In this episode of NDO Podcast we visit with Logan Weyand, Department wildlife veterinarian, about his career path, experiences and initial thoughts, priorities and stories on the job here.
Cayla: Welcome to episode 89 of the NDO podcast, hopefully no singing on this episode, Casey. Unless our guest wants to break out.
Casey: Break out in a jingle,I'll help you. I'll back you up. I'm gonna start it. Yeah.
Cayla: On this episode, we have Logan Weyand our newish I guess, it's been probably like six months, Department wildlife veterinarian on. Just to hear a little bit about, I mean, kind of a unique job and then, uh, his experiences beforehand and kind of what's what he's got going on here now that he's here in North Dakota. But, yeah. Welcome.
Casey: So has it been six months? Yeah. Same time as I was, uh, deputy.
Logan: Closer to three.
Casey: Oh, okay. Yeah, I was gonna say I was like, it seems like a little long, but.
Cayla: Oh okay, fake news.
Logan: October 20th, so.
Cayla: Okay.
Casey: Right in the middle of our big testing, CWD testing period. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.
Cayla: Well, yeah. Welcome. Um, I guess you can just start with, uh, a little bit of your background or how you got into this career field and how you ended up here.
Logan: Okay. So that's a good question for background and how I got into the field. So I would say the path to being a wildlife vet is very unique. And there's many different ways to be a wildlife vet, but one of the ones in the United States is to work as a wildlife vet for a state agency, like what I'm doing here at North Dakota. And I know many of those vets and the path each one has been on to get there has been very different. It's very unique. So but one big part of it is going to vet school, because to be a veterinarian, you need to go to vet school or get a degree that's equivalent to that. But that being said, there's also some state wildlife health positions that do not require that actually as well. So but with my background, I well, from a pretty young age, I wanted to be a vet.
Cayla: Like a vet vet or a wildlife vet? Like I was wondering at what point you're like, yeah, I don't.
Logan: Right. Yeah. So as a kid, I was just obsessed with animals, wildlife, domestic animals. I had a lot. I did 4H, and I also was pretty interested. I would call myself, you know, somewhat nerdy as a kid. Like, I would, uh, get into things like medical stuff or, you know, just anything kind of related to, like interesting science stuff, you know, and, um, so combining that, those interests with animals I thought of being a veterinarian would, would be what I wanted to be. But at the time, I didn't, you know, at that age, in high school, I didn't know you could be a state agency wildlife vet. Um, but so I, uh, did end up going to Washington State University. And they have a program where you can pick among four different majors. And if you get into a pre acceptance program, into vet school, um, you can start a year early into vet school. And so, and then it guarantees that you have a spot. And so that was appealing to me. And um, if you had done 4H, that was a part of this program like it was.
Casey: Oh, okay.
Logan: It was sort of a big part of it. And so, um, so I ended up getting into that. And so the major that I picked was wildlife ecology. Um, because by the time I, you know, was going to college and had to start taking your career seriously and actually think about what I wanted to be, I knew I did not want to be a domestic animal vet. I wanted at the time. I was like, well, maybe I could, um, you know, work with other species to like, uh, at the time, I thought maybe a zoo vet or somehow work with wildlife. Um, and so my.
Casey: That's pretty good that you had decided what you what you were gonna do before you finished college. I, I don't know if people have done that.
Cayla: So do you get, like, a wildlife, I feel stupid asking this like a wildlife ecology degree. And then you go on to vet school or it's like kind of just a wildlife ecology, like emphasis on the vet.
Logan: Yeah. So with this, it's usually you get whatever undergrad degree you get. And then um, at some point within that time you're going to apply to vet school.
Cayla: Okay.
Logan: And if you get accepted and then you go through that after you're done with your undergrad. But, um, so there was, you know, I had classmates that had their undergrad was in music or, you know, something totally random.
Casey: Well, yeah, like at NDSU, that's the pre vet school in North Dakota. And so like, I went into zoology, wildlife zoology at NDSU. Of course that's what all the pre-vet, you know, the majority of the pre-vet folks were doing and then they were applying for vet schools in other places. Once they got done they didn't have that unique opportunity that you found out there.
Logan: Yeah. Yeah. I was really grateful that Washington State had that. There's a few other like I think Colorado has that option too. Um, and.
Cayla: Are you from Washington? Sorry, I should have.
Logan: Yeah. I've lived in a few different places, but, um, my mom's from Pittsburgh, so I did spend, like, a lot of my earlier years in Pittsburgh. Summers there too, sometimes. And but my dad's from Washington, so I did mainly grow up in Washington. Yep. Yeah. And then some some times, you know, you only really need to take the prerequisites for vet school, so you don't actually need to get a full on bachelor's. Mhm. As long as you get those prereq's in that's an option too. So um but yeah when I was in that my, when I was a freshman in undergrad, I was in a wildlife habitat ecology course and my professor was a really amazing professor. Um, and she gave a lecture about what career options in wildlife. And she did this whole lecture about being a state wildlife vet and, and that I remember sitting there and I was like, oh, my gosh, those pictures and, uh, that what they're doing. Like, that's it, I don't.
Casey: They showed you all the pictures that wildlife vets deal with? Because some of them.
Cayla: Yeah. I was gonna say like, did it have smells involved?
Casey: Yeah. Was it a scratch and sniff kind of thing?
Cayla: That's because I'm out right there.
Logan: So that was, uh, helpful because at the time I was like, well, how am I gonna make these all these interests come together? And then she gave a lecture. And then I knew, like, the people, I would need to make contacts with the network and, um, try to find opportunities that were up that alley to start, start really learning how to to reach that goal. So. Yeah.
Casey: So did you grow up hunting and fishing at all?
Logan: Um, I would say, um, no, I wish I had more. Um, I grew up, uh, in the outdoors a lot though, um, because my dad, he was really interested in, like, his main hobby was mountain climbing, and, um, and he liked to do it, you know, not where there was a ton of people or trails. It was more like.
Casey: Yeah, Off the beaten path.
Logan: Yeah, off the beaten path. And just, uh, have goals and go for it kind of a mentality. And so my two younger brothers and I, my dad did a lot of that. Um, and so that was as a kid, like a big way of how I, you know, I would see an animal or, um, read a book about an animal. I'd want to find it when we were out, or.
Cayla: That's why he likes sheep.
Casey: Yeah, yeah. Mountain climbing. Yeah.
Logan: That's why I like sheep and mountain goats.
Casey: Yeah, yeah.
Logan: So, uh, that was that. But I grew up more on the coast, and so, um, we did do some activities, like setting out crab pots.
Casey: Hmmm.
Logan: Catching crab or, um.
Cayla: Clamming, Digging for clams?
Logan: Yeah, razor calms yeah. But, yeah. No, I do wish I had more, but through my work with other agencies, I've made friends that I've gone out with and learned hunting so I'd say turkey hunting is, um my favorite at the moment.
Cayla: Yeah. We should have taken him ice fishing. Yeah, for the podcast.
Casey: Yeah. Still could.
Cayla: Have you been ice fishing?
Logan: No, but I really want to.
Cayla: All right.
Casey: Bjorn, my son, just took some new guys ice fishing the other day. I thought it was pretty fun.
Cayla: I just love, like, people's faces when we just, like, drive on the ice and. Yeah. Take your seatbelt off.
Casey: Or sitting there and it starts cracking.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: That's a good sign. It's really hard to convince somebody that that's a good sound. Yeah, the ice is actually freezing and it's causing those cracks. It's like you hear that pop going off and it's like, okay, what's happening?
Logan: Well, I love ice skating. So that's.
Cayla: Yeah. You can just.
Casey: Well this year would be a good one because you could ice skate on any lake because there's no snow on the ice. You could ice skate on any lake.
Cayla: Ice skate to your tip ups when it's up. Cool.
Logan: Yeah. I'm, uh, looking forward to it. Ice fishing. Yeah.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: So you maybe touch a little bit on your career path where you've, where you've been because you don't just have a vet degree either.
Logan: Right. So yeah. So you made a comment of it's, you know, it's not everyone who knows what they want to be right when they start college. For me, I'd say it's the opposite. Like, I kind of had this vision learned about you can be a state wildlife vet as a freshman, but then because I did wildlife ecology as my major, I got a really amazing opportunity to be a, uh, field technician on bighorn sheep as a sophomore. And I just got absolutely hooked on working with bighorn sheep. And, um, it was a very cool opportunity because this was in Hells Canyon. The project was, um, pretty intensive monitoring of collared bighorn sheep and evaluating basically identifying sheep that, um, had pneumonia and then how these populations responded when there were populations that did not have these carriers of pneumonia. And so. So that was to me like I felt like I was just out there learning everything. How do you do radio telemetry? How do you count groups of sheep, monitor lambs all summer? It was great um, field experience, like in very remote places. And it helped me to understand how is this disease working in, um, a wild population. And then at Washington State University there was a bighorn sheep pneumonia research lab. And so in my afternoons I would work there and learn how to, you know, run lab techniques like a PCR or an Eliza and also test out, um, some of our hypotheses about pneumonia in bighorn sheep, on captive bighorn sheep. And so it put everything really together for me. Um, and so by the time I started vet school, I was pretty torn on I really love what a research biologist does. Um, but also, you know, being a veterinarian and doing the more of the lab work, too, that's really important. And so, um, throughout my four years in vet school, I, I just stuck with it. I just kept doing those jobs and getting to know this system of pneumonia and bighorn sheep. But I will say, by the time I, uh, graduated, my two thoughts were I still wanted to either be a state agency wildlife veterinarian or be a research biologist.
Casey: Which, yeah.
Cayla: You kind of get to be both, don't you? A little, I mean, I guess obviously some other obligations to being the vet, but, um.
Casey: There's research facilities too, that, that hire vets, you know, wildlife vets. Like, that's where Charlie, our last veterinarian had come to us from. SCWDS yeah, down in the southeast. What does that stand for? Southeast cooperative.
Logan: Southeastern Cooperative.
Casey: Research Facility thingy.
Casey: Yeah, but. It's it's where we had sent a lot of critters and things when I remember we sent sage grouse down there, and I think Charlie said he had worked on some of our sage grouse testing for West Nile and some other stuff. but yeah.
Logan: But yeah, I've sort of had a, uh, battle with like an internal battle of like, I really like the field biologists work and the vet med and so. Yeah. Um, so that led me to do a master's on moose right after vet school. Um, and that was important in learning how to strategize, like conducting disease surveillance on a totally new species to me in a totally new set of diseases and gain a lot of really important field experience through that, too. And because I had, uh, just had this goal of I want to be really strong on bighorn sheep ecology, that's why I after that, I, uh, took a position as a bighorn sheep biologist in Nebraska. So, um, I worked there for the past three years before North Dakota. And that was an amazing decision to do that, just because the way, um, like I've come to see a state wildlife vet is you really want to work as a team with the biologists in the agency and support the work of biologists. Um, because that's really the a big part of the bread and butter of what state agencies do, um, in protecting and conserving resources. And so, um, like doing a biologist role firsthand. Like, I feel like I couldn't have made a better decision there because you want to make sure, as a vet that your work is aligning with the biologists goals.
Casey: Yeah, well, yeah. Sorry we stole you from Nebraska. I'll shout out to Alicia Harding down there, but not sorry. Really. I mean, it was a little bit sorry, but a little bit not right.
Cayla: Uh, it all comes back around. They’ll steal someone else.
Casey: Yeah they’ll steal someone else probably. Yeah. Somebody that gets too cold.
Cayla: Mhmm.
Casey: So yeah, I guess what? So far you haven't spent much time in North Dakota before you came.
Cayla: And you got a couple people move here and then they get the mild winter. Yeah, they don't even know this is nothing. Yeah.
Casey: Break you in easy.
Logan: Yeah, yeah. I, uh, I think I, I don't know who I told. Maybe it was you, Casey, but. Yeah, when I heard of this opportunity here, I, you know, I was working on a big bighorn sheep project in Nebraska, and, um, so I learned about it, and I'm like, oh, well, I really should look into this. And, um, because it really did align with my really ultimate goal to be a state wildlife vet. And so, um, to me, as long, you know, I, I really want to, uh, work somewhere with species that I am pretty passionate about, so.
Casey: Well, luckily, we have one of the best bighorn sheep programs in the nation.
Logan: Yes.
Cayla: Is that, like, known, though among the. Because it feels like I didn't even know Nebraska had sheep. So, like, do people know we have sheep?
Casey: Oh yeah, everybody knows we have sheep. Nebraska just didn't know.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: South Dakota has sheep too.
Cayla: I knew that, I guess I don't know why I sold Nebraska short, but.
Logan: Nebraska has the fewest.
Cayla: Okay. Yeah. See? So it was valid.
Casey: So you looked at tag options and you went. Not an option.
Cayla: Oh yeah.
Logan: So I yeah I looked at I heard about it through a contact and I looked into the agency and the species and the programs and I you know this would.
Cayla: He listened to all of our podcasts and he thought, these guys are so cool.
Logan: And, uh, so then I, my wife and I took a trip up here to, um, visit, meet, meet, uh, Bill and Steph. And the drive up from Nebraska was, uh, so, like, I'm, I'm very much, uh, I like the open country. I like wide open spaces. It feels, uh, very, like, freeing to me. Even though I'm from Washington. I grew up surrounded by trees. And, yeah, I don't like the feeling of not being able to run somewhere quickly, you know what I mean?
Casey: So I agree, I get in the mountains and I got like 3 to 4 days and I'm like, I gotta get back to my prairies because I'm starting to feel like I'm getting boxed in.
Logan: Yeah. So, um, yeah, I like to be able to just go and go. And so, um, so the drive up was beautiful and very remote. Uh, I like that. And then, uh, we were looking, you know, for maybe a little bit of a bigger town, uh, more options too for family as well. And so we were very happy to.
Casey: Bismarck was bigger.
Logan: It was bigger, actually, uh, quite a bit bigger.
Casey: Yeah. What town were you in? In Nebraska?
Logan: Um, really? Technically. Mitchell, which was about a thousand people, but, um, it's close to Scottsbluff, which is 30,000 people. So, yeah, in terms of the actual surrounding area, like being close to the river, having it be really cold and snowy and, you know, getting to know the different, uh, habitat and, um, just what different trees are around too. Like, I'm very much like an outdoor landscape type of a person. And so I have to say, I'm very happy. And also my favorite landscape is the Badlands.
Cayla: Did you guys go there when you came through or out or?
Logan: Yeah, I've been there. Um, as a kid, we drove, um, to visit my mom's family in Pittsburgh. We'd stop in the South Dakota badlands every summer, and that's my favorite habitat of the United States. And so.
Cayla: That's cool.
Logan: And so I was very happy that North Dakota has its own badlands, too. Mhm. Yeah.
Casey: Ours are even prettier.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Not so much clay in ours. We have some green grass sometimes and some trees. South Dakota's is pretty.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: What happened what happened here I mean it's cool.
Logan: Pretty dramatic. Yeah. Yeah I know the North Dakota's is like it's more extensive. I feel like.
Cayla: Yeah, I love too having been to like, I guess I haven't been like much further north than the north unit of the park. But otherwise having been at like different parts of our Badlands stuff. It's like so interesting to me how there's like little sub. It's like, this feels so different than, like 30 miles north of here. Like, I don't know, there's just little, um, differences in, like, the landscape. Yeah. The landscape or, like, how many? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's just like, this feels like a different type of.
Casey: Well, then you go through the whole thing and you get farther south, and all of a sudden you hit this bunch of pines.
Cayla: Mhm. Yeah.
Casey: And it's like, well wait a minute you know.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: So yeah it can be a pretty stark difference even within the Badlands.
Cayla: I love hearing people like actually like it here. Not just like ah.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: It's a good opportunity. I love it.
Logan: I'm glad it's the furthest north of the 48 because, uh, I, I'm really like the snow, ice skating. And I had a funny experience when I, uh, got my, I was, uh, getting some things fixed on my truck before I made my road trip up here. And I knew our shop guy pretty well. And so I'm like, well, thanks for everything. I'm just so, you know, I'm moving. And he's like, oh, he's like, where are you moving to? And I said, um, North Dakota. And he said, oh my gosh. He's like, that is so awesome. You are so close to Alaska now.
Casey: It's a long ways. I'll be honest with you. It's a long ways from here to Alaska.
Cayla: Oh my gosh.
Casey: You were closer in Washington.
Cayla: On a similar vein, when we moved here, my husband was working at Cashman's nursery and like shortly after we moved here, we had a trip to Alaska planned. And so he naturally is like telling his coworkers. And one of them said, What's Alaska?
Casey: What's, really?
Cayla: Yeah, it was like an inside joke now, but like, what do you mean? Like, what's a like a state that in the.
Casey: Uh, yeah. Yeah. I'd be more likely to ask, what's Hawaii? I ain't going south. I'll you go north if I get a chance.
Cayla: Yeah. I guess people nationwide need to work on their geography.
Casey: That is a problem. Uh, so you're, I guess, you know, we've got we've got a pretty decent lab in North Dakota. Um, it's actually fairly new. It's ten, 15 years old, which isn't that new, I guess, but it seems new. I was I was around when they built it. Put it that way.
Cayla: And it seems newer compared to some of our other facilities, so. Yeah.
Casey: But I mean, your first impressions of facilities, North Dakota and the things that we've maybe got going on.
Logan: Oh, yeah. I, um, the lab facility is outstanding, and I, uh, I've worked in a few different places, too. And, you know, every state has a different situation. But this I was super excited when I, um, first came up and saw the lab. I wanted to say, I think my predecessors have done a very good job in creating that setup there, because it is really important to have a really high quality space like that for doing, uh necropsies as well as other work with samples that we do from time to time. Um, and then the setup, in terms of having trucks to be able to go out and respond to situations, um, easily bring an animal back. Other basically like types of needed supplies such as an x ray machine, um, and many, many supplies for taking samples and shipping them out. It's a very well set up facility. And and so yeah, I'm learning it still now day by day. But, uh, it's been absolutely amazing to be working there.
Cayla: Yeah, I imagine this is the case that most state agencies like, everyone has to work together. But it feels like as someone who's not really at all in that world, like there's other a lot of people like cooperating with stuff like wardens bringing carcasses and I don't know, just based on Steph saying like, do you have any carcasses? Feel free. You know, like, I just feel like a lot of people participate in helping. Um, I guess maybe that's more so, like the biologist stuff, but, um, it feels like people are picking stuff up, checking on things. It's not just like one person driving around and yeah.
Casey: Yeah, and some of the stuff like the wardens, of course, they're bringing some of those otter carcasses and things where we require a carcass.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Once they're taken so that we can do some necropsy, work on it and Steph, probably does a lot of that. And you've probably been getting into some of that stuff. There's a lot of necropsies that go through that lab. Yeah.
Logan: Um, yeah. The freezer is pretty full right now with carcasses.
Casey: That's that smell you talked about.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Even the even when they're frozen for a while, you still it starts to get a little bit off. Yeah.
Cayla: I have such a sensitive nose, I don't know, that's.
Casey: Cause you're a mom.
Cayla: I know it's so bad.
Casey: Uh.
Cayla: What was, like, the first thing? Yeah. So October 20th, it was like, what's the first? You just hit the ground running on lymph node stuff or what else was happening in October?
Logan: Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so, Mason, um, who was the former wildlife health biologist now the migratory game bird biologist. Um, he has been absolutely phenomenal to work with because when I started, um, we were like Casey had said, this was probably our busiest time of year. And so, again, my goal was to continue with the CWD surveillance and management plan. That's the current plan. Um, and learn it because it's a disease. I have to learn. I, I need to, uh, get much deeper into this disease system and just really get, um, immersed in it. And so having Mason, who had a lot of experience with how North Dakota conducts our surveillance during the deer season, was, yeah, he was an amazing person to work with and learn how to coordinate that. Um, and so that would include getting self-sampling kits from hunters, setting out deer head collection sites and other ways that we can collect lymph nodes to then test for CWD and, um, there's a lot that goes to it when doing that statewide. And so that was probably what I felt like I was doing all day, every day for quite a few weeks. Um, but it was great. And, and I think I learned it pretty well. Now to where, um, next year when it's going to be more me doing that, you know, I won't be as new next year. I think I learned it in a good way this year. So yeah.
Casey: So I can't remember. Did we put some more collars on some bighorn sheep? Were you here when we did that?
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: Did you get involved in that at all?
Logan: So I helped get, uh, capture kits ready for Brett. Okay. And then they did that all through sending the kits out with the helicopter to work the animal out in the field. And so, um, didn't go out on that.
Casey: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, cause we do that periodically just so we can, um, kind of monitor the health and and location of those sheep so that Brett can classify them, the set number of licenses and things like that.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: What do you got going on now?
Logan: Okay. Yeah.
Casey: So now we've got, we've got a, a deer study that we're going to work on that you're going to be involved with that's coming up.
Cayla: Debatable, it's like.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: It's Thursday, it's Saturday, it's Tuesday. But yeah you said that's pretty normal. I guess that makes sense. Flights and yeah.
Casey: Yeah we're relying on a helicopter crew to help us out with that. And so yeah, they're stuck somewhere else in the nation trying to get over here.
Logan: Yeah, exactly. We're waiting. Uh, we got packed, everything packed. So now we're just, uh, in the. Hurry up and wait mode. Yeah.
Cayla: Um, I would be so annoyed if I was your wife.
Logan: Like.
Cayla: When are you gonna be gone? I'm gone tomorrow. No. Can you let the dog know? Bye. Okay, I'll be here.
Logan: Um, yeah. We, uh, have that mule deer research project. That's the big thing. I would say my head's been in. That still is, um, until that. Until that happens. But we are, um, excited. Really excited about that because it, you know, collaring studies can give you really helpful data on just ways to understand and tell a story better get and assess a lot of different factors over time.
Casey: So well. And the the information we get from collars nowadays versus the old every time you fly is the only time you know where they're at. Yeah, type of thing. The GPS callers really give us some unique data.
Logan: Yeah. So other than that one of the big things I do is if we get carcasses like situations where a wild animal either is found dead or euthanized, if I get a carcass, um, that we then get into the lab, then we would do a necropsy on it to figure out why that animal died. And so some of those, um, can range from deer, elk, moose, had a few bighorn sheep, some furbearers, birds. Um, so it's a big variety. And and then there's also other sampling too, that maybe you do routinely for a species like testing for avian influenza. Something like that.
Casey: So here's a question for you, because a lot of people always ask when we get into winter, how are the deer doing? How are, you know, um, critters doing on the landscape? I imagine we haven't had a whole lot of deer or things come in based on what we've had in the past, but of what you're seeing, you're having some deer come in, probably. Have you done any necropsies on them yet? Yeah. Kind of determine. I mean, what are we seeing as far as this winter goes so far?
Logan: So in terms of causes of death, for deer in the winter?
Casey: That's really what people care about. Are they dying or not? You know, are we going to have some next year? Yeah.
Logan: You know well so so far most of the deer this winter, um, that I've worked on. Um, and so this is tricky. It's a it's a good question, but it's a tricky question because the samples a little bit, it's hard to say, you know, is this different or, at the rate that we're getting these deaths is a different or, cause they may be or depending on where they're coming from, you know, it could be. Yeah.
Casey: Of the deer that we've had come in and died so far, what are we seeing? Yeah, that'd be a better question.
Logan: Well, I have I've seen a lot that have had, um, bacterial infections. So like abscesses, some have had them within the body and some have had them within the brain, and.
Cayla: Also sounds stinky.
Casey: Yeah. It does.
Logan: Yeah. There's a lot of, uh, pus involved. Yeah. You might, I’ll have to tell my, uh, technician to, uh, back up a little bit. When I open those, but, uh, um.
Casey: That's we could call this podcast how much pus can you handle.
Cayla: Well, I think he said a lot of puss involved. Then your wife won't listen to this one either.
Logan: So. But the deer themselves that I have worked on in general have been in actually very adequate to good body condition, which has been interesting to me. Um, just to give an in other places I've worked. But I, you know, there is also a lot of agriculture in North Dakota. And so and also, you know, sometimes they actually are found maybe near, um, crops. And in some cases that's maybe not ideal for the deer either. Or moose. So yeah. Um, but it's a, you know, they're these ones have been in good body condition. So. Yeah.
Casey: Have you seen, have you seen some years. We've seen grain overload like, uh, type of thing. Have you seen any of that.
Logan: We have. Yeah. That's what I was leading to is. Yeah. The the moose. It's been a few moose that have had grain overload, but their body condition has been really good.
Casey: So that means they just got too much grain at one time.
Logan: yeah.
Casey: No different than my. I always tell people no different than my beef cattle. If I spilled a bunch of corn and they got into it, I'd probably lose some of them too. Yeah. Interesting. So all in all, we're probably not seeing too much because winter has been pretty good to us so far. And it's it's good to hear that a lot of the animals are actually in good condition, because that means we should be able to every day that we don't have winter.
Cayla: Yeah it's been
Casey: Gets farther along.
Cayla: We're already like two months past when it could have started. So it's been pretty good.
Casey: At least,Yeah, yeah. So anything else interesting that's happening?
Cayla: I sent I guess it was probably a tough time. I sent some sharptail blood. I don't know what's, uh, happening with those. We got very many samples. It was a tough time of year.
Casey: Right. Have you been involved with that at all? So RJ's got it started probably right when you got here. Um, looking for eye worm?
Logan: Yes.
Casey: In pheasant, sharptails. Partridge. Um, yeah. Have you guys. What have you guys been. Have you been handling any of those yet?
Logan: Yeah. No. So actually we're that's coming up right now. We've focused on the CWD, testing this.
Casey: Those are all frozen people that have sent those in and and, uh, things we've collected a few different parts for him.
Cayla: I'm still waiting for him to run his lottery for gloves and hand sanitizer. He promised as an incentive.
Casey: That was the incentive. Gloves and hand sanitizer.
Logan: Really?
Cayla: Yeah.
Logan: He, uh. Yeah, we have. We're inventorying those, and we we're. It's coming up. Yeah, we'll be working on those.
Casey: Does it look like we have quite a few samples? I haven't talked to RJ. That's probably a whole another podcast on it's own when we get done with that.
Logan: But, yeah, it looks pretty good to me. Uh, being new, I don't really have a good comparison, but I we've been getting quite a few. Yeah.
Cayla: Cool.
Casey: Cool. So what's the maybe the most exciting thing? Or that's happened so far as a wildlife vet here?
Logan: It's most exciting in North Dakota?
Casey: Yeah, yeah.
Logan: Okay
Cayla: It’s only been three months.
Casey: We don’t care about the other places right now. We're done with them.
Logan: Um, one that came up right away, actually, uh, a potential moose that could have. We got a call about a moose that was circling, which we get a lot of calls about, actually. But, um, this was in a cornfield, and Jazmyn, the technician, and I went out there and I was new, so I was it's important to me to ask questions and get to know what are the agency protocols and make sure what we do is aligned with that. And so, um, we got out there to the field and had to use like binoculars to find this moose. We were told it was a cow, but it was a little pretty young bull moose and he was lying down. And so, uh, we walked out there, brought equipment needed to just assess the situation. But, you know, it was pretty out in the middle of nowhere. And so it was just thinking through. I wanted to get an assessment of it and at that point make a decision. But he got up and was, you know, just standing there for a little bit. But then he started, uh, trotting and, um, in a circle.
Casey: He couldn't get right.
Logan: Yeah. Big circle. And at first it was, you know, I don't know if you've seen, uh, dressage horse. You know how they trot, you know. Pretty beautiful trot, running around us. And, uh, it was pretty far distance at that point. But then, uh, I got another phone call at the time that, uh, from a different warden, and because something else was going on at the exact same time. And so I just picked it up, kept watching, and all of a sudden this moose decided to come, right, like, spiraled right next to us. And so like, hey, I gotta go.
Cayla: I got a situation here.
Casey: Yeah. I'm leaving.
Logan: So yeah, I've never, uh, you know, I've been actually pretty close to moose, but, uh, you know, having, uh, one in that tight of a circle right around two people in a field was, uh, something, so, uh. Yeah.
Casey: But so did we ultimately have to put that one down?
Logan: Unfortunately, we did.
Casey: And did you? What was it? Brainworm.
Logan: Um, that one was interesting. Um, because I thought Brainworm would be a possibility for sure, but.
Casey: That's a lot of the ones we've seen that kind of have that behavior.
Logan: Yeah. So you would look at that under a microscope, um, in the brain tissue, under the microscope. And, uh, and it's actually what we do is we put it in formalin and send that off to a lab. So that's usually done at a diagnostic lab. And brainworm was not detected in that moose, but in the rumen there was a lot of corn. But again, that one I'd say was an interesting case, just given, you know, a grain overload can cause some issues in the brain in a different way. And but whether it would cause that circling, you know.
Casey: Mhmm.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: So, so yeah, for, for people who are kind of wondering how grain overload could do that, I so it makes as a rumen, it increases the acidity in their blood and essentially they start bleeding through their capillaries. Mhm. Um, and if it gets any worse than that it bleeds through other veins and things. But, but yeah they kind of internally bleed to death and then just too acidic. So I imagine if some of that acidic blood gets into the brain, it starts to fire different. You know, right?
Logan: But yeah. And it and it can cause some, uh, you know, systemic changes with the bacteria and the body too. So yeah.
Casey: Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Well you don't get that close to those animals unless there's, unless you're either getting chased by them or there's something weird with them typically.
Logan: Um that was. Yeah, that was an exciting one. Um, but we've had some interesting calls as well. We had a, uh, one last week. I got a call last Tuesday. This was right before I had to go to Wyoming to train how to do rectal biopsies with, uh, Charlie, the previous vet. And, um, because that'll be part of, uh, study we're doing coming up. And so I was, you know, a little bit hectic on that Tuesday, trying to make sure I had everything packed, everything was squared away. And, uh, right at 4:00, I got a call. Hey, you got a minute? So I'm like, okay. Yeah. So he said, uh.
Cayla: You gotta start saying it depends. Yeah.
Logan: It depends.
Cayla: Yeah.
Logan: So he said, you're gonna love this one. So he said, um, a member of the public, uh, from Minot, showed up at the Pickerton Vet Clinic with a ferret that she had found.
Casey: Um, found? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
Logan: Yeah. And so, uh, the, uh, vet clinic had taken it back and realized they thought it was a weasel. And so I at the time, like I did ask Steph about that, and because she's furbearer and Steph said, well it really should be white.
Casey: So it was a mink in somebody's house.
Logan: Yep. So I asked for a picture and it turns out it's a mink. And the woman had found it in the window well of her apartment. Um, and um, because our question at first was what what's someone out catching mink outside and bringing it into it.
Casey: You don't just grab a mink. I don't know how she caught that. Them things are vicious, man. When you're trying to pick like, wow.
Logan: Yeah. So the problem was it was.
Cayla: And she thought it was a ferret. Huh. Okay. Yeah.
Casey: And I, I mean, yeah, if you've just seen a quick picture and you don't have any idea what a mink is, it probably would.
Cayla: Well, I don't know if she'd, I would expect her to know it was a mink, but I would expect her to know it was not a ferret. But. So geography and animal ID.
Casey: Ferrets are federally protected. So like when you hear that, you go, uh oh yeah, what's going on here? And how do I even handle this as a game fish department? Now do we have to get other people involved?
Logan: Yeah, exactly. I had to make a few phone calls right away. So, yeah.
Casey: Not just a mink. So was it a small mink or was it. But you said it was neurologic. So then did we, did we do a necropsy on that one already?
Logan: Again, I was out of town the next day, so we sent it off for rabies and other testing. And it came back negative.
Casey: So negative for rabies. Okay. That's good.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: Cause yeah I can't imagine picking up a mink and not getting bit.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: I mean, unless they had some sort of way to get it out of the window well into a cage real quick.
Logan: But yeah, that's what, uh, Steph was wondering. Why isn't she all scratched up and, like. Like we heard that they were she was, uh, had it in her lap and was petting it.
Cayla: Wow.
Casey: Wow. Yeah, yeah.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Yeah, that's no good. Yeah.
Logan: But yeah, so far, that's. Those are the two that pop. Well, the one was really recent. There's been a lot of interesting things to be quite honest. Yeah.
Casey: Well it's never the same.
Cayla: So as I say, I suppose it's just an interesting job. Yeah.
Logan: Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. We talked a little bit about priorities for 2026.
Cayla: Yeah, I don't know if there's any others.
Casey: Maybe you want to hit your thoughts moving forward. It's only three months. So I’d give you a year before I expect you to change much.
Logan: Yeah. Yeah. So okay. Priorities moving forward would be. Well, my priority is starting out. Would were, um, learning the system here. Um, really becoming, like, just working right away to become gain as much expertise as I can on chronic wasting disease and the process for disease testing and then other research projects related to that as well. Um, a big part of the job of a state wildlife vet is being a liaison between. So department of ag veterinarians. So protecting the health of not only just wildlife, but domestic animals and the public. And so I've been now that I'm in this role learning what that means and, um, getting to build those relationships with the Department of ag veterinarians here in North Dakota. And then there's also national and regional state agency, wildlife, um,
Casey: Health committees.
Logan: Yeah. Health committees. And so I've been learning what that means as well. Um, being involved with email, uh, meetings and getting to know those people and putting names to faces with that. And because that's important for, say, a disease issue, that's an emerging threat. And we need to be prepared here in North Dakota and learn how other veterinarians and other states are, you know, how do we work together on some of these bigger disease issues?
Casey: So I'm going to throw a question out there for you. Just because it's been in the news a lot lately, this new world screwworm, you know, big, big deal to livestock industry. How is that affecting wildlife? Have we seen anything on on some of that stuff?
Logan: Yeah. Right now the update, the more current update is, um, it's, you know, located really along the border right now.
Casey: Mexican border.
Logan: Yeah, yeah. And so it's basically a fly, but the larval stage can consume flesh. And so it's a.
Casey: Flesh consumes live flesh.
Logan: Yeah, it's a bad problem. And, you know, it can be eradicated from some areas like Florida in the past through releasing sterile flies. It did end up getting detected in the United States this year. And so, um, right now there's a lot of work to keep it where it is. But there's concern that it could get past that boundary. And then every state is really kind of worried about making a response plan because, uh, there could be some consequences of it being here and might be some hard challenges or steps that states may need to do to keep this disease controlled and get eradicated again. So.
Casey: And so I imagine it would affect a, a deer and elk the same way it would affect cattle. It's not really uh, I don't think it's species specific at all.
Logan: Yeah. And it can affect, uh, like most mammals and even humans, so. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Cayla: Ooo.
Casey: Just think if you got that and the tick that bites you that you get allergic to red meat, I think it'd just be over for me.
Logan: A flesh-eating maggot and a tick.
Casey: I'm out. Yeah.
Cayla: I'm just gonna hope our North Dakota stands were, like, flesh eating maggots don't live here. It's just too.
Casey: Yeah, and we do have a slight advantage up here. The cold weather. And I think that's kind of the one curveball when you, you know, you get cold weather. Can we, can we get the opportunity to stop it, freeze it out, whatever it is, you know.
Logan: Yeah. But that's what that would be. My question is, maybe we're up here, have a lower.
Casey: Yeah, cause their life cycle is pretty short, which is why they can release sterile flies, which is, it's funny to me. And then they breed and lay eggs and they're not any good and yep, everything croaks out. Yeah, but that's how they got it under control the first time.
Logan: It was a cool idea. I've heard.
Casey: That that was my one thing I had a question on.
Logan: Yeah, what I do know is they are working on that and I think they've they've had a lot produced of these sterile flies. It's just that they need to
Casey: Gotta get enough in the population. Yeah.
Logan: Yep. That's the limiting factor right now.
Casey: So buy yourself fly swatters this year.
Logan: Yes.
Casey: No fly goes on swatted.
Cayla: I like to have the dogs hunt them in the house because they'll like stalk them. They aren't really very effective at killing them though. They just like to chase them around.
Logan: Oh yeah. My dog likes to grab them out of the air.
Casey: Your dogs are way more agile than my golden retriever. He just lays there and looks at him.
Cayla: All right. Well, yeah. Thanks for being on. Welcome to North Dakota. We'll get into the department droppings.
Casey: Yeah. We've got kind of our hunter season. We have hunter classes all year. But this is the time of the year when we have most of them. Um, and so subscribe to alerts and, uh, if you're interested in deer hunting and you're going to turn 12, you're going to need hunter ed, so get it done before the lottery if you got a chance.
Cayla: Uh, yeah. Speaking of turkeys, the application deadline for spring turkey is February 11th.
Casey: Yeah, and then our equipment removal date for wildlife management areas is coming up January 31st. And so you got to have any, any equipment that you had out there, such as tree stands, trail cams. They all got to be off wildlife management areas by those days. And also just be mindful of wildlife management areas. You know they're built to hold critters in the winter sometimes and help get them through the winter. And the less disturbance they get during those periods, the more chance wildlife have to survive the winter. All right, now that we've dropped the droppings, you can get off the pot and get outdoors.