Today started out like any other day. I got up early, managed to lose track of time, ended up racing out to the bus, and made it to the stop just in time. We started with bacteriology lecture at 7:45 am which is a rather ungodly time to learn about Bacillus and Brucella. Luckily, it’s a “clicker class.” That means we all have wireless remotes that allow us to answer multiple-choice questions in class for extra credit. For some reason, the opportunity to get extra points just for showing up and guessing well is quite compelling. I learned that you should not contract Bacillus or Brucella infections. Bad things happen.
The rest of the morning was, dare I say, a little boring. It wasn’t until our afternoon virology lecture that things started to get interesting. Someone happened to check their email before our ethics lecture started and we found out that the veterinary diagnostic lab had taken in a cougar for necropsy. The actual necropsy was schedule to take place during ethics and I’m sure there would have been something inherently in skipping ETHICS. Just sayin’. We still raced next door to the lab and looked at the large cat laying on the necropsy table waiting its turn to go under the knife. We figured the findings would be presented on necropsy rounds and so we skedattled back over to the diagnostic lab after class only to find that there were no major abnormalities with the cougar that warranted presentation. Sad day. 
Then, out of sheer luck, we ran into our pathology instructor who made some phone calls and had the necropsy department removed the cougar carcass from it’s plastic bag for our perusal! Granted the organs were all removed, it was still an amazing sight. We were told that the 14 year old cat was from a private rescue/sanctuary and was fine yesterday. This morning the keepers found it dead in its enclosure. The doc that did the necropsy said she didn’t have much hope of histopathology of the liver revealing anything causative. The liver was the only thing she said looked even slightly abnormal. I just have to say that it’s not every day that I get the opportunity to shake hands with a cougar and look at all of its teeth and marvel at how heavy its tail is.
This veterinary school thing is pretty cool every now and then.
