infection and germs from cow to cow, and they really vigorously washing the milking machines and their boots and all too. It was interesting to see the coral and how they trail of gates worked for the cows. He showed us the California mastitis test too to see if and which teat has mastitis. He got a milk sample from each teat and then poured some purple liquid into each circle, and while swirling you could tell the ones that got thicker were the infected milk ones.
Sleeping on the way back and passing out for some time, we then got breakfast. Fruit and coffee was definitely enough for this day but I am dumb so lol. We went to the AI farm afterwards and all got a chance to stick our hand inside a cow. We worked with Brangus cows, so they weren’t that aggressive, but still getting them into the corral? with their head in the gate thing was kind of an aggressive situation on the humans part. Obviously that’s really the only way to do it and cows are kind of dumb, I was just like lol oh because I’m really not used to working with cows. And I’m always scared I’m gonna get kicked lol. After talking about the anatomy and how palpation worked, we gloved up and lubed up with some mineral oil, and then we stuck our hands up some cow butts. Just sitting in a cow palpating her cervix, no biggie. It was really really cool, and I kinda felt really warm inside the cow while outside it was really cold, but I also feel like I was being sucked in by a black hole lol. I had a hard time feeling anything, all I felt was poop lol.
To get to the place where we were going to have lunch, we had to cross a huge pulley ferry, and with the van, the river was beautiful. As we were leaving, another car came zooming by and then rolled up the side of the hill. The guys’ brakes didn’t work so he swerved off into the side, and wasn’t sure what to do. Ruben gave him a hand and hooked up his car to the van while they steered and Ruben drove up the road some. Yay for Ruben :))) We soon pulled up to some gas station, that was literally like a mall. I was so confused. The restaurant was upstairs and the food was so good omg. The three Rutgers girls, Danielle and Giulia and I turned the pulled ferry on the way back to Midas.
After changing out of our scrubs, we went to Xunantunich. The pyramids were cool and we got really amazing pictures. and cute group pictures. We climbed all the way to the top of El Castile, the biggest one, and the view was amazing. We could see Guatemala! We also saw some Howler monkeys and a banana tree hahahaha (apparently they grow like weeds here? according to the guide. They also each only have one bushel of bananas each tree). We went to the markets after and I got a cute cow backpack and a few other souvenirs.
We went bat trapping right after at this beautiful resort. The ranchers essentially used the horses as bait and set up mesh wire fences around to catch bats. Vampire bats apparently fall a couple feet away from the horse on the ground and then crawl up the horse and bite and drink blood. No one really understood that we were essentially killing the bats until the car ride there. Though it makes sense, it was kinda like a huh moment. We got lucky and got a cute little SCARY looking one on the first check. The rancher painted his back with warfarin, a rat poison, and then put him in a bag. Essentially, they are supposed to be released. And since they are social animals that groom, that poison would be ingested and then spread to multiple more bats. We waited in the lobby, had some drinks, and tried again but there weren’t any.
AND THEN, Dr. T got an emergency call so we skidadled out of there and back to the clinic. There was a parvo puppy just leaving, and a C-section emergency! We all assisted in the surgery, the dog was in labor for a long time and struggling, and the surgery was also a spay. She was a pretty brindle, only a year old, and so her first pregnancy. She only had one pup, but he was BIG. And that’s why she was having trouble passing him. I think her birth canal wasn’t big enough? from what Dr. Stephanie said. It was a really difficult process, and the puppy didn’t make it in the end. They decided to have him buried at the ranch. It was so breathtaking to see though. Afterwards they sutured her back up, and WOW Ruben is fast at suturing like omg. Ruben is faster than Dr. T lol. I carried her to the towel and got blood all over my arm but it was fine. She woke up fine and went home with her parents.
We then headed back to Midas, but Giulia and I forgot our stuff and Danielle just stayed back in the car as well. We picked up our stuff, and then dropped Dr. Stephanie off at home, and then picked up Lorena and Zamir, and then Ruben all of a sudden was like lets go to the club Thirsty Thursday, and all of us Rutgers students were like HELL YA LOL. We had been wanting to go for so long, and so even though we had been up until 3am, we went. And it was fun and cute and great. No one was really there, but we each bought a round and got drunk and danced and initiated Lorena into Rutgers LOL and it was great. We got back and walked back to our cabanas and finally passed out.
It was a jam jam packed day, but it was great and definitely one of my favorites.
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