My week with a Zoetis Vet

There I sat, drying my clothes with a hair dryer trying to figure out how I lived out of my backpack for a month and a half.  I remember it being easy in Africa but with umpteen sweatshirts, coveralls, and boots to add to the mix I was struggling a bit.  After breaking down and deciding it necessary to take my bookbag as well, I was ready to go.  My bus ticket was purchased and adventure awaited.

I got on the bus at 7am and made it to Porto Alegre around 11:30.  I jumped off the bus as nervous as a turkey in November.   I had a missed call from Diego but I was out of minutes.  (Of course I was out of minutes.  Don’t you travel to strange places by yourself and not have anyway of contacting anyone?!)   Luckily, I was familiar with the bus station so I went to the closest vendor and asked if they had “Minitos” .  Sometimes, Portugifying a word works and people understand.  Yet, this was not the case.  After I showed them my phone they told me no and pointed me in the right direction.  The next vendor was extremely nice.  She must have been used to foreigners coming through for the world cup because she didn’t even bother trying to talk to me.  In a way it made me sad because I know some Portuguese! Come on!  I can at least do the basics!  But I was a bit frazzled so I just remained mute.  She took my phone and found my number for me so that she could add minutes to my phone.  Thank goodness for helpful people!  Recharged with minutes and a bathroom break, I called Diego and found he was stuck in traffic from the world cup.  The last game in Porto Alegre was happening that day, at that exact time.  The poor guy had to fight traffic to get to me.  I sat in the station and watched the tv screen and surprised myself with what I could understand.

Diego picked me up with a warm welcome and one of the coolest dogs I’ve ever met.  On the way to Canella, Diego explained his job. He works for Zooetis as an educator, seller, and mediator of zoetis products.  He has farms that he has created connections with that he helps set up animal health programs and find the best products for their needs.  He is able to travel over much of the east of the state.  Zoetis is the largest animal health company in the world.  Brazil is the second biggest country that sells Zoetis after the United States.  

We arrived in Canella and our first stop was a colonial café!  It was delicious!  WOAH!  They just kept bringing food to the table and I just kept eating!  There were pastries, meat and cheese, polenta, pastels, wine, juice, coffee, and then of course dessert! It was such a cool experience. 

We checked into a beautiful hotel and Diego went to meet colleagues for a business meeting.  I took a walk around town and then went back to the hotel to soak in the wonderfulness.  I knew it was a night to be spoiled!  It’s the first time I’ve had a heater in awhile.  I had that room like a furnace. I even took the opportunity to dry my tennis shoes!  WOO HOO DRY TENNIS SHOES!   I spent the night relaxing and skyping my mom.  They were to be having a horrible storm with fallen trees and flooding. There I was, like king Tut, sitting in my comfy hotel room.  Boy, life is weird sometimes. 

The next morning I got up and enjoyed breakfast while Diego continued with business meetings.  Afterward, I went with his colleagues to lunch. We ate at a churrascoria.  They had a small buffet and then kept bring meat around and would cut off pieces for you. This type of restaurant is very traditional.    They guys were really nice and the food was delicious.  I again ate too much.  I wish I could have communicated more.  I hate when my lack of Portuguese knowledge holds me back. Rawr!

After lunch, we headed to Caixas.  We went to a big pet shop that had a veterinarian and a pharmacy.  There are fewer regulations on medications here so many pet stores are allowed to sell antibiotics and such.  One of Diego’s jobs is to educate pet stores about the importance of educating clients about the drugs they are buying.  While there, I met a large animal vet.  He was on his way to do a few farm calls.  Diego said a few magic words and I was off with this vet to visit sheep!  I was delighted!  I was also a bit nervous at first because I was hoping my Portuguese would be sufficient enough to communicate. The trip turned out to be better than I could have imagined.  The vet was hilarious and his personality was that of an old friend that you immediately feel comfortable with.  We had great conversations with broken Portuguese and broken English.  He had me cracking up.  We saw two farms.  The first contained sheep with several sheep exhibiting signs of hypocalcemia.   It had a park type feel with walking trails around ponds and a pool and playground.  The two men at the farm were both from Italian origin.  Caixas has many Italian descendants because the area was originally colonized by Italians.  One worked and lived on the farm and the other owned it but lived in the city.  It was a pleasure getting to know them.  Our next stop was a farm that I could have moved into right away.  It had an epic garden containing many fruit trees as well as a pond full of fish.  A sheep had triplets and wasn’t doing well.  It is common for sheep to have twins but triplets is too much!  She had hypocalcaemia so we treated her and also the weakest lamb.  I’m crossing my fingers the little guy makes it!   By that time, it was dark and the vet drove me back to the city to meet Diego.   

That night we stayed in his friend’s apartment who was out of town traveling.  The place was supper legit and bigger than my house in Athens!  We went to a really cool restaurant/bar called Mississippi.  They are known as a blues place but play all kinds of different music!  We ate a delicious dinner and listened to a band play music in the style of Bob Dillon.   Now that’s a good night!  

The next morning came really early and we were up and out of the apartment by 6:30am.  We picked up a vet student from the pet shop and headed to a farm that majored in chickens and minored in beef cattle.   We started with cattle.  It was a feed lot system.  Feedlots are not very common here.  Most cattle are out on pasture.  We gave an injection for immunocastration.  It keeps the heifers from cycling through heat so that they focus more on food and therefore gain more weight.   They don’t yet use this in the United States.  It’s interesting to learn the differences between drugs used here and at home.  We use a hormone implant in cattle to make them grow more in the US but it is not allowed here.  Yet, they are able to give estrogen injections in timed AI, but in the US it is banned.  Oh boy.  While there we also looked at their sheep.  They were having problems with Foot Rot.  It's a debilitating and painful problem for the sheep.  They become almost immobile and therefore stop eating.   No good.  

After vaccinating 40ish heifers, we toured the chicken houses.  My goodness.  I’ve never been to a large chicken farm.  It really is something that kind of punches you in the stomach.  There were so many chickens. I wish I could remember the number.  There were two buildings that contained rows and rows and rows of chickens. Hundreds of thousands of chickens....  They were egg layers so their main job was to eat and produce.  These chickens are in production for about 90 weeks and then they are culled.  I’m not here to lecture people on the good and bad of food industry, I’m just pushing for you to be knowledgeable.  You should know where you food comes from. Farms have been optimized to produce as much food as possible at the lowest cost.   The world population is growing at an astounding rate.  In order to feed all of the people, agriculture has to produce more and more food with less and less space.  It’s a difficult balance.  Often, it’s the animal’s freedoms that are lost in order for us to gain.  These animals sacrifice a lot so that we can eat and live. Again, I’m not here to lecture but if you can’t at least recognize the sacrifices these animals make, then you are foolish.  *Stepping off the soap box*

The farm not only produced chicken eggs but also quail eggs.  I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen a quail, never less thousands and thousands of them!  Each bird lays an egg around 3 in the afternoon.  Each cage contained many birds and the rows went on forever.  That is an immense about of birds! 

After leaving the farm, we went to breakfast and had pastels and coffee.   Gas stations are the place to be here.  You can really find anything you need there.  Often they have padarias/ lancharias where you can get a bite of food.  

After dropping, Lucas, the vet student off we headed to meet a farmer at his place of work.  He is the owner of several large farms and also works full time at a prosperous company.  Diego talked to him about Zooetis and made plans to visit one of his farms.   With a successful meeting under our belts, we had lunch at a buffet.  These are not like buffets at home.  The food is delicious.  You fill your plate, weight it, and pay by kg.   We stopped into the pet shop and then hit the road. 

We drove for an hour on pavement and then maybe another hour on dirt roads to get to the farm of the business man.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The farm raises bulls.  Diego talked to the farm manager about problems the farm was facing and the best way to resolve those issues.  As a side note, I feel like now is a good time to mention Gauchos again.  These are traditional men that are very similar to our cowboys.   Many people we interacted with have been very Gaucho with full traditional dress.  The farm had the cutest little boy.  He had to be two or three who was dressed in boots, the hat, and the traditional pants.  I really wanted to take a picture of him but I assumed that would be a bit weird.   The culture here is very traditional and really neat to experience. 

Every Gaucho needs a good horse!  Notice the traditional saddle! 

As we left the farm, the sun was setting.  I watched the colors change and spread across the sky as I drank Chimarrao and listened to Brazilian music.  Of course, we also stopped at a breathtaking waterfall on our way.  You see, when you are in a wonderland things like waterfalls just happen to fall across your path!

We checked in to our hotel,  in a new town called Bom Jesus.  (Yes, that means Good Jesus) The hotel was very old and beautiful.  Yet, what beat everything was the service.  The people were so friendly and willing to help.  I love that they walk you to your room and ensure that you are comfortable.  We ate dinner at the hotel. I ordered a bottle of wine and we shared a meal.  It contained a salad, rice, meat, onions, a fried egg, and french fries.   That night, I crashed.  I was exhausted! 

Thursday morning, we headed to another pet shop in town.  As Diego, talked business and bullshit with the guys I started trying to review anatomy.  Holly smokes, there’s a lot I don’t remember.  Oh boy.  Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming.  When I thought my head was going to explode after trying to remember the muscles of the hind leg, I decided it was time to take a walk.  The town, like most old towns, is centered around the  really old church and s with a beautiful square in front of it.  The main shops are located around the square.  I walked around a bit and then entered the tourism shop.  I spoke with a really nice lady for a while and then looked at all their brochures. 

For lunch, Diego invited the owners of the shop back to the hotel.  We had another delicious meal similar to the night before.  I lazed around my room for a bit and then it was back to the pet store. Diego is looking to buy a horse so that afternoon we went to visit a farm with a horse for sale!  She was beautiful.   We also met with a mixed animal vet and Diego gave him the speal about zoetis and the new products that are available.  The week was great because I really got a view of a completely different aspect of veterinary medicine. 

That night, we continued on our mission of eating amazing food.  We went to this exquisite pizza place where I was able to have pizza for the first time in Brazil.  I was super pumped.  I know I’m not pizza’s biggest fan, but boy was it good to walk through that door and get hit in the face with the smell of gooey cheese and tasty sauce.  We shared a large pizza half margherita and half some type of bacon/garlic one.  Yum! After a large pizza and a bottle of wine we moved on to dessert.  We had a banana, dolce de leche, heavenly dessert pizza.   Yep, slept well that night. 

The next day we packed up and said goodbye to our new friends at the hotel.   The hotel has just reopened and I am hoping that they make it!  We headed to another town where we visited a shop and picked up a friend.  Little did I know, that our next stop was a horse kingdom.  This farm had really, really, really nice horses.  Champions!  They bread mares.  You could easily see the worker’s pride for the horses as they showed many of the horses to us.  After seeing several stallions and many mares we went to see the foals. They had just recently been weaned.  I tried to play horse whisperer but without Ashlee I just wasn’t successful.   I would love to work on a farm like that to get more experience with horses.  I’m so fortunate that I was able to visit!

After another lunch at a churrascaria, we hit the road.  We drove for 40 kilometers on this old dirt road through the mountains.  The views were amazing!  Once we left the mountain road, we drove across plains where you could see nothing but grass fields and cows.  Finally, we started our decent down towards the ocean.  The views were again astonishing.  On our drive, I saw views that reminded me of Botswana, South Africa, Utah, Colorado, Costa Rica, Florida and then the views reminded me just how lucky I am to have seen so many places.

 This picture is horrible but the sunset was incredible!

That night, we reached his place at the beach. Yes,  That’s right!  I saw the ocean!  It was storming out so he didn’t let me out, but I got to smell the salty air, hear the waves, and see the water!  Now that made my trip complete. 

 He repacked his car for the following week of work and then we headed to Porto Alegre.  I said my goodbyes to Diego and Cisa and jumped ship at the bus station where I purchased my late night ticket.  I had a couple of hours to kill so I ate a quis.  This is there version of a cheeseburger and it’s awesome!  It is a hamburger Pattie, a fried egg, corn, tomato, lettuce, cheese, and maybe bologna between two buns.   I boarded the bus at 1:30 and collapsed.  The next thing I knew, I was pulling into the bus station at Santa Maria and my bed was calling my name! It was good to travel and it was good to go back home!

 My week was also awesome because of Cisa, his "secretary."  Cisa is a small dachshund with a lot of personality.  She travels with Diego 24-7.  All the pet shops know and love her.  Things Cisa Likes:  hanging her head out the window, scraps from dinner, running in front of the car, chasing cows, and resting her head on Diego's shoulder.  Things Cisa doesn't like:  cats, having to wait in the car, rolled up windows, and being kicked to the back when I steal her front seat. She was my companion and I'm sure going to miss her! 

My week was incredible.  Not only did I get to see another part of veterinary medicine but I was also able to tour a large part of Rio Grande Do Sul!  I’m very fortunate that Diego let me tag along all week.  How many people do you know who would just let some random stranger spend a full week with them?  And not only that but take time to show me around, feed me and explain his job.  I’m sure going to miss Brazil!