So I guess I'm getting a little behind here. Lets see... Monday was my last full day of classes, and I didn't have lab, so it was a short day. I got my Physics exam back and got a 86% on it, which is so exciting! I was expecting much, much worse. My professor was very nice with the partial credit. This means that so long as I get above an 85% on the final exam, I should be able to squeeze an A-. I will be studying my butt off for this final!
I spent Monday afternoon cleaning my house (YESSSS), and playing with my dog. Tuesday I spent the morning continuing to clean, and then went to the animal hospital from noon to 7. I am officially up to 500 hours of veterinary experience! Only 63 are with small animal, but I'm getting there. I worked with Dr. G., and I very much enjoyed him as always.
I walked in on the end of an unexpected exploratory surgery on a spay that had a tiny uterus and funny things going on with her anatomy. Both Dr's were in there, so I didn't get a coherent explanation of what they had found, just that whatever he had gone looking for wasn't all that great. It was a small greyhound with a leg deformity that had been rescued by a local organization. I also got to watch a dental on a rottweiler with awful teeth (which is an abnormality, as it's normally the smaller ones you have to watch out for). We had a ton of puppies come in for check ups and dewormer and such- I think we saw at least 6 separate clients with new puppies. The normal cats for vaccines and dogs for vaccines, and flea allergies galore.
Around 6 we got a call from someone asking if they could bring a goat in on an emergency call. Dr. G shrugged and told them to bring it in. Apparently their own vet hospital wouldn't take it, and we were the only one in the area that would. The guy came in caring a very fat, bloody pygmy goat who had been attacked by his boxer. It was his sister's goat and all he wanted to do was save it. The dog got ahold of it's throat and was giving it the death shakes when he caught sight of them. The dog let go, but the poor goat had a huge hole in the bottom of it's throat and bite marks on it's side, face and neck. It was amazingly resilient (as goats are), and wasn't even in too much of shock when he got it to us. He had wrapped a towel around it's neck to stop the bleeding, and luckily it looked like the dog had missed all the big arteries in the neck. She was making some horrid breathing noises that made Dr. G think she must have had a crushed trachea. We gave her some banamine, wrapped her neck, and stuck her in the back in a kennel until the office visits were done. I checked on her off and on, and was really excited about the opportunity to see a goat. Dogs and cats are all well and fine, but I really do miss the farm animals.
Around 6:30 I got a call from an old friend who is in vet school in Missouri. I only get to see him about once a year or less due to his workload, and he would only be in the area until 7pm. So I left the vet hospital, and the goat, behind to go visit with him for awhile. I was quite torn about it, as I really wanted to see what they were going to do surgically with a crushed trachea on a goat, but as Dr. G. told me, there is always another goat. I still felt guilty leaving, but I ended up having a really nice time seeing my friend for the first time in a long time. Even though it was only a short visit, it was exciting to hear about the new things in his life and what he has been up to at vet school.
Wednesday I hit a deer (or rather it hit me) in Jared's care driving home from a visit with one of his old friends. We are fine, and the car survived it pretty well considering. I am trying not to think about it and the expense too much until I really have to.
The next highlight of my week was, of course, Thanksgiving. We had a great time at my grandfathers with all of my family members. We ate our traditional meal of hog maul (this is sausage and potatoes stuffed in pig stomach) and turkey, and then headed outside for a new event. See, my aunt raises chickens and turkeys and guineas, and she brought down two turkeys for Thanksgiving. Live. In the back of her car. So after dinner we went outside to take care of the turkeys. I guess this goes back to my recent point about knowing where your food comes from. These guys were hand-raised, friendly and had a wonderful life. We killed them and plucked them, then put them in the freezer for Christmas. I'm not going to say it wasn't a little sad- it was. But I know it's life was well-lived and it will be well-used. We headed to Jared's family dinners after changing and regaled them with turkey-butchering tales (Jared held the turkeys once they had been beheaded until the nerve endings stopped firing). They weren't very impressed.
This morning we headed out black Friday shopping to get cat and chicken food on sale. That was about all I got today. Jared got a really nice pair of hunting boots, as the deer season starts Saturday and the ones he wore last year were a borrowed pair 4 sizes too big. So we are all stocked up on the important things.
Happy Tails,
~Melissa
PS I got the names of about 5 different cattle and large mixed practice vets in the area. I am hoping to ride along with at least one of them this Winter break, and get some more cattle experience.
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