Lots of Stuff

Hey everyone! I know, shocker with another blog entry so soon after the last one. Well, I just had an awesome day. It was crazy hectic in the clinic. We had over 30 animals come in through intake last night which meant we had a ton of patients to see in the morning. I x-rayed a bazillion animals. Well, not really. Instead of the usual 1-3 animals, I radiographed about 12. I ran a bunch of chemistry on blood samples, and assisted in an eye enucleation surgery. Basically, a duck had an eye that was popped out, and we removed it. The super cool part of the surgery was that I helped intubate a duck (super hard!!) and then got to use an esophogeal stethoscope to monitor my patient. It is a normal stethoscope, but instead of the round amplifier at the end, it is attached to a tube that is put down the patients esophogus. That way you can hear the heart beat through the trachea. It allows me to get a better heart beat without having to disrupt the vet by moving my hand underneath the sterile surgery drape. It was so cool! The duck is fine, by the way.

Then, after work, we had an Avon party. One of the supervisors here is a rep for them, and it was super fun eating good food and getting facials and makeovers done. Everyone looks so different from our work attire. I've put a picture of myself and Stacey, my trailer-mate. We both got hog-tied into getting makeovers. They are well done I think. One last thing. Mom and Dad, I do realize your birthdays are coming up soon. And your anniversary, and Mothers Day. I will call you, but your presents WILL be late. I'm so sorry! However, they are amazing presents and totally worth the delay. Miss you both lots and hope your days are awesome! Love to everyone else as well!

Austin Pets Alive

I think I might be crazy. I just spent one of my days off working. But it was so fun! I went to visit our old veterinarian Megan at her new job at Austin Pets Alive. APA is a no kill shelter and they take any animal, no matter what, and find them good homes. I helped with 9 spays, 3 neuters, and an emergency c-section. It was so awesome. They did prepping and monitoring a bit differently and it was really cool to see. I got a ton of practice doing IV injections which are super hard to do on tiny puppies! Next time I hope to practice putting in IV catheters. It was great visiting Megan and catching up with her. She's going on vacation this weekend so I'm going to pet-sit her 4 dogs and 3 cats. All think they are lap animals. Can't wait to cuddle with them all! Miss and love you all, let me know how your lives are going.

Interesting Surgeries, Horrible Infections, and Grandparents Visit

Sorry for the long awaited update! I realized after several people have contacted me about my blog status. So, here's what has been happening for the past few weeks.

I had a really awesome surgery that I got to assist on. Since it's spring, a ton of our permanent resident animals are coming in with injuries due to mating season. A female mountain lion got a huge chunk of her tail bitten off and we sedated her to stitch up the wound. The procedure was done in the lockout by the enclosure, and after sitting in the sun for 3 hours during the surgery, I had my first sunburn of the season!

Then a huge infection ran through our squirrels in the clinic. 7 of 9 baby squirrels dropped dead within 48 hours of each other. After necropsing some of them and culturing their organs, we discovered from the help of a nearby lab that the squirrels all had pseudomonas. It's a bacteria that resides in the environment, and just takes advantage of immune-suppressed animals. Our squirrels are now our of quarantine and have just moved outside! Thankfully the infection didn't spread to any of our other animals in the clinic.

Then, my grandparents came to visit. It was really nice to see them and we had a fun time. We checked out the Boerne Art Fair, got my Dad's birthday present, toured my facility, and went on a boat tour of the riverwalk. It was a great time and I'm so glad they came!

Not much else is happening. Cayden is doing so well and Romo is just the same. Let me know how your lives are doing! Until next time.