Misumena vatia

Warning! This post contains photos of spiders. If you are uncomfortable about that, as I used to be, I suggest you read some posts about baby cows or cats instead.

A couple of weeks ago I was inspecting the mock orange bush I'd bought for my mom a few years ago - it's one of her favourite flowers, and my grandfather had a lovely specimen growing in his yard when I was a child. I bent down to sniff a particularly lovely blossom when I noticed it was occupied!

This crab spider, sometimes called the goldenrod crab spider after the flower it normally lives in, or more accurately Misumena vatia, is a fascinating little creature. It produces a yellow pigment that it stores next to the surface of its skin, allowing it to blend in quite spectacularly with yellow petals, where it waits for its prey. However, if the spider manages to find nicer real estate on a white flower, it can get rid of its yellow pigment, reverting it to its natural white colour. It's like a chameleon spider, but with fewer colour options.

Its strategy seems pretty successful, because a few days later I checked back on it to find that it had snared a little bee.

A bit sad because I love bees, but I try to remember that spiders need to eat too! And you have to admire how this one manages to find its dinner.

Perioral dermatitis diary

My perioral dermatitis journey began almost exactly one year ago, right in the midst of first-year vet school exams. It started with a dime-sized reddish raised oval patch on my chin that looked almost, but not quite like acne. It waxed and waned over the next two months but never completely disappeared. A family member gave me some of his high-strength topical steroid cream and let me beg you now to never, never, never take prescription drugs from anyone other than your doctor even if you think you have the exact same condition. As it turns out, this was the absolute worst thing I could do.

Over the summer and autumn, the steroids kept the rash more or less at bay, and in addition to this I went off birth control and had to deal with the resulting acne. Starting around Christmas, I found that if I went more than a day or two without applying the steroids, the rash would come back and eventually it started to spread to both sides of my chin, then to around my nostrils, and in the lines between my nose and mouth. I started to use the steroids every day as prophylaxis, even if my skin was clear. In February I decided I had enough of the break-outs and went back on the pill, which cleared up the pimples but did nothing for the rash. I became concerned about this chronic steroid usage, as I knew that it could be damaging long-term and could lead to skin thinning amongst other bad things. I started to look up some more information about facial rashes, which is when I came across photos of people who had perioral dermatitis - and they looked exactly like me.

As it turns out, perioral dermatitis can either be caused by or at least exacerbated by topical or oral steroid usage. I don't think I was using steroids a year ago when my rash first started so I'm not sure exactly what caused it - some people also blame a sensitivity to sodium lauryl sulfates in soaps and shampoos or fluoride in toothpaste, and others claim it is an overgrowth of either bacteria, Candida yeast, or Demodex parasites. Who knows? Of course, the steroids I started using eventually did not help at all. I'm keeping track of my progress here for anyone else suffering from perioral dermatitis who may be interested!

Day 0: A week ago, the day of my last exam for second-year, I stopped the steroid cream cold turkey. By that point, it was starting to lose its effectiveness anyway - there were persistent red patches on my chin and around my nostrils that refused to clear.

Day 1: The next morning, I looked a mess - the red patch had spread to cover my entire chin and below and around my nose. I even had some bumps on my eyelids.

Day 2: By Sunday, the red patches became a mass of tiny, zit-like pustules which were filled with a clear, serous fluid as opposed to the white, purulent junk like you normally find in pimples (and you can thank my veterinary gross pathology class for these awesome descriptions). We drove from Guelph to Montreal to spend a few weeks with Davis's family before heading to my family and summer jobs in Vancouver. I kept hoping it would clear up before I needed to start my job.

Day 3: The pustules were angry angry angry, slightly oozy and itchy, sore, and painful. I hid in my bedroom most of the day, only venturing out of the house to buy sodium lauryl sulfate-free replacements for all my soaps and shampoos. I settled on Kiss My Face shampoo, Green Beaver conditioner and toothpaste, a Druide soap bar, and DermaMed face wash. I was looking for the simplest ingredient lists possible - the shorter and more natural, the better. I also bought probiotics, based on some suggestions I'd read online. That evening, I started taking the probiotics, salmon oil pills (for the anti-inflammatory benefits), and two tablespoons of raw organic apple cider vinegar, again on an internet recommendation. I also put a 1:1 dilution of the apple cider vinegar on the rash, which some people claim is a miracle worker. I also iced my rash for a few hours, which brought temporary relief. Starting this morning, I had also resolved to cut out a lot of crap from my diet - no refined sugar, no pasta, no bread - this stuff is supposed to feed the yeast, if that is indeed the causative agent. Of course I wouldn't follow this perfectly, but I figured a reduction was a good start at least for my overall health if not the rash specifically.

Day 4: Little change. Of course, I know nothing happens instantly but I was hoping for at least some relief from the soreness. I couldn't even blow my nose without pain, as both my nostrils were crusted and inflamed. I continued morning and night to take the probiotics and salmon oil, as well as drinking the apple cider vinegar and putting it on my face. Desperate for relief, I went out to try and find calendula cream, which is also supposed to be anti-inflammatory and another potential miracle. Sadly, the health food store wouldn't have it in stock for another week, so I bought a calendula tincture and went home. The tincture was probably not the greatest idea - I don't think it made things worse, but it was alcohol-based so it stung like a bitch. By evening, some of the pustules had started to dry out.

Day 5: The pustules were mostly dry and crusty but still painful and so itchy. I stopped drinking the apple cider vinegar, since it was making me nauseous but I still continued with the probiotics and salmon oil. I longed for some kind of lotion or salve to put on the dry skin, but I was too afraid to try anything. My boyfriend suggested aloe - pure aloe, since we have a plant. We cut off a leaf and I rubbed the juice into my rash every few hours. I didn't notice any improvement this day, the rash was still dry and itchy but I figured the aloe couldn't be hurting. I also put a yogurt mask on twice, but didn't notice any relief or change. If anything, it made the itching worse as it dried.

Day 6: I stopped using apple cider vinegar on my face. For one, it burned and itched in a way that did not seem healing to me. Also, it stank. And it was not a good stink... it smelled like rotting and decay, and I couldn't stomach my face smelling that way even if that is the natural smell of the vinegar. It was making me depressed and I had a nightmare of my face turning black and necrotic and collapsing into my skull. I also quit using the calendula tincture, and continued to put aloe vera on my rash every couple of hours. I was fortunate because I had a few weeks off between the end of classes and the start of my summer job - I slept 8 to 10 hours a day plus naps and refused to feel guilty - my mother has always taught me that the body needs sleep to repair itself. That afternoon, my mother-in-law went out and bought me some pure vitamin E oil, which was a huge relief. The pustules were all gone by this point and all that was left was a red patch of dragon-like dry skin. I put vitamin E oil on my face every couple of hours - as soon as it was dry again, I reapplied it until it absorbed. That night I tried a honey mask on half my face, but it didn't seem to have any effect good or bad.

Day 7: No topical treatments other than alternating aloe vera goop and vitamin E oil. Some of the dry dead skin is starting to slough and I'm trying not to pick at it. I'm feeling less depressed, and less inclined to curl up in bed with a book all day. Boyfriend says rash looks better but it's hard for me to see.

Day 8: Woke up with a thumb-sized patch of normal (if still red) skin on my chin. Actually, the entire patch of rash is still obviously reddened, but the dragon-scale texture is receding. I'll continue with the aloe vera and vitamin E all day. Also ate a crapload of sugar today. :(

Day 10: Things are looking much better. There are some new red bumps, but the background redness is still shrinking. I may be able to go out in public soon! Still just using aloe vera plant juice and vitamin E oil, and still taking 4 salmon oil caplets a day plus probiotics.

Day 12: Dermatologist today! I was probably in with him for less than 5 minutes, long enough for him to pronounce it officially as perioral dermatitis and hand me a prescription for oral minocycline and topical clindamycin and metronidazole. I'm usually a proponent of preventing disease naturally as opposed to loading yourself with drugs, but in this case, I just want to get rid of this thing and live normally and the fact of the matter is that for the majority of people, the drugs do the job. I also bought some Desert Essence moisturizer because although the vitamin E oil felt great, I felt like my skin needed something that would sink in a little more. This stuff seems pretty natural and has jojoba oil, sesame oil, and aloe vera so it seems like it should be good. I also bought some Kiss My Face lipbalm, because I just really like their stuff now. :) Will keep updating about the meds.

Day 16: Well, no adverse effects from the drugs yet, which was one of my main concerns since I had read so many online accounts of the antibiotics (especially topicals) actually making the rash worse. I don't see a lot of improvement yet, but it can take 2-3 weeks to see any changes. Boyfriend thinks the rash on my chin is getting better, but unfortunately my 'mustache' rash (so sexy) is still red as ever. We're driving to Vancouver in a couple of days, meeting up with some friends in Seattle, and then I start my new job in two weeks, so it would be REALLY nice if my face looked better by then. We'll see...

Day 42: Sorry I haven't been updating - the past few weeks have been crazy busy! Well, the drugs did do magic - the redness on my chin started fading within a week of starting the drugs and is now totally normal. My 'mustache' redness took a little while longer to fade, and it's still a little darker even now, but it's nothing that can't be mostly hidden with foundation, and I don't even think anyone would notice unless I pointed it out. I never had any side effects from the medications, and they've even cleared up the small amount of acne I had before the dermatitis. I still have a few more days of the oral antibiotics to go, and I'll keep using the topical creams for a while yet to prevent recurrences, but I was telling my boyfriend yesterday that it was the first time I actually felt pretty in almost a year! I stopped using the probiotics while I was on the antibiotics, but I'll probably start those up again with the salmon oil once the antibiotics are finished. I also started using some different shampoos from Lush that are a little more chemically than Kiss My Face, but so far no reaction. I also accidentally used some fluoride toothpaste a couple of times and that seemed okay too, so I'm not sure what exactly it was that I was sensitive to in the first place. In any case, I will still try to stick to products with short, natural ingredient lists because it can't hurt!

Day 100+: I don't even know how many days it has been. Day 0 was in April, and it's now mid-September. I've sort of stopped using the topical clindamycin and metronidazone, and my dermatitis has been pretty quiet - I may have had a minor flare-up a couple of weeks ago, or it may have just been acne. I used the topicals for a couple of days, and it went away, but left some wicked dry skin in its place (may have been the drugs...) I rubbed in jojoba oil every chance I got, and that seemed to take care of it. Stopped the topicals again. Skin is great. I've been cheating and using 'bad' products full of crap, and it doesn't seem to have much effect. NOT saying there's any reason to go off of limited-ingredient stuff... but if you slip up, it MAY not be the end of the world.

One year later: happy to report that I've had no flare-ups since the last time I updated this entry, not even a peep. I still pack my topical creams when I travel, just in case, but I just went through an extremely stressful 4-week final exam period AND I was eating like crap AND not sleeping AND using all sorts of random face/hair products and my skin has been behaving itself wonderfully. There is hope!


Some perioral dermatitis resources
- violet extract?
- variety of natural remedy suggestions
- MedScape reference
- Ack! I've Got Perioral Dermatitis
- EarthClinic POD forum (lots of suggestions, but critical thinking suggested)
- another forum on POD
- article from Canadian Family Physicians
- calendula and other ideas

Steak rolls

Can I just reiterate how much I love Pinterest?

Although I already knew about Steamy Kitchen, it was on Pinterest that I found this great recipe for steak rolls. It can sometimes be hard to find recipes that fit our no-grains, no-starch, no-bread diet and that keep us full, since it's so easy to use potatoes and rice as a filler. My pictures don't do the recipe justice because I'm a sloppy cook, but it tasted really good, which is probably more important than presentation anyway.

The birds and bees at the Toronto Zoo

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Toronto Zoo with the theriogenology club at school - one of the many perks of being a vet student! Although, considering I spend an hour every other Monday with my arm up the wrong end of a cow (is there a right end?) I think we deserve these small bonuses. :)

We started off with a chat about camel insemination, with baby Kumar being the product of such a procedure:


Here's one of the daddy camels, who unfortunately has not 'taken' to any of the female camels... possibly because he finds his food bowl overwhelmingly attractive instead (honestly, that's how they collect his, uh, gametes).

This was a massive, massive animal - Bactrian camels weigh up to 1000 pounds. For some reason, I kind of expected them to be llama-sized. Sadly, they are critically endangered, with only 800 animals remaining in the wild.

We then got to tour the reproductive physiology unit, where veterinarians and researchers are learning more about how these exciting animals breed! This is not just neat because you get to help make cute baby animals, but the Toronto Zoo is also involved in a number of conservation programs, breeding endangered species to help preserve their genetic diversity and raise enough animals to return them to the wild. This is something that I've always wanted to be involved in, and I'm so excited to get a chance to meet some of the leaders in this field. I think the amount that we still don't know about these animals is amazing - it was fascinating to hear the staff talk about how difficult it is to get these animals to breed. Reproduction cycles of species like the cow have been so thoroughly mapped out that it's relatively easy to follow a protocol to get your cow pregnant - in some of these exotic species, we have no idea how often they come into heat, when they ovulate, what their hormone levels are, how to maintain the pregnancy, what the animal needs for a successful birth... there's so much to be learned, and I can only imagine how rewarding it must be to put that knowledge to use and one by one help build up the populations of some critically rare species.

After that, we got to visit one more animal - the Indian rhinoceros! We met a young male rhino who was about 2000 kg in weight, but who calmly lay down on his side when asked by his handler. This isn't just for tricks - these animals are taught how to respond to simple commands like this in order to facilitate their handling and treatment by veterinarians. With the rhino on his side, we were able to touch and examine his feet - to my surprise, they were warm and soft... softer than mine! We then got to feel his tough, boulder-like skin and feed him apples, which he scooped up with his extremely mobile, triangular lips. Sadly I don't have any pictures of him!

We were then free to tour the zoo on our own, and the first animals we visited were the lowland gorillas. This species is also critically endangered due to bushmeat hunting, the pet trade, and habitat loss.


We saw some slender tailed meerkats:


A pygmy hippopotamus!


THIS IS A RED PANDA IT IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD


Some Barbary apes:


Have I ever mentioned I'm a little afraid of monkeys? These apes aren't so bad because they don't have those creepy, clingy tails, but macaques and stuff just give me the heebie-jeebies. I think it's because of the movie Outbreak.



And finally, the breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly endangered snow leopard.

That's a negatory

I have an exam on Monday - I should probably sit down and start reviewing my notes.


Well, I guess I have been working a lot lately. It would be nice to get creative and do some crafting.


Jeez. Maybe I can just sit down and -

Eye see you

Marsh wren (Cistothorus palustris), Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond BC

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Saving Shelter Pets fundraiser!

Just a quick blog post to let everyone know that from August 22 to 31, I'll be participating in my third annual Saving Shelter Pets fundraiser, where 20% of the proceeds from my nature-inspired jewelry shop during this time period will be donated to help fund low-cost spay and neuter clinics. As a veterinary student, this is a cause that is pretty close to my heart, for many reasons. An intact female cat, for example, can produce over 100 kittens over her lifetime - and that's not counting her kittens' kittens, or the number of kittens that a male can produce with multiple females. Most of these kittens or puppies won't find homes, and will end up on the streets or euthanized in a shelter. We adopted our cats from the SPCA, and sometimes I think about what might have happened to them if nobody had wanted them, and it makes me pretty bummed.

Spaying and neutering is also in the best interests of both you and your pet - it can help eliminate unwanted behaviours such as urine marking by toms, howling during heats, and blood spotting by female dogs. Additionally, health benefits for your pet include reducing mammary tumors and reproductive tract infections - some of which I've seen first-hand, and are really painful for the animal and just gross for us.

So, if you're interested in supporting this cause, please check out some of the great shops that are participating in this fundraiser over the next two weeks:




And to find out more information about Saving Shelter Pets, check out their site.

Thanks guys!

Oh, one more thing: how do you know I'm actually going to donate this money? Last year I had some questions from buyers about how to know that I was donating the money as promised. I assured them I would send them a copy of my donation receipt at the end of the fundraiser, but forgot, which is terrible. So, here is a screen shot of my Paypal receipt:



And a newsletter after the fundraiser, acknowledging my participation (my name is Victoria, by the way).

Takeoff

I can now die happy a.k.a. peregrine falcon

Alaksen National Wildlife Area, Delta BC, August 2





Peregrine falcons are among my favourite birds - I can't say they're always at the top, but they do spend a good deal of time there. I'm not sure why I love them so much - it might have started when I learned to fly a falcon to a lure while I was working at a raptor rehabilitation centre. Her name was Bertha, and we taught her how to chase a bird-shaped piece of leather with some meat on it in order to test her flight and hunting skills. Afterwards, she would sit on my glove and snack on chicken bits. Even though she was recovering from injuries, her eyes were still fierce and she was happy to take a chunk out of your finger if you got any crazy ideas like stroking the top of her head.

Afterwards, I read a book on the peregrine falcon recovery project by Jim Enderson and wrote a lit review on adaptations of the peregrine falcon for a natural history class. When the peregrine hunts small birds, it ascends high into the sky and comes plummeting down at speeds conservatively estimated at 252 km/h but could be as fast as 560 km/h. The impact of the falcon on its prey is usually enough to kill it instantly.

This is the first peregrine I've seen in the wild.

Light painting

Things you will need:

* digital camera capable of long exposures or, preferably, a bulb setting
* tripod
* light source (i.e. flashlight)
* dark area (a room, a park far from the city)
* remote shutter release for your camera (not strictly necessary, but makes life easier)
* friend

Set up your camera on its tripod, and make sure it's on bulb and set to your remote. Get your friend to stand approximately where they will be painting, and make sure you're properly focused.

Right before you start painting, open the shutter using your remote (you can do this without a remote by just pressing the shutter release, but there might be some blurriness due to the camera shaking). If there is any ambient light at all (like there was in our pictures) you'll need to paint fairly quickly, or have a smaller aperture (these photos were all f2.8). When you're done painting, close the shutter.

Ta-da!

Here are our efforts, done at Iona Beach after an aborted attempt at photographing stars. It's still a work in progress.











Now here it is, done right:


credit: rafoto


credit: minamac88


credit: The Areographers


credit: Atton Conrad

Powell Street Festival

This Saturday, Davis and I went to the Powell Street Festival, a celebration of the Japanese community in Vancouver.

On our way, we passed this beautiful mural in Chinatown:


with a very thought-provoking quote


The festival is held in Oppenheimer Park in the somewhat infamous downtown east-side. But families and locals were mingling and enjoying the sunshine, music, and food.


I just noticed the colourful and interesting houses behind the tents in this photo - I wish I'd had a closer look!


Davis of course was mainly interested in the martial arts demos, but a fairly large crowd had already assembled by the time we got there, and it was hard to get a good look.


So, we headed over to the food area! These are called manju, and they're a variation of a Chinese pastry that contains red bean paste.


A similar item is the fresh imagawayaki, which is also filled with red bean paste.


YUM!


As, uh, fascinating as it seemed, we did not visit this tent.


But we did try some tofu yaki with Asian slaw, and matcha smoothies.


As we left, we were serenaded by Nish Rawks, a Toronto-based rapper of Japanese descent.


I was pretty impressed.

Hummingbird

Alaksen National Wildlife Area

Thankfully, my poor quads got a break from the mud slogging this week - instead, we split our time between invasive plant removal (broom, loosestrife, and thistle) and bird surveying. Sorry, I just have to say that again - they are paying me to walk around and look at birds. I'm not gloating or anything... I just have to remind myself from time to time because it seems so unreal. :) Of course it's not all fun - the plant removal is pretty hard work, especially in the hot afternoon sun. So I enjoy the birds all the more when I get a chance to see them.

Here are some of the birds I saw last Monday:

Black-headed grosbeak. This was a first for me! We saw two males chasing each other around the trees.


American goldfinch. These guys were everywhere - mostly flying overhead calling "potato chip! potato chip! potato chip!"and chowing down on thistle seeds. I sometimes get these mixed up with yellow warblers (next) because they're about the only bright yellow birds that tiny. Apart from the black marking on the goldfinch that set it apart, I also find the posture to be different - the goldfinches stand more upright, whereas the warblers are more tilted forward.


Yellow warbler!


Spotted towhee. These striking birds are everywhere in this area, and aren't shy about hopping out onto branches and getting their picture taken. They have really strange and varied calls (what I thought for years to be squirrel chatter actually turned out to be a towhee), and you often hear them scratching around in the brush.


We weren't able to identify this guy for sure - I think it might be a Western wood pewee, but I'm not very familiar with flycatchers. If anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful for the insight!


Downy woodpecker. Downies look a lot like their slightly larger cousins, the hairy woodpeckers. Apparently the best way to tell them apart is the length of the beak relative to their head - if the beak is about the same length as the head, it's the bigger Hairy, but if the beak is shorter than the head, it's the diminutive Downy. The bright red patch on this guy also indicates he is a male. :)


Cedar waxwing. These birds are also super common in the area, especially around berry bushes! I often hear them before I see them - they make a high pitched, almost digital insect sound. I think these birds are so pretty - they look so much better put-together than other birds, like they're made of painted ceramic.


Juvenile bald eagle. Young eagles take up to 5 years to attain sexual maturity and get the famous white head and tail.


More pictures (including a groovy orange slug) to come!