I'm wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays... and wishing I didn't have to break my streak of having a white Christmas every year. That's the hardest thing to miss today (except family), however, the weather decided it wanted to be winter-esque and is right around freezing with the windchill down here. However, still no snow.
I spent the morning working with the animals. Not many of us got Christmas off. Yesterday I learned how to do the produce run. All of our produce for the hundreds of animals we feed every day is donated from the local HEB grocery stores and Walmarts. They give us all their produce that's not fit for human consumption, but everything I've seen I would totally still eat. Well, most of it! On our run, we rescued 2 dogs who were on the side of the road. Around here, it's dangerous for anything by the road because every property is lined with high barbed wire fences, so the animals have nowhere to escape. So we brought the bloodhound and Australian shepherd back to the rescue center, and then we rescued an opossum with a broken jaw in the middle of San Antonio. Busy Christmas Eve.
Tonight I had an amazing time at a potluck that we had for most of the apprentices. I made my Dad's famous hash brown potato dish, which was a super big hit. I'm so stuffed. It was quite entertaining as well, because the party was held in a trailer that has 3 cats and 4 dogs in it, so you had to eat your food quickly before something else did. Overall, the best holiday away from home that I could think of. Thanks for all the presents from family members, just be patient for the thank you cards. I have to wait for my next day off to go into town to get some cards. Miss and love you all. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Corrections
Apparently I have made mistakes already, and I've only been a blogger for a few days. I apologize first to my good friend Emily. I mentioned I worked with 5 other interns but I mis-typed. She is an apprentice. I'm so excited to be working with her because she is also here for a year (instead of 6 months for all interns except vet tech), and she has the same birthday as me!! Can't wait for next year to celebrate with her. She also has an amazing cat named Fletcher. (I hope Em, if you're reading this, it is sufficient to cover my previous mistake!)
The past few days I have inhaled, and spilled, more bleach than I've ever seen in my life. My shirts are now spotted, and the IC rooms, which hold our raccoons and other vector species during quarantines, are finally empty. That means they have to be completely bleached down 3 times in order to be clean of distemper and the parvo virus which have been rampant in the clinic this year. We are also having a problem with ringworm in cats. Don't worry, ringworm is not a worm, it's a fungus. This means if I wake up with itchy patches on me, it could be chiggers, fleas, OR ringworm. Yay!
I've posted some new pictures, which I believe was the whole point of this post. I saw a peacock in a tree, which I thought odd and amazing. A question was asked from my last post and so I will explain what animal husbandry is. Right now, I am learning animal husbandry with my fellow new interns (and apprentice!). This means we are learning how to properly care for each species of animal. How to properly hold and restrain the animal, how to feed them, what they eat, when they eat, how to administer medications, and when to upgrade an animal to the next weight/size/release status. It's very new and sometimes fun and exciting, but most of it is cleaning. I'm not complaining, it's very therapeutic. However, I will be super excited to get trained in the vet clinic. There I will be monitoring the patient during surgeries, administering more meds, taking x-rays, analyzing fecal samples, and creating med sheets. Of course there's probably a million other things I'll be doing, but those are the main ones I've observed so far.
Well, hope you are all doing well and thanks to everyone who's responded on the blog or by email! It cheers me up a ton to know my friends and family still remember me down here in the heart of the South. Love and miss you all.
The past few days I have inhaled, and spilled, more bleach than I've ever seen in my life. My shirts are now spotted, and the IC rooms, which hold our raccoons and other vector species during quarantines, are finally empty. That means they have to be completely bleached down 3 times in order to be clean of distemper and the parvo virus which have been rampant in the clinic this year. We are also having a problem with ringworm in cats. Don't worry, ringworm is not a worm, it's a fungus. This means if I wake up with itchy patches on me, it could be chiggers, fleas, OR ringworm. Yay!
I've posted some new pictures, which I believe was the whole point of this post. I saw a peacock in a tree, which I thought odd and amazing. A question was asked from my last post and so I will explain what animal husbandry is. Right now, I am learning animal husbandry with my fellow new interns (and apprentice!). This means we are learning how to properly care for each species of animal. How to properly hold and restrain the animal, how to feed them, what they eat, when they eat, how to administer medications, and when to upgrade an animal to the next weight/size/release status. It's very new and sometimes fun and exciting, but most of it is cleaning. I'm not complaining, it's very therapeutic. However, I will be super excited to get trained in the vet clinic. There I will be monitoring the patient during surgeries, administering more meds, taking x-rays, analyzing fecal samples, and creating med sheets. Of course there's probably a million other things I'll be doing, but those are the main ones I've observed so far.
Well, hope you are all doing well and thanks to everyone who's responded on the blog or by email! It cheers me up a ton to know my friends and family still remember me down here in the heart of the South. Love and miss you all.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
First Weeks
Welcome to my blog! Bear with me because I'm very new to this, so it might take me a while to make my site "pretty." The whole purpose of getting this blog is to let everyone be updated on my life without me having to send blast emails which can't send pictures very well. So, here goes.
My first few weeks at WRR (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation) have been a whirlwind of new experiences, new people, and new animals. I came in with a group of 5 other newbies, but the rest of them are here for 6 months working on animal husbandry. My training so far, has all been in husbandry and how to restrain all of the types of species I will work with here. Here's a short list of the animals I have seen (so far!) on property.
Dogs, cats, squirrels, doves, pigeons, parrots, goats, sheep, donkeys, mules, llamas, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, rabbits, hawks, owls, bobcats, mountain lions, wolves, marmosets, macaques, capuchins, opossums, roosters, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea hens, peacocks, emus, rheas, antelope, cows, longhorn bulls, pigs, deer, guenons, foxes, bears, a jaguar, lemurs, song birds (tons of different species), turtles, tortoises, iguana, snakes, mealworms (fed out), other exotic birds, and probably many more!
Every day after my shift learning how to take care of all the animals (mixing diets, cleaning cages, enriching games) from 6am-2:30pm, I choose to observe Megan (the veterinarian) and Ryan (the other vet tech intern) and help with surgeries, writing med sheets, and autoclaving surgery tools. Just to mention a few things!
I've uploaded a few photos of myself here. Once I figure out how to get more pictures on, I'll post more. I'm having a blast here, and I can't wait for my veterinary training to start! Love and miss you all.
Sara
My first few weeks at WRR (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation) have been a whirlwind of new experiences, new people, and new animals. I came in with a group of 5 other newbies, but the rest of them are here for 6 months working on animal husbandry. My training so far, has all been in husbandry and how to restrain all of the types of species I will work with here. Here's a short list of the animals I have seen (so far!) on property.
Dogs, cats, squirrels, doves, pigeons, parrots, goats, sheep, donkeys, mules, llamas, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, rabbits, hawks, owls, bobcats, mountain lions, wolves, marmosets, macaques, capuchins, opossums, roosters, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea hens, peacocks, emus, rheas, antelope, cows, longhorn bulls, pigs, deer, guenons, foxes, bears, a jaguar, lemurs, song birds (tons of different species), turtles, tortoises, iguana, snakes, mealworms (fed out), other exotic birds, and probably many more!
Every day after my shift learning how to take care of all the animals (mixing diets, cleaning cages, enriching games) from 6am-2:30pm, I choose to observe Megan (the veterinarian) and Ryan (the other vet tech intern) and help with surgeries, writing med sheets, and autoclaving surgery tools. Just to mention a few things!
I've uploaded a few photos of myself here. Once I figure out how to get more pictures on, I'll post more. I'm having a blast here, and I can't wait for my veterinary training to start! Love and miss you all.
Sara
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