Pets of my youth.

I was thinking it might be interesting to list some of the pets I had growing up.   There was an eclectic group of them.  Porky the porcupine.  The raccoon twins.  The  Spider monkey.  Tag the Guernsey cow.  Danny the Guernsey bull calf.  Tootsie the Beagle.    Silver the Palomino gelding.  Kit the grey tiger barn cat.  My Shorthorn heifer.  

The list is longer than I first remembered.  Each of these played a part in my decision to become a Veterinarian.  Until I was just into high school, I had my mind set on going to the University of Michigan and becoming a Medical Doctor.  Changing my mind was not as easy as laying down until the feeling went away.  Until that time, I was even willing to wear the Maize and Blue.  Luckily, when I awoke Green and White seemed a more flattering color to me.  

What happened is Tag, the Guernsey cow, was due to calve in December of 1965.  We were at church for the Christmas Pageant or some variation of a Christmas program.    When we got home, I went out and checked on Tag.  She was down and not very responsive.  I do not remember if she had calved or this was a preparturient (just before delivery) or post parturient (after delivery of calf).  We called Dr Dickey the Veterinarian we used for the farm.  He came out on a Sunday night, examined her and then started giving Tag calcium gluconate as she had "Milk Fever".  This condition is "eclampsia" in mares, dogs, and women.  It is a sudden metabolic need for calcium for the manufacture of milk.  The quickest calcium source is in the blood stream.  Other uses for calcium are in maintaining muscle tone in skeletal muscle and in the cardiac muscle; it is used for strength of muscle contraction.  Cardiac muscle does some odd things when calcium is not available it causes arrhythmias.  When skeletal muscles do not have enough calcium, they relax causing the critter to tremble and eventually lay down.  The quick fix for the milk fever syndrome is to give intravenous calcium gluconate.  There is a dichotomy of need and speed of delivery of calcium.  Give calcium solutions too fast and the heart becomes irritable with a sudden supply of calcium it will cause the heart to stop.  You need to monitor the heart rate with a stethoscope when giving calcium.  When the heart rate goes up, slow down the rate of delivery.  Ignore this and you have a dead cow.

The milk production need will over ride metabolic systems that are in balance.    Motherhood has demands, first is feeding the offspring, then taking care of the mom.   Calcium gluconate will sometimes need to be given multiple times.  This is until the dietary enzyme catalyst become active and efficient enough to maintain the shift in biological need for calcium.    

Diet control helps when cows go into the "dry cow" phase about six weeks before the next expected delivery.  By feeding, the cow a diet low in calcium will help to get the calcium metabolism geared up for pro-calcium for absorption.  There is also administering Vitamin D injections within 72 hours of delivery.  This one is a good concept but has two problems.  First, it is very difficult to guess ahead 72 hours.   Secondly, if you guess the delivery hours wrong you have a very bad case of Milk Fever.
Tootsie was our house beagle.  She loved children, puppies and after dinner treats.  We would take her out rabbit hunting.  She was better at barking than hunting rabbits.  Deep snow would to slow her sown.  She did have persistence and she worked a track scent long after the rabbit disappeared.  She was a very lovable dog.  She helped me understand dogs.  You just love them for what they are.  Housedogs get a warmer bed and have a stronger bond to their people.  Beagles are very nice dogs but they may be vocal though.

Danny the bull calf I had mentioned previously.  He perished when our barn burnt when I was five.  It is amazing how those memories from fifty-seven years ago stick.  It is permanently imprinted in my inner vision.  Cataclysmic events are deeply attached to active memory retrieval.

My dad worked in road construction and he was always finding critters on a job.  When he was working one job up north, he brought home a porcupine.  We had him out in one of our sheds.  For some reason we named him Porky.  We had him in a wood and wire cage.  You never will guess what happened to the wood.  Well maybe you figured it out.   Diet for Porky was a bit troublesome, as the feed elevator did not stock birch tree bark.   We went out in the wooded swamp areas around our farm searching for Birch trees.  We would bring home Birch or Yellow Poplar bark strips.  We also fed him hay and grain we fed the cattle and hogs.  Porky was around for five years.  He eventually chewed a hole large enough to crawl out of and went looking for his own dinner.  He was a fun endearing creature.  Porky was a neat experience.  I would not recommend a porcupine as a pet nowadays.  Their feeding and housing requirements do not blend well in suburban southern Michigan areas.  Housing and other requirements are prickly with a porcupine.  

The Spider Monkey some how came home.  I do not remember how we ended up with him.  I started taking care of him.  He was a fun interactive soul.  He ate a varied diet liking fruits and for some reason he had a penchant for eating flies.  He would be quite the help during summer fly season.  He was incredibly quick with his eye hand coordination.  Many times, he would pluck a fly out of the air when they would buzz by him.  We kept him in the house next to the wood stove that heated our house.  He made you think about how similar people and monkeys are in their actions and the shared desire to be social animals.  

All of these tails weaved my tale of becoming a Veterinarian.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.          
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.