Friday

Another busy busy day. Holly still sick so I got front desk duty again. Nonstop phone calls and appointments. It's also July 4 next week so the dogs are starting to flood in to board. Each dog requires paperwork I do before and then they are checked in. If possible I check the dogs in myself - get a weight, write down feeding instructions, belongings, baths, nail trims, contact phone number...Some owners do notlike to spend the time doing this but occassionally I have problems with miscommunication and its the kennel manager that gets it, not the tech or kennel helper that screws up.
I didn't have much to do with the animals today. We did have something new come in, that didn't end well unfortunately. One of our clients had bred one of their cocker spaniels. We had done ultrasound to count puppies when she was pregnant, then after she 'whelped', we did x-rays to make sure she was done having puppies. She ended up having only 3, but the first little female wouldn't nurse. They talked to Jen who asked if milk was coming out her nose when they tried with a bottle. They said yes and her diagnosis was cleft palate.I didn't know puppies could ge that - just like people! The owners brought the puppies in today to dock their tails (cut them off) and take off their dewclaws. At that time, Jen examined the puppy and said there was not a way to repair it because it was too severe. She had to put her down.


This picture shows the palate or the roof of the mouth. This puppy has a cleft palate where you see the 'hole' in the middle of the palate. In a cleft palate, the palate does not form all the way across and so the mouth is open into the nasal pasageway (hence the milk coming out the nose). In children doctors can perform surgery and repair it but it is not that successful in dogs. I imagine some puppies die from it without owners ever knowing why. They basically starve to death because they cannot suck.
The two surviving puppies are fat and healthy. They will be really cute in a few weeks!




Hummingbird looking at me in the window wanting more syrup. I love the way they hover looking right inside the house. What are they thinking? I'm glad I hung the feeders up high this year.

Thursday

Busy, busy day. But there was one big change - the humidity went down! It was already so much more comfortable than yesterday that I hated having to start early at work. Usually I like to feed the outside birds in the morning, and water if I have time. Not today! Plus Holly was still sick so Beth got to join me to open up

My 2 surgeries didn't show up, again, so I got to sit at the front desk answering the phone and helping clients. That was ok, with Holly gone and it being Thursday, I was the logical choice. Pam was appointment tech and Beth had a lot to do away from the desk. My 2 surgeries were the same owner as last week who forgot last week. He has a litter of sled dogs he 'rescued' and they are all now old enough to get fixed. Last week was two boys and today was supposed to be one boy and one girl. Since he forgot again, we fit his boy in for tomorrow and had to put off his girl until next week. He will have quite a vet bill when he's all done!

Had a short lunch and stayed late....and I have to open up tomorrow again as Holly is still sick. She has a viral infection that may last 2 or 3 weeks! Hope she doesn't spread it around. Dr. Jen and Sharon helped some too but it still was a long day. When I drove up the driveway, I noticed that Jacky had finally started cutting hay. Yay! It may not be the best hay since it's so tall and is heading out, but you can't get good hay by leaving it alone. Jacky thinks it will take several days to totally dry down this time. If the weather is right, we sometimes bale in 3 days.

Jacky's in the background on the tractor cutting. He's wearing his new ear protectors he got for Christmas and he says they work great!

I discovered the strawberries have quietly been getting ripe while the rain and humidity have kept me inside.

Luckily I only missed a few so we may have strawberries with sugar and cream tonight! I had to step carefully to avoid this lovely fat toad. I think he brings Good Luck!

When I was done picking, I had to put the fence up, mainly to keep the geese out (who already ate all my broccoli plants...). You'll notice Trixie keeping an eye on things. She is not above snacking on strawberries either. Also look at how the plants are creeping out into the yard. Less to mow I guess!

 

Traeh is also watching. She loves being outside but gets tired easily. I think she's doing great though. She even runs sometimes! She's already lived three times as long as we thought she would once she was diagnosed with Degenerative Mylopathy.

Pretty Torenia flowers. Some plants have survived...

Also picked my two peony flowers. I hope the cats leave them alone. Now I wish I had more peony plants!

Now maybe a couple of strawberries before I head to bed. It's getting late and I have an early wake up call!

 

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Hump Day

Not too exciting a day. I was appointment and had a number first thing with Tom. It can be hard to stand there when you absolutely don't agree with what the doctor is telling clients. In this case, one of the things was how much to feed a client's new dog. He was a 35# rescue dog - very nice. Tom said to feed 2 cups of food a day. Yikes! That would result in an extremely fat dog. Obesity is such a huge problem in dogs now - as in people. My 30# dog gets a cup a day - and could maybe use less! Another doctor routinely tells clients to leave dog food out all day. NO! Absolutely bad for dogs. They are not meant (any more than people) to have a buffet in front of them 24-7. You can't tell if a dog is off his food, and you don't  control intake. One family who just boarded their 6 small dogs leaves food out "in case they want a snack". Most of the dogs are in good shape but one dachshund is so overweight, she can hardly walk. In fact, she had had a mild stroke 2 days before they left - probabloy from hauling all that weight around!
 Now really, which dog looks healthier?





Oh well, I just stand in the back and keep quiet as a good tech should do.
Emily seems to be trying to bottle feed a baby rabbit - wild of course. Another client's dog brought it (unhurt) to her - so young the eyes weren't open yet. The client felt bad and tried to drown it (really!) but got upset when the baby started fighting....(really!) So she brought it to the clinic yesterday and Emily has it in a crate with a heating pad and is bottle feeding it. So far so good. I've tried baby rabbits many times and have never been successful in the end.. Pam has though, and released them on her farm (amidst the cats and dogs...) I ususally stick to kittens although I've sworn off that now...


I guess I sound kind of blue today. It's been hot and humid, flies and mosquitoes are out and I'm already wishing for cooler weather. Guess I'm really not a hot climate person! Watched a show on Black Mamba snakes and realized I don't miss having snakes around here! Had enough of that in Arkansas! I had two collies bitten by copperhead snakes (both survived) and I had to kill  numerous ones up by our garage. I used to really worry when Benjamin started walking around! Nope, don't miss that at all.

Monday, Monday

In early to open up since Holly has the flu. I thought about bringing Sam in to be put down but I couldn't do it. I knew we would be short doctors - that Dennis would be the only one in clinic and for emergencies. So not only do techs take vacations at the same time - so do the vets! and without doctors for surgeries and appointments, there isn't as big a need for techs.
But, being Monday morning, the phone rang off the hook. busy, busy all morning. The afternoon slowed down somewhat, plus emily stole my place at the front desk, so I didn't have as much to do.One interesting animal came in though. Jamie Tennison brought in an injured owl! She thought it had gotten hit by the train in town, but it was in really bad shape. It was missing a wing and was really tore up. Luckily Dennis was there and not busy so he sedated it and then euthanized it.

Such huge eyes! It looked like it was a owl like this one, with the little ear tuffs. If I had more time, I would find out what kind. At least we could do something about his suffering.

Not too much else at work. But when I came home, I noticed a bird hovering over the ditch. It was very striking in coloration and I had seen it before and wondered what it was. This evening it actually landed and let me take pictures of it from the car...

Of course I looked it up as soon as I could - it's a Bobolink! A member of the blackbird family, it nests in hayfields and places like that. The song is just incredible. I will try here to post a link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TXIrXiyW6o. 

Let me know if this works. Just click on the link to go to You Tube and listen. It's about 4 minutes long, 

Be sure to listen to the whole thing. If it doesn't work, google Bobolink song and this is one that will come 

up. Just incredible! We are so lucky to live in a world with so many fascinating and beautiful creatures.

Busy weekend

Had to work this Saturday. Very busy with boarders coming and going, appointments, things to get ready for clients...
Karla's daughter 'Kelsi' has a job I would love to have. There is a turtle farm in Iowa that has multiple ponds where snapping turtles live. Kelsi and others get to spend a month digging up turtle eggs! Someone marks the nests, or distrubed areas, on the pond banks first thing in the morning and teh workers have to carefully dig up the nests and place each egg in the same position it was in, in a bucket. The eggs are taken to incubators where the turtles hatch. I believe they feed them out a little and then ship them to China where they are fed up and used for food.

Snapping turtle laying eggs

Once I saw newly hatched snapping turtles crawling along a path at the Minnesota Zoo. They weren't part of an exhibit, just wild. So cute when babies, but boy are they ugly as adults. The kids and I came across a huge adult crossing the road years ago. It was right on a curve and I didn't want him to get run over so I got a shovel out of the car and convinced him to return to the side that the water was on. He wasn't happy with me and kept snapping his jaw.

I thought this was all very interesting. Much better than the stress of work and home right now. I put Eli down Friday and tomorrow it will be Sam. My animals have to be able to live in harmony here and my boys can't do that. They have been killing all my songbirds, and they are excellent at it. In the house they are tearing everything up. I can't have anything out on the hutch or the piano- they've either broken or destroyed anything left out. And I could have them for 20 years. I tried finding homes and had no luck. As I told you in the other post, it's the most humane thing I can do. It's not ok always being mad at them and yelling and throwing them out. That's not the defination of 'companion' animals. It's not fair to them either-they are just following their instinct. This is the really hard part of being a responsible animal owner. I wish knowing that made me feel better.

Wednesday/Thursday

Not too much to say about Wednesday. Or, better left unsaid. I was appointment tech, unfortunately. Because I had a total of 6 appointments and 5 of them were 'put to sleep'. It was awful! Only one was a young animal - a wild cat the owner had caught in a live trap. When they bought their farm, it came with 14 (at last count) wild cats that were breeding and urinating everywhere. Finally they decided they had to do something. One young female yesterday, one today. We have to inject them with a sedative through the cage wire - too dangerous to let them out! It's sad but the reality is there are way too many cats in the world and not enough homes for them. Shelters are stuffed with hundreds of cats needing homes and this is quick and humane.

Wild cats

The other animals were all old dogs. Every one was hard because the dogs were all well loved members of the family. Lots of tears were shed. The first dog was the hardest for me - a German Shepherd. When I walked into the room, she came over wagging her tail and greeting me. Then she took my hand in her mouth - just like Traeh takes feet (shoes) in her mouth when she's happy. It's still better to put them down while they still are somewhat happy instead of in pain. So many people wait far too long for selfish reasons. I hope I don't have a day like that again...

Traeh

One fun thing - Jen had to check a cow's sutures since she'd had a prolapsed uterus which had to be sewn in. I was able to take a peak at her and her calf but didn't get a picture. I am showing you what they looked like though - Miniature Herefords!!!! This picture shows the size of the cow and calf. Wish I had had some of those little guys!

Miniature Hereford Cow Calf pair

Regular size Hereford Cow Calf pair

Thursday:

Surgery day - cat neuter, dental on Miniature Schnauzer, dog neuter. Just a busy busy day. Pam and Emily are on vacation. Mike home sick, Holly left mid day sick. The boarding kennel is full this weekend and I had to clean kennels in the middle of the day just to put surgery dogs in.  It's getting hot so I may put up the tarp over the outdoor runs to cool the concrete off a little. Problem is the wind usually picks up at some point and rips it up. Here at home, Jacky surprised me by putting in the window AC unit at lunchtime. So I came home to a cool downstairs. It was wonderful! Last night was a tad warm and I didn't get enough sleep with the warm temps and Trixie barking - probably at the kittens.

Tomorrow is even less people at work - Holly if she's better, Megan, Karla and me. I'll have 9 dogs coming in to board on Saturday so lots of paper work to do before then!

Back to the farm

It's been a busy few days since we got back from Europe. Helped Anna move in, then to Duluth to help Aren move in. Work a day, then day off.

First was Kerry the farrier here for the horses feet. Everyone was good and I took off Doves thick mane so she'd be cooler. She looks like a different pony now!

Lunch with Jacky first, then a break to let the food settle. No big lunch since I was out with the horses. Still, it was a beautiful day and I enjoyed being outside.

After Jacky got home, I took the time to shave a llama. They don't cooperate very well but I started with Gitana since she's supposed to stay with me. When she got fed up with the clippers, she started clicking her teeth at me so I decided to quit for the day. Clicking can lead to spitting so you better be listening!

 

The llamas hadn't been let in the barn for a while and you can tell Will missed his water trough!

 

They may not want to drink from it but it sure cools off Will. Jacky decided it was finally dry enough to till up the garden. The weeds were getting out of control. Here you can see how big the rhubarb has gotten while we were gone!

 

Everyone's behind in planting. Some farmers have not gotten all their corn planted, some still trying to get soybeans in. There hasn't been such a wet spring/ summer in recent memory. Who could guess we'd be tilling the garden June 18? I got a few tomato plants in as well as broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and yellow squash. Had to wait until we came back from Europe. With rain every day though, the plants should do well. I still have some sweet potato slips to get in.

The other thing that's way behind is hay! We can't seem to find 3 dry days in a row to cut our hay. They are cutting south of us but the forecast is for rain the next 7 days. You have to make hay while the sun shines...and it's not shining. Meanwhile the standing hay gets taller and more stems, which is not as nutritious and doesn't taste as well either.

 

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