Where passion for animals, science, and medicine lives…
Ticks might be one of the original and best scuba divers I got my scuba diving certificate roughly around the same time as my driver’s license. Most days, I would rather commute by scuba than driving but that rarely works out for me. The French explorer Jacques Cousteau loved the ocean far more than I […]
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The Red Queen Hypothesis In the second chapter of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Alice encounters the Red Queen who personifies the archetypal chess piece. The Queen wishes to show Alice the chessboard which Alice realizes covers the entire world. The Red Queen says to Alice, “Now, here, you see, it takes all the […]
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You feel the need to climb and then to jump. It is dark, oppressively dark. You have a primal urge to climb, to feel the light upon your face. You find a nearby branch and begin to ascend. Climbing is easier than you remember it. You are faster, stronger than before. As you reach the […]
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Modern science has made some tremendous breakthroughs in the last century. Diseases that used to plague livestock have now been brought under control or eradicated completely. Only two infectious diseases can be considered completely eradicated: smallpox in humans in 1980, and rinderpest in ruminants in 2011. When a disease occurs in a geographic region, animal […]
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Differential Diagnosis The ACVPM exam is over, and you decide to reward your hard work with a relaxing night out. While at supper, you are drawn into a nearby conversation with fellow ACVPM candidates discussing a recent outbreak of abortions in local sheep and goats back home in Kenya. Some sick calves have been noted […]
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Some animals don’t poop Most everyone has heard of the Japanese book titled, “Everybody Poops.” It tackles the issue of shame that surrounds defecation but for the biologic record, is inaccurate. There are several species of animals that do not have an anus and even a couple that lose their anus – talk about shame! […]
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Ebola hemorrhagic fever Ebola hemorrhagic fever no longer exists as a mysterious disease in the jungles of Africa. It has once again reared its ugly head, this time moving into more populated areas. This becomes an emerging public health threat quickly. With the rate of human travel, an infected individual could be anywhere in the […]
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How much poo do you want to make? Sounds weird but this is an important evolutionary question. A food-to-poo ratio appears pre-set, but it isn’t. For instance, rabbits have such a short intestinal tract that they need to send their food through twice. And how is that accomplished? You guessed it, every rabbit eats their […]
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NOx is an EPA Criteria Pollutant We often abbreviate nitrous oxides as NOx, where the “x” implies varying numbers of atoms to collectively refer to several caustic molecules. Nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) stand as the most common NOx gases which lead to the formation of smog, tropospheric ozone, and acid rain. For […]
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