Saturday

Rain, rain, rain. It's been a long time Minnesota since we've seen rain! Unfortunately I had to be at work by 6:45 and it took too long to wipe 44 dog feet (yes, I did say 44!). So I clocked in at 6:56...Hey, I had 4 minutes to spare! Fortunately it was pretty slow this morning - not too many calls or appointments. I was front desk so I mostly handled boarders, phone, and appointments. Things went pretty smoothly until 11:30 when Tracy walked in with a baggie full of dog poop. Yes this is a fairly common occurrence. We take that lovely sample and run a flotation on it to check for worm eggs (or 'ova' if you please) as well as coccidia. We also do a 'smear' which is just what it sounds like - smear a small amount of fecal matter on a slide with a drop or two of saline and look under high power with the microscope. As you recall, I talked about Giardia last time. We also look for campylobacoter, which I might have mentioned before.
Tracy is very active in dog rescue, and volunteers for Midwest Animal Rescue ( or MARS). I got little Uli and Teddi from her (and she's tried several other dogs which I did NOT take!). This sample was from a border collie, Jack, that had been returned to her after 2 different foster homes. He was a dog who needed a firm hand and did not get into the right foster home for him. He attacked a dog in one foster and bit another foster. This is not unusual, but it was talked about putting the dog down. Tracy has dog rules, like I do, and Jack does well in her house. I am absolutely sure Bryn would have turned out that way if she had not ended up with me. Anyway....Jack had diarrhea and couldn't hold it. In a household with 17 dogs (yes mother, more than me!), Tracy couldn't risk all her dogs getting sick.
I took the sample and the smear showed campylobactor right away.


Obviously this is a monster size campy and I am looking on a slide with loads of bacteria vibrating around (all poop has bacteria). The key to identifying campy is looking for a twisty thing, like that above, that is corkscrewing all over the slide. Try to find something like that in the slide below..
All I really look for is the fast moving corkscrew action. I also look for the slower but larger Giardia organism but those are less abundant so we use a snap test to find those.






With Tracy, once I found the positive campy, Mike wanted me to run this Giardia test. But the kit needs 30 minutes to warm up and I couldn't wait until Monday   because 1) Tracy needed to start meds and 2) the poop wouldn't be any good anymore. After waiting the appropriate time, the snap test itself took only about 10 minutes. The result was positive for Giardia too. Now Tracy has all 17 dogs at risk for bloody diarrhea - no fun. So the next 30 + minutes was getting all the medicine ready for her - 3 kinds of liquid and 2 kinds of pills. This is when dog rescuers rethink whether they want to volunteer any more!
Met Jacky for lunch at Subway and then on to the feed store  for mucho dog and cat food, then to Wal Mart for mucho people food, then to the gas station for mucho car food.
By the time I finally got home, Anna and Jacky had been there for a while. Anna got to come home for the night for puppy snuggles and pony hugs. Jacky and I had just finished lunch when we each got a call from Anna. she had arrived home to find the house empty, the door locked, the garage door locked, and her with no house key or garage door opener! Her friends had given her a ride so she didn't have a car (they had to leave her there).Jacky decided to let me do the shopping and he went home to rescue Anna (who was passing the time in the horse barn...)
Supper tonight was Frito Chili Pie since its one of Anna's favorites. Yum! We haven't had it since January. We also watched Star Trek movie. Jacky laughed at some of the funny parts when he wasn't snoring! I think I need to put him to bed. Good Night!