The new school year will be kicking off soon, and LazyPaw Animal Hospitals is putting together a veterinary glossary with some interesting medical terms to start teasing brains after a long summer break. If these words were on a pop quiz, how high would you score? Pencils down!
Kindle
Most people will immediately think of their summer reading list when they hear “Kindle,” but in veterinary medicine, a kindle is both a verb that means to bear young or produce offspring and a noun that describes the actual litter of new critters. Kindles usually refer to rabbits, but the word may also describe kittens.
Lateral
This term describes side areas of the body. In veterinary medicine, lateral can refer to lots of different parts of the body or actions. For example, the lateral canthus is the outside corner of the eye away from the nose. Lateral incumbency describes lying on one’s side, a position veterinarians may put animals in for examinations or procedures.
Molt
“Look at this, I’m so ticked off that I’m molting!” If you can trace that quote to Iago in Disney’s classic Aladdin, kudos! Feathers, similar to nail and hair in humans, are “dead” structures that periodically have to shed. Birds molt due to hormonal or seasonal changes, after nesting, or before migration when birds have more energy to shed and grow new feathers.
Nag
At home this is when your spouse or parent gets on your case about doing chores, but in the animal world a nag is a horse that doesn’t belong to a particular breed (similar to a “mutt” dog). A nag can also be an older horse or one in poor condition, many of whom are in need of friendly families ready to adopt them. The word comes from the Middle English nagge and the Dutch negge, or small horse.
Obligate saprophyte
This type of creature can only survive by eating dead or decaying matter. (In other words, zombies are real! Zombie fungi, anyway.) These death-eaters are actually essential to all life, since they are not only the garbage collectors of the plant and animal worlds, but the decomposers that convert defunct material into new life.