Wednesday's Float

Well, today was not a very exciting day although it was busy. Start at 7:00 a.m.with kennels. Only 4 dogs so it went pretty quickly. Max, the black lab, has to be  hand walked since he refuses to potty on the concrete. Smart dog! Anyway, on his walk Monday he scared up a rabbit and he's been looking for it ever since! The morning was quite nice to take a dog for a stroll - one of the perks to working in the kennel.
Being float tech today I wore many hats. Lots of check ins for boarders coming in Friday - 8 dogs, 4 of which are from one family. It is surprising how much paper work I have to do as manager of the kennels. Oh, other techs could do it , and have tried. But I'm very particular about how things are done in the kennel and everyone's figured out it's better to just let me do it. Well...if they could just do it the way I've done it on previous sheets...Job security I guess.
It's already the second of May and I haven't done the schedule for the kennel either. It took me most of the day but I did finally finish that. There's still too many shifts with my name but Abby will be home from college soon and things will (I hope) get better. Samantha graduates this month from high school. She'll work for me this summer but then she goes off to college to try to be a vet! I will really miss her. I dread hiring someone new. It's rare that I find someone intelligent with a good work ethic. Wish me luck!
Oh yes, this is supposed to be about animals, isn't it. No pigs today, I didn't help with appointments or surgeries. Didn't help with the horses today. I told you, no excitement. BUT I helped a whole lot of clients and that's important too.
Here's a little surgery from last week I helped with. Don't tell anyone but I took pictures! This cat had a tumor on her leg - weird, huh? I had to shave it (hard area to shave) and scrub it up. After Jen took it off, I had to make a tissue smear slide and stain it. The tumor was also sent in to the University of Minnesota Diagnostic Lab for identification.

Here's the lab area with the stains I have to use with the cut open tumor:

Finally the cat gets a pretty bandage to wear for 48 hours. Sutures have to come out in 10 days. Now she looks like a Halloween cat - black and orange!

Tomorrow's surgery day won't be as interesting. One cat to shave in the lion cut and one miniature poodle to spay.
Tonight we brought the horses and llamas inside since there was a chance of storms. It's muggy though and not sure what's best for the animals. Rudy had to have his previcox for his founder. Founder is a condition common in ponies that is inflammation in the feet. Because there's a hard wall of the hoof, the swelling can't go anywhere and it produces extreme pain. Ponies get it more than regular horses but they tend to have flare ups. It is often caused by eating new grass, or wet grass, both of which are common in spring. Rudy's been battling it for 2 months but it seems to be helped by this previcox.

Rudy last summer (sweating)

One last little observation: The Spring Peepers Are Calling!!!!!!