And there was rumen fluid sloshin everywhere...

Well I was going to write about a family I found on Facebook. I have been following their blog for the past month or two. I know it is just a blog, but I believe they are a truly amazing family. Their story is heartbreaking, and the idea of losing a loved one, especially my spouse, "too soon" is one of my greatest anxieties. Jenny writes that nothing in her life up to that point could have prepared her for her husband's death. None-the-less, her love, commitment, attitude, and faith are beyond inspiring.

I thought if I wrote too much about my feeling on that topic this entry would be much too heavy. So my activities of today will have to suffice.

I feel my words will not be vivid enough to explain the environment and if I post pictures there will be an uproar due to the inhuman treatment of animals (though there was not ANY inhuman treatment going on). Today we did a baseline tailhead fat biopsy on cannulated cattle. The cannulated cattle have large 'hole' on their side that allows direct access to many parts of their digestive system (they have four stomach type compartments). We will be infusing Arginine and CLA into one of these compartments.







This is not a picture of our cattle or our facilities, but this is a cannulated animal. Note the stopper.



Though the stress of getting everything ready for an event, such as this, is pretty great, I really enjoy getting out of the lab and working outside with the animals (even if they are stinky and boy are they). We ran 14 steers through the shoot to biopsy. It went really well despite the fact the lidocaine solution I made was not the right concentration, but a trip back to the lab and David's short jokes, made everyone (most importantly Dr. Smith) happy. Each time we work out at the "farm" I become more and more comfortable. I learn so much. Today, I learned how to draw blood from the the jugular vein. I would have gotten more practice, but our non-english speaking post-doc took over. Punk. That makes three blood draw techniques on living animals I know: rats eyes, pigs ears, and steer jugular vein. Woo fun! I wonder what will be next!

I mentioned the animals are smelly, but you get used to it. That is until the "rubber stopper" gets pulled out of the hole. Then you can see straight into the rumen and buckets full of rumenal fluid (a cross between vomit and poo) come sloshing out everywhere. Delicious! The guy helping us with the cattle did not seem too concerned and neither did the steer. He just picked the stopper up, being careful not to get sloshed on, and stuffed it back in with his bare hands. I'm sure he laughed at our inexperience and amazement.

Well that about sums up our day at the farm. We made it back by lunch and let me tell you, there's nothing like eating lunch smelling like cow poo. I would like to reassure everyone that the animals are treated very well. Especially the cannulated one's, because I'm sure they are a little pricey. And once your cannulated your cannulated. I have come a long way from that day when I asked Jim Bob the difference between a cow and a heifer, but I still have a long way to go for this all to be just another day at the office.