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!

Wednesday April 23

Today did not start out well. I decided to take Casey in because she had not been eating well and had a discharge. I was afraid it was 'pyometra' which means an infected uterus. It's mostly older unspayed females that get it, and it is serious. Casey's heat cycles were never normal but I put off spaying her because I was concerned about other health problems. Well, it turned out I was right. Casey did have a pyometra but she also had raspy lungs. Mike thought it could be tumors or congestion and thought she would not be a good surgery candidate. Casey was 15 1/2, deaf, couldn't see well, very arthritic, and, Mike and I thought, probably had tumors inside her. So I made the difficult decision to put her down. I will have her cremated and Aren will take her ashes up north to some beautiful place.

The rest of the day was quite busy. We have lost another tech and will have to figure out who does what when now! I was appointment tech so had quite a bit to do. Mike had a pig surgery, a hernia to repair on a show pig.

 

Here he is waking up in a dog crate.

The pig was in the dog crate because we had 6 baby goats in the stall. They were quite young, and of course adorable! They were there to have their horn buds burned off. I had sold our disbudder to the clinic when we got rid of all our goats. But it's really nice to work on goat kids every year. I do miss them!

One last picture of sweet Casey. We will miss you!

 

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Tuesday April 22

Had to work today. Busy time and the clinic needed more help since Holly is busy doing Coggins tests. Also Missy Malakowsky was job shadowing and I knew she would be totally ignored if I wasn't there.

First on the way to work I noticed my neighbors pony had had her baby sometime during the night. Heaven knows he doesn't need more but babies are so cute!

Next I did indeed start by taking Missy around the clinic. There were a lot of surgeries plus we had to ultrasound a mare to see if she was ready to get bred. I took Missy out for lunch and did this and that most of the day.

Then it was time for the Equine Vaccination and Coggins Clinic. Only Holly and I help Tom with it so it's not as big a production as the dog and cat one. Only about 35 Coggins were done so we probably saw 45 horses total. Not quite as many as usual. I think more people are getting out of horses. Here's a few pictures from the night...

 

 

Thursday is our second dog and cat vaccination clinic. Busy week!

Putting in the photo I took this morning of the sunrise. Pretty!

 

 

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Sunday addition

Oops! I took this one picture with the intent of adding it to my blog and forgot. So now it's a late addition. Today I saw my first mourning dove of the year! I hope this one brings more in and they stay the summer to raise babies. I love to listen to their call ( and talk to them like my father taught me ).

Trough the window and screen so not too clear. Also, guess what I found in my flower bed a few minutes ago...the first goose egg of the year! Yes...just maybe spring IS here!

 

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Sunday, March 23

Ok. I just thought Blogsy deleted my whole last post without saving it. But thank goodness, I finally found it and posted. That was 30 minutes. Now to tackle today's post...

I decided I really had to get something done today. First take care of the outside animals. Only SueBee, Brandy and Gitana in the big barn. In the pony barn is Rudi, Lady and Cricket. Two less horses to clean up after!

Next I loaded up Gertie and took her to the clinic for a haircut. She is really cute when her hair is grown out, but she is bringing in the mud on her feet as well as starting to get mats in her coat. The clippers are better at work, and I don't get hair all over the kitchen! Here's a before and after picture:

This is in the car after we shared McDonald's for lunch -

After a stop at Hyvee grocery we started home. I passed some wild turkeys and decided to turn around for a picture. When I got back to the turkey's, I saw some deer there too. It's a common place to see both on my way to and from work.

The deer didn't like my stopping there.

While turning back around in a farm pull out to head home I scared up a bird on the ground. I wish I had seen it before it flew off. It looked to me like a northern wheatear but that would be highly unusual! So I don't know. It did have a black ear patch. Any ideas?

Geese were out by the snowed under round pen. They can't wait for warmer weather! I have been enjoying the V shape of wild geese flying north. Spring actually might be coming some day! Just not this week apparently.

Checked on SueBee. She is missing her daughter Piper. She calls and stands on watch. I tell her it will be a long 8 weeks if she's going to stand there waiting for her.

Ok. Time to get ready for bed. Back to work tomorrow.

 

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