Internship Day 14-18

Last Friday, after I had posted the blog already, all of the interns got together and went moonlight bowling in Atlantic. We all had a really good time and it was nice to get out with everyone again. I got to teach some people what whacky bowling was, because they had never heard about it before... Here are some pics!

Monday:

Today I did a lot of grunt work around the barns. I started out the morning assisting with weaning, like most of my mornings. I then preceded to assist with emptying the room and scraping the floors  to loosen the poop. After that I assisted with PL's (pulling the dead piglets out and recording them down in the books). After that I assisted with processing, again. The last time I helped with processing I got scours in my mouth... This time, luckily, it just got on my clothes! :) After processing I went around and collected the data for my research project and got that all caught up to date. I also got to learn how to tattoo this afternoon. I have never tattooed  I then assisted with loading a room, and putting up feed tags, and farrowing record tags onto the sow's crates.

Tuesday:

Today was an overall crappy day. I was almost late for work because I didn't feel like getting out of bed and kept hitting the snooze without looking at what time it was. Shortly after starting the day, my glasses got stepped on and broke in pieces. I went all day without glasses, and felt like I was blind. As far as work, today was a lot like yesterday. Weaning, Scraping, Unloading, PL's, and Processing. I did get to learn how to tattoo piglets today though, and that was quite the experience. By the time lunch rolled around at noon, I looked like I had painted a bedroom bright green. I had ink all over my face, arms, and hands, even though I wore gloves! After lunch I got to learn how to powerwash. This wasn't as bad as the stories always have been told. I was told "you not fast enough", but at the end I was told "you do good job". :) I didn't mind power washing, it just was a lot of work, and my hands kept going numb! :)

Wednesday:

Today was another grunt work day. We were short a whole bunch of people due to them taking the day off. Luckily I had enough random things that needed to be done such as my research, day 1 shots, PL's, and more tattooing. I got to treat sows by myself for the first time (... I did A LOT better than the time when I learned how to do it...) I also replaced some mats that were starting to get ripped up by piglets, as well as checked all the light bulbs and heat lamps in farrowing. After lunch, my boss wanted the main hallway in farrowing power washed. The moisture from the humidity was making the floors slick and he wanted me to make sure all the poop was power washed off of there. I started at 12:45 and hung up my wand and hose at 3:15. That hallway was spotless from ceiling to floor drains. I plugged my i pod in at the start and blasted my way through the hallway.

Thursday:

Started the morning out Weaning, Scraping, Unloading, PL's, Treating Sows, and weighing up for tomorrows wean. I also helped treat sows and move some sows around for back-tightening. I also did a lot of my research recording to day, making sure that I was caught up before the weekend was here. I got to leave work at 3pm today because I had a seminar in Audubon for Oral Vaccinations. We received awesome kits that contain an Oral Vaccination Learning Program kit from Boehringer Ingelheim. Inside the kit contains an encased metal clip board (heavy duty), a poster that represents how to use Ultra-Frozen Vaccine as well as Non-Frozen Vaccine, along with two learning program books which also come with DVD's. After our seminar we had a quiz and were able to win a prize, the prize was a Mini Maglite that advertises Enterisol Ileitis (the vaccine we were learning to work with).

Friday:

Today we did a hands on demonstration for the Oral Vaccination Learning Program. We went out to a Finisher unit that had 2300 piglets weighing about 50 lbs. We got to see their system for watering and how our oral vaccination was going to go through the water pipes, into the barn, and essentially end up in the piglets stomach. We used the Ultra-Frozen Enterisol Ileitis Vaccine. We learned how to measure water intake for the two sides of the barns, how to add the dye packets (to make the water blue), how to thaw the ultra-frozen vaccine (which is shipped and stored in dry ice), as well as how to ensure that it is getting into the pipelines. We also got to watch Dr. Bob post 3 pigs that had died the last couple of days. It was interesting to watch him, and listen to him explain what he was seeing, and to see what caused the piglet death. This seminar was by far my favorite so far, I love the hands on activity, and of course, being off of work by 10AM! :)

Myself, Amber, and Laura all suited up for the finisher barn!