#WednesdayWisdom

The number of people donating their bodies to science has doubled in the last ten years because funeral costs are so high, and most schools will cremate the donated body when they are done and return it to the family at no cost.

Howdy, Dr.!  I’ve been “surprised” with news that I may be receiving a basset hound puppy sometime before the end of the year. It’s a good surprise and I’m really excited. I’ve only ever been adopted by full grown street dogs/strays, and have little (read: no) experience raising a pure bred puppy..! I’ve been consuming as much literature as I can about these dogs and wanted to know what your experience with them as a vet has been! Also, if you don’t mind sharing–what’s your personal opinion on the ethics of this breed? I know breeds with extreme anatomy can be super dodgy, and in some cases, pretty unethical due to a decreased quality of life caused by the traits that have been bred into them (ie: pugs).  A lot of what I’m reading is recommending things to look out for/avoid in  regards to the “breed standard”–but I’m having a hard time finding things to look out for/avoid from a veterinary/health perspective.  This is a lot of questions… so I’ve included a sketch for you (of you?), as tax! :D Cheers!!

Submitted by @painted-bees

Mate, you have no idea how close I was to rage quitting Tumblr a few hours before this submission came in. Thank you, it’s beautifully done.

You get to skip the queue.

The breed is fairly uncommon, especially compared to the more popular beagle and dachshund, but there are a few things worth noting from a veterinary perspective.

These dogs are deep chested enough to be able to develop Gastric Dilatation Volvulus, aka ‘bloat’. This is important to remember because if a dog’s stomach twists on itself, cutting off the oesophagus and blood supply, then you don’t have a lot of time to get it to surgery if it’s going to survive. GDV is typically thought of as a ‘big dog’ disease, but Basset Hounds aren’t really little dogs, they’re just short dogs.

Most dogs of this breed that I’ve encountered have been through emergency, due to Intervertebral Disc Disease, much like our friend the dachshund. These dogs racked up a vet bill of thousands of dollars to be able to walk again. 

The breed is well known for having excess skin, and many individuals will have excessive skin on their face, resulting in eyelids that either roll inwards (Entropion) or outwards (Ectroption). I have a pet hate for bad eyes, and having fury skin that rubs on the eyeballs from entroption is one definition of ‘bad eyes’. Picking dogs that have neat eyelids is highly advisable, otherwise this structural issue will require surgery to correct.

The loose eyelid skin also seems to predispose to cherry eye, or prolapse of the 3rd eyelid gland. Again, surgery would generally be required. 

The osteochondrodysplasia that gives this breed its short legs also leaves them prone to elbow dysplasia , as well as IVDD above.

The big floppy ears, a distinctive feature of the breed, and the extra skin around its neck frequently leave these dogs prone to skin and ear infections. While they can be reduced a little with careful maintenance the more skin flaps the dog has, the more issues you would expect.

As for the ethics of this breed, like many things my concerns come down to the extremeness of morphology. The dog in the gif above is a fairly moderate example of a Basset hound, but the dog pictured below…

(Image from Wikipedia)

… is not so much. The excessive skin provides no benefit to the dog, if it gets any lower and saggier then this individual is going to be dragging its willy along the ground, and I have seen a couple of dogs that have a permanent ventral chest/abdominal rash because they drag on the ground. This is worse if the dog becomes obese, which is more common in dogs that can’t exercise due to joint or spinal disease, which are both common in this breed.

The ethical issues in breeding these dogs are broadly the same for any other breed, aesthetics should not be prioritized over health and function of the dog and ‘line breeding’ shouldn’t be encouraged.

RWBY Art Challenge Day 8: An Antagonist

Shhhhh I know it’s late…and out of order but I promise I did start it on the right day I just got…sidetracked *sideways glance at Willow *

Emmett was influenced by Beauty And The Beast

So I talked about this before but I reblogged it only the back of another post and I’ve decided to just make my own post about it.

We’ve all seen this cursed picture

And we’ve all thought “why the hell does he have a bag of several hard boiled eggs????”

Well I’m here to tell you exactly why.

So my head cannon is this:

The humans at school were confused by Emmett. They were confused by all the cullen kids because they never ate, but ESPECIALLY Emmett. How can he be so buff if they’ve never even seen him bring food to school? He deals with this issue for decades. Eventually he sees Beauty and the Beast(probably in theaters in 1991). He didn’t relate to Gaston because Gaston hates women, but the second Gaston sang “When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large and now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs so I'm roughly the size of a barge” something clicked for him. Since then he brings large amounts of hard boiled eggs with him to school. If anyone ever gets the courage to ask why he has so many eggs he bursts into that bit of the song. People learn that it’s just easier to not ask the Cullens about their dietary habits. They still think the Cullens are weird and don’t eat enough, but they’ll never one of them about it to their faces ever again. After all, who knows what kind of weird shit Alice will sing if they prompt her with this question.

Fancy cat

R.I.P. Thuy Trang (December 14th, 1973 - September 3rd, 2001)

There’s a lot I could say, but I’ll keep it short and sweet.

In a way, Thuy Trang will live on forever in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. She will continue to inspire and move people and keep making them laugh and smile–amongst other beautiful things.

There’s many reasons to appreciate Thuy Trang and her character Trini Kwan. The chemistry she had with the entire cast from “Day of the Dumpster” to her final appearance is just one of them–and the inspiration behind this set. <3

Holding my breath,

In hope you’ll return.

Finish Your Antibiotics

I’m sorry, this isn’t Jojo at all but I think I’ve had it for today. As a pharmacy tech, I’m tired of hearing “Well, I started to feel better so I didn’t finish them.” I always knew this but now as a Molecular and Cellular Biology major, I not only know why but how. If you’re willing to heed my advice from the title, good; be on your way. If you need to know more, keep reading.

It’s widely known–to some extent–that not completing a regiment of antibiotics can result in resistant bacteria, or even super bacteria.

But in an infection, you already have resistant bacteria lurking. Not taking antibiotics doesn’t literally create resistant bacteria. So how, then, do the antibiotics take care of the resistant ones?

A lot of antibiotics aren’t bacterialcidal: They don’t actually kill them. Many inhibit growth by some mechanism depending if the bacterium is gram negative or gram positive. For example, penicillin inhibits growth by disrupting the formation of a peptidoglycan layer on gram positive bacteria. Others target the LPS layer on gram negative ones. This keeps the non resistant bacteria at bay. So what kills the resistant ones? Your immune system. Antibiotics buy time and energy for your immune system to recognize and destroy the resistant strains. Your immune system is intelligent in that sense and can form antibodies for new illnesses. It’s important to give your immune system this time because bacteria grow, mutate, and transfer genetic material at astonishing rates. If you wanted to look at a microcosm of the mechanics that go into evolution, you’ve got it with bacteria. 

There are three methods aside from binary fission in which they transfer genes (I won’t get into the minutia of the form of informational material): Transformation, transduction and conjugation.

In transformation, a bacterium can pickup lost genes from a ruptured and dead cell.

Transduction is a way to transfer information via a viral vector.

In conjugation, genes are transferred through something called a pilus: It’s a bridge between two cells that pipes a copy of the information from one cell to another receptive cell and is the only method that doesn’t involve killing either cells. Resistant bacteria like to give around that resistance information like they’re burning a CD for their friends.

So please finish your antibiotics if you’ve been given them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve started to feel better or even great. Finish them.

(Hey science people, If I’ve missed anything or even got something wrong, help me out. There’s obviously lengthy stuff I’ve left out but I think I got the basics).