Friday Again!

Yep, a whole week has gone by without a new post. It's been a very tiring week, much worse than usual. Possibly because of Memorial Day holiday with the kennel being quite full and the kennel assistants not available....Then I worked Tuesday on my day off because of the number of dogs going home, Wednesday trained my new assistant, Thursday nuts and now it's Friday! And my day off!
Anna and I started by sanding/painting a little in the spare room that Anna has been kind enough to work on. Two layers of carpet were pulled up Wednesday - that were still damp from cat urine and  whatever. Yuck! Lots of Spackle yesterday (thanks Anna again) and today some paint. It will definitely need a second coat, and even then Jacky may need to put a skim layer of plaster on it and paint again... One step at a time!

Then its off to Northfield to spend some time with my mother and Anna. Fun day! Delicious Mexican Food! Good shopping! Lots of traffic! Excellent company!!!!!
Back early so Anna can go see the movie Snow White with Emily Peterson.
After being glared at by an oriole at the window, I decided to check the feeders. Horror of Horrors! All the grape jelly in both feeders absolutely gone! So I hurried to put fresh oranges on and loads of grape jelly. Also filled other feeders with sunflower seeds, nuts for the red headed woodpecker, and suet for the woodpeckers. Tomorrow fresh sugar water for the hummingbirds...
Feeding time. Anna bought grazing muzzles for the ponies to keep them from getting so fat on grass. I wanted to take the muzzles off for the night to give them a break. Weellll ponies aren't completely gullible and suspected I wanted them inside for an ulterior motive (even if it was in their best interest). FINALLY we got them inside and fed. I left them in so we can catch them in the morning to put the muzzles back on.

Ladybug here has had her mane "roached", or cut off,  because it is so thick. If you look close you can see a very large belly area that shouldn't be there!

Dove is always hoping for another treat! She likes to come inside because she has horrible allergies and is itchy everywhere. She spends all day scratching parts of her and she actually has sores all over her body from scratching on metal and trees...
I had to water some plants. We've been cool and rain y this week but there's a few things just planted that need extra care.

My new hazelnut bushes from Arbor Day. They are tiny now but are supposed to grow to 8-10 feet and be a great wildlife nesting area, windbreak, snowfence...and will give me hazelnuts! I hope they grow. The fencing by the way is to protect the tender plants from the geese.. and husbands with lawn mowers...

Lovely night, the moon was already out and I got some nice pictures of both barns with the moon above.

Time to eat a little chicken dish, finish Big Bang and get to bed. One last picture of my baby maple tree. It has it's first red leaf at the top!

Friday

Well, it's Friday but that isn't the end of the week for me - working in the clinic tomorrow morning and kennels tomorrow night. Plus a busy day getting boarders in. The kennel will be almost full this Memorial weekend so the day was spent taking care of the kennel stuff.
Not much 'gross' pictures today. We have an interesting case - a dog with tetanus we think.We don't see it much but it is a big danger on farms that might have old nails laying around. Farm animals are usually vaccinated against it due to castration and dehorning which increases the likelihood of getting it. The muscles become stiff and eventually the animal can't breath. There is an antitoxin and the dog has now been treated  and is on penicillin and fluids. I hope he comes out of it!

Emily and Dr. Jen with tetanus dog

I also took a bunch of boarding dog pictures. Will add a few each day:

McGee and Taeya

Kane, Cavalier King Charles

Zena, German Shepherd Dog

Last photo is Megan with her daughter's new brindle Boxer puppy, Ada. Megan has forgotten how much trouble puppies are!

Rain!

Finally rain. We were Soooo dry! Jacky and Anna got the hay in yesterday just in time - 39 bales is all. Because we were so dry, the hay didn't grow.
Today was my busy Thursday. This is Memorial weekend coming up so I have loads of work to do with the kennel. We have only a couple of spots open for the weekend and dogs are coming in every day. I have to get paperwork ready, check dogs in, check their vaccination history, record their belongings, figure out the best kennels to put them in (noisy dogs at one end, quiet at the other), give vaccinations when needed...and that's in addition to the other vet tech jobs I do.
Yesterday I started training in a new assistant. She's a high school sophomore so I hope to have her a couple of years. I absolutely hate hiring new kids. It's usually their first job and they don't have the social skills, experience, knowledge...... Annika probably didn't say more than 5 words to me in 2 1/2 hours. We'll see how it goes.
My one surgery was a dog spay. However it was unusual in that the dog was 6 weeks pregnant! A dog carries puppies (is pregnant) for only 8 weeks so she was very far along. I must confess I enjoy these types because I love to see the fetuses and how they develop. Of course it's a little sad too but this dog should NEVER have gotten pregnant. There's no homes for the good ones and this dog was not a great dog - serious overbite, hyper hyper hyper, owner clueless....There were 8-10 puppies that would have been born in 2 weeks. Mother dog not up to date with vaccinations (and he didn't want them updated) so there's a good chance the puppies would have died young from parvovirus or another disease.
If you're squeemish, don't look:

Here's a picture of Dennis spaying the mother dog:

Here's the mother dog recovering:

 Another drop-off was 'Crux", a retired police dog. He's a good shepherd - but can be a little stubborn at times. His handler/owner, Mark, had to learn command in a different language because the dog was trained in Poland I think! One time Crux had to be sent to the Veterinary School at the University of MN. He had eaten a bunch of matress and had "foreign body" surgery. He made it though! Now he was here because his elbow keeps filling up with fluid. I tried to get a picture of the fluid gushing out but Jen had already drained it before I could get back with my phone:

Ok. that's all the gross pictures for now. Time for bed. I'll try to play catch up this weekend but I have to work clinic and kennel.
I have to end with a nicer picture than these though.....let's see: Rain!

Solar Eclipse!

Sunday. Starting out working the kennels. It was nice and cool today - quite a difference from the last few days. Today though I decided to shave my llama. Oh no! not something I look forward to. Llamas are not very cooperative when it comes to 'grooming'. But Emma had already done Gitana - given her the 'barrel' cut, which is our show cut. I, however, was going to give Will the works - shave down completely. I was open to the idea of doing a little bit at a time. You never quite know how it's going to go. Llamas aren't super dangerous (spit is just yucky) but they tend to kick and that can leave quite a nice bruise (ask Anna). Will usually is pretty good until you try to shave his stomach or his legs. And catching them in the first place can be tricky.
I manages to convince all the llamas to go into the horse barn and then into stalls. From there it becomes the 'llama dance'  as you try to move in tandem with your animal as he attempts to elude you. Eventually he figures you aren't going away and allows you to put the halter on.
Will did pretty good. For the first time I shaved his whole body and neck. So he looks a little weird but will be so much cooler. Jack will be done too when Anna gets home.

I did get a little bit planted - onions and potatoes. Jacky's been too busy to till the garden until recently. And our garden does not stay 'clean' at all - it's not nearly as nice as the one I had in Arkansas. But every spring I still hope things will be different this year. Earlier today I picked some rhubarb and made a crisp. It is so good! My older plant died last year but my coworker gave me a few starts. They're really just babies but I managed to cut a few stalks.
Tonight was the solar eclipse. We were almost too busy to notice but Jacky remembered at the last minute. We tried looking at a reflection on white paper but it didn't work at all. Finally Jacky got his welding mask and - presto! - perfect viewing! Ok, we look funny too - but hey, it works!

I didn't get a photo of the eclipse but here's what it looked like - (this is in Kansas - we didn't have the building and the windmill)

Short and sweet

Short and sweet today. Busy Thursday again. No surgeries today at all so I can't share that. Kennels morning and afternoon - nothing new there. Mostly sitting at the front desk answering the phone and helping clients. Not much business in the clinic though. Maggie the basset hound is doing good today - such a sweet, sweet dog! Hopefully she'll pull out of this and stay away from rocks!
Like an emergency room, you never know what each day will bring and today brought nothing to share. The robin babies at work are filling up the nest. Maybe I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. Tried yesterday but Mother robin came zooming over the building with food for the kids and I scared her, so felt bad and left quickly.
Home not terribly late - 6:30. All my new plants were thirsty, thirsty, thirsty so I spent half hour watering everyone. Had to take the favorite hummingbird feeder down because of the wind - but they are using the other one luckily. Orioles out of grape jelly - filled both feeders. I went to put new suet in and the hairy woodpecker came down to the one feeder (about 2 feet away) and glared at me as if to say "It's about time!". So they should be all set for tomorrow morning at least.
Emma walked her lambs and goats. At this early date, there's a lot of screaming from the goats and throwing themselves on the ground. I'll try to take pics next time she drags them out!
Since I feel bad there's not much to talk about, I'll show you "Ollie" getting a bath before going home. He's a tubby little yorkie who's really a good boy. But he HATES the blow dryer and turns into the tasmanian devil! All you can see is a blur and teeth! Yep, not all dogs are thrilled with this service I offer...

Ollie looking sweet...

Ollie the tasmanian devil...

Let's end with something nice, shall we? I'll look through my farm pictures to find a nice one for you...

Anna jumping Piper on a practice jump last Saturday in Maple Plain. Ignore the random person in front. She was oblivious to me trying to take a picture!

Crazy Day

First of all, I wish I could take such beautiful bird pictures like those on my last post. Second of all, I'm glad this day is over. It was full of barking dogs, pigs, pigs and more pigs, and barking dogs. Just a few pictures - it was a long day...

This is Maggie, who swallowed a rock. It was a very long surgery - probably 2 hours - and I hope she makes it. I didn't help in the surgery at all but I thought you should see this sad girl.

We had an 'emergency semen collection'. Yes, that is what  said. A lady from Idaho had used Kim's stallion, "Gunner", to breed her mare (his semen, sent fed ex). I guess it didn't take and she was 'open', meaning she didn't get bred. Well, now she's almost ready so they need the semen ASAP. Here's a picture of Gunner on his poster (I had trouble finding time to take a picture myself)...

I did help a little with the collection (of semen). Gunner is a fantastic stallion - wonderful disposition and gorgeous! We get him 'excited' with a mare in heat, and then he runs to this dummy and mounts it. Underneath is a collection device but it is kind of complicated...

I don't want to talk about all the pigs we did surgery on, or the ones we did necropsies on. Instead I'm going to tell you about when I got home. I am super tired tonight but my most popular hummingbird feeder was empty so I filled it and then sat on the steps and dead headed my new pansies and Johnny Jump Ups. All around me was the buzzing (whirring?) of hummingbirds. It took them about 3 minutes to come back to the feeder once I filled it. Aren't the flowers beautiful?

Birds!!!

Ok, I've missed a few days, although I have pics to publish. But right now I want to brag about my birds here at the house. It actually started this morning on the way to the dentist ( :( ). Just as I was passing Russell's (about 1/2 mile from the house), a Great Blue Heron flew in front of me heading towards the  creek. I literally stopped the car in the road because he was so close and low down. We don't see a lot of water birds - and certainly not close up.


I actually couldn't see the yellow eyes but he was almost this close!
After a busy day at the dentist, Edward Jones, eating, buying vegetable plants, buying flowers, buying food...I went home to fill up all the water troughs because it's been hot. While waiting for the bottom one to fill, I watched a bluebird in the bottom pasture! He was just doing his own thing, eating bugs in the grass I guess. But how exciting to know I have bluebirds living close! Maybe even nesting in my nestboxes! I hope to entice them closer to the house with mealworms but haven't got the feeder up yet.


While trying to hang up a new hummingbird feeder that Anna gave me for Mother's Day, I hear Emma calling from inside the house "Llama loose!" Sure enough Will was wandering around. I had just put up a temporary fence to give them new grass. It didn't take long for him to push and walk over a section. The other llamas were pacing, trying to figure out how he did that! Oh boy, I thought it would be easy to get him in...not so much. First I got Gitana in a horse stall, then Jack in the barn. When I went to look for Will, he was galloping back towards the house after going for a look-see down the driveway. Eventually I got him in but not before deciding the temporary fence was NOT going to work right now!

I got my beautiful new feeder up. While eating supper in the living room I watched an Orchard Oriole come fill up on grape jelly, as well as Baltimore Orioles

Orchard Oriole male

Baltimore Oriole male

I now can recognize the oriole's song and hear it constantly. It's wonderful to know they're up there in the trees, happy and content! One last wonderful birding thing... Emma and Lee were leaving the house and she called that I must have a nesting pair of hummingbirds because they could see two flitting around. As I watched out the window, I must have counted two at the close feeder, and, in the background by the garage, I could see 4 hummingbirds chasing each other around!!!!!! I had no idea. Finally after what, 17 years? I finally have started figuring out how to bring the birds here. One really important fact - get feeders out early! I think I've always waited too long. Plus, be very consistent with keeping them filled! The red-headed woodpecker still visits all the time too and I have to keep an eye on all the feeders. I've put them up in various different areas - now some in the middle of the yard, some high, some by trees..trying to keep a variety so the birds can pick what they feel the most comfortable with. And....one can NEVER have enough bird feeders!!!!