Inca Trail

Entry, Creative Corner
David Kim, UC Davis

I was stumbling down the Inca Trail when I first saw the ass.  It was brown with tufts of unkempt hair that seemed to randomly sprout all over its body.  In my delirium, I thought Armando had sent it up to get me because I was taking too long to descend.  It walked towards me, stopping 20 feet away, and turned around, beckoning me to get on.  I stood there confused because I thought we were renting a horse.  Perhaps the place he had mentioned had no more for the day.  It seemed plausible since it was already late in the afternoon, only a few hours before dark.  But if it was sent up, how did it know to find me?  Did Armando tell it to look for a chinito?  As I tried to rationalize the situation, I realized I was starting to lose it and walked on.  Within a few minutes, I spotted Armando resting on the stone steps of a lone house.  Seeing me, he grinned and said, “Do you want a horse or do you want a donkey, so you can ride into town like Jesus Christ?”  He cackled uncontrollably, and I managed a weak smile as I praised the Peruvian gods that soon I’d be on a horse despite the fact that I had no idea how to ride one.

            Three days before, my sister and I landed in Cusco to hike to Machu Picchu for a much needed vacation.  I had worked all throughout summer and made the mistake of not taking a break for myself, and I was burnt out before fall quarter had even started.  We ended up choosing Peru based on the stories we had heard from my uncle, who had done several hiking treks there.  It seemed an ideal time to hike to Machu Picchu as the rainy season meant fewer tourists, and we were able to get a permit to hike the Inca Trail, booking it only 1.5 months in advance. 

            We stayed in Cusco two days to properly acclimate before the hike.  The city is 11,200 feet above sea, and shortly after landing, I started to feel the effects of soroche ie altitude sickness.  Luckily, the Peruvians have a magical plant called erythroxylum coca, which is available in a variety of forms from the dried leaf to tea to even hard candies.  Within a day, I felt much better.  Contrary to what some people may believe, ingesting coca is not like doing cocaine as the humble plant contains less than 1% of the alkaloid.  Its effects were smooth and soothing yet had a very clean buzz without the jittery effects of caffeine.  While on the trail, I was continually amazed by the porters, who seemed to be fueled solely by coca, zipping up the hills in their sandals or beat up tennis shoes.  Initially, I was unsure how to chew them, and a fellow hiker advised me to roll a bunch of leaves into a plug and chew it.  When Issac, one of our guides, heard this, he scoffed, saying that was the fancy way invented by the Spanish.  Issac was Quecha, part of the indigenous people of the Andes, and he had been an avid coca chewer since he was six.  Taking a big wad, he told me to put on the side of my mouth, chomping on it from time to time to let the material leech out.  When the mouth got numb and the leaves started to break apart, that was when to spit it out although I did have the option of swallowing it as the leaf provided fiber and other nutrients.

            The first day of the hike was challenging, but the views were amazing. 

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"Leap of Klaus"

Entry, Creative Corner

Linda Cummins, Texas A&M

Entry, Creative Corner
Kate Schraeder, Mississippi State University

Study Buddy

Blowing Kisses

The Raccoon Odyssey

Entry, Foot in Mouth
Rachel Turner, NCSU

I spent two summers in high school volunteering at a wildlife center, a busy facility made up of a few run-down portables and some flight aviaries and duck ponds.  Our mission was to take in and treat injured wildlife, from nestling songbirds that had clumsily fallen out of their nests to abandoned coyote pups. I worked with a lot of raccoons while I was there, from blind infants who could only squirm and suckle to huge adult males who wanted nothing more from life than the chance to rip off my hand.  However, nothing prepared me for the small female that I encountered on a hot day in late July.  My supervisor Ashley and I were doing the evening rounds, giving all the animals their delicious dinner of watermelon, apples, and dead frozen mice.  We ventured out into the late-afternoon heat to take care of the animals out in Building C, a crummy and musty portable where we kept large birds and other special cases.  At first glance, this particular raccoon was just another scared animal, crouched at the back of her crate, watching us switch out her old food dish.  When I reached in to pull out her bedding towel, which was crusted with feces and dried urine, she shifted a bit to the side and exposed the side of her back leg, which was when I noticed her wound.  She had somehow acquired a large, gaping cut on her haunch, and as soon as Ashley saw it she sent me to get the staple gun.  However, this little raccoon turned out to be a lot more than we had bargained for. 

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My Experiences on the Crow Reservation

SAVMA PHCOC "Underserved Population Externship" stipend winner
Chelsea Reaves, CSU DVM Candidate Class of 2017

December 2013 at Animal Care Center

As my first semester of vet school came to an end, I packed up my suitcase with warm clothes, my stethoscope, coveralls, and boots and headed off to Hardin, MT.  I was fortunate to have met Dr. Francis through family friends randomly, and we clicked right away, so I spoke with him about gaining some experience through his practice!  Hernia in a foalDr. Francis runs a mixed animal practice, Animal Care Center, in a rural area of Montana basically on the Crow Indian Reservation.  Being a Tucson native, I knew this would be a great opportunity for me to be exposed to an area with a different level of personal animal care than you mostly see in larger cities like Tucson where everything is “their baby”. 

In Hardin and the surrounding areas there are a ton of stray dogs, skinny horses, and feral cats that are kind of put outside to forage for food on their own with the occasional food tossed out to them.  On the contrary, there are also the family pets, ranchers’ cattle, and 4-H animals.  Hardin is a beautiful area if you really enjoy the outdoors, as the Bighorn River runs right through it and there are a lot of open spaces. 

Being on the reservation, there are an immense amount of strays.  Dr. Francis works closely with a rescue lady, Sheri.  Sheri runs a non-profit organization called Rez Dog Rescue and basically drives all over Crow Agency, Lodge Grass, and Lame Deer finding abandoned, neglected, and stray “Rez” (reservation mutts) dogs. Assisting Dr. Francis in surgery She brings them to Dr. Francis and he works with her at discounted prices to spay/neuter, treat, vaccinate, and deworm all these dogs.  Dr. Francis works to provide low cost veterinary care to the underserved area and help alleviate the rampant problem of abandoned “rez dogs”.  I got a lot of experience with spay and neuter surgeries, from sedation and anesthesia, to prepping the dogs on the surgery table, and assisting in surgery.  Dr. Francis also sets up spay/neuter clinics with the tribes, although there was not one during the break while I was there.

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