Monday Blahs

The weekend went too fast. Our last Vaccination Clinic was Saturday, plus I had to do the kennels Saturday night. Sometimes I feel I live at the clinic and just come home to visit my family occasionally. Sophie is a very obnoxious Standard Poodle who's boarding right now. Saturday I just had it with her and started trying to teach her a few manners. But a lifetime of getting away with everything is hard to turn around in a few minutes. I planned " Good Manner" dog classes all the way home. I may still do that at the clinic one day. The bad manners at the Vaccination Clinic make it hard to watch. It includes pulling (like crazy), barking non stop, jumping on people (that they don't know), peeing on everything, sticking their dog noses in cat crates (much to the terror of the cats inside)....all without their owners doing or saying ANYTHING! These people raise their children the same way. I had one little boy come up and started grabbing my rabies tags. When I told him no, he tried taking my handheld calculator. REALLY! I'll put a leash on the boy and teach him a thing or two....
Not the best attitude to start an obedience class with. I'll have to cool off first.

This dog looks just like Sophie

Today I was appointment tech. Not too many for a Monday. We started out with allergy testing a dog. This was a second opinion from Austin. The dog, a lab, is 3 years old and has bad allergies. The cost to do this is about $150 and we only have to take blood and send the serum in to a special lab. As tech, once the blood is drawn it's my job to spin it, collect the serum and package it up. This one had to go by way of Fed Ex so I have to call and have them stop and pick up.
Allergies are extremely common in dogs and cats. Their symptoms include itching, rash, hair loss, redness, ear infections, licking, chewing, vomiting, diarrhea...The list goes on and on. I have dogs and cats with allergies. Mostly it's grains, specifically corn which makes up most of commercial dog and cat foods. Chicken is also a problem.
I also got to help take radio-graphs (x rays) of a horse's knee. I get to hold the film at the angle the doctor needs as he snaps a picture with hand held machine. The horse,obviously, doesn't lay down for this and often doesn't stand still for it either! With all the rain we've had, the flies were bothering him. But we did get some 'pictures' that showed arthritis in that knee. I do the processing of the films in a darkroom. Once I turn the lights out, it's all by feel. You literally can't see your hand in front of your face. I like to take schoolchildren in to show them how dark it gets. Scary! Actually I quite enjoy it. Sometimes it seems like the only quiet place in the clinic (there's no phone in this tiny 3x4 foot room...)

This looks just like me except that a doctor is holding the x ray equipment
instead of a machine

 

Home again to do a little weeding and feed the birds. Jacky mowed, Emma cleaned her lamb pen...always something to do. This past weekend was Bird weekend. The Orchard and Baltimore Orioles fed on the grape jelly I put out, A hummingbird visited his feeder, a red-breasted grosbeak stopped by and my red-headed woodpecker is back who raised a brood last summer in the bottom pasture. Now if I could convince the starlings to leave...