April Fool!

Another busy day, although not quite as bad as yesterday. I went in early to try to get a jump start on things and found Mike and Amber working on their second surgery. Then I helped Mike with a cat neuter while Amber used cold laser therapy on his dog neuter. That is our new machine - we use cold laser to speed up healing time. We use it on surgical sites, arthritis, joints, skin conditions, It is used on humans too and Mike and Tom swear by it. I had it used on my ankle in Colorado and within 24 hours my sprained ankle was almost well! Somehow it stimulates the circulatory system to work on a specific area. Anyway we have had it about 2 months now and I think it is helping the animals!



We have set it up for chronic conditions where the owner will bring their pet in for therapy several times a week. The techs are the ones who take them back and perform the therapy. We have to wear ear protection, and if the owner comes back to help hold, they also have to wear eye protection.

Of course, I had lots of vaccine to make this morning. But I also was appointment tech again so every once in a while I had to run in and help a doctor. Some were new puppies getting their first shots, some were there for blood tests, and plenty needing nail trims. Mike lets me trim nails while he holds the dogs for me. Supposedly we the techs do a better job because we 'wittle' away the nail and round the edges. He says he gets in too big a hurry. I prefer to trim anyway!
One puppy stood out today. He was a small breed, but quite a screamer. Jen came and got me because he was proving to be a handful - and that's just for a puppy visit! The owner had her young daughter with her who was quite concerned the puppy was getting hurt. She would cover her ears when he screamed and he screamed when Jen tried to look in his mouth, and when she tried to look in his ears, and when the needle touched him for vaccinations ( and also when it hadn't touched him yet). You can always tell when a puppy or kitten will be a handful when grown. They all come with their own personalities! To contrast that fiesty puppy, we also had a 15 week old springer spaniel pup. Usually these hunting (sport) breeds can be quite hyper but this puppy was so laid back we could do anything and he didn't care!



It seemed to be puppy day today. We had an emergency c-section this afternoon. An owner who raises sled dogs had a female who had one puppy last night and nothing since. She had quite the discharge and an ultrasound showed at least one live puppy. When we have a c-section, everyone drops everything and helps. The mother is put under but kept light while the doctor tries to get in and out as quickly as possible because the anesthesia crosses the placenta and also sedates teh unborn puppies - sometimes to the point where they die. As the doctor gets each puppy out, someone has to take that puppy and dry and stimulate them to breathe. Because they have not gone through the bierth canal, they have fluid in their lungs that must be forced out. We carefully use a motion that helps expel the liquid. We also use a baby nose bulb to suck out mucous from the puppy's nose.
I also put drops of Dopram under the puppy's tongue to stimulate breathing


The mother looked like this -

 
All three of her puppies were solid black!



We ended up with one live puppy and one dead puppy. Sometimes there are no live ones so this was ok. What was strange is we had another call during this c-section about another dog possibly needing a c-section. Holly thought (and hoped) it was an April Fool joke. Well, it wasn't, but this Great Dane had had one live puppy at home and that was all she had. The ultrasound and a palpation revealed no more pups. This breeder had a Gread Dane C-Section last week which resulted in 10 puppies! Then you almost need 10 techs or people - one per puppy to stimulate them. I am glad we didn't have that one!



Needless to say, it was a full day. Tomorrow I sleep in! But right now listening to a wonderful thunderstorm. Haven't heard that in months. In fact Bunni is quite concerned about it and very clingy. As her siblings all snore on the sofa...

Back Again?

Wow. What a busy busy day. It started with two clients with horses before 8 o'clock. It is that time again for Coggins tests - which horses need when they are trail ridden, go to shows, or sold - and it is time to breed horses. So this morning first thing was a one of each. Then there were 6 surgeries where we usually have 3. Amber was surgery tech and she had a cat neuter, dog neuter, dog spay, dental with lump removal - and this afternoon was an emergency foreign body removal (two rocks from the stomach of a basset hound)



Poor Carlie is only one year old but has had three foreign body surgeries. She tends to eat everything that is within reach of her mouth. Such a sweet dog too. She gave me kisses before I left tonight. Amber and I decided to take her catheter out and her bandage too just in case she decided they were edible overnight.
I was busy, busy, busy both with appointments and with pig vaccine. Tom is going to a grower tomorrow and has all kinds of vaccine to bring with him. At the same time I had 3 other growers who also needed vaccines. The problem was ( and is) that I need sterile plastic bottles and I can only sterilize 4 at a time. And each 4 takes over an hour to do. Bruce wanted 30 bottles worth. I called him and told him I could not get all done and out today. Of course he still wanted some of the vaccine.
So I had a 30 minutes lunch after 1 just to eat something and then back to appointments and vaccines.
I had to pull blood on a black lab to run a progesterone test on her. Her owner wants to breed her tomorrow and wanted to know if she was ready for the male. Mike was in the middle of surgery so I drew the blood and had to figure out how to run our new tests. Finally done with the results around 4 and called the owner to tell him the good news. Yesterday was also a busy dog sex day. Had to help Mike at 8 collect semen from a mastiff and turn around and artificially inseminate the female mastiff. She was hot to trot but couldn't handle the male on top of her - she got aggressive. Ahhh love....

Here's what the male looked like -


And here was the female "Gemma"

One sad appointment. Todd brought his rescue chihuahua mix Princess in because she was having trouble breathing. Mike said it was a bad heart in combination with a collapsing trachea. Mike sent him home with meds. But Todd was back within the hour - Princess had collapsed in the car. Todd hurried in with her but Princess died in his arms in the room before we could do anything. She was well loved after she found a new home with him. I worry it could be Teddi one day :(



I stayed after 5 to get heartworm tests done as well as sterilize more bottles and packs. By the time I got done it was 7. What a long day! And another just like it tomorrow.

Tuesday June 3

Just a few pictures today. One of the many many things I had to do today was shave a dog. Scooter was terribly matted, it had been a year since I had shaved him last. So here are a few pictures of the process start to finish...

 

 

 

 

 

Wow! It was almost a pound of hair I took off this Maltese mix.

At home a few pictures of flowers and animals as I experimented with my camera..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Monday June 2 2014

It's been too busy to do more than sleep when I get home but I had to share these pictures take today. We have a Belgian mare and her foal staying while we artificially inseminate (breed) her tomorrow. The baby only has a rump that is almost as tall as me while the mother towers over everyone!

This baby is typical baby horse. I couldn't turn my back because he would try to bite my shoulder. Look how tall he is!

Too much to write about. Exploratory surgery on a dog, which didn't find anything. A rectal prolapse in a pig, ultrasound 4 draft horse mares, most of whom will get bred tomorrow. Vaccine to make and send out, lab work to do...and it starts all over again tomorrow.

 

 

 

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Wednesday, May 21

Short post tonight. For the first time this year I had a cardinal in the front yard at breakfast. For some reason they don't stay here and I've only seen them at home about 3 times in all the years we've lived here. So I was very excited! He didn't stay long but was sure handsome amid the yellow goldfinches.

 

Speaking of goldfinches, this morning I started counting the brightly colored makes. I got up to 22 and I know there were more! Now add the same number of females and you can see why I have to get seed every week!

Can't forget the beautiful Indigo Bunting. I've seen two only at one time. But they do seem to be staying! This is through the window and screen. I'll work on getting a clearer photo.

Busy day as usual. Checked to see if a fawn mastiff named Gemma was pregnant ( probably not), and vaccinated her 135 # husband Cole. His wife weighed 140 # !

Next was a calf with an umbilical abcess. We opened up the abcess to let the pus out. Boy did it stink! The calf wasn't real happy either. It was tough keeping him still. I had his head and neck pinned up against the trailer side and his owner had his back end in the trailer corner. Hopefully this will work.

Made some vaccine, helped with appointments. Also interviewed a girl for the kennel job. She has development problems and I cannot hire her but she needed interview experience. I had Megan help me as soon she and Emily will be in charge of the kennel. I have a lot to do to try to get things ready for them.

Home again. Filled up bird feeders. The orioles seem to be slowing down a little and I actually have been seeing the hummingbirds more. Monday night Holly and I were driving down to Northwood, Iowa for a movie and stopped in Glenville to look for a Bald Eagle nest. We didn't find the nest (we were on the wrong road) but we did find this lot filled with Purple Finches. Since I don't have these visiting me, it was nice to see them!

We have loads of asparagus right now. Tonight I roasted some in the oven and also wrapped some in roast beef and then sautéed them in sesame oil. Yum! Now I need more roast beef so I can do it again. I'll probably pick rhubarb this weekend. Can't wait!

 

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Tuesday, May 6

Well, I was going to take the morning off but Megan was sick still so I went in. I left Jacky to help the farrier. Megan did end up combining later this morning which was good!

My only surgery was a goat castration. In 4h the kids can only show castrated animals (for safety). This one was a Nubian goat, the same breed we raised and showed for years. I took a picture of him just for Emma.

Here he is waking up. I had to call the owner shortly after this picture was taken. The goat was being extremely loud and we had horses in and out of the barn all day. Most horses are not used to loud bleating goats! Not conducive to calmness.

Other than that, this was a lab work day. I met myself coming and going. Not too different from yesterday - Heartworm tests, mixing of pig vaccines, fecal tests, Lyme tests, thyroid tests. It seems every appointment had lab work. Megan, as appointment tech, was also doing lab work. It got quite crowded. In between I tried to match Heartworm test tubes with our clients. Still not finished....

Oh yes, hired another kennel person. A high school boy who lives in Clark's Grove. He also works at the one gas station in town so I hope this works out. He's off to Las Vegas for a few days with his family so he will start the end of next week. I have another interview tomorrow but I'm afraid she lives a little too far. We'll see. But interviewing, hiring, and training takes a lot of my time. Which I have very little of right now.

Home. Had to top off the bird feeders. Along with the hundreds of starlings and grackles and sparrows, I'm starting to see some good species. Red headed woodpeckers, Rose breasted Grosbeak, chipping sparrows, and the first goldfinch of the year. I heard someone already has orioles, even though I think it's a little chilly. I put out my first hummingbird (oriole) feeder Sunday so at least I'm ready! I love this time of year!

 

 

 

 

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Monday May 5

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Another busy day, which is the norm now. Megan did not feel well, had a very bad sore throat so she actually took the afternoon off. I had one surgery - a pug named "Folgers" to be neutered. He was a sweet dog, but already overweight at 8 months old. He also had  one nail on each front foot that had grown and curled all the way around. It was a wonder the nails had not punctured the pad. I go those trimmed right up. Mike got this surgery done by 9:00 which left the rest of the day to  get other things done.

Next I tried to get the heartworm tests done. We had 89 from the vaccination clinic on Saturday and, with Pam gone, I took over running the tests. We do what is called the well tests. Here I am taking a sample of the blood serum after I have spun the blood. It looks awkward because I am doing it with one hand while I take the picture with the other!

 Each sample of serum is pipetted into a well. The serum differs in color and clarity according to the diet of the dog. I have to keep track of each sample so I know what dog it comes from! I can do 22 tests at a time with an additional 2 wells set aside for control.

There's quite a few steps with adding this, and rinsing out that...all timed 5 minutes apart so I can't get too  far away once I start. This blue color is my favorite part - it's so pretty!

When all done, a positive heartworm will be this blue color and negative are all clear. I've had one postive so far but I still have 35 samples to run yet. This is my whole set up:

Then I also took pictures of preparing an ear cytology. Well, it's actually not of the ear but of the wax and dirt inside the ear. Mike took a swab from a dogs ear and I spread it on a slide. Then I 'fix' it using heat. I have to be careful of my fingers here!

Then I stain it. I use three different steps here too. The first one is to 'fix' the slide. The second one stains it, then the third one 'fixes' the stain. Whew! No timing here but dipping 5 times and rinsing with distilled water between each color.

Here is a stained slide next to an unstained slide -

Then I look under the microscope. I'm looking to see if it's a yeast infection or a bacterial infection. This will tell the vet which medicine to send home with the dog.

Yeast

Had a lunch and learn with a sales rep for a blood chemistry machine. I don't know if we'll buy it but he bought us pizza! After lunch and the above lab work, I had to mix up vaccine for 6 week old pigs. I haven't done it in a while so it was nice to get to do it again. With Pam gone, we will all get to mix vaccine now.

Finally home again. And guess what I saw at the feeder shortly after getting inside - a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak!!! I love these birds. I hope he stays for a while!