Tuesday

It's pointless to say another busy day. Take it as a sure thing in the month of April and May. I was appointment but ended up spending most of my day pouring and mixing pig vaccine. Not very exciting! But there were a few things that were interesting. Unfortunately it was a bad day for a couple of pet owners who found out their pets had an untreatable condition. The first one was a second opinion on a cat "Tucker". After doing bloodwork, Mike's diagnosis was kidney failure. He sent the cat home with a prescription food to try to prolong Tucker's life. But there is no cure. The cat could have just weeks to live until his life becomes too unpleasant. But, unlike with human medicine, the patient has no idea when we break the news. But the owners often leave with tears flowing down their faces (men and women alike), often clutching their pet with desperate arms, trying to keep them safe.
Later on we had to tell the same type of news to a German Shepherd owner. She was a beautiful girl but was in obvious pain. She had mammary tumors ( found in unspayed females) that were probably malignant. But the more worrisome thing was a swollen front shoulder/leg. It was so painful, she couldn't put weight on it. Dennis believed it to be more of the cancer - probable bone cancer. He sent home some pain and anti-inflammatories but told the owner she might have only days before the pain is too great. That's when the kindest thing to do is to euthanize them. We all wish we could do the same for suffering people! The look in the Shepherd's eyes was unmistakable. Through the whole exam she just laid on the floor and looked off into space panting. It is a look you don't soon forget - like they are focused inward and just surviving.
Let's go on to happier things. We had RABBITS as an appointment! Sick rabbits - or rather rabbits losing their hair. This one's name is "Dale" and the other ones are "Chip" (cute, huh?), and Timothy (like the hay).

Mike checked some of the rabbit's hair under the microscope and diagnosed lice. The cure is easy - oral Ivermectin. But the rabbit's hair coat will not be ready for the rabbit show in two weeks!


This is what we actually saw on the rabbit above.


You know how I love creepy crawlies!

Today was also the Horse Vaccination Clinic. I didn't get to help this year, it was Megan's turn, but I took some pictures throught the window:

I have to say though, my favorite horses are the Norweigen Fjord Horses that cpome every year. I got a peak of them today but coul;dn't get a picture. Here's one from the web though -

But this is what I saw most of the day: pig vaccines! yay.

Well, at least I was inside where it was warmer! It was a might cool in the barn and had snowed just a couple of hours before we started. I bet Megan was regretting her decision to volunteer to work the Horse Clinic! Heh heh heh.

Another one

This will be short. Super long day but I had to write. Emily had the day off so I was appointment for her. Then Amber, who was surgery, got sick - felt lightheaded and nausea. After eating some and trying to lie down she decided to head home. She felt bad enough she had to pull over twice before making it back to Owatonna!
So I ended up being appointment and surgery on a day I was supposed to be float! Three doctors and 1 tech. Didn't go as smooth as you would like but we made it. Before Amber left she had done a cat dental and a dog dental. Plus there was a plugged cat (a cat who is 'blocked' and can't urinate), an abcess on a cat, a diabetic cat (boarding who needed insulin shots), a dog recheck on a lump removal, an ear hematoma, an exploratory....plus walk-in pig oral fluids to be boxed up and rushed to the Diagnostic Lab. Not to mention the appointments. I will highlight just a few things before I call it quits -
First all the cats were biters. Makes things difficult to say the least. The cat dental "Clyde" we wrestled with yesterday trying to take blood. The owner wanted a blood panal done to check liver, kidney, etc functions.We were unable to get the sample yesterday so Amber and Tom had to get it today. We use a 'cat box' for these difficult cats to get them sedated.



The trick is still to get them INTO the box in the first place! We use towels, leather gloves, or sometimes we trap them in their stainless steel kennel with the cat box above. No one looks forward to this! Anyway, Clyde got his dental done, his bloodwork done and was sleeping it off when I came in. I suggested to Amber that we let Clyde wake up in his owners crate. She thought this an EXCELLENT idea! So that is what I did - moved him while still mostly out of it. He still managed to hiss and growl at me but luckily had no ability to move yet.

Let's see. The ear hematoma - on "Scooby" a very large Weimeriner with an attitude. Of course. An ear hematoma occurs when the blood vessels inside the ear flap break and leak blood and serum between the layers of skin. It makes the ear swell up like a ballon - but filled with that blood and not air. We make an incision, open and drain the ear. Then we stich the two sides of the ear flap together. If we didn't do this the ear would continue to swell. Eventually the blood gets reabsorbed but it causes the ear to 'crinkle'  - like a human boxer's ear.

Before and...

After.


Ear Hematoma on a human boxer!

Ok, my final fun thing for the day. Some of our clients are...a little strange. Most of them are very attached to their animals and it can border on the unhealthy. Yes, we have people that sob when they have to board their dogs - absolutely convinced their dog will die of starvation in the few days they are gone. And we have the hypochondriacs that come in every time their pet sneezes or has a soft stool one time.  Or just 'aren't right'. Sometimes it's all we can do to assure these owners their pets are healthy enough to take home - no temp, eyes are bright, tail wagging, tongue lapping our faces. It goes with the job. But today we had something that I've never seen before. An owner brought in his cat which we see quite often. The cat has a chronic respiratory problem that won't completely clear up. The owner does his own research online and brings with him copies of articles from the Web about what could be his cat's problem. Today he went one step further. He wanted us to see how his cat eats soooo he got down on his hands and knees (the owner now) and pretended to eat a bite from the invisible bowl on  the floor and turned his head sideways and started chewing - because that's what his cat does! Wow. I couldn't look at Mike's face for fear of breaking out laughing. So I concentrated on petting the cat. I'm sure Mike was trying hard to not grin also. You just never know what will happen in the day in the life of a vet tech!


I don't want that to be the last image in your mind. Let's change that!

What a Zoo!

Oh my, such a long long day. However it proved to be full of interesting cases. I am going to try to to cover it all before I fall asleep. Here goes!
 First off another trip to the chickens. This time we had to go into the barn and have the grower catch the chickens for us. I was sopmewhat prepared but it is still quite a sight! The entire floor covered with red chickens - both hens and roosters - with red red combs dotting the entire area.




The difference between this photo and our visit was the age of chickens - these are younger and don't have the full red combs, and our barn was smaller and  very dark. The grower caught the chickens using a leg catcher. He then handed them to me and I positioned them for Mike. When Mike was done swabbing and dipping in the formaldehyde, I took care of the tubes. It all went very quickly again. There will be a few more times to collect samples in the next few weeks.

Back at the clinic we had a C-Section on an English Bulldog. This breed usually cannot deliver their own puppies due to the size of the heads and the squashed in noses. We have one 'breeder' who needs this service a couple of times a year. I didn't have to help with the puppies this time - she only had 4 and two actually had birth defects. This can be a hard decision for the owner - often these puppies live but will have short short lives or trouble all their life. One puppy had a cleft palate - just like children are sometimes born with -




Of course with children, doctors perform surgery and are able to correct the problem. With puppies with severe degree of cleft palate, the best answer is to euthanize the puppy. Which is what Tom did today. The other puppy had deformed back legs but Tom thought that, with therapy by the owner (stretching exercises), the puppy may be able to live an almost normal life. But time will tell.

Another fascinating case was a calf with a broken leg. It seems the owner broke the leg when they pulled the calf during it's birth. It's very common to have to do that and most ranchers who raise cattle do this on a regular basis. And veterinarians have to do it often too. Usually it's because of a
heifer (young cow who has not given birth yet) having her first calf. They are sometimes too small in the pelvic area, or the calf is too big.



I left this picture big so you can see the chain wrapped around the calf's front leg. This is the typical way to pull a calf. Sometimes though the pull is directed wrong or the pull is too hard. Here is our little calf. Mike calls her "Flower" -

And here is her broken leg. It's broken right above the white sock

Aren't newborn calve's legs weirdly shaped?

Mike and I took radiographs (x-rays) of the leg so we would know how bad it was. If you look close, you can see the break. The outside edges of the bones are not completely in line. Look about halfway down the leg right before it starts getting bigger again.

The two bones at the bottom of the radiograph are the calf's toes. The many small bones at the top that resemble stones are the knee of the calf! Eventually we got the leg splinted. Little Flower had to be sleeping for this but she is fine. Back with her mother tonight!

Let's see. Is there anything I have forgotten? Oh yes. I had to teach an owner how to use a 'prong' collar on her dog. This is the basset hound I mentioned in an earlier post - that had eaten rocks. She is a very strong girl - especially for her owner who cannot hold onto her. For some dogs this really works - those that have thick necks with a lot of power behind it. Hopefully the owner will be able to get some control over her now. I use a reward when the owner has to 'pop' the collar and the dog turns and comes back to her. It should work if the owner is consistant!

The other thing this owner started with today is a basket muzzle. This keeps a dog, yes, from biting, but also from eating things it shouldn't! Carlie only needs it when she is outside and on walks with her owner. But without it, I am sure Carlie would have to eventually have to have more surgeries to remove things from her stomach! Eat it first, think later is Carlie's motto.

They can also be really useful for aggressive dogs that you want to take out on walks. 

That's about all the fun for the day. It was quite a day at the vet clinic! We are pooped.

Chickens!

Well, the day started out quite unusually. I met up with Mike at 7 to go out and take trachael swabs on 10 chickens for a health paper to Texas. Yep. We have a client who trucks chickens down to Texas for slaughter. Quite a lot of milage on those birds! Wouldn't you think they could find closer chickens? Not sure of the whole story but he sells them to an asian market because they like dark meat better. These chickens look like Rhode Island Reds and are 14 weeks old. The roosters have beautiful combs on them - ours always got frostbite and turned black. These guys are in a heated barn so they don't have that problem.



Well, with the bird flu making it's appearance in Minnesota the last two weeks, Texas is very careful to not bring contaminated birds into their state. The birds have to be tested for the flu no more than 72 hours before they enter Texas. I'm sure each state has it's own requirements but they are usually pretty close to each other. Anyway, Mike has to inspect these chickens every time a shipment goes to Texas. He usually take blood samples from 30 birds and the samples are sent to Winona. This time, because of the flu outbreak,Mike decided to take trachael swabs from only 10 birds. The owner would have to drive the samples up to theVeterinary Diagnostic Lab at the University of Minnesota so they could perform the testing. The owner wants to leave with the chickens tomorrow morning! So time is of the essense - hence the 7 am call.
This owner is shipping 10,000 birds but luckily he has picked 10 chickens out and put them in crates for us outside the building. It seems he has coffee with his buds every day from 7 to 9 without fail - also the reason Mike was asking a tech along to help.

Actually having the birds in the crate was a huge help. They can only lay down and are pretty packed so it took me no time at all to pull out one bird at a time for Mike. After I grabbed the bird, I held his (or hers) feet with my left hand while my right hand held up his chest and helped straighten his neck for Mike.



Once Mike had taken a swab, he dipped it into a test tube filled with formaldehyde.

We did 5 swabs per tube. The chickens went into the empty crate one by one as they were sampled and then back to the clinic we went. I helped fill out the paper work and waited for the owner to finish his coffee and come pick up his samples.

That was something new for me. After that ( 7:40) it was the normal vaccines, shipping, helping with patients and clients. Here's a sample of urine though that has stones in it. The dog, Muffy, a cute shih tzu, tolerated  her bladdr being squeezed periodically. It seems with a little additional outisde pressure, she could push the stones out herself. Often these have to be surgically removed! Muffy will be placed on a special diet to help dissolve the crystals and also antibiotics since she has some blood from the irritation.

It was a long day filled with vaccine orders, non-stop phone calls, cleaning, helping.... and surgery day tomorrow. 

Better go rest up! There's a horse cryptorchid surgery tomorrow!

Rochester

Well, it's my day off and we're off to Rochester. But not before Jacky cleaned the barns and set up the water troughs for the horses and ponies. SueBee was happy to see her trough even though she can no longer stand in it. We have had a long time problem with her pawing all the water out of the trough.  That horse LOVES water! Especially if she's hot but really all the time. Of course the best time to do it is right after it has been filled with clear, sparkling, well-water-cold water. Maybe it's so she can watch the expression of amazement on our faces as we see the fruits of our labor disappear in minutes.
I clenaed the yard ( a consequence of pet ownership), fed the birds outside (the starlings will finish it off in 24 hours), and decorated the inside of the house for Easter. Can't wait until Emma comes home tomorrow!
After picking up a few things in Rochester, we headed over to Aren's townhouse. He was not home from the hospital yet so we decided to walk the trail behind the townhomes. Little did we know at the time it was an IBM private park! No one bothered us though and we were able to get in our 10,000 steps (as counted by my fitbit). Actually it was quite  nice - woods and open areas. There was a frisbee course set up and we walked until we saw the huge IBM buildings. We also came across palygrounds and pavilions, soccer and ball fields, tennis courts...It was pretty windy too but not real cold.

Aren's townhouse is  across the field there.

When we got back, Aren was home. After chatting and admiring the changes in the house, we went out for supper at Ho Hut. In the same mall is a new Scheel's store which will open April 11. This store will be the largest Scheel's store in the United States. The outside is amazing, with statues of presidents and others.

Finally  a couple of hungry men chowing down. The food was particularly good tonight. I had a seafood plate with salmon, scallops, and calamari!!!! 

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.