Roadkill Junkie

Vulture Culture and Witchcraft 26/they/Clinical Yr Vet Student Header Image and Icon by: dappermouth

[pavementheaven]

painful reminder: if you have cats, dont keep the more delicate pieces of your collection on display because you will regret it one day

[talk-nature-to-me]

Vulture culture asks

First piece?

Last piece?

Favorite piece?

Least favorite piece?

How many items in your collection?

Would you consider buying something for your collection?

Most expensive?

Least expensive?

Dream skull?

Dream non skull bone?

Dream pelt?

Dream dry/wet preserve (including diaphonization)?

Dream other?

Prefer finding or buying?

Do you pick up road kill?

Do you ever hunt animals and then collect bones?

Water or burying?

Collect insects?

How long have you collected?

Does anyone around you think it’s gross/weird?

Is anyone around you interested in it like you are?

Weirdest thing you’ve found?

Ever bleached or boiled?

Smallest piece?

Biggest piece?

Do you tan?

Do you taxidermy?

Do you diaphonize?

What’s one thing you want to learn in vulture culture?

Do you or would ever consider selling vulture culture items (link your shop if you sell!!!)?

Would you buy a human bone?

What’s your favorite thing about vulture culture?

What’s your favorite animal type to work with? (Ex: mammals, birds, etc. OR cats, butterflies etc.)?

What’s the nastiest thing you’ve done while doing vulture culture?

Ever had a vulture culture accident?

Ever articulated a skeleton?

Do you like collecting things like shells or beehives?

What do you have in the cleaning process right now?

Would you keep your own pets pelt/bones?

Do you think collection laws are reasonable or not?

How much time do you spend doing vulture culture?

Do you have a vulture culture display case or display room?

What are your 3 favorite vulture culture blogs?

Collect antlers?

Do you make any vulture culture related art or art out of vulture culture things?

Did someone else get you into vulture culture?

Do you have to hide your vulture culture from anyone?

Does vulture culture tie into any of your religious beliefs (you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to)?

Why vulture culture?

Introduce yourself to the vc community and say a few things about yourself!!!

[pavementheaven]

Cleaning Help?

Hey yall I just found a partially mummified m.ouse skeleton in my basement. Since its only partial, I want to clean it up to get just the skeleton. How could I do that? The bones are so tiny and delicate and the flesh is just dried to it (along with dirt, dust, and some bug shells). Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

[roadkillandcrows]

Brown and striped hyena skull.

[beardless-bearded-vulture]

Gorgeous red deer mount at the taxidermy centre!

[beardless-bearded-vulture]

Saw this werewolf roebuck mount online for sale, I tried to buy it but sadly someone else offered more :(

[zooophagous]

Yo quiero

[pavementheaven]

Pictures of my new kiddos! First we have Sundae the garter snake who I wet preserved myself! Fingers crossed I did it right as I love him so much he's so cute with that little smile.

And then of course my juvenile bobcat skull, Longtooth Esquire the First (named by a friend lol). A bobcat skull was one of my first dream skulls so I adore him. You can even see his adult teeth coming in!!

[vultureculturecoyote-deactivate]

Iguana Pics from last year. Has a lot of these pics lying around that I forgot to post.

[earthstory]

palaeoart Today I finally got to finish the preparation of this beautifully preserved 30 million year old Daphoenus skull from the White River Formation of South Dakota. Although it’s only the upper skull, the teeth (especially those large canines) are in near perfect condition. Daphoenus is part of the Bear Dog family (Amphicyons) which sadly have no living descendants. Bear Dogs, as they sound, showed similar skeletal adaptations to both early dogs 🐶 as well as bears 🐻 - especially as they walked with plantigrade feet (walking with Metatarsals touching the ground), just like Bears do. Very happy with this final specimen

[crowchucktaxidermy]

the wide range of movement in a parrots upper mandible. typically, a birds upper beak isn’t movable and is fused to the cranium through bone and/or muscle. in parrots, the various bones that make up the upper palette and mandible have adapted to allow the beak to move alongside the lower jaw opening, as an adaption for manipulating objects and eating tougher foods.

this bird is a blue-crowned parakeet, who used to be a pet. their skeleton will be articulated for scientific and educational purposes.

[maxilius]

 ATTRITION IN DOGS

I am not a veterinarian. I am not a biologist. I am not a dentist.

I am, however, a comparative anatomy enthousiast and I would love to show you all some of the more interesting dog skulls I have collected.

Above is the skull of an adult male Laekenois. This is a nice example of plain old ‘good, healthy teeth’. You can look at this one to compare the others I’m about to show you with. All teeth are strong, free of plaque, straight,… 

This is the skull of an adult female Siberian Husky. She too still has all of her teeth, no signs of decay and no plaque. But do you notice something different…? See the way her upper canines are worn down…? That’s quite common amongst dogs who have spent a lot of time chewing or pulling on metal bars or wires. Mostly seen in bored or anxious dogs who live in runs or cages.

This is an extreme case of tooth attrition. This is an old shepherd mix. Its teeth are worn down to a very severe degree. The upper front teeth are missing and the bone had already healed. The canines and lower front teeth are almost completely gone. Discoloration and plaque deposits have affected the other teeth. (Stage 3 and 4 of periodontal disease; which could have been prevented)This is the result of a combination of being an excessive chewer and old age.

Awww, time for puppy teeth! This is an Alaskan Malamute pup. This little one is still lacking several premolars and it appears to have a small underbite (which basically means the lower front teeth stick out in front of the upper front teeth) but this can all still change as it would have grown into adulthood and lost its puppy teeth. No reason to worry.

Speaking of an underbite… This is the skull of an adult Pomeranian. They aren’t generally known to have underbites but it can happen. Especially in breeds who have a very reduced snout length. What’s more interesting in this skull is that the third upper premolar (the third tooth from the canine) has turned a full 90° as it grew. There simply isn’t enough space for all the teeth to sit as they are supposed to and, in many small dogs, these overlapping teeth can cause a lot of plaque buildup in the long run.

This old, male Poodle Mix has (as you can clearly see) quite a few missing teeth and porous gums. This is, however, not uncommon. Especially in smaller breeds. The teeth themselves still appeared to be in good condition. Not discolored or infected. Some dental care would have been needed but it would not appear the dog would have been in any major discomfort or pain, despite the way this skull looks. 

This poor old female Beagle had some major dental issues. Her upper molar and a premolar are missing but the bone has already healed, suggesting she lost those teeth a while back. Her lower molar was severely infected, as well as her upper canine. She was diagnosed with osteomylitis, a painful infection and inflammation of the bone marrow and passed away before the treatment was complete. 

Another old dog. This Miniature Poodle also suffered from osteomylitis. He had the same amount of plaque as the beagle but the teeth were still less affected by the disease. Note how the upper hind most molar is ready to fall out at any moment.

That’s all for now! Hopefully this post has been a little bit educational for some!

-Max

(Edit: The last photo was missing. Added it in.)

[thevetsaidwhat]

Fascinating collection. Here’s my thoughts going in order here… (And on all of them we can only see one side! Just an additional thought!)

The best health example, the Laekenois, has a minimal bifurcation exposure on 107, or the third upper tooth after the canine tooth. The little dark hole. Probably not enough that we could get a dental probe through but it’s there. Otherwise a beautiful set of teeth from what I can see, no radiographs to check for abscessation and bone loss.

Agreed on the Husky. Wear on the point and caudal surface of the upper canine. No radiographs for evaluation of the teeth though there is some likely mild horizontal bone loss.

We would extract the 108 (carnassial, fourth upper tooth after the canine) on the shepherd due to extreme bifurcation exposure and likely abscessation. That is NOT a healthy tooth. Depending on radiographs and costs for the owner, the canines could be extracted or have a root canal. Other teeth have horizontal bone loss but no immediate bifurcation exposure. Radiographs needed.

Puppyhood indicates adulthood. Ball therapy can help with jaw alignment in some cases and a veterinary dentist would be indicated to see if braces might help this pup.

Pomeranian: Horizontal bone loss, malalignment of the 107 (third upper cheek tooth) due to overcrowding. Root exposure of the 104 (upper canine) indicating radiographs to see if there is bone loss and a possible oronasal fistula.

The poodle is where I disagree with the OP because that dog is most likely in strong pain. Porous bone indicates an unstable mouth and severe periodontal disease with heavy attrition. This dog had multiple bifurcation exposures, an almost definite oronasal fistula from the 104 (almost–radiographs and probe to confirm), loss on the lower 404 (lower canine), and basically only the gums are holding those teeth in… and in most cases with teeth like that it is the hardened calculus, not gums, doing the work. Or webs of hair and purulent discharge. It’s like typing with broken fingers when you need to get an SOS out. A dog will eat because it’s hungry, not because it’s got good teeth. I may have a theory on why that enamel is pretty but another time, another post.

Ranting on poodle applies to Beagle… do you see how the root of the 104 extends all the way into the sinus cavity? When the root rots, an opening extends from the mouth to the nose. That is an oronasal fistula (oro = mouth, nasal = nose, fistula = drain between). Sinus infections start and lead to pneumonia if not controlled.

On the miniature poodle I would extract the following on sight alone: 105, 108, 109, 110 if it’s there (hard to tell on a phone), 407, and lots of radiographs.

[veterinaryrambles]

Strongly agreeing with the additional comments by @thevetsaidwhat — some of those furcation exposures you could drive a truck through! *shudders* I can only imagine the smell in the living animals.

[yutyrannuss]

It would be gREAT if I could go outside and find BONES for ONC E

[frenchifries]

found this incredible store yesterday on 3rd and broadway!!

[rotreat]

[blackbackedjackal]

(seller’s images)

HOOO BOY I’m really glad I found one of these!!!! It’s an anatomical model of a coyote head with a real coyote skull!! I see these pop up from time to time but I’ve been on the hunt for one lately! I’ve seen a cat one in previous years and I feel like I may have seen this same style of coyote one back then. Posting seller pics now since I’m not sure if it’ll be here before my trip ;;;;;;

[alexanderofbrennenburg-deactiva]

god if you get any info or see another pls let me know ive seen one pic of one of these and thought it was a custom sculpture or something but you’re telling me these are actual models im going to cry it’s so beautiful

[blackbackedjackal]

I thought it was like a custom one something too like I’m beating myself over the head not saving the pic of the one I saw a few years ago ;krgnkjd. Once it gets here I’m gonna see if it has any manufacture marks cause I wanna know  more about the piece. I just feel like the cat one I saw years ago was of a similar style to this but I’m having so much trouble finding any anatomical models of coyotes let alone one like this. It’ll be cool to see if it was indeed mass produced and if there are other animals in the line.

[zooophagous]

“Sapiens.”

Painted skull. This skull was a nature find gifted to me by a family member who asked that I make something cool with it. It’s a fun project because it’s been painted with Stuart Semples’ “better black” and embellished with metallic gold ink.

Its a nice, thick matte black that has a great tooth to it for layering with other colors, highly recommend it.

Sapiens is for sale for 110$ shipped. Though I won’t mind if she ends up staying with me.

[zooophagous]

Still for sale!

[roadkill-saint]

Do I win?