I had an embarrassing incident as a veterinary student. One of our professors told us there was a horse in the barn with an interesting heart murmur that we should all hear. So, each of us went out and placed our stethoscope to his side and listened to a really neat “Swoosh-swoosh” noise.
When I had finished listening, I went back to class. I soon started to become itchy. At first I thought it was my imagination. But, no, I was definitely very itchy. I looked around and no one else was scratching. What was wrong with me? Then, I saw it—a bug on my arm! I killed it and ran out of the class and into the barn to find my professor.
He looked at the bug and identified it as a horse-sucking louse. Gross! I did not want to be infested with lice! So, I said to him, “What do we do?” This very nice, Australian professor said to me, “Don’t worry…we’ll just spray the horse down!” I told him I did have some concern about the horse, but what about me? He suggested I call a pharmacist.
So, I did and they suggested I come in for some special shampoo. I got to the pharmacy and was really grossed out by the fact that I had lice! I asked for the shampoo by the name they gave me and the pharmacist said, “So, you’ve used it before?”
“Um, no, I replied. This is my first time.”
The man told me that this product was usually used repeatedly by people as it is primarily used as a treatment for genital crabs.
“Oh no!”, I replied, “I got it from a horse!”
It wasn’t till I was home and dousing myself with the shampoo that I realized why the pharmacist had such a strange look on his face when I said that!
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