Tajar

Today was not a good day. This morning my cat Tajar had bloody discharge from her one eye. Soooo with everything else I had to do, Tajar had to  be crated up to go to work with me.
A very full kennel awaited me full of large barking dogs. For some reason, we were almost a full house. Good for business but I could stand a slightly less populated kennel. That was basically my whole day. I found out that Sam, my high school kennel assistant, who worked yesterday, had left the water on in the tub overnight. She and the other girl, Gloria, had also neglected to change any of the dogs' bedding over the weekend. When you are greeted with a huge pile of clean blankets, no dirty bedding waiting to be washed....you know the dogs are all on dirty bedding. Giving them clean blankets twice a day keeps the 'doggy' smell to a minimum. As is usual, I was not in a good mood this Monday morning after walking in to that.
There were about 12 dogs total to be taken care of. Plus I had to give Isaac a bath as well as a Saint Bernard which I ended up bathing in the horse barn using the hose! "Bella", a 10 month old Saint, was actually very well behaved for her bath and blow dry. I can't say the same for her behavior in the kennel. She gets extremely excited to meet all the other dogs and spends most of the time on her hind legs barking. NOT my idea of a calm job.
Back to Tajar. Dennis (another vet)  took a look at her and we decided to sedate her since Tajar wouldn't 'unsquint' her eye. When he was finally able to get a good look at it, Dennis found that the eye had actually ruptured! It looked like an ulcer had started on the surface of the eye and had eaten its way into the eyeball. Pretty gross, huh? What I saw this morning was probably right after it had ruptured since she had had no discharge earlier. The vet sewed the third eyelid closed and left the eyelid open for draining. We'll see. Actually Tajar won't see in that eye again. It might close over and fill up, or it might dry up (Yuck!). I might even have to bring her back to have the eye removed. Right now, Tajar is in the spare bedroom so I can keep an eye on her and give her antibiotic injections once a day. She also has been freaked out by the other cats in the house (probably because she couldn't see out of that eye) so this will give her safety so she can recover. It can make you feel like an irresponsible pet owner but Tajar is a very nervous cat that tends to hide, or runs to the horse barn and hides. She has always been afraid of other cats so not an easy cat to watch closely. These things happen, even when there's only one or two cats in the house.

Gimli, Tajar's brother. They look a lot alike

I also mixed up some vaccine for pigs - Draxxin and Sterile Water, shipped with 4 gallons of TMZ (or Sulfatrimethoxine). Also for another pig producer I had to package up 4 more gallons of TMZ and 4 gallons of Ibuprofen (yes, just like for people except in liquid, gallon form!).The wife came and picked that up at the clinic. There's a lot of shipping for pig and cow producers at this clinic.
Other then shoveling melting snow away from my outdoor runs so the snowmelt stops running into those runs, that was pretty much my day. When the kennel is full, it can be a full time job. Most of the dogs left today though so now there's only Gus, Max, and Coco left. and 3 surgery dogs scheduled for dentals tomorrow. Beth (another tech) will take care of them tomorrow morning so I don't have top go in on my day off. Tomorrow it will be all about MY animals!