Day 29

0915: *yawn*

1030: Lots of interesting things today. One piglet had atresia ani, a common problem in piglets and lambs where the anus doesn't form properly. I've seen sheep where this has gone undiagnosed for 3 weeks, by which stage the poor lamb was almost comatose and blown up like a balloon - everything was going in but nothing was coming out.

Another piglet had an orange liver, and it's got everyone stumped. When I'd finished, the liver was removed for histopathology, to join the heart from last week.

Also got two lovely green and black, decomposing piglets that were apparently born 2 days late, although I'm wondering how long they were lying out for before someone noticed they were there. They stank - I didn't really notice the smell (I'm nearly immune to everything a pig can throw at me by now) but it didn't take long for visiting physiologists to notice and evacuate the area! Lightweights.

1230: Last Friday in Bacteriology I looked at the TSI agar, and all samples were negative. So no Salmonella in the farrowing houses. Today I was working with the new samples we collected on Thursday, streaking out plates. And we took a record 31 samples, which took ages to put onto agar.

1700: This is my last week collecting data. I suppose I should be happy that I’m not going to be dissecting dead piglets from now until eternity, but because my project only takes up the mornings, I’m spending the rest of the day in the PM room, and I’m having so much fun I don’t want to leave!

Had a good weekend - on Saturday we went out to lunch, then went to Braehead Shopping Centre (very big) and managed to not get lost, which is an achievement in itself. However, the taxi we called to get us home got lost in the car park. Which says something about the size of the place!