{"id":1831,"date":"2017-05-10T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T16:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2017-08-09T10:09:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:09:31","slug":"from-turtles-to-snakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/from-turtles-to-snakes\/","title":{"rendered":"From Turtles to Snakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of us grow up with our friendly four legged friends, only knowing about slithery, scaly creatures from watching TV or movies.<\/p>\n

Think of a movie with a character played by a dog…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Did you think of Beethoven, the giant slobbery St Bernard? \u00a0The dog named Old Yeller that is praised\u00a0after saving a little boy from a bear? Or the loved heroic wolfdog named Balto?<\/p>\n

Now, think of a movie with a character played by a snake…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Did you think of Lord Voldemort\u2019s snake in Harry Potter? The giant snake from the Indiana Jones series? Or the giant flying serpent from Disney\u2019s Aladdin?<\/p>\n

Of course there are exceptions to the list, but did you pick up on a theme?\u00a0The dog always plays a beloved hero and the snake is usually perceived as the bad guy…<\/p>\n

People often fear what is unfamiliar to them. Dogs\u00a0are one of the most commonly owned and understood\u00a0animals, while snakes are high up on the list of the most unknown and feared. I’ll admit that the movies I watched perceiving snakes as creepy (and minimal interactions with animals lacking fur, four legs, and a tail) did cause me to develop a\u00a0slight fear of the scaly reptiles\u00a0growing up. Lucky for me, wanting to go to veterinary school and loving all creatures\u00a0never allowed my slight fear to turn into a\u00a0“phobia.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

Megan posing with an Eastern Box Turtle while out hiking with the 2016 Turtle Team.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I started veterinary school at the\u00a0University of Illinois, I became involved in Dr. Allender\u2019s Wildlife Epidemiology Lab (WEL). I was excited to get involved in\u00a0Dr. Allender’s lab because I really enjoyed the\u00a0epidemiology research I participated in during undergrad. The only difference here was that Dr. Allender researched diseases primarily affecting the\u00a0one category of animals I had zero experience with… reptiles. But, my inexperience with reptiles didn’t detour me from jumping right into the lab work!<\/p>\n

I spent the summer after my first year of vet school helping lead the lab’s Eastern Box Turtle Project<\/a>,\u00a0known as Turtle Team. Turtle Team consists of a group of veterinary students, veterinarians, and biologists that head out to the field each summer\u00a0in search of turtles for an ongoing turtle health survey. I quickly developed a love for the cute four-legged reptiles (because, how could you not love turtles?!).<\/p>\n

Between Turtle Team weeks, I also had the opportunity to be\u00a0trained in handling venomous snake species. Although it took me a while to get comfortable handling\u00a0the snakes, I knew working with them would allow me to participate in the lab’s\u00a0Snake Fungal Disease (SFD) research after Turtle Team ended.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to develop a fascination with\u00a0the scaly, legless creatures.\u00a0My summer working with adorable turtles\u00a0was a lot of fun, but my new interest in\u00a0snakes kept me wanting to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"This summer I will be spending most of my time out in the field searching for Timber rattlesnakes as part of the lab’s ongoing snake health surveillance research. Timber rattlesnakes, as well as the Eastern Massasauga, are two specific species affected by the emerging pathogen that is known for causing\u00a0Snake Fungal Disease (SFD). SFD is a syndrome caused by ophidiomyces ophidodiicola<\/em>, which is within the family of fungal pathogens that cause dermal lesions in reptiles.<\/p>\n

Since WEL\u00a0focuses on early detection of emerging pathogens, we will be sampling the snakes to test for\u00a0ophidiomyces<\/em>. Physical examinations will be performed\u00a0on every individual\u00a0to look for clinical signs of the disease. Our goal this summer\u00a0is to continue monitoring the health of snake populations affected by SFD\u00a0to better understand the emerging pathogen.<\/p>\n

With classes ending this week, I am so excited to finish up my second year of veterinary school so I can get back out into the field! I am looking forward to another great summer\u00a0of research\u00a0with the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab!<\/p>\n

 

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us grow up with our friendly four legged friends, only knowing about slithery, scaly creatures from watching TV or movies. Think of a movie with a character played by a dog… Did you think of Beethoven, the giant slobbery St Bernard? \u00a0The dog named Old Yeller that is praised\u00a0after saving a little boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2746,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions\/2746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}