Haven nods "Yes, yes, in fact its almost time for... Ah... Telinda...." She all but sings out the name of the junior weyr woman, changing completely from that hideous beast that was ripping apart cots and bellowing for errant w'lings to do pushups just a moment or two ago.

Telinda's smile broadens, "Haven! How're you doing?" she asks cheerfully, wiggling fingers to all in the barracks, eyes casting around, "My, they are growing so quickly!"

Haven nods "And they were just babies such a short time ago. I'm fine Telinda. How is Tiarnath today?"

Telinda grins, "She's doing fine. Wondering why Telaarn doesn't grow as quickly as her hatchlings!"

Shadara chuckles and nods to Telinda politely, "Hello Ma'am." she says as she scritches Saith's jaw while the green warbles a sweet, soft greeting.

Haven grins "Hexenth used to leave small wherries that she'd hunt herself for Matty. She'd swear I wasn't feeding her enough."

Telinda chuckles and nods, "Dragons and babies are quite the combination!" She smiles to the weyrlings, "Are we ready for this lecture?"

Haven nods "I think we are. Gather around. Grab a seat so you can see...."

Duirath looks sleepily about as T'dru finds himself a seat.

Kinoa sets aside the shredded leather and nods her head, pulling up a chair and worming her way into a seat with a good view of Telinda.

Shadara chuckles and nods as she settles down on Saith's rather large foreleg after the green is comfortable.

Telinda grins and takes one of the seats indicated and sits down. She smiles as she looks around, hand brushing through her golden locks, combing it back from her face, "Well, we're here today to talk about dragon first aid."

You say "As a rider you are responsible for not only your own health, but that of your lifemate." She nods to one of the weyrling dragons, "They problems they have at this age are easily treatable and often avoidable with a few observant thoughts. As they age and begin to fight fall, the problems become greater and the risks higher."

You say "If you have any questions, please don't hesistate to ask as we go through all this information."

Telinda grins, obviously mischievously from the way her eyes are twinkling. "We'll start with the worst and then hopefully get onto more pleasant topics. So, lets begin with constipation" she pauses a moment to let the groans start.

Luiseth creeps closer to the circle of weyrlings, wanting to see and listen too. Kinoa smiles and then grimaces silently at the mention of constipation. Yummy.

T'dru listens stoically.

After a moments pause, Telinda continues, "You should all know what that is. If you don't, well, you'll find out one way or the other. Constipation is caused by you letting your dragon overeat. The tail thickens as the dragon is unable to excrete. The only remedy for this is a purge. What does this mean?" she grins evily, "Well, a dragonhealer will give you a bottle of a special type of oil to feed to your lifemate. It's up to you then to watch and keep an eye on them as they begin to excrete. Yes, it's smelly. Yes, it's messy. I don't think I really need to elaborate. Let's just say that making sure they don't overeat is preferable."

You say "The next most common thing are problems related to their hide. For instance, if you do not regularly oil your dragon, the hide will develop painful cracks. Not only will they flood your mind with the sensations of itching and wanting to be scritched all the time, but also it becomes very dangerous and even more painful when they start going *between*." A pause as she looks around the barracks. "Oiling your lifemate is VERY important, and you'll reap the reward of a peaceful life and nice soft hands."

Kinoa glances down at her hands, which have finally healed, and nods her head in agreement. Soft hands are good.

Shadara chuckles very softly and nods a bit.

Telinda taps her finger against her cheek, "Another problem dragons have with their hide, is chafing. This is usually from inexpertly made, sized or even inflexible straps. Or the leather may simply be old and cracked. Whatever the reason the hide will become sensitive and chafed. Often riders pad out the girth, much like you would with a runner's saddle, to stop them from chafing on their bellies. If you lifemate starts to suffer from this, not only will they need oiling to soften their hides, but they'll also need numbweed, which you just simply slather over the problem area. Do change your straps though, otherwise you'll just be exacerbating the problem."

Telinda smiles, "Now, your dragon may complain of a 'bad stomach'. At the moment that's just going to be from overeating. In the future you need to be more careful. This is because bad firestone, that is impurities in the 'stone, can also give a dragon a bad stomach. Your Weyrlingmasters" she flickers a look Haven's way, "will show you how to spot this in stone as you bag it up. However, the problem will only go away after they have coughed up the ash remains. So how do we know the difference? T'dru, do you know?"

T'dru looks at Haven and back to Telinda and shakes his head. "No ma'em."

Telinda grins, "Not to worry! Anyway, one difference is, that bad firestone will always give a blue flame, and an unsustainable one at that, when a dragon tries flaming. So always watch for that. You might have seen it in the past, or heard, otherwise you wouldn't necessarily know."

You say "Another problem associated with firestone chewing is tongue bites. They can occasionally bite their tongues as they learn how to chew for the first few times." She gestures with a hand, "Do not let it worry you. They will certainly outgrow the act eventually."

Telinda rubs her forehead as she thinks about what to talk about next, "There are other things that you need to be aware of as riders. Principally things like overstressing joints, sprains and loss of talons. In regards to talon loss, which generally happens in learning to fly or learning to hunt, don't be concerned, the talon will grow back, but you do need to stop doing whatever they were doing for a bit to let it heal. In the case of overstressing or sprains, head the dragonhealers advice and let the dragon rest for however long it takes. If they push, or you push them, back into the air before they are ready, you risk greater damage to the tissues and joints. So don't do it" she says, waggling a finger to make her point.

T'dru raises his hand.

Telinda smiles, "Yes, T'dru?"

T'dru hunches his shoulders and asks quietly. "Well, if they lose a talon, how long does it take to grow back? And are you talking just breaking it or actually ripping it out like on your own fingernail?" T'dru takes a deep breath after all that and gets silent again while he listens.

Telinda nods, "Good question. Basically either. If it's just a chip, it won't even matter, much like you might break a fingernail and it's nothing. However, occasionally one might rip out of the bed, like loosing your whole fingernail, then you have to wait for it to grow back. It's rare, but does happen."

You say "Does that answer your question?"

Shadara hmmms a little as she listens, then raises her hand with a question.

Telinda gestures to the green weyrling, "Yes, Shadara?

Shadara hmmms a little, "Well, when will we be starting flying lessons, since that's usually when joint overstressing tends to occur, yes?"

T'dru sits back with a nod, listening closely to the other weyrlings' questions.

Telinda nods, "That's when joint overstressing tends to happen, yes, as for your flying lessons, well, that's Haven's job to decide, not mine, but generally it starts when they are about a turn in age."

Haven speaks up "All the swimming your dragons have been doing is the first step. Most of your dragons will get to try gliding next month, but its a slow process"

Telinda smiles her thanks at Haven and then frowns thoughtfully, "The last two things that you really need to know about are the most dangerous. Thankfully one of them is relatively rare, the other, unfortunately, isn't." She grins, "So, what am I talking about? Well, the first are fractures. Someone tell me what a fracture is?"

You say "Kinoa, how about you?"

Kinoa bites her lip and thinks for a minute. "When there's a break in the bone?" she asks, vaguely knowing something about fractures.

Telinda nods and smiles, "Exactly right. A fracture is a broken bone. Now thankfully dragon bones are difficult to break, but consequently they are hard to set and to heal. Rib cage injuries, since they are made of a single bone, are some of the hardest to set, and leg bones because of their sheer size. Wingbones are probably the easiest ones to set and have heal. You will never be expected to deal with a fracture on your own. Your responsibility during this will be to calm your lifemate. If this is not possible a queen will do it. Your lifemate may however be called upon to aid a dragonhealer trying to set a dragon bone, since the sheer size makes it difficult for most to do on their own!"

Kinoa looks pleased. She's not a completely useless weyrling after all.

Telinda nods slowly, "The final thing I wish to talk to you about, is threadscore. You've all heard of it, I'm sure it needs no explanation. If you get hit by thread, have your dragon *between* immediately, do not forget to visualise first! Going *between* will deprive the spores of air and kill it, so it will no longer burn you. This is especially important when the scoring is near the body, since a scoring to the lungs will be fatal, for both of you!"

You say "A minor score will be a discomfort but due to the 'situation' your lifemate will likely block this out. A major score might mean your lifemate starts loosing energy and starts going grey, what I mean by this is that their hide starts to pale. If it happens, you'll know about it! At this point you're in a danger situation. Head back to the Weyr immediately. A dragonhealer will treat your dragon. Never work on major injuries on your own dragon, even if you are qualified to. Why? Someone tell me why? Shadara, how about you?""

Shadara winces at the thought and Saith gives a faint sigh. "Hmmm, because We'll be needed to keep our lifemate calm and seeing the injury will only upset us, which in turn upsets our lifemates even more, making them hard to control?" She doesn't sound too certain that that's the correct answer, but it's the only one she can think of.

Telinda nods, "That's it. Your mind becomes one with your dragons pain. You mirror it. You will need to reassure your lifemate that the pain will go away, it generally takes a few seconds once numbweed has been placed on the wound."

You say "Now, in the case of a minor injury, a surface wound if you like, you are advised to treat these yourselves since the dragonhealers will invariably be busy with other more serious injuries. After threadfall, there are always buckets and pails around with numbweed in them. Paddles and brushes are near by. Do NOT put the numbweed on with your hands, or your hands will become numb too! And don't look at me like that, it's happened!" She smiles, "Anyway, just take one of the paddles or brushes and cover the wound area with the numbweed. If you want it checked to make sure you've done it alright, then ask your Weyrlingmaster, Wingleader, or a weyrwoman. If you think it's more serious than you first thought, let a dragonhealer know. Oh, yes, the numbweed is pretty cool in that it'll stop minor wounds from ichoring, another of it's great properties!""

Telinda smiles, brushing her hands together, "Any questions?"

Shadara shakes her head and grins as she got her answer right.

T'dru sticks his hand back up in the air again.

You say "T'dru?"

Kinoa is still absorbing all of the information, and as such can't formulate any questions right now.

Eyes flicking between Haven and Telinda again, T'dru looks curious. "Will we be spending time with dragonhealers at all? To maybe get a more visual demonstration of this?" His tone is hesitant and he looks down waiting to see if that's a stupid question.

Telinda smiles, "T'dru, as you progress through weyrling training, you'll be spending more and more time bagging stone and such through a threadfall, this will give you some interaction with the dragonhealers. Additionally, once you've graduated you can think about being a dragonhealer you own self, this still doesn't mean that you can treat your own dragon though."

T'dru frowns slightly and nods. "I understood that ma'em. I was just wondering. Thank you."

Haven nods "And as you start bagging stone, you'll be on the landing field and helping out with the injuries as they come in. You'll get to see more thread scores and ash burns than you can count long before you'll ever get to fly"

Telinda grins, "Wondering is always alright, T'dru. It makes us cautious and prepared."

Telinda flickers a look outside, "Oh Shardit, he's awake" she remarks standing quickly, "I need to go!"