Groomer

Well, today I got to be dog groomer. I am the only one in clinic that shaves the dogs and cats that come in. We do not have a grooming business per say bu those animals that have to be knocked out to be shaved come to me. I have one Shih Tzu who comes to see me every 6 weeks. He's only 2 or 3 but has never allowed anyone to trim the hair around his face. He first came in as an appointment because his skin was all infected around the face from mats - but you couldn't get close to cut the mats off! So I see Sammy now on a regular basis. He's much better with me than at the beginning but we still knock him out so I can do a decent job. And I am the only one who can get Sammy out of the kennel when his owner comes to get him!

Today was a dog I had never seen before. 'Scooter' was a maltese mix that was a year old. I guess his owners were not able to get close to him with scissors, or brush, or clippers. To say they waited too long to come see me is an understatement. The picture does not give you an accurate portrayal of the condition of this dog.

You cannot see the dog's eyes, ears - it's a total mat! The dog was quite nice but a job like this takes a very long time. What you see now, looks like a totally different dog - even a different breed! Other than being a little chubby, he's quite cute now!

He'll have to stay out of the sun for a week or two since I had to shave pretty short due to the mats. Looks good though, doesn't he? The owner was very happy with him too.

We had a horse come in with multiple problems. The main one I was interested in was the horse's coat was crawling with biting lice. The owners put a horse blanket on last fall and never took it off. Under the blanket the horse's coat became warm and humid and the lice found their paradise. I took several  clumps of hair with lice attached and put them in alcohol. Friday I will have a kindergarten class touring the clinic (and I'm the tour guide) and I think this will be something cool to look at under the microscope...

These things are a lot smaller than the hog lice I had the other day but you can still see the tiny gray specks moving on the horse's hair. Poor horse! Don't worry - he was given something to kill the lice. Little fact: multiple critters are called 'lice', one critter is called "louse".

Brought three of my pack in - Gertie for vacc and heartworm test, Teddi for heartworm test, and Uli for dental and recheck his leg. Poor boy had 6 teeth pulled - all in the front. His radiographs show no change, as in we don't think it's bone cancer. But he still has inflammation and I will try to keep him from jumping off the sofa. Lol. At least he has his splint off! And Teddi, poor Teddi. He gets quite panicky. So a simple little blood test resulted in urine being sprayed all over - people, counters, floor...I even had to get a death grip on him until he calmed down. After putting a muzzle on and decided to take blood from a leg instead (the first time was from the neck), we were successful and none of us are worse for wear.

Finally, had a client bring in a stray cat for a feline leukemia test. This is an awful disease for which there is no cure and is very contagious. There is a vaccine for it but farm cats and many many domestic cats are not vaccinated. Cats can also be carriers for years. The client had other cats and wanted to make sure this cat was safe to keep. It was a nice cat - friendly, tame. But he had a very bad respiratory condition and kept sneezing bloody snot all over me (and the counter, the floor, the scale...). I made Brandi stay outside the room and told Emily to keep away when she came in. It would be possible to carry this virus home to their cats. We decided not to do the test and euthanized the cat instead. When we were all done, I had to change my scrubs  to protect my cats at home. I've done this a few times before. That's why I always keep an extra set of scrubs, socks and shoes in my locker at work. You never know what you'll be dealing with...