How unusual... on Care of Magical Creatures

Lawrence Marsh

May 28, 2021 8:17 AM

Coming down with something (Beginner) by Lawrence Marsh

OOC: This post may, or may not, be based upon current adventures with my dog. BIC:

Lawrence was bone tired. He’d been up at odd hours the last five days as two of the Abraxan calves were sick. Not running nose and sleepy sick. Tummy trouble and making noise sick. This meant that Lawerence was posted up in the stable, sometimes having to first calm down a protective mother at two in the morning before helping the calves out of their stalls, cleaning the horses and the stalls, and putting them back in. Thankfully, he’d figured out the horses had found a new clover in their pens and had begun eating it. Once he’d gotten rid of all of the clover, started the two calves on a simple diet and given them medicine they seem to improve. So instead of waking up three times a night per calf, it was down to one. This all had given him an idea for one of his last lessons though.

Lawrence smiled wearily at his students as they came in. He already had the jackalopes out in their changes on desks so students could go find them and sit with them. Lawrence knew that the jackalopes would be brought back to the preserve over the summer, but he also knew students were probably bonded to a specific animal, because that’s how the human animal worked. It bonded with any other animal it was in close contact with. With that in mind, what Lawrence had done was a bit maleficent, but important for a lesson.

“Good day class, I hope you are all doing well,” he started. “Today we are going to have a hands on lesson that may be fairly dirty. You will find gloves on the tables in front of you, though not all of you may need to use them.”

He slowly stood up from the desk.

“I am here to inform you that each of your jackalopes have come down with symptoms of some kind of illness. For some of you it will be lethargy and a cough, for some it will be diarrhea and a few other symptoms, and for some it will be ear scratching and whining noises. Your goal today is not to correctly diagnose the issue, but to observe your animal, think through what different diagnosis could be and prescribe a remedy. For those who did not read ahead or read it last year, you will find that chapter 15 of your textbook goes over some of the symptoms for common animal ailments and some suggested remedies. Now, many of you might be worried for your jackalopes safety, I guarantee that each will get better, I will see to it myself.”

“You are all going to be great, but if you have any questions or worries, please raise your hand and ask questions.”

OOC: I’m using this list for possible diseases: https://www.vets-now.com/pet-care-advice/rabbit-ailments-illnesses/
Another list if you want more info:
https://www.purinamills.com/rabbit-food/education/detail/common-rabbit-diseases

If you really want to get into rabbit diseases you can find a whole long list here:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/all-other-pets/rabbits/disorders-and-diseases-of-rabbits

Subthreads:

Hopefully it ain't serious by Billy Cobb with Winston Randall

How unusual... by Xavier Lundstrom with Hansel Hexenmeister

41 Lawrence Marsh Coming down with something (Beginner) 1462 1 5

Billy Cobb

May 28, 2021 5:17 PM

Hopefully it ain't serious by Billy Cobb

Billy was not the last one into class. This was the one class where that was the exception. He wasn't anywhere near the first into the classroom either though. He got to the room near to the last minute, but it was Care of Magical Creatures, so he didn't waste time in the hallway until the very last possible moment. He actually liked this class, usually. It did have it's boring classes, but usually they were always learning about some interesting critter or another. It looked like the jackalopes were today's subject. Dope.

He wandered into the room and started looking around for Stiltz, his jackalope. It didn't take long, and he could immediately tell there was something wrong with Stiltz. The critter just kinda laid there on his side on the desk. He kicked his legs a bit as Billy approached, but it looked like he was having trouble getting up. Stiltz was always on his feet. He was about to raise his hand and say something when the professor started talking. That wasn't good, he might talk forever and.... oh.

They were all sick. He hadn't payed to much attention to the rest of the animals when he'd come in, but now that he looked around at them.. yeah, they all looked pretty bad. He'd trapped plenty of rabbits in his life, but they never really kept any around. There wasn't much of a need, there were lots of 'em in the forest. He had, however, helped out care for some of the goats, cows, chickens and other critters around the mountain. Alright, he can figure this out.

Billy sat down and stared into Stiltz's half closed eyes. The jackalope was laying on his side with his head resting on the desk. He'd noticed that when it had tried to stand up, he leaned to one side and his head moved all about funny. "I think Stiltz is having a problem with his balance," Billy stated to whoever was closest to him, "How's yours look?"

2 Billy Cobb Hopefully it ain't serious 1519 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

June 03, 2021 1:37 AM

How unusual... by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier made his way to COMC, trying not to feel resentful. It was one of the classes that used the least magic, and therefore one of his better ones. He tried not to think about what it said about his potential place in this world that he was better suited to scooping poop than any of the cool, fun things.

He took a seat next to his Jackelope, grateful for the name tags on the cages as he still wasn't totally sure he could pick his out reliably from a line up. He wasn't loving the Jackelope unit, which was basically 'be able to care for a rabbit.' It was only lifted out of the realms of a kindergarten assignment by the fact that the bunnies were kind of pointy, but it still felt like a very babyish project. He also wasn't sure his totally trusted him, though in fairness the feeling was mutual.

He noticed that the cage smelt worse than usual as he took a seat, even though he was pretty sure he had cleaned it on schedule, just as thoroughly as he was meant to. Okay, maybe he had cut a few corners, but he hadn't done a terrible job. Was he going to have to suffer the humiliation of failing rabbit care? But as Professor Marsh talked, it became clear. Well, the part about why the cage smelt so bad did. Some other things...

First off, 'you aren't going to diagnose them, but examine them, think of possible diagnoses and prescribe a remedy' was pretty confusing. How was that latter set of steps not diagnosing? How were you meant to prescribe a remedy without having made an accurate diagnosis? If there was one thing Xavier was highly familiar with, it was that prescribing things usually didn't really work out when you hadn't put your finger on what the actual problem was.

Secondly, there was the fact that all the animals had come down with things at once. That was deeply sus. If a few had come down with different things, or a lot had come down with the same thing, that would be one thing, but all of them simultaneously getting ill with different problems? The only logical explanation was that Professor Marsh had made them all sick on purpose. That was awful. Was it even legal? He was pretty sure that would be considered an act of animal cruelty in his world. Maybe it was like Quidditch, where no one seemed to think it mattered if you broke a bone. Once 'yeah but you can just magic it better' became your way of seeing the world, apaprently your boundaries for acceptable behaviour shifted dramatically. Professor Marsh had demonstrated being more than willing to make them work from flashcards in the past. Why was today any different?

"Is it just me, or is this kind of messed up?" he whispered to a classmate. "Like, the only explanation I can think of is that he made them sick on purpose for class," he clarified, in case his classmate hadn't thought of that.

13 Xavier Lundstrom How unusual... 1529 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

June 03, 2021 10:57 AM

This is a disturbing turn of events by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel liked Care of Magical Creatures, as an idea, but he had discovered his interest was kind of biased and some animals just looked like food to him. The jackalopes were one of those, which made the year long assignment less engaging that it might have been if they were bonding with, say, a snake. Or at least a carnivore. Preferably one that didn't eat primarily snakes, but he was fine with feeding animals mice and stuff. And rabbits were only a bigger version of a mouse, and a jackelope was only a more verbal version of a rabbit. Cori was too little to eat one, but a lot of the snakes at home would happily chow down on Schlangenfutter. (Hansel had really hoped Professor Marsh didn't know German when he named his Jackelope.)

Being a parselmouth, Hansel was less than impressed by the jackelope's ability to 'talk' to him, though it was weird and kind of cool to hear his name being said by an animal without it sounding like hissing.

He suspected he was a bit in the minority in his opinion that snakes were better than jackelopes, though, so he didn't bring it up ever. Even Heinrich and Hilda didn't really like spending time with the snakes at home.

Now, halfway through the year, Hansel dropped into the seat beside Schlangenfutter and frowned slightly at the critter, who had just whined pitifully at him instead of greeting him by name like he usually did. "Hey, Laufweg, you don't look so hot." Poor Jackelope was probably very confused about what his name was, because as Hansel grew more accustomed the small mammal, he'd started calling him Run Away more often than Snake Food. A pet name, if you would. "You dehydrated?" he asked, and checked the water bottle, but that seemed to be working and it still had water in it.

Professor Marsh brought the class to order though, before Hans could try force feeding the animal some water. And they were sick. They were all sick.

He'd definitely have to change the water first before giving some to Schlangenfutter. Maybe the furry little guy was smarter than Hans had given him credit for, and that was why he hadn't been drinking from his bottle. For this many animals to be sick at the same time, there was either something wrong with the water supply or the food supply.

They were told to go care for their sick animals, and Hansel's neighbor whispered to him. For a moment, Hansel just blinked at the other boy, the horrible idea he had suggested making a terrible sort of sense. There were different sets of symptoms. "Oh. I thought it was the same illness, just different symptoms showing." But if it was different, if every one of the jackalopes was sick with one of three different diseases . . . it wasn't just a simple matter of the food or water getting accidentally contaminated.

Professor Marsh had guaranteed their recovery. He had guaranteed it. How could he do that unless he already knew the problem, already had the cure, but he just hadn't given it out yet?

"That is messed up," he whispered back. Whether intentional or accidental, the most likely mode of transmission was still the same. "My pa runs a snake ranch. Usually it's bad water or bad food that will make this many animals sick all at once, and that's probably the easiest way to get it done on purpose, too. Whatever else is wrong, we should start by changing those."

1 Hansel Hexenmeister This is a disturbing turn of events 1524 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

June 06, 2021 12:01 AM

You can say that again by Xavier Lundstrom

He had ended up sitting next to Hansel. That hadn’t been on purpose, it had just been how the jackelopes had been positioned. Though he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of Fate nudging him around any more than he did bossy sixth year prefects… Still, he couldn’t say he was exactly sorry for the turn of events. He did want to try and get to know people, and Hansel seemed like a good start. He was in the friendly house.

He possibly should have checked who he was sitting next to, and modified his English accordingly, though Hansel seemed to follow along better than he might have predicted. His English certainly seemed better than his sister’s. Perhaps he’d lived here, with their uncle, for longer. Xavier had not pried into that at the feast, sensing that it really couldn’t be anything good or any of his business. Though Hansel clearly had memories of being back on their father’s snake ranch. That was… not a thing Xavier had ever thought of existing.

“Snake ranch?” he checked. “Like, breeding them for pets?” That was the only use of snakes he’d ever come across. He guessed those snakes had to come from somewhere, though he’d never really thought about it before.

Hansel seemed to have a suggestion of where to start too. It didn’t seem to involve much evaluation of the symptoms, so Xavier wasn’t sure it was totally in line with the lesson plan. However, given the symptoms that had been induced in his jackelope and his suspicions that it had been somehow done on purpose, he wasn’t sure that ‘being in line with the lesson plan’ was his biggest priority.

“Sounds good. Want me to go rinse out and refill the water bottles?” he offered, figuring they may as well share the tasks.

13 Xavier Lundstrom You can say that again 1529 0 5

Winston Randall

June 08, 2021 8:16 AM

Serious case of not cool. by Winston Randall

Winston took a seat with his jackalope, Churchill. The chubby little thing was not looking good and Winston was pretty sure he'd accidentally gone and killed his assignment. Churchill was a far cry from Winston's friend, but it was still a living thing. Another living thing that Winston had clearly let down. He kept his eyes down on his hands, not wanting to look at the professor in case the man noticed what was going on and said something in front of everyone and not wanting to look at his sick 'buddy' either. It was hard to ignore the sneezing and sniffling though and he looked at it sadly a few times before the professor explained what was going on.

Winston's heart started to pound and heat rose in his face. His jackalope was sick? All the jackalopes were sick? But that meant . . . Winston stared with open shock and horror at Churchill, relieved to know he hadn't done anything to hurt the thing but horrified to find out the professor had. Who would do such a thing? Adults weren't supposed to do that, although Winston didn't exactly have a lot of trust for adults right now anyway.

He was mid-shock when the practical part of the lesson began and a classmate turned to him. A classmate whose jackalope was arguably looking even worse than Winston's. Swallowing a grimace, Winston gestured vaguely at his own jackalope.

"Sneezing, runny nose . . . stuff like that," he said bleakly. If he just kept calm, then maybe no one would hear his voice shaking. He blinked to force his eyes to move and then looked at the classmate who'd spoken to him. "Did he poison all of them?"

22 Winston Randall Serious case of not cool. 1527 0 5

Billy Cobb

June 10, 2021 6:00 PM

Why do you say that? by Billy Cobb

Billy nodded along as the kid next to him ran though his critter's symptoms. The boy didn't look so good himself, maybe he was sick as well. That wasn't part of the class assignment though, was it? He thought a moment, no.. he probably woulda remembered that bit. Plus, this was Care of Magical Creatures, not Care of Magical Folk... although, arguably folk were a type of creature weren't they? Oh well, best stick with the jackalopes.

Poison? Huh. "Maybe," Billy responded without giving the question a whole lotta thought. "It'd make sense." He looked around the room again, before continuing casually, "He'd have to have given them all different stuff though or they'd have the same symptoms." Billy began paging though his book. This was one of his school books that he actually liked and read more than he actually had to. Not much, mind you, but a little bit. "Which chapter did he say? Fifteen?" He asked his partner. Man that kid didn't look great.

"You feelin' alright?" He asked. Lunch was after this class, so maybe he was just hungry. He knew he didn't feel so great by this time of the day if he skipped breakfast. He dug around in his school mandated dress for a moment before pulling out an apple that wasn't in to bad of shape. "I grabbed a few things from breakfast, just in case," he gave the younger boy a knowing look, "If it'll help, you can have it."

2 Billy Cobb Why do you say that? 1519 0 5

Winston Randall

June 11, 2021 11:54 AM

It's like kicking a puppy. by Winston Randall

Winston nodded glumly as Billy made the further observation that the professor must have used different poisons. Did that mean the potions professor was in on this? Or did Professor Marsh have his own store of poisons on hand ready to mess animals up? Billy's tone was lost on him though as he looked on at his sad little jackalope and tried not to think about what it would feel like to be sick, poisoned by someone who was supposed to care for you, and stuck in a cage. The idea of any one of those things alone made Winston's skin crawl, let alone all three together.

"I dunno," he said, blinking to clear his eyes and head when Billy asked about what chapter they were supposed to be looking at. He looked at his classmate with a bleary gaze, wishing he could compartmentalize as well as Billy could. It would have been helpful to be able to just dive into the chapter and get on with the task, but his stomach was still whirling. Billy seemed to notice as well and Winston grimaced, hating that he'd let so much of his anxiety show on his face. Unfortunately, the very sad looking apple that was retrieved for him didn't look very likely to be helpful. Still, it was one of the nicer things anyone had done for him, even if it was just a small thing. He smiled weakly and accepted the apple. "Thanks," he said with a grateful nod, turning the apple so the worst of the bruises were on the other side before he took a bite. It was . . . not good. "Sorry. This just makes me sad. Being sick sucks," he said, gesturing to Churchill.

22 Winston Randall It's like kicking a puppy. 1527 0 5

Billy Cobb

June 11, 2021 6:58 PM

Well, that's unnecessarily mean by Billy Cobb

Winston wasn't looking a whole lot better. Billy felt sorry for the kid, he had a point though, being sick did suck. He nodded in agreement as he started to look over the contents of the chapter of the book. "Yeah..." Billy pulled out another apple as his eye scanned the page, it was in worse shape than the one he'd offered Winston, and took a bite. "I guess that's what makes this lesson good then. We get to learn how to make 'em feel better."

Billy was getting the distinct impression that Winston didn't think it'd been good for the teacher to poison all of the jackalopes. That was kinda silly, how else were they supposed to learn how to make them better? How else would they know how to treat other critters that needed help if they didn't learn what sicknesses looked like and how to treat them? Plus, the professor knew how to fix them all up again even if they couldn't. It might suck a bit for the critters, but it wasn't going to kill them.

He gave his partner another look. "I'm a little curious, if you knew that being sick yerself for a bit would keep your best friend from getting sick, or even it would help them recover faster, would ya be okay with being sick?"

2 Billy Cobb Well, that's unnecessarily mean 1519 0 5

Winston Randall

June 11, 2021 8:14 PM

That's what I'm saying! by Winston Randall

Winston nodded, having to concede that Billy was at least right about that; making the jackalopes feel better was a good thing, even if them being sick was terrible and even if Winston hadn't cared that much about Churchill until this point. He didn't expect Billy's followup question though and he had to ponder not least of all because-- "I've never had a best friend," he admitted, mostly because the thought was so loud in his head that he couldn't do enough to keep it from coming out. That didn't mean he didn't turn red though, hating that he'd admitted it. He shrugged to at least look like he didn't mind.

What would he do if he had a best friend? And what kind of sick world was going to make him sick to save or help his best friend? That didn't seem like a very likely scenario. It was like the old would you do X for a million galleons? questions people asked each other; no one was going to offer you a million galleons to lick a frog or a kiss a venomous tentacula, so why did people ask those sorts of questions? At the same time, considering the state of the jackalopes right now and the fact that literal poisons were in the curriculum in potions, let alone whatever the defense class syllabus would include, it seemed possible that they could become guinea pigs for each other at some point. Without a best friend, Winston considered what he'd be willing to do for any random classmate, or for Billy himself.

"I don't think I'd be okay with it," he qualified, not liking the sound of that. "But if I had to be sick, I guess it would be good if it could help someone at least. I'd still wanna know why I had to be sick to help them. Couldn't I be more helpful if I wasn't sick?"

22 Winston Randall That's what I'm saying! 1527 0 5

Billy Cobb

June 16, 2021 7:05 PM

So we agree then. by Billy Cobb

Billy stopped just short of giving Winston an incredulous look at his statement about not having a best friend. The only way that was even possible was that if Winston had never had any friends before, because if he did, logically one of them would have to be the best one. Billy was good at logic sometimes. The thing that gave him pause though was his own situation, before coming to the school he wasn't sure that he'd had any friends either. He'd had bunches of people to hang out with, but they were cousins and that counted before 'friends', didn't it? He was with his cousins, not his friends. Now that he was here at the school he had Oz and Gus. He wasn't quite sure which of them was his 'best' friend, but one of them must be. Logic.

Still, Billy thought it didn't look like Winston wanted to make a big deal out of it, so he shrugged casually back. "Well," he drawled a bit, "Iff'n you think you want one sometime, let me know. I ain't averse to having friends." Hmm... Billy peered into his book. "Looks like I should keep things quite and dark around you accordin' to this." Stiltz also tried to get up again. "You're also supposed to stay layin' down." He informed the jackelope.

The Pecari nodded along to Winston's response about being sick. "You might be more useful, sure. But that's the odd thing about sicknesses and such. Someone always is sick, and sometimes they get sick from new stuff." He knew Old Uncle Myron, the closest thing they had to a doctor up on the mountain, usually learned how to deal with stuff from trying to fix folk that got it. "The only way to figure that out is to work at fixing 'em. That makes it easier to help the next one." He pointed at Winston's jackelope. "I'm sure he'd prefer to not be sick right now, but he won't die from it and you'll learn how to help him and any more that are sick in the same manner." Billy shrugged, "If he wasn't sick now, and you found one later that was, you wouldn't know what to do and that one might die because of it."

2 Billy Cobb So we agree then. 1519 0 5