Joe and I are in Missouri for the wedding of one of his friends. Its Monday. Today is Friday. We got here Wednesday. I'm not sure why we got here so early but in doing so (well, in coming at all) we avoided the 5-8" of snow that is predicted for Carlisle tomorrow. Anyway, I'll blog about our Missouri trip and the wedding at a later date. This particular blog is to talk about some random things that have been going on.
So some random things...
Apparently, the brakes on the vet truck have been going south for a while unknown to the doctors that have been driving it. It got taken into the shop after BJR got it stuck in a bank drive thru-denting the side and wrecking the mirror. On the way back, one of the techs commented that the brakes were horrible. They were. So I was told not to drive it if I got any calls. Luckily, the fact that the brakes were completely shot was discovered when BF was out so the free use of his truck came in handy.
I was on call a few weekends back and it was fairly slow. I had a several phone calls on Friday and Saturday looking for prescriptions to be called in or for advice but no calls. Sunday started off the same and resulted in me going in for a sick dog. The dog came in and couldn't get out of the car so we slung her inside. I shortly realized that her temperature was about 109 where as normal shouldn't be more than 102.5. This was distressing since it was October and rather cool. We hoisted her into the back sink where the owner hosed her down, I called a tech in and started an IV. We probably hosed her down for about 1/2 hr before realizing that her temperature wasn't changing in the slightest. I gave a rather poor prognosis and suspected sepsis and the owners elected euthanasia. Unfortunately, my tech just came in so she didn't get paid. BUT since we were at the hospital anyway, I called back another client to see if they wanted their dog seen (they had been debating about it previously) and they did. So we saw two more dogs, the tech got paid and all was well.
I recruited Joe for an emergency one Friday night. One of my favorite farmers called me and said he had a uterine torsion and needed some help. I know that uterine torsions can be a man power issue so I made Joe go with me. I've not done one on my own but knew the basics (especially after consulting some theiro notes!). A little background on what a uterine torsion is-at calving or at least late in pregnancy for some unknown reason a cow's uterus gets twisted at the cervix preventing the calf from getting out. It can twist once or twice even. No one knows why it happens. There are about three methods of correcting it depending on what you've got going on. Anyway, we got to the farm and the farmer informed me that he called his father in law for some help too so man power wouldn't be an issue. I chased the cow around, got a halter on her, tied her up and yep, sure enough a uterine torsion but only one twist which is good. I could actually put my arm through the twist and touch the calf. We laid the cow down which involves special placement of a long rope and some pulling. Some pushing too as this cow wasn't set on laying down. Then the action begins. You put a long plank in the flank of the cow and then someone stands on the plank pushing it down into the cow's flank. Meanwhile, the cow is rolled over. However, the plank was way too long and the saw died in the middle of cutting it. We did get it cut, I stood on the board and the men rolled the cow around me. Then she wouldn't get up. Then with the help of a cattle prod she did get up and ran around all crazy. Then the cow settled down and Joe and the farmer delivered the calf with my direction. It was a live heifer calf. Happiness all around! I treated the cow and we went home. About an hour from start to finish which is very fast for me!
They had been doing some repair on the road going to the ponies so I went a different way one day. I noticed a nice house with a for rent sign in the yard. What really intrigued me was the fact that there was a barn and pasture behind the house too! So I called and asked and the guy said he'd think about renting the barn and pasture too. I however just learned that they aren't going to do that which makes me very sad. It would have been super nice to have the ponies in my backyard.
And now for some links--last week on Monday, I was called in early down at Newville to euthanize a cat that was suspected of having rabies. The woman was a client and she was going to take it to have testing done at the state lab. I was a little miffed about having to go in early since I was told and not asked. I also ended up seeing another cat that I euthanized for injuries too. Anyway, I walked to the back and the tech told me that she had already sedated the cat. I looked at it and the cat was hypersalivating and I concluded that yep, probably had rabies. It tested positive. Unfortunately, this cat was found very close to some local schools. The schools didn't seem too concerned so we sent out a press release and that's how we ended up on the news.
In a tragic story, the son of one of our farmers was killed in a combine accident. He was harvesting the field of his brother in law. Its very tragic. Farming can be such a dangerous profession yet so few think about it as so. Farmers are really heroes too. They provide food for us to eat and sometimes their lives can be taken tragically early in doing so. Thank a farmer today.
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