Veterinary Nursing and Life

Motorhome & Mint Update

2011-09-24T08:39:00.008+01:00

I just realised l hadn't updated anyone about the motorhome saga.

Since the motor home was collected by l assumed barclays -clydesdale barclays partner finance l have had 2 late evening phone calls when l caught them driving (yes l was on bluetooth) saying sorry we haven't been in touch. I told them l wasn't interested in sorry l wanted in writing confirmed it was barclays collected the motor home & all debts were wiped out. I was promised but nothing arrived.

Finally l blew my stack & for the first time called in my MP, never used one of these strange creatures before but felt if they are any use l may as well test mine. I sent her an explanation of what had happened and that all l wanted was confirmation it was barclays that had collected the vehicle & all debts were wiped.

I got a letter back she had sent a letter off to barclays & would notify me as soon as she heard back. I was counting on the fact the banks are under a lot of heavy dodo and the behaviour towards a widow is not going to go down well in the media which was my next step. I avoided them though till last as after their behaviour to me when Brian and Emma passed l am not overly keen on them.

The week before l was due to go away about 18th May l contacted the mp again & spoke to l guess her secretary. He apologised about the time taken but was just sending me a letter on from barclays but not to worry all was sorted.
I wasn't so much worried but l was fed up & pissed off & angry never a good combination for me as l then turn to instinct & someone gets hurt, l may get hurt as well but l never mind about that to much l make sure the target is though.
The letter arrived the next day have to say l was impressed my MP had well delivered the goods. This is a first given my normal feelings of loathing towards them.

It was from the MD of clydesdale -barclays partner finance my MP had contacted bob diamond as you know the boss tosser at barclays who had contacted him (MD) to get it sorted fast. All was cleared, they were at fault sincerest apoliges (l dismissed sincere as we are talking bankers of great & lofty heights not local bank folks) but the matter was now closed & he hoped l could feel that l was able to move on from a bad chapter in my life.

This left me one more mountain to climb. Mint & the creature from the black lagoon there aka bitch from hell who made it her life's work to be unpleasant despite or because of the circumstances.
I got untold numbers of letters threatening bailiffs & court for non payment, despite my letters & phone calls in return saying Brian was dead no more deceased and gone. Death certificates were sent 2 of them the initial & official post coroners inquest one & finally the estates department (who had been very helpful & pleasant) managed to get it into the bitches head & l was told by her that they would accept my letters but check up with me in 6 months to see if l had any money come in they could get their greasy hands on.

As 6 months were now up l rang up to speak to whoever l could as the woman who signed the letters was a ghost. The lady l spoke to was very pleasant but confused. She read out everything on the computer to me & said the account had been closed 6 months before they had no reason to contact me. She could find no record of the letter sent threatening me with a check up "in 6 months" & apologised for whatever had gone on & said they didn't usually check up like l was saying.

So result is as far as l am concerned the will is now closed all companies dealt with & l can get on with my happy little life which l feel no happiness for & people keep telling me l will. Yes l get small pleasures with some things but there is no everlasting joy.
I know Brian is with me & that does help a lot, l can not feel or see him although so many strange things have happened l have no doubt he is with me.

What hurts is l can't throw my arms round him, smell his stinky jerseys or t-shirts too sweaty to use that needs a wash but he doesn't want to dirty other things till he has ended doing whatever.
I don't hear his cheerful greeting to me when l amble up to give him a hug after he has been jumping or whatever & l have a coffee prepared for him or drop the hint l am hungry is he going to come & cook for me.
I deal with my mum thinking l would love a hug from him l can feel not just imagine as she gets up to ever more stupid things l have to deal with. To check letters l send off to make sure l am not overly honest about incompetent psychiatrists .
All the mirryiad of things that 2 people who still loved each other deeply feel & do have changed & l have a lot to learn about how to adjust which given the state of my mum it will be a long time before l have my own time to do that.

So life goes on but not with the joy l used to feel so l will see what the future brings & although l will do nothing stupid l carry a do not resuscitate card only give pain relief & sedation & have a "living will" drawn up on tight parameters by a lawyer & state it & who has copies of it is on the wallet card.
I have vague plans as in sorting work, wanting to buy a hardshell canoe & wanting to do a skydive & jump Brian's kit, the ring with Brian's ashes in is on the cards for the week after next but l have no big plans.
My 50th birthday next year l used to look forward to as l would have lived half a century it seemed a good reason to celebrate but not now.

On a positive when note when l do get positives l promise to post them not just the negatives in life. In the mean time life..............................

Gods Candles

2011-09-19T21:24:00.003+01:00

I wrote this to explain to a special friend David C who has been a tower of spiritual strength how l feel about the night, it still needs tweaking but with me that can take years, it explains a bit how l feel about the night & why l love walking & kayaking in the dark, a very special time when you have just your thoughts & not the distractions of daylight:

God’s Candles

They assume the night is black, as black as Satan’s darkest sin
Inside they huddle, curtains tight, across the cold clear glass
Inside the rooms all lights are lit, to bring back their precious day.

They miss the softness of ev’n blackest night, no sin in it but love so bright
They miss the stars that pierce points, through a blackened velvet cloth of sky
Like untouched jewels of Angels fair, no earthly diamond pure as they
No blood, no pain, no wealth from others can be used gain them.
Their beauty and their shimmer owned by creatures of the night

Soft light falls upon the world below, spilled from the many faces of the moon,
From wide tooth grin too tight lipped smile, depending on her feeling.
Moon light paints black spans of water, with silhouettes of trees & buildings striding ‘long the waters edge,

Trees fold back to jet black groves, strange noises scare the wary.
Leaves that tremble in the gentle breeze, while light reflects from dew touched tips.
Light from heaven, not Satan’s pits.

Dusting's of mist in low patches hover, across the glinting, black still water
Untouchable by reaching hands it wraps in skeins around the body
Caused by temperature flux ‘twix land and water so scientists would say
But we know the truth, it’s breath from hidden monsters

Clouds may hurry across the sky and cover up the light
But above that cloud the light still shines, even if we can’t see it
Just watch the tides they know it too and allow the pull to guide them.

So pull back those curtains, turn off your lights and go walk in the garden.
No monsters there, just the place you know
Lit by Gods candles from heaven.
© CL VN 8/2011

New V Old

2011-09-07T10:40:00.001+01:00

I remember the days you only had one or two. One tv channel, two types of loo roll soft or wax paper one type of washing up liquid, green a huge wow factor when l found a yellow opps sorry lemon flavour bottle.

Now there is a profusion of tv channels catering as they say to every taste, and trying to get you into things you never even realised existed. History to news, soap to humour, true crime to adverts, betting to health, cooking to diy so many others l am not going to even attempt to name them all. A lot are a waste of time others are brilliant and some not quite sure what side of the fence they have landed hopping between appalling and brilliant.

We have lost, l am sure it's loosing wasn't lamented the "cheap wax" paper on a roll. That stuff was deadly l don't know if anyone ever found a use for it be interesting if there was a use found as it was useless as loo roll.
Now there is thick soft, quilted soft, single skin soft, double quilted soft, recycled soft recycled quilted soft, uggs sorry the thought of recycled loo paper doesn't appeal.
Colours can match with any bathroom you care to put in, and there is some pretty awful bathrooms out there.

Washing up liquid l thought we had reached the zenith of these a couple of years ago with flavours like Lavender. Yet again l was wrong marketing men have gone positively nuts. Ginger and nutmeg, green tea, strawberry & peach, cucumber, apple blossom, summers day to name and along with the new names are new colours. Some very pretty purples or vivid blue they alternate with pale washy creams that look like badly curdled milk.
Every time l go somewhere new to work l find a different flavour and marvel at the mind that can come up with such garbage.

I am surprised they haven't brought out a "meaty flavour" to wash pet food bowls based on the myriad of pet food "flavours" for sale. Those would go off the shelf so fast the head would spin. Common sense has not been a strong point with UK pet owners in the past and it isn't looking like starting any time soon.

People seem to think that each fragrance and or colour must wash up even better than the old one they used as it has a fancy name. The fact it is just suds in a bottle seems to escape them. I just go for the cheap green at least this flurry of flavours has done us dinosaurs a favour, the "old" green has dropped down in price.

So while you wander down those long meandering isles choosing colours and flavours that some nameless suit has come up with, that will do just as good a job as the "old & discarded" think of those who have nothing in life, be it food or hope and just be thankful that you can still choose the banal and wasted even if you don't have much else.

Dog & Cat Law

2011-08-31T09:00:00.001+01:00

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my mouth, it’s mine.
3. If it looks like mine, it’s mine.
4. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
5. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
6. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
7. If you have something and put it down, it’s mine.
8. If I chew something up, all of the pieces are mine.
9. If it used to be your’s, get over it.
10. If it’s broken, it’s your’s.

Hardshell

2011-08-23T22:13:00.004+01:00

Just warming up after an evening of club kayaking. Loved it and learnt a lot. Went with the Irish student vet who said earlier in the day she was "proudly non sporting" after tonight, her first time she said she is hooked and wants to do more. The Italian vet who is seeing practice and has problems going straight on the water, it was her 2nd time. She improved a bit (maybe?)

Was great was in a hardshell not been in one of those since l was a kid. I have my eyes on one will need to go down to cornwall though to confirm so later in the year.

As l was only there for 1 session l was given choice of capsize drill or not...of course l stayed which ended up with me being first over. B-L-O-O-D-Y H-E-C-K! the water was cold.
When l got to the side l had a sever attack of giggles and couldn't get out so someone tried to haul me out, l was laughing so much he dropped me back in the water and made me go awaayyyyy to the ladder and climb out :-))

2hrs of fun, all equipment hire, excellent BCU tutoring and only £5 can not beat that.

Kayaking

2011-08-17T11:41:00.001+01:00

Watching the people enjoying the river made me wish l could be out on the water as well but l didn't see how. I had kayaked when l was a youngster back home at a holiday camp l used to go to, l spent hours out on the water & loved it. I hadn't allowed for the fact that Brian was at work behind the scenes.

I had been at a fairly local practice, only 60mile round trip/day for about 4 weeks and had a couple weeks more to go on return l got speaking to one of the vet's vet as he had mentioned his "new boat". It turned out this was an inflatable kayak, my thoughts were the plastic play things you see on the beach, boy was l wrong. Reading up it turns out one make (one of the cheapest ones) has done the Amazon River 2xs in the 60s, they are no toy.

He bought his off Amazon so l looked into it. There was problems with the one he had, it was on for messing about in l wanted a multi use more serious kayak. Finally l found one that l liked & decided to save up for, not cheap at just over £300.
talking to him after he had his first outing he agreed with my assessment & said he was looking for a better one for himself the other was great for using with his young kids.

With saving up in mind l met up with some friends by chance a couple of weeks later and told them what l was doing. I was told a friend of a friend was selling a brand new, unused canoe for £500 and it cost £1500. I contacted J and arranged to buy & collect it. The canoe was to big & heavy for me, it took 3 of us to lift it on & off the car roof for a start so l took it the next day to Brookbank who put it up for sale for me and we did a deal on the one l wanted blue not red & bits: paddle, buoyancy aid, dry bag, pump, dry holder for phone, wet suit bottoms, neoprene socks & gloves. I want to canoe year round and felt l may as well get the items up front.

It took about 4 weeks for the sale to get sorted, to get my
British Canoe Union membership through so l could access inland waterways, rivers & canals plus problems with mum before l could get out on the water.

My first trip was 3 weeks ago l went out on the Leeds Liverpool canal but miss read google and the ended up at a lock with a 10ft drop to high to get out of or down to. It was chucking it down with rain and even the ducks & fish had looked for shelter. So l tootled around on the top end of the canal between locks getting the feel of handling in the wind that blasted across the water and the rain that drenched me, a good intro.
One narrow boater that went past well wrapped laughed and said l was crazier than he was. I know l was certainly wetter & colder than him so l guess he was right about crazy, but l was having fun.

The following week was clear blue skies, l found a new easier launch place and set out. After about 3.5hrs paddling l had this sudden thought..."l got here l now have to get back!" by the end of about 6hrs my back and arms knew it.
Was a fantastic day though and people were surprised to see a canoe so had lots of chats as l went past and hellos.

Thankfully l read up on paddles and got a good one that l can tour with. Warnings said distance with the cheap ones don't work as you get rubbing as the paddle connecting bar twists.
The kayak is very light l want to try with the skeg think that will help. As it isn't ridged the canoe twists enough that you may not notice but your muscles can feel the strain after a long day l love it though.

Fired up by this & liking the dark l decided to do a night tour & chose the opposite way as there was less homes. I set out at 19:00 got back at 23:00. I played the music saved on my phone and as the sun set played Brian's favourite song, which l had also played at his funeral "Wind Beneath My Wings" the music faded as the sun dipped & with tears pouring down my face l turned the music off & paddled in the silence with the dark descending, everyone home & the silence of the canal with glinting water to myself.
It was very spiritual & l have decided that as l like walking in the dark so kayaking in the dark is also my favourite time.

Scenes from Leeds Liverpool Canal

Night Descends

New pet ideas

2011-08-16T08:55:00.005+01:00

I have been requested by my neighbour to think what breed he could get for a new dog as he has given in to requests. They had a lab who passed a few years back. l am a mongrel person and they may yet go for that but want to do the best from the start.
There is always kids 3 & 8 and various friends of theirs around the house. So must be child friendly,
Will be walked but not miles a day,
As few known genetic problems as possible,
Will be petplan insured
Calm
Easy to train
Easy to keep clean/groomed

My suggestion of a flat dog fitting in well was looked on with eagerness it fitted all the boxes bar training and even that is possible to a degree... it always knows when food is about. I said they would need to get a licence which may be a bit more difficult but hey it is an excellent breed and crocodiles can be very pretty.

So far though l am either mongrel or Border Terrier biased as my initial suggestion has been declined.

Feel free to add any but so far l have discounted pretty much the whole breeds book of suggestions on the vetnurse site. From genetic problems, thick/long coat, dodgy on temperament, excitable, to much exercise, to big/small and to.....

Once the choice is made l will update you on it.

Life Continues Part 2 "The Break"

2011-08-14T16:22:00.018+01:00

The first anniversary of Brian's passing was a time l was not looking forward to but it was as inevitable as the tides. We had always talked about going to the Hay on Wye book festival but in the way of things kept missing it. Around September he gave me a poke and l looked it up. It was to be held for 9 days ending on the 5th June the day after Brian's passing.
Looking up accommodation there was a camp site just next to it so l mailed them, crossed fingers knowing l would get in as it was so early and as l had such a strong push l knew l was booked whatever happened.

A couple of weeks before the event l asked a friend if she wanted to come with me, she lost her husband about 14years ago and would be a support if l needed, and she cooked, a major consideration.

I decided to contact the site organisers and see if l could fit on a smaller site, again all went well and they changed me to a cheaper site so £107/7nights as opposed to £140/7nights. They were excellent with their organising and the loos etc were all kept spotless. The rest of the year the field is full of sheep and not a camp field.

It was my first proper away in CB and the drive thanks to Tom was clear and well directed. We found the site and went to our slot, l turned on the gas and we celebrated with a coffee.
The "over the hedge" to the festival was a bit of a cheat yes it was but you had to walk about 1/2 mile around the field & houses as there was no way through the hedge, not that that mattered the exercise did me good.

The festival was not at all what either of us had been expecting. It was full of all sorts of talks which l had known about & not booked due to cost, coffee places, a few charity stands and odds and ends and very few books.

Being a book lover this was a bit weird calling it a "Book Festival" however Hay on Wye more than made up for that they are full with second hand book shops about 40 of them. I found 8 books from an author l was looking for. If you love books then get over to the town sometime they are amazing.

Getting talking to Celine & her Husband who had a stall in the town Mara Sculptures with sculptures from Zimbabwe we found that the small stand a gallery from town took at the actual festival cost 30K. We were more than a tad taken aback until speaking to the people who supplied the coffee at the camp site and were parked next to us we found that a coffee stall at the festival was 130k that was just a gobstopper.No wonder the costs of things were so high.

A big bug with me and l am sure many others was that 02 doesn't work in the area, in fact l never got 02 back until we were well out of Wales. I contacted them afterwards and got a weeks refund for it. Luckily Ann has 2 phones and l put credit on one and managed to stay in touch with Mum.
I could get intermittent use after midnight with the odd text in or out. On the last full day l found if l went down through the camp field (huge area) down the road about 30yards, over the style, through the field of sheep, over the next style, past the thicket of trees, up the hillock full of nettles l could get a signal.
All other suppliers worked, according to 02 they are in the process of sorting out signals but if you are on 02 & not been to Wales be aware the signal is either patchy or impossible. I lump in all Wales as after talking to people apparently it is like that all over at least North Wales. When we have been in the past l am not sure if we noticed as it was just quick day trips.

On the 4th of June l went on my own down to the river, found rather a dangerous path that was vertical and slippery and spent the day hidden from view by those on the river and people from above.
I was found by a loopy border collie who threw himself down the slope at high speed slurped at me with a big grin and hurtled back up the slope when he was called.
I wished the many canoes going past had quieter occupants and would have loved to be out there on the water but as l don't own a boat or anything this was impossible.
There was a rainstorm at one point, l scrambled under a tipped over oak with a thick roof of leaves and stayed nice and dry.
After about 7hours l went back to the camp site and spent a quiet night before we set off home on the 5th.

As we drove home on the 5th l decided to side track and go via Langar to spend a short time there. It was nice seeing friends again and l went for a quiet walk round the airfield with Brian, and memories.

Life Continues Part 1

2011-08-14T07:06:00.006+01:00

About time l got my finger out, l enjoyed blogging but it has gone so far into the background it has become defunct after speaking to a good friend of mine David who has been a very strong support to me l think it is about time l came back and stated to make it a part of my life again. I enjoy writing and it may not be grammatically or spelling correct but it makes me feel better and l think some folks enjoy it.

So much has gone on in life it is hard to know where to start but will give it a go and do it over several postings so l do not turn out one overly long tome that no one, including myself will read:

Work has gone on apace but not much at the night place they are owned by a major group who are going nuts about wages paid so they make the staff swap or do without help, as staff leave or go on maternity (a common thing for some reason in veterinary work) they are not replaced.

Most of my work has been in the day time and l have been all over the country. Apart from Wales or Scotland, pity l like both those areas.
Latest trip was to Malmsbury and staying in Tetbury at their flat there, what lovely towns they are especially Tetbury, full of flower baskets and an annual Tetbury in bloom contest that most of the town enters. Add that to the Cotswold stone and old style means, nightmare to park, pretty to visit probably nightmare to live bet they are full of listed buildings.
My best job was about 2.5miles from home. I was able to leave a few minutes before opening up in the morning, few minutes to get home and slept in my own bed.

My accounts are the bain of my life. When l say l am about to do my accounts there is 3 whhooshes of air as Brian His guardian Angel and Mine head to the corner of the room and the table and chairs there. While muttering about who let her loose on paperwork & oh no there goes a quiet night.
"No dont touch that figure nooonoo, oh good grief, finally you got that sorted, we told you it was wrong column"
"Now change that decimal point it isnt 9000 it is 90 no no LOOK there THAT decimal, would you please stop looking over there and stressing and sort that decimal point out?"
They carry on like this during the 4hrs or so it takes me to do about 2 lines of accounts

The presentation for the Royal Aero Club Awards was amazing, 2 of my friends went along to support me Craig & Kev.
I ended up buying a dress from Asda and have to say l did look smart for once and even had shoes on, very "not me" my usual garb being barefoot and casual.

It was a long day l drove to near London left home 2am caught the tube into London, met Craig and spent the day with him. he was fine that l was barefoot all day. We went into hard Rock Cafe next to the RAF club had a coffee and l changed into night smarts & we met Kev & his girlfriend.
What a night it was lovely to see so many people l knew getting awards, Stuart, Al & Pixie, not to mention those l didn't know or knew by sight who got awards other skydivers or for other disciplines in the air.
Afterwards l retraced route and got back about 2am after no sleep for 24hrs and living on adrenaline. While driving down l discovered a new website they were discussing on radio4 l use the site quite a bit now called Moodscope

Brian's will is finally sorted. It took a letter to my MP who contacted bob diamond big boss at barclays who contacted the managing director at clydesdale, barclays partner finance to get them to sort it and send me a letter of apology.
Unreal how they have behaved l am not interested in their apology just wanted it sorted. That was finally closed about 10 days before the first anniversary of Brian's passing.

Brian's Presentation

2011-02-22T20:47:00.006Z

I am sorry l have slowed down again, l am still working as much as possible and on the positive side it was the presentation for Brian at the British Parachute Association AGM in January. I gave a very short thank you speech on Brian's behalf. I had coppied and practised with a short poem but got an urge to read back on Brian's facebook. By about 5 days before it was so strong l had to get up in the middle of the night and do so. It wasn't easy scrolling back through the messages when he passed but l finally found the reason. He had posted 2 short paragraphs and they were his words l knew what l was meant to read out so l did.

"Brian is over the moon and very humbled with your amazing way of thanking him for his contribution to the sport he loved.
On behalf of Brian l would like to thank his friends, fledglings & everyone in the BPA for this wonderful honour.

Brian said in 09:
Skydiving is not just a sport or pastime, it can become a way of life, like a curse with consequences but can also have a very positive outcome. Personally it keeps old people young.
Just enjoying our sport more than l have for a long time, still some miles left in this old git, Take care"

It was a long emotionally hard day but everyone was fantastic. Until l saw the video l was completely blank about what had happened like the funeral it was all in still strobe flashes of various bits.
I was asked how l was able not to cry? if l had cried l couldn't have spoken and it was to important to thank everyone on Brian's behalf.
For me, Brian is still with me, it isn't something l believe, it is something l know and l draw strength from that.

I decided late last year to take up skydiving again after a 19yr lay off will see how it goes. The date of my training is secret until after l have done my first AFF jump, needless to say it will be at Langar.

Things at home are not going to good here my Mum has had a breakdown and is back on the psych ward. She spent 7 weeks there over the Xmas period bullied there by the psychiatrist and yes l do mean bullied.

She came out for 2 weeks and her meds which l had said from the start were not working proved how badly. The last 3 days he (psych) insisted she had new meds despite the fact they caused very bad hallucinations.
On the 2nd Sunday (3rd day of the meds) l got a call from the home check they found mum collapsed. I shot round she was up but rubber legged so l removed the meds being a Sunday no one to get help from. She was fine by mid afternoon.
Next day she was going again and l realised it was the main tablet. She was in a state and the psych nurse a nice lass called round and agreed she had to go back in. The psych and l had a HUGE row on the phone l blame him totally for things getting so out of hand no matter how often he is told about what's happening all he wants to do is up the same bloody meds.

Mum went in and finally lost it when the ****** psych went and told her l was rude and needed to be more polite to him and others (others means his sidekick who l like as much as ****** psych). The words were the same as those he used to me amongst others in our argument. This was the tipping point my mum has been pretty much crying since and he STILL hasn't sorted her meds.
I will give him this week (3rd back in) to sort meds then l bite the bullet and tell them to get mum a new psych but the problem is other one "offered" is his friend so is it frying pan and fire?

I am having trouble getting enthusiastic over things at the moment, l want to but but not actually getting a grip on happy. Brian and my Angels have been working overtime today a small switch inside was flicked in dealing with my mum, l didn't get stressed not sure the reason but it was like knowing you are almost at the top of Everest. There may be another bloody great mountain in front but l know l am able to get over this one and so the next will have to be aware l will climb it as well.

Collected at Last!

2011-01-17T14:38:00.005Z

The motorhome went a few minutes ago. The battery was dead and they had to jump start it. The reverse which was difficult has totally gone they had to push it backwards to get it out.
An acquaintance said back in July time the gears needed to be synced and it was a common problem on fiat easy to sort. He was a mechanic and had he realised there was a problem before we packed up the and were leaving the braai he would have sorted it for me.

The people who collected it are apparently going straight to the auction with it. Now remains to be seen how much they get for it l have been told by the main dealer (Brownhills of Newark) who have been very helpful that it will be about 23 to 25k.

I just want to get things closed so l can move on having company's hassling me gets tedious when l am doing my best and they seem to lack the competency to deal with their side properly.

No matter what they have hassled over it has never actually been my fault it has come down as theirs. From Mint threatening legal action and bailiffs for non payment despite my phone calls, letters, death cert.nothing actually seemed to register on their tiny minds.
To barclays who didn't "do" anything that was the problem l was sitting with what felt like a time bomb on my hands.

I feel like the mine field is not quite so active and things may settle down at last. My advice to anyone dealing with wills and estates. Check your legal standing then grab on like a pitbull with a bone, don't let go.
Don't be afraid to call in help or advice when it is needed & write down names, times and dates who you dealt with and check calls are recorded keep copies of all correspondence. So long as you do things right, send what's needed when asked for paperwork wise, they look the idiots and will continue to do so if it ends up in court. Thankfully so far avoided but l was & am willing to do so especially over the motorhome.

Thankfully we both have wills but above all else:
MAKE SURE YOU WRITE OUT A WILL. IT WON'T AFFECT YOU BUT IT WILL AFFECT YOUR FAMILY & IF YOU LOVE THEM YOU NEED TO SORT IT.
Because whatever you think you know about dying & whatever you believe about your goods and family & inheritance you don't know until it has affected you & when emotionally ripped apart that is not a good time to learn you were totally wrong in damm near every one of your assumptions.

Waves

2011-01-17T08:13:00.005Z

It has been a damaged penis wave with animals in the last 2 shifts we have had 3 dogs with badly damaged penis 2 were sewn back on as not totally ripped off. The last was put down due to damage, it was totally ripped off and age of the patient.

The other thing we are having is the "diabetic" month. Last shift we had 2 unstable diabetics in last night was 5 unstable diabetics. Not sure why we seem to have these plateaus of certain cases. In the diabetic cases it isn't Christmas indulgence, all the owners are used to dealing with diabetic pets and very strict.

It seems to happen in waves, we will have a mass kidney failure wave or a liver problem wave or ....something wave.

Works been really slow coming in lately. Usually l am at the emergency clinic so don't notice but at the moment not many folks taking time off so no work.
The locum agency's say this dead patch at this time of the year is normal. There is a lot of long term maternity cover out there but 1)It is far away and 2)I only like short term it means you are not tied in and end up having to ask for time off or mess the practice about when you take pre arranged time off.
I was offered a couple of jobs at places l had been and while said l may consider them they thankfully came to nothing, l doubt l could have stomached the places.

Still l am ok for now and taking advantage of the break. I worked last night and by the time 23:00 came l was so exhausted l could barely make it to the car and drive home. For the first time in ages l got 6hrs uninterrupted sleep as opposed to a couple of hours 4 max and very interrupted.

Motorhome update

2011-01-14T20:03:00.004Z

Several phone calls over the last 3 days. As l got impatient and kicked up again. They have asked where it is, again!.

They were on about asking the dealer to take it, l said they won't touch it and they didn't believe me. They made the mistake of not believing me again as they are slow learners. Upon speaking to the finance guy at the dealer they suddenly believed me he updated me about the ripped earhole he gave them over their behaviour towards me and made it clear they wouldn't touch it.
1) It has been sitting for 6months
2) They don't want anything to do with barclays as kicked them out couple years ago from providing finance.
3) Don't want to get involved in any way with barclays again.
4) They don't have storage for it as have their own full inventory they can make money from as opposed to costing them trouble.

I reminded barclays when l gave them the storage info (again) they owe a not inconsiderable amount, heading for a couple of grand for storage which had they sorted this out 6months ago wouldn't have accrued.
And you guessed correctly, l warned them months ago about the fees, and told them furthermore they will not be able to collect it until it is paid. The keys and log book are "safely" lodged at the storage place.

The info was passed like a hot potato to "recovery" if they want to drag their heels that's fine the money is mounting up at one end and the vehicle is devaluing at the other.

barclays and the Motorhome

2011-01-11T07:53:00.007Z

The saga is still dragging on with sending the motorhome back which is in Brian's name.

The finance was taken out under clydesdale/barclays finance it was a large amount as we had a camper we were trading in and they rolled figures around. The finance was all in Brian's name and l couldn't afford to keep the camper so l arranged for barclays to take the motorhome back.

Well l tried to, but they said it was a loan and they wanted the money. I pointed out it was a lease purchase according to the paperwork and all over it said that the vehicle remained the property of clydesdale/barclays until it was fully paid up.
I got nowhere though they refused to speak to me just sending messages via the desk jockey who answered the phone and 2 letters saying the same.

I spoke to a lawyer who checked the paperwork and said "If you sell that vehicle you are committing theft" and agreed that l should do what l had threatened as l needed the space at home. So in September l took it to a campsite and dumped it there, removed the insurance and notified dvla of what was happening and that as far as l was concerned it was the property of barclays bank.
Even though l told barclays and sent them a letter of this they never replied. I had spoken to the Financial Ombudsan who said give Barclays time to reply before sending the paperwork in.
I gave up waiting for a reply to my letter telling them what l had done and in late November re-rang the FO. They were shocked l had waited so long and had actually put it down as sorted. It was a nice guy there l spoke to who said hurry up and get the information in l shouldn't have put myself through all that worry for so long they had meant wait a couple of weeks and not months so l sent all the paperwork to the FO

This was a mixed blessing. It turns out that the FO couldn't deal with the finance on the motorhome as it wasn't finance that fell within their remit. The adjudicator who got the case though was an Angel. She contacted barclays and pointed out the problem at which barclays sent a letter that said.. "Oh my you are right we DO own the motorhome, l wonder how we overlooked that?, would you tell the executor that we will collect the motorhome, sell it and wipe out the debt"

I was over the moon, the FO adjudicator said if l had any problems to get back to her and she would see what else she could do. She was not happy at all at barclays behaviour and shoddy treatment of me and was upset she couldn't deal with them properly.

After a couple of days l had no paper work so rang barclays and back on the treadmill.
"You have to sell it"
"No you do you told the FO that you would sell it and wipe out the debt"
"The site can sell it"
"No it is a campsite they are storing it"
"Yes they have to sell it"
"No they are a campsite.."
After about 5x repeating this l lost my temper and asked if the conversation was being recorded.
"Yes of course"
"Good as l am speaking to a congenital idiot listen and l will speak VERY slowly...Some people have a bit of land, you go there and put tents up and stay there for a couple of days. There was a patch of dead ground and they let me dump the mototrhome there, there is nothing there but bare earth and the odd tent... do you understand?"
"Well get the dealer to sell it" the was the uncompromising reply
I lost my temper told them l would see them in court and slammed the phone down. I rang the FO back who had given me her personal number.
She rang back about an hour later having spoken to the FO liaison at barclays who would investigate it and get back to me. I spoke to him the next day and he was pulling in paperwork and would speak to me after Christmas.
True to his word he rang me and told me to speak to recovery and if any trouble to get back to him.

I finally felt more positive and spoke to recovery where l now got a second full name, barlcays people won't give out names that way they can practice denial. She said they were looking into if they could just collect it or needed to repossess it.
She rang back at the end of last week that they were speaking to the dealer to see if they would collect it and sell it or if it had to go to auction and should be able to let me know this week.
I am awaiting that phone call but feel l may be getting to the end of a 6mth nightmare with barclays/clydesale finance.

We shall see..........

End of 2010

2011-01-08T17:07:00.018Z

I have not really stopped for the last few months. Work at my normal place went quiet and l enjoyed getting out and about and seeing how the other half lives. Last night was the first night l have slept in my own bed for over a month. The time l was home over Christmas and wasn't working it was too cold to sleep upstairs l huddled under duvets on the sofa with heating on and doors shut.

I went to stay with a friend for 3 days down London but then the first lot of snow hit and l was stuck there for a week. Finally got home at just gone midnight of the Friday missed 3 nights work and felt awful for having let them down even though there was nothing l could do and they were fine knowing l would never let them down on purpose.

Work has carried me down to the south of England where l stayed with a friend of ours in Hastings Brian was his surrogate Dad.
I drove to work up in Sussex and Kent and back each day and worked at l think it was 5 different practices in 2 weeks but have lost track. The round trip was about 140mile each day, but l would rather stay with a friend so l didn't care. What l hated was the bit of M25 l had to drive on OMG the thought of doing that daily would drive me nuts.
His crazy dog, a Labrador, need l say more ate the bag of double pink poppy seeds l took down for him to plant in Brian's memory. However poppies will grow all over the small woods l am sure as Rosie was dashing around off a lead in the undergrowth!

I met a friend of his who has become a fantastic new friend to me, he has driven me to distraction at times, although good friends do that.
Kev was the only one l would allow to come with me to Brian's inquest. By that l mean anyone was welcome to go but l didn't want to sit with them. Kev isn't a skydiver he is is a fireman who teaches BA and has never met Brian.
I felt that Brian's death had hurt so many not just myself but skydivers, l knew l would find the inquest hard and couldn't l suppose the word would be "carry" more hurt from his friends mine was enough to cope with that day.
A lot offered and l couldn't explain easily so if they read this l hope they understand why l said "no thanks l want to be alone, but you are welcome to go just not with me". It was not them it was how much l felt l could carry.
I have already put a small bit in about the inquest in an earlier blog. It is over it was the expected verdict, and it changed nothing in that Brian is still dead so there really is nothing to add.

I worked at a place in a town with a weird name won't say where as l really disliked the practice, although the locum vet (only the 2 of us there) was lovely. The up side was l was placed in a nice huge pub for B & B.

Down to the Fenland's of Cambridgeshire, 3 different practices and staying in 2 different towns to the practices that was yet more driving. My sat nav broke on me. Thankfully he came back on but l had a nasty shock. Luckily l managed to remember part of my route and then it came on again, no tom and l go into meltdown.

My final practice for 2 weeks before Christmas them Christmas week off and worked over new year was one in Bristol. Which l enjoyed it was all night work but they were very quiet.

I decided to treat myself to a new sat nav as tom has played up a couple of times, he is nearly 4 years old and as stated my sense of direction is abysmal.
I am now the proud owner of the Tom Tom live 1000 not all the functions are working yet but they are coming on line. It guides me round traffic jams, at junctions splits into lane view so l can work out what road to go on. Tells me street numbers and names all sorts of nice things I did look at the 1005 it has a 5" screen as opposed to 4 3/4 but decided the present one fits in my little case and l would need to pay a fortune for another one.

Health wise end of year sort of crammed it in. Washing machine died on me so l have another coming have had to change delivery date 2xs due to family and work.

I got multiple chomps on the hand from a dog, luckily smallish dog but still left a few deep holes which l decided to get antibiotics for as being run down l knew sods law would get infected a 3 hour wait at an empty NHS walk in did not do my temper any good.

I had to go to the emergency dentist while l was away due to a cavity, he put me on anti B for an infection, took an x-ray and talked garbage telling me that the bone was fine. WTF l didn't expect it not to be, he told me off for putting in temp filler from the chemist. I don't like BS and wasted money but l was in too much pain to argue.
My dentist went nuts at other dentist (didn't ring him but was tempted)& said l didn't need anti B l needed it filled and my temp. fill was why the pain died away, the nerve that was exposed and swollen and got a rest.

I had a huge build up of my allergy. Have never discovered to what exactly just general chemicals seem to affect me, think being all over and the different washing powders etc triggered it. I was dosing myself with antihistamines 3xs a day to try hold the itching off. I finally caved in and had to get some stronger ones from my idiot Dr. 3 weeks later l am finally less purple on my legs and not scratching myself raw.

The worst one was the leptospirosis (weils disease) scare. This is one of the few notifiable diseases in humans. In fact in October 10 it killed an Olympic rower.
I was intense nursing a dog and asked a couple of vets about lepto but was told no way, then he died and life moved on.
I went back over the new year to be told "we were trying to decide if we should tell you sammi died of lepto, but l decided to tell you as l don't think any one else was going to bother to."
I was furious, one of the minor side effects can be death or any or all of the following liver, kidney, heart failure. It is a very painful disease having seen dogs with it and knowing a vetnurse that caught it.
It can manifest as severe headaches something l had been having but figured was the tooth due to nerve problems to be sure l rang the OOH Dr who agreed but we had a pleasant chat, then she commented about the cold like symptoms.
I burst out laughing at this point and told her it was either going to be swine flu or lepto so there was no point in worrying. Thankfully l was ok but l was not a happy puppy.
Had we not known fine but to know and try to decide whether to "bother" telling someone is another thing entirely.

So now we are into 2011. No proper work on the horizon but to be honest l need a bit of a break. I recon Brian is behind this work bottleneck to force me to rest, work will come in when he unblocks the log jam l have no doubt.

We aint finished Christmas yet!

2011-01-07T01:21:00.003Z

I nipped into Sainsburys for some bit's last night. Surrounded by all the few days post Christmas sell off's, when many people still have Christmas decorations and cards up, there, spread proudly on several shelves, was a display of Hot cross buns!

I staggered off poking myself in the eyeball to see if l was possibly hallucinating but no.. they were still there and a bit further on was Easter maltesers, they seemed to have a rabbit ear top on them.

I gave up at this point and scurried out of the shop muttering darkly about Easter, Christmas and commercialism. I am totally not religious which is just as well because if l was l think l would be offended at what is a total corruption of something that a lot of people hold close to themselves in favour of the fast buck.
As it is l am just fed up of all the false hype that goes with life nowadays and seems to try and stop people finding their own meaning or none for feast days in favour of mass brainwashing, overspending and consumption.

Brian's Award

2011-01-06T01:59:00.004Z

Sorry so long no posts l think my head is as sorted as it will be for some time. I have been working all over the country for the last 3 or so months but am now settled back at home.

I want to wish everyone a great new year and after the bad news l have had to get a new washing machine as mine died, had a big tooth cavity, got a dog bite, had a big allergic reaction thankfully now settled, and a lepto scare over a dog we had been nursing and no one wanted to tell me it had leptospirosis.. l was furious at that one.
So here is my best bit of news that came out of the back end of 2010:

I received an email the other day from the British parachute Association. Brian's friends had tried to get him voted the Skydiver of the year. However the BPA felt that this did not go far enough and l received a wonderful email.

The award will be presented in spring at the Royal Aero Club Awards ceremony l will go on his behalf to receive the award. The award is only given on an occasional basis and under exceptional standards.
I burst into tears when l read about it and am so proud of Brian and his friends and l know he is as well:

Brian Laithwaite – Outstanding Contribution to the Sport

The Jim Crocker Trophy for an Outstanding Contribution to Sport Parachuting has been awarded to Brian Laithwaite in memoriam. Brian was an exceptional coach/load organiser who over the years served as CCI at two Drop Zones, and devoted decades of dedicated commitment to training the next generation of skydivers.

Brian’s enthusiasm and sheer love of the sport shone like a beacon. No-one was ever left out with Brian. He knew how to make learning fun. His greatest satisfaction was to see his fledglings fly, and many have gone on to make their own mark on the sport. Brian suffered a fatal entanglement in summer 2010. He lives on in the memory of so many skydivers who look back with tremendous affection on the direction, fun and solace they enjoyed in their formative time under his wing.

Letter From Cath Buckle

2010-11-16T12:40:00.004Z

Under a wide blue sky a warthog and her three babies ran across a red dirt road below a kopje. The piglets ran with tails straight up, like aerials, as they followed their mum into the surrounding bush. In the sky nearby half a dozen vultures circled low over a clearing and in the distance, the haunting call of a fish eagle promised water, fish and the myriad treasures waiting discovery in our beautiful Zimbabwe.

A couple of hundred people had gathered at the foothills of Castle Kopje in Wedza. A beautiful kopje, her rocks stained orange with lichen and balancing precariously on top of each other. We sat under a great Acacia tree watching a couple of young black rhinos browsing nearby, waiting for the proceedings to begin.

Our host told us this was a traditional Shona burial ground, a sacred place, and that he’d had to get permission from the local Chief to bury his mother here. Just seven months ago we had been in this same place to bury his father, Norman Travers, here.

The service began and one after another the eulogies told of how Gill Travers was a loving, dedicated and endlessly creative woman. A woman who made her home in the African bush, raised her family there and then shared it all with lions, leopards, hyaenas and otters.
Gill’s doctor said she was the only patient he had who had been bitten by a hyaena and then an otter; the only patient who needed a leopard’s claw removed from her forearm!

Alongside giraffe and elephants, rhinos and warthogs, Gill and Norman Travers farmed the land and created a game park which attracted tourists from all over the world. They began outreach programmes with rural schools, endlessly spreading the message of conservation, and they held open days for local elders, headmen and chiefs.

Working with the Department of National Parks, they took in black rhinos ravaged by poaching, and embarked on a unique programme, rearing the calves and then and returning them to the wild. Gill and her catering partner Mattheus prepared milk formulas in bottles for rhinos and cream teas and venison casseroles for visiting guests all in the same farm kitchen! The perfect team creating what Gill’s grandson called an “oasis.”

Nineteen years ago Gill Travers was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but she fought on undeterred, always welcoming, cheerful and uncomplaining. Gill finally gave up her valiant struggle this week and watched by family, friends and elephants was laid to rest in the ground she so loved.

I write this letter today in memory of Norman and Gill Travers who lie side by side under an Acacia tree beneath Castle Kopje on Imire Game Park in Wedza. Almost two years ago Norman and Gill invited me into their home and week after week we worked on a book together. They told me the amazing story of how a piece of virgin bush in Wedza was farmed, nurtured and transformed.
Norman spoke of a “stream of naughty, smelly, little animals” filling their lives and Gill of how much she loved them all and how proud she was of her family continuing with their life’s work.

“Imire, the Life and Times of Norman Travers,” will be available within the next fortnight, please contact Cath Buckle for further information.

To Norman and Gill Travers: Fambai zvakanaka, thank you for giving us Imire,such a gem. Until next time,love cathy

Copyright Cathy Buckle. 13 November 2010 www.cathybuckle.com

Inquest

2010-11-16T01:53:00.003Z

It was the coroners court on Friday. The verdict was expected Accidental Death. The coroner was very kind as were all of his staff. 2 Friends ended up at the court with me and they and the thoughts from friends and family gave me a lot of strength.

Family were allowed to ask questions, l didn't l could picture the whole thing as l have a skydiving background.

The witnesses, Gary, Dave, John, Richard did a very hard job with dignity and l would like to thank them for the way they gave evidence, it was clear and understandable.

Press were skulking around but l ignored them. The coroner had a word with us about when the clips would be on and that the bbc and itv camera men were basically ok and known to him. I just didn't want anything to do with them though and left the court so fast l left one friend trailing.

Shangani Patrol

2010-11-11T01:54:00.005Z

In memory of all those who have died or still die in wars. I wrote this in honour of a group of men in Rhodesia who died fighting and were honoured by those who they fought. It was a battle that should never have been fought and it began a legend.
A retreat was already taking place but the greed of white man caused caused this particular battle by talking gold tribute and running away not taking the message and gold to their officers in charge.
Greed from all colours to all has caused so many deaths be it minerals, water or oil.

Lobengula lost 80 Royal Guard and 500 warriors. The remains of the Shangani Patrol were finally moved in 1904 & interred in the Matopas at Worlds View which had been consecrated and set aside “For ever for those who deserved well of their country Worlds View is the one place that has not been desecrated still.

The exact spot of the last stand is only approximately known. A granite obelisk was erected in 1937 at the “site”. The carved tree “To Brave Men” is in the Bulawayo Museum. There were 37(?) men but 3 Men on the patrol escaped at the start of the fight. 33 skulls were found after the fight. 34 were involved

At one point the survivors went to try and escape but their leader(?) stopped them, looked at the wounded and said nothing, they dismounted and stayed.

It is generally agreed but not confirmed that the abdomens were split open to allow their spirits to escape. This is how the Matbele honoured those they felt faught bravely their finest honour they could bestow. It is also said the men sang and cheered throughout.
The last man has never been identified but his acts were confirmed.

All information of the battle has been handed down by the Matabele.

Shangani Patrol

4th December 1893, Allan Wilson and his 33 marched towards their end.
In a dark and brooding forest, near the banks of the flooded Shangani.
Lobengula’s empty royal kraal, a trap that had been set
The click of Winchesters and by the anthill death was felt.
No protection, no place to hide, men staring fearfully around.
The gentle hum of bees was heard, bees whose stings were death,
were killing lumps of flying lead.
Grouped around the wounded they turned and in fear fled
Their only hope to cross, the flooded river bed.

Funnelled by the impis to a barricade of death
They stopped and killed their horses, at their final place of rest,
In a smoking hell of noise and pain from the pit of Dante’s realm.
Dead lay where they’d fallen while wounded tried to fight.
Water gone and throats rasped dry they lapped at trickling wounds.

Surrender…. the Matabele offered but were scornfully refused.
Through the morning they fought on knowing they would die.
The barrier of horses, bodies bloated high.
Held at bay the impis, and the stabbing assegai.
Death sought hard the fighting men… refusing to be denied.

Finally, their bullets spent and few men left alive
They stood and looking past their fear they shook each others hands.
Sung a final song and in the sudden, waiting silence, they walked out into myth,
onto the killing ground to face their lonely deaths.
The last survivor to an anthill walked killing as he went.
His hip was shattered by a bullet and finally he fell,
Kissed by ripping assegai, his passing was the end.

For the courage of the 34 the Matabele generals decreed
No one would touch their bodies their courage had shone through.
“For they are Men of Men and shall lie where they have died”.
3000 Thousand throats in unison sung the royal salute
Weapons held high in honour of the fallen 34

Two months later trees still bullet scarred and raw.
The stench of death a memory
Trader Dawson passing through found the scattered bones.
He collected and he buried them and on a tree he carved
The simple but the poignant words
“To Brave Men”

© C.L 5/2/07

Talking Animals

2010-10-30T22:37:00.007+01:00

A series l have discovered on ytube a whole raft of short very funny clips BBC Walk on the Wild Side

**** **** **** **** ****

Another short clip l have seen this a a plain video. Some one has added voice and now it's hysterical.
Don't have a mouthful of coffee before you look at the clips & be warned there is a lot of cussing in the cat one:

Attacked by Staffies

2010-10-29T22:33:00.006+01:00

It is not just people that get badly hurt when they are attacked. This dog was attacked by 3 Staffordshire bull terriers. They were off a lead he was on it. The neck was badly torn and an initial wet to dry dressing applied.

The swabs are soaked in sterile saline and placed into the wound, as they dry they they pull debris into the swab and clean it out. In this patients case the swabs were placed deep into the wound and held in place with "stay sutures" to help keep the wound slightly closed. The dressing was applied for 2 days running. A penrose drain was also placed to allow fluid and blood to exit the body.

On the 3rd day the wound was clean enough to use other dressings for the next stage of healing. A honey dressing was then applied and changed every couple of days. He also had some limited surgery to close part of it but it was mostly allowed to heal slowly on it's own. There was so much missing it was not going to be easy to do a full surgical repair.

Unfortunately l never got end photos but it was not a smooth repair. He had a wound breakdown and ended up being readmitted for some time while it was sorted. I understand that it was finally closed and he has resumed his old life.

Broke

2010-10-27T08:36:00.003+01:00

Where l have been working used to be an old bank. When the bank moved out the left a 6foot high safe which would take a tank to move in the back so the vets took it over.

Was great to keep the till in and all went well until yesterday. Guess who tried to open it first thing to get the till out and couldn't get the bottom key in. The bend down flap part of the key was on a loose hinge thing and this had broken inside the lock.

The locksmith was able to get it open, it took him a few hours but all ended well. I felt really guilty but the other 2 nurses assured me the key had been dodgy for some time and they were waiting to see who it broke on because they knew it would break.

Out & About

2010-10-25T05:14:00.005+01:00

Well it has been a very novel month or so for me. All l have done is day shifts pretty much the whole time. All round the country from Cambridgeshire to Surrey or Sussex to my favourite practice in Kenilworth Martin Heart Referrals.
Vets are in general quite quiet at the moment but often have seasonal lulls so not sure if this is one of those or as a result of the recession.

Mike has done out op theatre WOW mind blowing. All panelled in plastic, dead easy to clean, every thing in new cupboards and draws, new flooring. Has been threatening to do something with the "old" for years but finally took the plunge, and wishes he had done it years ago.
Had a case of extreme shock as Mike J swore he just doesn't swear. Of course l got the blame from the others they said l was the bad influence..l told them to bog off!.
My reading of ultra sound has improved since l started to locum there but l still find it heard to equate a flat picture of the heart with the different colours put on to what l am looking at on the screen. They have colour and when that section is switched on confuses me even more due to movement but it is still fascinating.
It was thanks to the 2 Mikes that Wibble had her treatment and it allowed her a few more months of happy life until she had another sever thrombus towards the end of last year.

One place l locumed at l can see why they have a permanent advert in the vn press for nurses. It was not friendly, l chatted to one person in 2 days other than professional questions.. where is.. have you got a ...
The other practices were all pleasant enough though and it is nice to get out and about and see how the other half lives.

My present locum means l am finally sleeping in my own bed but rotas have become a joke there. So far have had 6 rota changes in a week of shifts has become a rather hysterical joke and HN struggled to keep a straight face when she asked me to swap my monday shift with her. Just as well l am flexible with things. Actually l didn't mind this last swap for today as l am on the shift l like.

Still doing the emergency practice but been there quite a bit on days and usually short notice call in for the weekend. But l did get a text at 22:30 couple of weeks ago asking ifd l could do the 22:00-08:00 shift there had been some swaps and due to an almighty mess up there was no nurse. As l was down at Mikes l couldn't help out.

I have become involved in trying to arrange a mass tandem jump. It started off as for veterinary staff but we have widened it out to friends, family and anyone we can drag it.
The idea was as a thank you to the owner of the vetnurse site l belong to and raise some money for charity. He chose Muir Maxwell Trust as his little daughter has uncontrolled epilepsy and the trust has helped them.
The other plan is to raise awareness about protecting the title veterinary nurse. At the moment anyone can call themselves a vn.
The reason l agreed to help is that it will be done at Langar Parachute Centre It is where Brian passed and spent all his time. They have been fantastic and l couldn't have got by without the people from there and have become my friends as well now. l look at Langar as a second home.
So if you want to do a jump then let me know l will add you onto the list and get forms to you. We have people from all round the country. So place you are coming from is not a hindrance. (shameless plug)
And before you ask no l am not jumping this is not about me it is about others.

The financial ombudsman has the paperwork for the camper, barclays has refused to reply to my last letter, they won't speak to me on the phone so the only way round it is to get a mediator. I just hope they come down on my side and get clydesdale (barclays) to take the motorhome.

My sleep pattern is still up the creek.I fell asleep on the settee in the evening, woke up at midnight and not been able to sleep since, it is going to be a long day. as now 6am. Think l will go get a bath and have a nice hot soak.

Whats in Your Bag?

2010-10-05T21:08:00.005+01:00

I decided my bag was to heavy so cleaned it out to see what l had in it.

Apart from brochures from yesterday a bottle of brown sauce now in the kitchen and a spare glasses case there was nothing extra. My bag has been called a "swiss army bag" and the pockets of my uniform are also referred to a "Swiss army pockets"

So l now have:
2 glasses cases and glasses
1 sat nav in case
Earphone for music on phone and mains battery charge
BP cuffs
Pill popper
Fork
Swiss army knife
Purse
Torch
Pens
Tipex pen
Comb
Tissues
Notepad
Thermometer (digital)
Thermomodoms (condoms for thermometers)
Dog leads x2
Scissors
Artery forceps
Key clip for necks
Stethoscope Littmanns Cardiac master 2)
Ibuprophen
Zantac (indigestion tablets)
Lemsip
Strepsil & cough sweet
Tyrozets (throat lozenges)
Paracetomol
Nose drops & vicks nose thing
Deodorant
Ibuprophen cream (aches and pains)
Loads eye lube for ops keep putting them in my pocket and forgetting them
Emla cream
Potato peeler
Pooper scoop bags (roll)
Batteries shoved there when l was asked to look after them from July braai forgot l had them
Cap for soft drinks so l dont have to punch a hole in the cap with my knife. I never take the caps off just drink through the cap.

Not in but usually in:
A book to read
Key ring
Snack of some sort
Soft drinks bottle/s (500ml usually Dr Pepper)
Sat nav screen holder still in the car

New Dog Breeds

2010-09-25T21:51:00.002+01:00

The American Kennel Club has decided to recognize these new breeds of dogs that are the result of cross breeding:

Collie x Lhaso Apso:
Collapso a dog that folds up for easy transport.

Spitz x Chow Chow:
Spitz-Chow a dog that throws up a lot.

Bloodhound x Borzoi:
Bloody Bore, a dog that's not much fun.

Pointer x Setter:
Poinsetter a traditional Christmas pet.

Kerry Blue x Terrier Skye Terrier:
Blue Skye, a dog for visionaries.

Pekingese x Lhaso Apso:
Peekasso, an abstract dog.

Labrador Retriever x Curly Coated Retriever:
Lab Coat Retriever, the choice of research scientists.

Newfoundland x Basset Hound:
Newfound Asset Hound, a dog for financial advisers.

Terrier x Bulldog:
Terribull, a dog that makes awful mistakes.

Bloodhound x Labrador:
Blabrador, a dog that barks incessantly.

Malamute x Pointer:
Moot Point, owned by...oh, well, it doesn't matter anyway.

Collie x Malamute:
Commute, a dog that travels to work.

Deerhound x Terrier:
Derriere, a dog that's true to the end.

Poodle x Min Pincher:
PooPin, a dog for constipated people.

Chill Out Cat's

2010-09-20T18:53:00.009+01:00

They may be ill and/or abandoned but can see no reason not to relax and take advantage of the amenities. Food, a warm bed and whatever else they can get.

I got a bed, heat pad, food water. I managed to remove that annoying catheter from my leg. Now quit disturbing me human.

No mum but not worried food still on tap and it is snuggly.

Look human l am not going back in there now go away and let me eat in peace.

I will just wait here for the next snack to arrive zzzzzzzzzz..........

Me n Teddy going to take on the world, he is my new friend since l was abandoned.

Life After Brian

2010-09-18T17:36:00.004+01:00

Well the saga of “Life after Brian” continues, except for me he is still here. Things happen all the time. When l need help it appears, when l am down something happens to cheer me up. Going often as we used too to the spiritualist org. helped with my beliefs and the fact l am a sort of clairvoyant. That means not good but do see the odd spirit.

I am having major problems with clydesdale bank trying to refuse to take the camper back they just want the money. However the paperwork says lease purchase all over it and the lawyer who checked it said do NOT sell it or you will be committing theft.
So result is the camper has been placed in storage, dvla informed, insurance removed, barclays (clydesdale) informed. When l get the next letter back from them then the financial ombudsman will step in to deal with it, they said to wait for the 3rd letter.

Mint have been sending Brian loads of threatening letters. I have been dealing with estates who have been fine it is the other dept. who are idiots. I tried ringing and sending letters no luck. Estates tried to help ditto on no luck. I just kept getting threats 6 over a 2 week period in one instance and constant individual ones.
So l sent them to the financial ombudsman l think they actioned it as l have received a letter from idiot dept letter writer asking for a death cert. My reply has been sorted and is not to polite.
Pity l was looking for a court case. I was going to walk in and plop 3 bags of ash in front of the judge and say “Meet Brian, l don’t suppose you mind if l speak up for him as Mint insisted that they sue him”.
At the same time the national press who l dislike (to put it mildly) after their harassment when Brian passed and so much crud they printed and print would have been sent invites to get some lovely quotes and photos. I may dislike them but they have a use at times.

Work is busy and everyone has been very good. I have trouble saying no when asked to help. It isn’t something that has happened since Brian passed as some folks think l have always worked like this. I do need to slow down though.

The other night l held my first animal to be put to sleep with an owner present there was no one else about. It was not me who asked not to hold l think the vets decided between themselves. It was very stressful as the lad and his dad were hysterical but l held it together and as soon as l could left the room. I spent a few minutes in a side room to compose myself.

I want to set the parachute centre to wildflowers. This idea hit me the first time l went down to the centre after the accident. There is
a wildflower farma couple of fields over from Langar and they have been marvellous helping and advising. It must be the name of the owner he is also Brian.
If you are in the area worth a visit come spring/summer when the flower fields are in bloom. What are pulled out from gardens as weeds look amazing when seen in huge fields of multicolour drifts waving in the breeze. There is a yummy cake and snack bar, a kids play area and woods walk to dragonfly ponds and plenty of plants, seeds for all areas and types (bees, butterfly woods, ponds, hedgerows, fields etc) and advice

The middle of the DZ was harder than even my wildest nightmare. It is cut for hayledge so l needed animal friendly plants. Cornfield annuals went in here but what a job.
The ground is thick clay and was wet. I had thought pull up grass and plant, no chance. I had to dig out wedges that ended up being about 1ft deep, haul it out, turn it upside down and put it back then jump up and down to flatten it back. Grab the shovel and hack at the clay to loosen it so l could seed it.
This brilliant set of manoeuvres started on what could not be described as the best of days. There was a howling gale blowing, all the jumpers sat sensibly inside in the warmth, those that came down that is.
As it is an airfield the only thing to break the gale force winds is the body that it hits, in this case mine.
Then to add to this there was a heavy rain falling well actually it was travelling horizontally not falling vertically so that made it even more fun. A shower and blow dry in a freezer.
Day 2 was better but l was to exhausted from the day before to do more than 6 “holes” instead l re hacked the day before top soil efforts and reseeded.

After the dz in the morning l spent the afternoon doing the peri track. A long 3.5mile walk on the perimeter of the airfield with long season meadow mix which will flower from spring until autumn. This meant walking along with a rake and clearing patches of ground and sprinkling seeds. Very easy and enjoyable compared to the DZ

However that is all the seeds going in for this year. I won’t get down there again in seed planting season which has now ended and l want to see how it comes out in the new year and will design better from there.

I have planted a wayfarer shrub It has bright red and some black berries, very shiny and shades of pink berries to get to the red colour. The flowers are bright white and in autumn the leaves fade to pretty shades of red/pink.
This is behind the hanger, l will plant a couple more bushes there when l decide what, I have till January for them though so no rush.

I took my will and Advanced Directive (Living will) to the solicitor the other day.
Pen to pad “So this goes to him and here to sort that and if that goes to that then what have you done with the rest of it”?
“There” l pointed out to him.
He did that over the glasses look and harrumphed at me. Then asked more questions which l got us totally confused over with the answer but we got part one the complicated part sorted.
In my defence when l gave it to him l did say part 1 was complicated and needed sorting.
Him after a bit "You expecting lots of people to die or do you enjoy complicating things"?
Me "If A dies B is in B dies C... err ok just trying to cover things, it seemed simple"
Solicitor looks over glasses grins and harrumphs again
Him reading after reading bit more "Lots of items"?
I mumbled "When did you last look at your stuff”?
My solicitor has very expressive eyebrows and thinks l am overcautious.

Advanced Directive (living will) He said well lets work on you being unconscious or unable to communicate l think you will have no trouble otherwise, eyebrows waggled again.
Now l am guessing he thinks l am not worried about speaking out but l could be wrong.
“You can’t tell the judge that”.
Me “I am not l am saying that’s what l want done when he finds in my favour” Eyebrows exercised and a big sigh. Ok we will leave that in.
“No you defiantly can not say that”!!
“Well it was only if that happened” pointing at a sentence
We reword that sentence then law is a series of precedence and that isn’t one.
“Well a precedence has to be set and l was just asking for one to be set..”
Scribbled through with pen and eyebrows in overdrive it was made clear that it wouldn’t be set on his watch.

So life moves on slowly, mostly good days with bad moments sprinkled in like currants in a cake. I have amazing friends old and new. They are there to help pull me up with either a helping hand or a boot up the backside whichever is needed.

This wire goes....?

2010-08-23T21:04:00.005+01:00

A few days off at last been a bit busy l have worked 24 days out of the last 28 days, fair to say l am now wilting somewhat.

The day shifts were at a small practice run by a South African vet who has just bought into a game reserve that attaches to Kruger National Park. I told him that as soon as it is sorted to let me know l would love to visit.
I also nicked the South African Country life magazine that was there, actually l am returning it once read but l want to savour it. It is what magazines used to be like. Packed full of info, good articles, food and no "celebrates" and their cheap lives. I looked into getting it sent over but it is £75/year so idea on hold.

My slow cooker is fantastic so far done couple of stews, sausage casserole and a shoulder of pork and all of it was edible. I thought that a 3.5ltr slow cooker sounded very small but it is actually big enough for several days meals.

Brian's boet came round tonight to put Brian's computer back in. It had been repaired and he had his laptop in. His boet runs a large ISP company & knows his way round a computer Brian's wiring drove him nuts. He did it eventually but he was sweating with stress muttering about why can't Brian do things simple. I told him that's why l left it for him to do, reckon Brian was in fits of laughter at the pair of us scratching our heads & mumbling blankly, pulling wires trying to work out what went where and get the mouse to work let alone work out the usb hub and how it got it's power.

Soliciting Help

2010-08-22T15:23:00.002+01:00

Got an apology through from the solicitors l was so disgusted at. I am doing the executor bit and have help from the legal helpline that came as part of the funeral package but just wanted an eye cast over what l had done, have some questions answered and get any advice.
Brian knew various partners and staff from a local firm he met business networking and liked them so l decided to go in for advice.
I felt that an hour or 2 at most even if a couple of hundred pounds was a price worth paying as I didn’t want to mess anything up.

The receptionist it turned out was a real charmer:

Me) “I would like to arrange am meeting to ask some questions and just go through what l have done & have to do to sort my husbands estate”.

her) “I suggest we do the executor for you”.

Me) No thank you l am doing it myself l just want to know l am doing it all right and have some questions answered.

her) A look of distaste on her face like l crawled from under a rock “We do charge for our advice it isn’t free you know”.

Me) Just about to walk out snapped back very angry “I did not come in for free advice l came in with the intention of paying for up to date information and help”

her) “Well she would have to open a file for you and l don’t know if she would want to or not”

Me) Pushed a step to far snarled. “Don’t bother l would not use your practice if it was the only one around or if l was paid to use it” and l stormed out.

I went into a smaller solicitor that had done some work for my folks and who l had also met and was given a smile and l explained what l wanted.
The person l needed came down with his diary and we arranged the next day. It was to be £150/hr as far as l am concerned worth paying.

He was great checked everything. Pronounced l was doing it all fine and answered my questions. At the end l asked how much it was and he looked at his watch mumbled something and l said no problem invoice or should l nip to the bank now.
“No no l said it was only 20minutes l am not going to charge you for that” and a nice grin lit him up.
I was stunned and it was actually 30mins but hey l wasn’t going to argue. They will also be drawing up my will and anything else l need after service like that, although l know l defiantly pay then!

Dentist's, Bifocals & Ash

2010-07-28T14:11:00.003+01:00

I now have a new answer when dealing with company's who know about B. They ask if the card/account holder is present. My reply "He is here in 3 small bags of ash on my desk... now go and read your computer properly" there is generally a stunned silence then realisation sinks in.

Been in and had 5 fillings this morning my dentist who is fantastic told me "you doing well grinding your teeth chipped another bit off in 2 weeks since l saw you"
He won't do anything more than emergency type work for about 2 years. Apparently that is the time you generally have grief stress for. If he does as he puts it any heroic work any sooner l will just grind it out or stress will get in the way of any healing.

When l went with my root abscess a couple of weeks ago he said the start of it was about on course for stress illness and to expect more health related problems, even if niggardly. So guess who now has a cold although to be fair people with colds were sneezing and snerching at me on the weekend and l am always first in line for a cold.

Collect my new glasses as well today bifocals. Looking at how l am doing so far they are not a hit. I have a month trial but the lady said most folks decide in a week. They are very unsettling.

The July braai (barbaque) went very well. 3x 20 hour days did hammer me a bit but l still felt unwound by the end. There was about 1500 people and with all the booze that flowed we had 2 booze incidents. One a Turkish friend of some Rhodesians who wouldn't stop touching the girls. He was spoken to softly in his ear hole and he left. Another was a friend of someone who was drunk & mouthy, his friends were so upset at his behaviour they took him and left.

Life Moves On

2010-07-15T21:09:00.006+01:00

Well life has been moving on and l have been working silly hours. Nothing new for me l just haven't had time to post between work and sorting Brian's estate so thought l would do a quick update.

Doing this bookkeeping lark is a nightmare and as l have to keep the company going to be able to work for a couple of my nursing practice clients. I have had a crash course on keeping my accounts. One of Brian's friends is an accountant and he has been a life saver, l am sure he has gone greyer though since he started to teach me books.

The other week/s l did a 12night shift then spent 3 days running round town seeing the dentist getting more antib as my tooth root abcess was still throbbing. My dentist blew a gasket at the associate who had seen me a week or so before and only given me a light dose of amoxy. I got hammered with a hefty dose of metronidazole. Seeing the accountant (official one not teacher one) seeing banks and just wondering where all the hours in the day had gone.

I started on an unofficial diet in other words gave up eating properly when Brian died, but then when l started to loose weight l turned it into a proper weigh loss. I have lost over a stone and am still going down also dropped a trouser size. I have cut out crisps, cake, bread, sweets, chocolate things like that and eating sensibly.

I will be going down to the parachute centre and have been as much as l can. It will now be my second home. I couldn't have got by without the skydiving community they have been excellent. Many of them have asked for a copy of the Tribute l wrote and read out at the funeral l was very touched, many have said it moved them to tears.

The channel tunnel have been brilliant. Brian and l had a holiday booked for August which is now not on. They have refunded the money Brian paid from the holiday we had to cancel back at Christmas and rescheduled for august. Apparently they do not usually refund but given the circumstances they are. I will use them when l finally get away on a holiday at the moment l am looking at next year.

Was feeling a bit depressed yesterday and nipped to the neighbours to ask them something when l came out of their house there was a HUGE double rainbow set against coal black clouds and the arch went straight over the top of the house. It was a fantastic tonic from Brian. As far as l am concerned he is still with me in spirit and l am always speaking and referring to him.

My cooking is as bad as ever and after l had to feel my way to the oven through the smoke l have decided burgers are just not for me to cook. Have given away the box we had in. I will stick to salads and stews.I have been thinking of getting a slow cooker told you can not go wrong with them. Thing is that is based on normal people not on someone with my unique "cooking" skills.

Well that's sort of all my news for now. I need a bath and to try feel human, something l have been wanting to feel for many years.. someplace it says "Seek and ye shall find" Wrong l has been seeking for years and still not finding :-))

Law of -

2010-07-05T14:05:00.001+01:00

1. Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch & you'll have to pee.

2.Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

3. Law of Probability - The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

4. Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal & someone always answers.

5. Law of the Alibi - If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the very next morning you will have a flat tyre.

6. Variation Law - If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

7. Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

8. Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

9. Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

10. Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

11.. Law of the Theatre & Hockey Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet & who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies & stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

12. The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

13. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

14. Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness & cost of the carpet or rug.

15. Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

16. Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

17. Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.

18. Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

19. Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better.. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

Brian

2010-06-21T06:06:00.005+01:00

Today is Brian's Funeral. Rest in peace my love l know you are with me. Thank you for being you. Life is a journey Love makes it worthwhile Brian you are my rock, my soul, my love, my friend my life …for all eternity. I miss you.

Emma Bramley RIP

2010-06-18T08:52:00.008+01:00

Today is Emma's funeral. My heart goes out to her family and l know she will be with them.

Tomorrow is Emma's birthday and a "memorial weekend" for her and my husband Brian at Langar. Over 90 skydivers will take to the skies throughout the weekend, weather permitting and celebrate the lives of Brian and Emma. They are looking at some point to forming a giant B & E in the air in their honour.

Fly Free Emma & Brian RIP 4/6/10
In support of Nottingham Air Ambulance

Emma Bramley Fly Free RIP 4/6/10

The Accident

2010-06-09T08:37:00.005+01:00

I released a statement to the media they used bits but l decided to print the full one here. I can not comment on anything as there is an inquest under way. What l can say is a lot of what the media said was total rubbish. They also misquoted and twisted Emma's Mum's facebook post. That the media would do such a thing will come as a total shock to everyone.

If anyone would like to donate that would be wonderful please send a Donation in Brian’s Laithwaite name to:..
Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, Unit 2, Chase Park, Daleside Road, Nottingham NG2 4GT

Or there is a donation page for Brian and Emma money raised here also goes to the air ambulance.

*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*

Statement l released:...

Brian had been jumping for over 30 years and had been an advanced instructor but let his ratings lapse as he wanted to jump for fun not work.
He was involved in innovations over the years that turned the sport from dangerous to one of the safest in the UK.

He was a life coach and had a special skill in teaching and helping others. Brian would say no matter how good you are if you can not or will not pass along your skills then you are the poorer for it.
Brian coached skydivers moving up through their early phases and would call the skydivers in his group his fledglings.
He told me he wanted them to learn to fly in the air and in life. As soon as they were ready to fly in the air to the next stage, Brian would wave them out of the nest to face new skydiving challenges. He would then say half proudly and half embarrassed “The problem is that l can’t shift them from the nest. They grip onto me and refuse to go or just fly straight back”
Brian did his best to get them to move on but they stayed and advanced, even when they went onto the big way loads.

Emma was a good friend of everyone and was very experienced, often going on major loads. She became his ad-hoc secretary and tried to organise things but got frustrated at times. He would give a huge grin when he told me of her latest annoyance, she was a fantastic lady who did her best to try and organise a friendly rabble of skydivers.

Brian was and is my rock, my soul, my love, my friend and my life …for all eternity.

*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*

Brian doing what he loved, flying free above the earth

Brian and some of the Fledglings

RIP Brian 2/4/45 - 4/6/2010

2010-06-04T23:06:00.008+01:00

My hub Brian was killed today in a skydiving accident. I am to devastated to say much just Brian l love you so much l always will. You are my life and my rock thank you for being you. I never could work out what you saw in me but your love flowed out all the time in every look and word and whatever you did for me.

65years old and my husband for 24years. You were always smiling and laughing full of bad jokes. Never swore and if you did said sorry.

You dedicated your life to helping others and everyone loved you. If life's a journey, it was a privilege to have hitched part of the way with you.

Brian you are my rock and my soul my love my friend and my life for all eternity. I lost my Angel and God gained an Angel.

Dog Crash

2010-06-01T11:13:00.004+01:00

In UK you do not have to be qualified to do anaesthetics on a patient. The rcvs say that the vet is able to direct things.
This system means that vets can continue to pay poor wages so qualified veterinary nurses do not stay in the profession, and there is a lack of qualified nurses so unqualified are used.
You can pack shelves at Tesco one day and the next start at a vet and be put in charge of an anaesthetic; this is not unusual in many practices. In fact a lot of them do not even have a qualified veterinary nurse on the premises.
To be fair some unqualified auxiliary have been in the profession for years and are very good but it is still an excuse for bad wages and lax rules.

The following is an event that happened to me recently when l was working with a locum vet and shows exactly why A) This system is so dangerous and B) Why the vet should listen to the anaesthetist because they are at the sharp end not rumbling round in the animal’s guts doing a different job.

We had a small dog on the table having an operation. I had had to go and find some instruments for the vet so had left my patient unattended for a few minutes. I got back and he had started to puff a bit. I did a quick check on him and was about to turn my patient down slightly as he was going too deep.

Vet: Turn him up he is puffing.
Me: No he is going to deep l am lightening him.
Vet: “No l said turn him up he is getting puffy”
Me: “He has no jaw tone and his eyes are…”
Vet: Snapping “I want him up”
Me “Suit yourself” so l turn him up to 3
Vet: A couple of minutes later “He is still too light he is puffing worse”
Me “Yes l know he is too deep”
Vet “No he isn’t deepen him up to 4.5”
Me: Getting ready for the animal to crash and debating internal odds on how long this will take “Fine” turning patient’s anaesthetic gas up to 4.5

Within a couple of minutes he had crashed and stopped breathing. I was waiting for this little side trip under GA to begin. I smacked off the gas just left him on pure oxygen and started to breathe for him. It took 10 minutes until he was stable enough to breathe on his own. I also had to re-stabilise him back under anaesthetic.

The vets comment when she saw me start to do ippv on the dog stopped breathing “Oh has he stopped breathing?” She did not see it stop breathing as she was busy with her operation, happy the dog was not puffing. What would have happened with the shelf stacker?
I ignored her and just got on with my side of things. WW3 did not need to be brought in at this point and l was chewing my tongue.

So if you have a pet that is going to have a general anaesthetic, ask if it is a qualified nurse or a second year vn student (you do anaesthetics in second year) who will do the anaesthetic. Things can and do happen, l have had patients crash and been unable to do anything to bring them back, but it is less likely and circumstances like the above one are a lot more correctable because l knew what was about to happen.

Bittter Sweet

2010-05-23T13:28:00.003+01:00

We had a 7year old Labrador brought in with end stage heart failure and end stage pregnancy. Mum had less than a week to go and the pups should survive although it was doubtful if she would.
The idea was to stabilise her and then see about a caesarian the vet gave the owners very low to negative odds of her surviving. She was placed on oxygen and given medication.

The theatre was set up for an emergency caesarian and l also set up the medical prep for an emergency “cut and grab” if the bitch crashed. If she crashed before the operation then there would be no attempt at saving her she would not come off the table alive all efforts would go to saving the puppies the correct assumption being to save her they would die in the time it took to revive her and the odds of her pulling through revival attempts with pups in her were non existent, they placed to much stress on her body.

After about 1.5 hours there was no visible signs of improvement and her stats, were slightly worse. The vet called me over and said that when he finished his present consult we would go ahead. He would give her propofol(to induce anaesthesia)and l would tube her (a tube placed into the trachea to maintain the airway and provide 02 and anesthetic gas and remove said used). We would place her straight onto her back no clipping or cleaning just go straight in and get the pups out and she may survive via crash kit and luck.

I was giving a last check to see that everything was right in theatre. Kit open, crash kit open and ready, tube to hand all plugged in ready to roll when the auxiliary called the bitch had crashed in her kennel.
We shot through. The other vn and l grabbed her and placed her upside down on the medical prep table. She was starting to chain stoke which is dying gasps. We did not tube her the vet gave a “now” and l put the propofol into her. If she was still alive she would feel nothing.

The vet made a long slice midline and pulled open her abdomen. Blood flowed out as arteries and veins were left unclamped pooled then ran and dripped off the table. The vets hands gripped and rolled out the slippery uterus and he sliced through horn one. Fluid now joined the blood the table and floor became a red green slippery pool and the golden body of the mum became red green merging with the table.
The vet pulled out neonate pup’s and started to shove them into waiting hands. I pulled up a syringe full of euthatol. A long slice through horn 2 and those neonates pulled out and passed over.
By now the prep area was awash with blood and fluid. Apart from the pool on and under the table it was up the walls from flip back pulling out the neonates, and feet were walking through the pool to and from table 2 where neonates were taken a few paces for reviving, cleaning, drying and checking (cleft palette and anus present) table 2 also had discarded placentas thrown onto the floor mingling with dirty towels from drying the neonates.
As the vet was about to get the last one l was told get ready and as he pulled the last pup out l injected the euthatol. Mum had probably already gone by this stage but we were not taking any chances.
It had only taken minutes for the procedure; from the original “crash” call to euthatol was about 5minutes.

There was 6 live pups all strong and screaming no deaths there. The vet went back to his interrupted consult and the other vn sewed up the mums abdomen while l did a quick tidy up of the area. As soon as mum was sewn up l placed the pups back onto her dead body to try and see if they could get any colostrum out of her. They got some out but as usual with newborns it took time for the idea of suckling to sink into their little brains and the time meant that it was drying up fast within their dead mum.

An hour later the pups went home, it was a bitter sweet moment we saved 6 lost 1. By the time the pups left the building medical prep was shining and clean. No signs of the life gained and lost that had happened such a short time before.

Ego meets VN

2010-05-16T07:32:00.002+01:00

Well l have surfaced after my 8 nights. I did a few short comments and some twitters but nights just takes the enthusiasm out of doing much l get to tired.

The following happened last year we had a day vet covering nights he was a good vet in “knowing his stuff” he was a lousy ego driven people dealer though for those he considers beneath him.

We had a bloat (GDV) case in and l went to set it up. Over the year’s l have set up for a lot probably a a couple of hundred or more of these op’s so l know what we use. There were a couple of auxiliaries on as it was only about midnight and they popped in to help setup.

The dog was prepped and transferred and the operation was about to start. I heard a bellowing coming from the op theatre so went through and was approached by a screaming vet about where the F**King hell was his suction.
I looked at him totally blankly as we do not use suction on bloats. One of the night vets tried it once a few years back, it didn’t work so we never use it.
The screaming continued as l was saying this and was told “l put it on the note of what l wanted set up and other things l wanted are not here” This was screamed along with a lot of other expletives.
Blank look from me what note? The attack unfurled and l won’t take this sort of thing so attacked back. I refused to scream but made sure he heard me and I gave back what was thrown at me soon we had a full scale war going on.

I stormed off came back with the suction and set it up and the other bits he wanted then went to look for the note. I found it eventually the idiot vet had written it on the back of an anaesthetic form and left it with the pile of said forms on the prep table. One of the aux. clearing up had moved them to the side out of the way.
I got a grudging apology from the vet for his behaviour and gave a grudging one back for all l had called him in return, 2 insincere apologies to smooth things over.

Later on the anaesthetic nurse said to me that she had seen many men angry but had never seen one go so berserk, she had been worried he would hit me and was not sure what to do she had been genuinely terrified.
I told her “That would have been his biggest mistake” and not to worry as l certainly wasn't, as had been obvious at the time.
Apparently afterwards he said he would appreciate it if she never mentioned him loosing his temper or what happened. I told her the entire night staff had heard it and already knew so he was a bit late for that.

The vet and l still work together every so often for a few hours on various shifts and are ultra polite to each other.

Brit Politics 2010

2010-05-08T17:41:00.003+01:00

Had a mooch round the cartoons on the state of brit politics today here are 3 unbiased ones. Fair to say l do not like any politicians and do not think any of them are fit for purpose.

Sighs!

2010-05-06T10:47:00.009+01:00

When l started this blog in September 2008 l couldn't think what to call it so choose veterinary nursing and life. I still can not think what to change it to. I was thinking of the Barefoot Veterinary Nurse as l dislike shoes and avoid wearing them. That limited me to just veterinary nursing, or A Barefoot View of Life and Veterinary Nursing, that's to long.
So l stick with what l have, still undecided on a name but this one seems to work and on the basis if it isn't broken don't fix it l shall stick with the "temporary" name.

Fed up just been into town to upgrade my phone to an iphone it will have to go on hold as they want £154 for the basic 3Gs. It is all to do with fact it is a mid term change, l am not primary phone on the contract (business one) and they just want to gouge us for it. And if we get it we have to agree to keeping our contract with them for another 24 months.

This is the only reason l vote Suffragette

Dry Bones

Life up to Date

2010-05-05T07:46:00.007+01:00

Garr fighting off another bought of bad throat and high temperature. Thank goodness for throat lozanges. My idiot Dr who, after a lot of abuse from friends and family l visited about 3 weeks ago as l was getting over last 2 month session, said in one breath. "Well it could be a low grade virus you can not shake due to stress. (You don't say!) BUT as you tested negative for a hiatus hernia 10 years ago l am going to treat you for acid reflux here is a script for omipramizole (strong antacids)
I have come to the conclusion my idiot Dr thinks "If it looks like a horse, and sounds like a horse, it must be a lion eating a tomato"
I am looking for a new Dr l can not handle the total cretin l have any more. He and his partner are worse than useless.
On the subject of medicals l have the meeting re scheduled for 17th May with the local nhs over the complaint for my dads discharge in January. They cancelled the last one as some head of nursing who "Just has to be there" was ill.
We had a letter through asking if we wanted to opt out of all our data going onto the nhs computer. I thought that the computer had been cancelled? Anyhow l filled in the don't put us on it part.

I was getting excited as up to now we have had no paper work through the door about the election but nulab spoiled it yesterday when l got home. There was a "thing" through the door. All the more reason not to vote for them they spoilt my no info yet boast.
Anyway l can not see who is worth voting for they are all as corrupt and scummy as each other so l will vote because of the suffragettes, but l will spoil my paper as A) This area is so solidly labour over 3/4 of the residents who normally vote would need to fail to turn out to make a difference B) I hate all politicians as being corrupt, insipid, self serving clones made out of some spoiled dough. I was hoping that a hung parliament means 300+ politicians hanging by their throats from parliament rafters. I am assured though it doesn't mean that, still l can but dream.

I have a long stretch of nights from Friday 8x 22:00-08:00 on the trot. I am hoping that they are fairly quiet.
I did 2x 17:30-03:30 over the weekend and the nights were manic. It felt like every animal in the area seemed to decide to become ill, get hit by a car or get bitten by another one.
Had a dog in with a tracheotomy tube. What a sweetie to treat, he would sit and lift his head to have his tube cleaned and suctioned every 2hours, l wish more patients were as cooperative.
One of the regular night vets is on holiday so a day vet covered. He has a worse memory than l do which was great as l am usually the bad memory person. He is having a "Come dine with me" night with the staff l was going to go, but, l think as it will be my first night off after my 8 night marathon, l won't make it.

Have been on days yesterday and today at a different vets. One of my semi regulars. It is novel working the whole shift in daylight and ending at 19:00 like regular vet staff. Going to be busy today though as we have a load of ops, l am sole nurse from midday and apart from ops and cleaning post op (theatre, kits, general prep area)and putting away the order l also have quite a few nurse appointments to do as well as all the discharges as patients recover.
Just hope the purified water gets there this morning for the autoclave or several ops will be cancelled. Someone forgot to order any last week but l think l got the phone order through in time to the supplier. If it all goes "tits up" it won't be my problem thought. The joys of being a locum cover, we have to have some perks.

Hub has been away since thursday last week. Langer have had a big skydiving meeting. He lead the SOS (Skydivers Over Sixty) attempt on a UK record over the weekend. They managed a quick 9 way but did not declare it as no one was happy with it. For goodness sake l give up. They got a 9 way, they got a UK record, every jumper was a brit and well over 60 but nope.. they weren't happy. I think the SOS stands for Senile Old Sods or Stupid Old Sods. Later on the Saturday they tried for an 11 way but it wasn't to be.
He is home tonight to do paperwork and l have made the big decision to go into town tomorrow and get an iphone 3gs. I have been dithering since February over that or Blackberry Bold but decision made (l think)

Oh well off to work this getting up in the morning for work is a very novel feeling. I can stand it occasionally but not regular.

Fire

2010-04-28T00:13:00.005+01:00

We were discussing the best way to deal with the large dog recovering in critical care, he was to big to fit comfortably in the kennel and should we put him on the mattress when he had a reputation for a bit of a bad temper when the fire alarm went off.
I mumbled “Who is making toast can’t they do it without burning it”
An auxiliary said nervously it isn’t Wednesday test day what’s happening. True to form we all ignored it. The phone went, for a change someone was free enough to answer it instead of all of us swearing at it. They put the phone down and said "It isn’t a drill we have a fire in reception we have to evacuate…and leave the animals bags and everything".

This was what everyone who works with animals dreads. In human hospitals they evacuate patients in animal ones they leave them. Small surgeries maybe they could grab the patients as they often only have a couple but we have to many. If we started to collect them we would get side tracked and it could end up a disaster. I grabbed my bag which was on the side. A vet ran into dog kennels and brought out her dog and we all walked out. Praying like hell that it wouldn’t spread, the fire doors would hold long enough if it did and that the fire brigade would get the hell there FAST. The building is huge and with luck it would be confined to the reception.

I was one of the last out and as l came out some one said “oh you will know”
I looked up. “huh?”
The question was continued “Who was on duty are we all out?”
“How the hell should l know we are mid change over some have gone all l know is we have no new ones in as we are heading to evening shift”

I looked at the door worrying and made a decision. Walking over to the head vet l said.
“The oxygen is turned on if it spreads and hits those pipes it will feed it l am going back in to turn the oxygen off at the taps is that ok”
“Yes ok” Had l been told no l would have hesitated but l was given a green light.
So l broke every rule in the book and hoped that l would not risk some fireman’s life if it went sour but l was worried about those oxygen lines.
I went back in the lights were out and the oxygen room was black a pitch. I turned all 4 cylinders off and then got the hell out of there. Smoke was filling the space and my heart rate went up by about 300 however l just walked calmly out and back to the car park.

Once out there l stood with the others a couple of minutes then realised we still had the cars parked in the way. Mine was by the building, l got mine calling to folks to get them shifted as they would need the space for the tenders. A couple couldn’t be moved as keys were still inside the building.

Some people were turning up for appointments but were stopped. A couple of owners had turned up and were understandably upset about the animals being left in, it was not what we wanted either.
What we really needed was the fire brigade. I know time stretches but they were taking a hell of a long time. Pops and bangs and flashes were coming out of reception and fuse boxes and smoke was snaking up through the roof. Occasional sirens could be heard but none that sounded like they were getting closer and heading to help us they just faded away.

Finally the long awaited sound reached us and grew steadily. Number 1 engine arrived followed closely by number 2. Anyone who says the police take a long time has not waited outside a burning vet’s with animals inside waiting for the fire brigade it is not just a long time it is eons.
The guys headed into the building and as they seemed to be relaxed about everything l decided that things were under control and l wanted some photos. I moved closer to them snapping.
The rabble (workmates) were worried and yelling at me about what was l doing and to get back. As usual l ignored them and just moved closer. If l was a problem l had no doubt the men in helmets would let me know. The rabble behind could chorus all they wanted. Knowing me of old the shouts died down to mutterings. I ended up leaning against the entrance railing it was obvious it was safe there.
The fire alarm was still screaming away and l ended up having to nip across the car park at a helmeted men’s request to get the bosses to find someone who knew the code. Bloody thing was giving everyone a head ache.

As it all seemed to be under control after about 15 minutes l asked if l could get back in to check animals. This was granted; at this point the vet with the recovering big dog came over and asked if he could go back in as well. We borrowed a flashlight from the helmeted men and went into the building while they continued checking all over the 2 floors for anything that had spread. I assume as we were allowed back in though they were not too concerned. I think everyone else was held back though.

The electric was out and emergency generator had not cut in so it was pitch black as there are no windows. We went to critical care ward the recovering dog was lying by the door and like an elephant to shift, he just couldn’t see any reason to shift just cause we wanted him to but eventually got the message. I shone the torch round and we did a check on the patients then l left the vet in critical ward in the dark and did a round of all other patients, most were having a sleep and no animals were stressed by the smell of smoke.

After about 10minutes the emergency lights came on and the rest of the staff filtered in. Kennels with cats and some critical animals were pushed out of the building. Other cats were placed in cat carriers. Larger dogs were walked out by firemen who were briefed on how to walk a dog while holding a drip bag.
I wish l had got the picture of the day. A big fireman carrying a small bulldog puppy out like a baby looking down and cooing to him, the bulldog looking up at him wondering who the heck had the cheek to wake him up even if it was for a nice cuddle. He had been fast asleep when l checked him oblivious of the drama going on around him.

Once all the animals were out we started to collect all we would need to decamp for an unknown time to a branch surgery. A couple of owners collected their pets that were discharged in the car park. The collection van ferried those inpatients that were to stay in to the branch. It also ran equipment, drugs, drips, kits, bedding, animal food and anything else we could think of.
By 19:00 we were settling into a cramped space in the new building and the patients who were staying in were settled into new kennels. Several new emergencies arrived they needed minor ops and these were done asap and collected the same night to keep kennels and rooms free for major emergencies as we were so limited. 2 Consult rooms had to be pressed into use as walk in kennels for big dogs.
One charity client who was rang to collect their dog said “We’ll do it tomorrow we are holding a party” and turned their phone off. This left us fuming as the op had been done with agreement they would come as soon as called, that was the only unpleasant marring though.

We spent 2 nights at the branch. On the Friday l went over to the main surgery as we were sick of sending requests and getting a bit of what we wanted. I rolled in to a picnic taking place. ¾ of the staff were there tiding the building up and taking advantage to give it all a deep clean. My mission went on hold while l ate 2 HUGE pieces of pizza and felt ill l never learn eyes and stomach!!

The electricians managed to get us a big generator and patched through so we could move “home”. The main incoming cable needs replacing and the fuse board has been rebuilt. So for the foreseeable future it is generator goodness knows when UU will get their act in gear to get the main incoming supply sorted but l understand it is a fairly major job.

Work got us a choice of a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates as a thank you. It may not seem like a lot but it was great that we had been remembered, the old boss (now retired) would not have done anything as a thank you.

It's Only an Arm

2010-04-23T11:35:00.003+01:00

I decided on this blog after reading Coldsteelrains post about his parachute jump to raise money for Combat Stress and his other blog post and Donation page link then his tweet about this oh good grief. It got me wondering why someone with 1000 jumps could not use her other hand for her reserve.

My other half celebrated 30years skydiving last year. As usual l missed the party due to work but l digress. About 8 years ago he was in a formation that funnelled, in other words it fell apart. The lass who happened to be holding hub’s arm grabbed harder instead of letting go, she went over his head still holding his arm and pulled it out of it’s socket.

He said he had that “opps” moment and decided that as his arm was waving at everyone with no control he had better get his reserve out which he did when he got to normal opening altitude. Like many skydivers he hates the canopy ride looks on it like a taxi ride, the fun is before so do not open till you reach opening altitude.

I was reading and glanced up to see if l could spot his canopy. I never bother watching so am never sure which is him, if l am not doing l get no enjoyment watching others doing and enjoying. A good book is more fun.

I saw a reserve and it looked like hubs jumpsuit colour. I scanned looking for a floating main and couldn’t so hoped someone had spotted it but no jumpers were pealing off following a different path as they do when they follow a main to save a fellow jumper a couple of £1000 so l wondered if he had a total mal. I sighed and went over to greet him landing. A few other jumpers came running over. Being a worried wife l was thinking of cost of main and freebag (called that due to action not free of cost), cost of various other bits of hardware and also reserve repack I have my priorities right.

By now hub had landed next to the pit (a gravel circle the closer to the centre the more points you get in accuracy competitions) and folded flat onto the ground near me. At least l did not have to go far. I grabbed the reserve and helped collapse it and pulled it round to him holding his arm.
It is dislocated he said don’t touch me help me get this lot off (equipment) I looked down at him, all my wifey sympathy bubbled up.
“Well thank fuck you put the new French doors in during the week cause god knows when you will get round to it now”
“I am more worried about work he said l am off in a week” At this point he worked away at sea but they let him go as he said he could do the work one armed with a helper.
I let the other jumpers get his equipment off.
The co owner of the centre arrived holding a mug of tea for him. Hang on said hub let me get this lot off. Eventually he sat up and held out his hand for the mug.
“Sorry mate” said his friend “l was thirsty and it looked good l drank it”
“Got an ambo coming” said the CCI walking over with a big cheesy grin.
“WHATTT don’t be stupid l am not going in it what did you waste a call for? Someone else will need it more than me we can go when l get home go cancel it”
As he started to argue the nee naww men turned up.
Hub started to apologise to them for wasting the call. They were fine and said that as they would have taken him 180 deg. to a hospital about 10miles the other way to where we were going agreed it was stupid to go with them it wasn’t like he was dying. They suggested we stop at Lancaster if needed or go to the local a & e when we got home.
Much to hubs disgust they got a mug of tea each and one even accepted a slice of cake as well while he remained dry they agreed with my veto on drinks in case of ga….. lifes tough.

As it turned out l decided on Lancaster A & E l was tired of his moaning at bumps in the road and grey pallor. Despite his muttering just bloody go home. Once there they did try and relocate it with heavy sedation but it was no use his screams echoed through the department.
“We have almost given him the total amount of morphine and midazalam for his size we can said a worried Dr to me and he won’t go down to sleep properly”
Wifey sympathy once more hit high speed “Whack in all you can then just give a bloody good go and ignore his screams, you won’t have to put up with his moaning if he needs a GA” l said.
The Dr looked at me like l had 2 heads but l just glared back, he sighed shook his head and walked back.
Still no luck he needed surgery. I once more short circuited his options taking his clothes when l left to stop him catching a train the next day while l was at work and he was stuck till l collected him later. I knew him of old and he would stagger out post surgery after discharging himself half dead to get back as he hates hospitals.

The final kicker was the next day when the surgeon sought him out to chat skydiving and said. “Well you did a good job one bitch of an arm to replace and anyhow what’s someone your age doing falling out of aero planes” He did apologise for the age crack when told firmly that hub was having fun.

On showing him the article on the female skydiver hub asked same as l did what is an experienced person doing that they can not use their other arm they have got 2 and only one was damaged he also muttered smugly l landed next to the pit.

Hub in a 36way last year

Maluka Honey Foot

2010-04-19T21:29:00.021+01:00

We had a lovely young dog about 6moths old 30kg a cross breed brought in. He had his foot injured in an RTA. He was a stray and in with us until healed and rehomed or reclaimed
I was on the night he came in. He was very nervous but sweet. I popped him onto the table and set about cleaning his foot, l also placed an iv and fluids.

Before l started to clean l took photos but couldn’t get photos between the toes as they were too sore to open. Also placed a paper ruler around the feet to try and show the size of the swelling, it did not come out to well on the photos but worked enough.
He was good as gold for his first foot dressing just laying there, with one person holding him, while l cleaned, dried and dressed it. The foot was very swollen and there was a nasty wound on the outer aspect of the medial toe and the vet was not sure if the toe would need amputation. The top of the foot also had sores and in between the digits as well, these wounds were deep up into the toe creases.

Because he was a bit wriggly the honey went everywhere, well it seemed to but eventually the foot was dressed, honey was cleaned off all of us and he was placed in a kennel with duvet food and water after some jabs of pain killer, anti-inflammatory and antibiotics.
I was on duty for his first few days and we hit it off from the start. In fact l was the only one he seemed to be happy with and l always got great sloppy kisses. He kennel guarded but allowed me to go in and get him out.

He was to have dressing changes daily for the first 3 days then in theory every 3 days but the problem was when l was off he got the taste for the honey. The little “sod” had learnt how to somehow crush his buster collar, push his foot close enough and suck the toe end out then eat the inner dressing.
This means that he has at times had up to 3 dressing changes in a day. At times things went well and it was 24hrs between dressings. The problem was we use maluka honey dressings which is brilliant for wounds somehow he got the end of the dressing off one day so of course once he tasted it he knew exactly where to find the yummy taste. Buster collars only helped so much and he was on the biggest usable size/neck/head, any bigger they almsot fell down his body the collar neck was so big.

Dressing changes were always amazing as he just lay there while he was changed. The helper never had to do anything other than try and keep his tail from whisking up to hard and waggling his bum and then his leg. Once his dressing was off was a bit more work as he wanted to lick his foot for more honey.

One morning I found yet another bare toed foot peeking out at me at 05:00 and as l was alone no vet (gone to bed) no auxiliary (gone home) 2nd nurse (gone home) l did some cussing, got the dressing materials and set to dressing the foot on my own. If it did not work then l would buzz the vet to get his carcass out of his bed and come and help but l decided to see how things went first.

Up till now he had always had 2 people doing the dressing changes, a holder and a wound dresser. I grabbed a front and back leg and pull pushed his 30kg down he flopped happily on his side on his duvet. We made sure he had a duvet as despite being a monumental pain in the arse eating his dressings he was everyone’s favourite. He didn’t kennel guard any more and just wanted loads of loving.
Once he was flat l pinned his neck till he got the message and lay still, l also muttered endearments to him on what l would do if he moved, which he ignored after the first couple of comments.
I cut the old dressing off with a scalpel and had to get very firm as he tried to grab my hand, not ideal with a sharp scalpel blade in it. He lay back and sulked, trying the big “poor unloved me” look, this time it didn’t work due to the situation.

I threw the blade back out the kennel as far as l could then got the old dressing off. By mistake l dropped it by me. “Shark teeth” saw a possible source of honey and while the back end obeyed my command to lay flat the top side lifted and made a grab. A short tug of war and unhooking bandages trapped round teeth the dirty dressing joined the scalpel as far away as possible.
Another firm push and this time l placed my right leg firmly on his neck to hold him down. He figured play time and rolled to try and eat my foot, another tussle and he lay sulking planning his next move.

I unwrapped the new dressings and felt his body tense, glaring at him and muttered some more rude words so he lay back staring at the dressing pack. Watching out of the corner of my eye l saw his look change to "yup there came the tube of honey it just had to be all for me".
A rather stern comment from me and a threat of clubbing him to death with a soggy bread roll (my ultimate threat) brought obedience. Actually it was more the fact l grabbed his head mid lunge and held it back flat on the duvet that got through to him.

I cleaned and dried the foot and threw the cleaning swabs and drying cotton wool l had used well away from him. Then l got the dressing on, he was a bit ticklish with the foot but did lie still. As soon as l was done he leapt up and tried to grab all the dressing material he could while l fought to remove it. Bloody dog what part of “drop it you useless ************” did he not understand? Thank goodness the scalpel was far away. And yes he got lots of cuddles and some doggie treats for being almost so well behaved despite a few lapses.

After about 3 weeks of steady dressing changes the foot was hugely improved, he still had his toe and was awaiting his new home.
When we had a quiet spell at night one of us would go and get him out to have a play with us in the medical prep area, he would then go exploring. Listening to our “oy out of there” and looking back over his shoulder trying to decide if he should go into the animal ward or laundry room or wherever he was being ordered out of if is really worth going in. Curiosity won about 50% of the time, he would come belting out trying to look innocent when he heard us heading for him to haul him out.
Animal food kitchen was a special favourite as that is where the treats are and he knew that someone is going to get him something and if he plays the cute card right lot’s of something’s.

The dressing continued but he was getting wrigglier, first photos he hurt to much to move but as wounds healed he wriggled and with a camera phone it ended up blurred however the photos give an idea of the healing going on. The timings on the photos are approximate in weeks.

(if anyone has problems seeing the photos please let me know my photos seem to be playing up on some computers)

Original wound's on admit

Size of damaged foot compared to normal one, on the normal one the paper wraps back under itself, on the damaged one the ends do not meet

Week 2 wounds on pads healing and also top of foot

Week 2 main wound granulating nicely

Week 3 wounds between toes clear and able to open toes

Main wound week 3

Parachute Hangup

2010-04-15T00:50:00.001+01:00

Found this in one of hubs skydiving books. A famous story of how back in the 70's a student in UK had a hang up in a cessna. His deployed his reserve to early before he was free and while he was still attached to the plane the photo is from the top of the photo downwards:

Reserve parachute
Student (black dot in middle)
Plane

Click on the photo a couple of times to enlarge it and read the full story.

Alternative Door

2010-04-12T08:26:00.002+01:00

The following happened a time ago and had us all laughing in disbelief. The little bitch was a sweetie totally unharmed by the night’s proceedings and took it all in her stride.

The owner had gone down to the pub and taken his dog with him. He had had more drink than was good for him...to put it bluntly he was totally pissed, from here it is surmising but:
Unable to work his front door key when he got home he took the next logical step.
He smashed the lounge window. Not sure how he did this as windows are meant to have safety glass.
Once the way was clear he threw the dog into the lounge, lets face it if she climbed in she may have cut herself.

The police and ambulance were called to take him away where he was treated to we are told “rather severe hand and arm wounds” before he had shiny new bracelets decorating his wrists.
The little bitch was collected and spent the night with us in a comfy bed. Actually she had a duvet folded into 4 and was lost in the middle of it snuggled down with a big bowl of food and water by the bed for refreshments.

The real problem with the above situation was that the drunk gentleman smashed in the lounge window of the house he used to live in. We did wonder if that was also the reason his key did not work?

Tortoise Cruelty Case

2010-04-09T13:36:00.009+01:00

This post is not for the squeamish. It is upsetting l know because l am still upset and angry and l deal with death every day but this is for me a very personal death.

I was doing an anaesthetic a couple of nights ago when the locum vet came in and asked for advice on how to put a tortoise to sleep. She had one in that needed doing asap and was worried as they are so difficult to deal with.

The owners thought it very funny when they described how they threw it to their dog to play with and how it ripped into it and vomited up the part it had swallowed of the tortoise a few minutes after swallowing it.
The vet is reporting it but l think it may not get prosecuted due to the fact the owners took it to the vet and how do you prove other than they found it funny and admitted to doing it do you prove it was deliberate.
Time has proved me correct they said almost those words, l know certainly the local rspca attitude it is very hard to get them to do anything, the animal collection officers do try but the higher up the tree the less help you get. Playing devils advocate how would you prove it they would deny it but even so it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

I said if she got one of the other nurses to take over my job l would sort it for her and show her how to pith it. She sent in the spare nurse and l went off to look for some tools, a hammer and sharp longish object/s.

There are only about 3 recommended ways to kill a tortoise but only really one works and if you use the others you should always pith them to make sure as they can shunt blood supply from parts of their body and survive long periods anoxia (without oxygen) cutting off the head is not a way as they can survive for a long time l saw article that said up to an hour. The following is actually the recommended BSAVA method adapted*

First the tortoise was given a very big dose of ketamine. Then *placed in a small anaesthetic chamber (plastic tupperware box with pipe into it that the anaesthetic tubing attaches to. He was in this for about 15 minutes to attempt to help relax him. This may or may not have worked due to my comments on surviving without oxygen,and could well just have been the ketamine kicking in but all means to help are utilised.
When l took him out l hated to do it but still had to pull his head out of his shell but he was by now a lot more lax and did not have much resistance. I got the vet to hold his head.
Then the needle was placed on the top of his skull above the brain stem and driven in l then opted for a slightly larger but very sharp dental drill (unused) which l again hit into the brain stem with my makeshift hammer (an orthopaedic tool) several times to totally destroy it.
The feeling is awful as you crunch through bone and feel and hear it splinter knowing it is driving into the brain along with whatever you are using (needle/drill head).
*Although BSAVA just say once the vet who showed me said to do it several times to make sure.
*I then stood for about 20 mins watching for any signs of life and getting others to check as well. With a tortoise or turtle l stand and look really look hard for any signs of life and gently pull limbs to see if any with draw reflex. In this case it means looking at horrendous injuries. Again this is not part of the standard advice but l want to make sure the poor creature is really dead.

Normally we put an animal down with a clean needle and after the owners goodbyes you then go back and take care of it fast as no reason to stop and stare.

You can see the major injury with the ripped off shell, what does not show up is the damage to the internal section of the body. Underneath the shell is puncture wounds. The skirt where the shell flares out from the body is fractured like a wobbly tooth and lifts up in sections. Smaller holes are in the upper shell as well, some can be seen.

Killer Korma

2010-04-04T11:59:00.005+01:00

I gave the prep table a quick wipe and threw a couple of incontinence sheets over it. I then placed on it a 4 pint bottle of milk, a tub of mayonnaise, a tub of natural yogurt and a large roll of blue paper (used to clean kennels etc)
Pushed a chair up and checked the “table to mouth ratio” was correct and the table did not need to go up or down. Finally sat and read my book while l waited for the microwave in the food prep to ping on my chicken korma curry.

It may seem an odd table setting but given the slum that passes for a staff room l have been eating my shift meals off the medical prep table for the last 10 years, when l have had time to eat. If you swabbed the staff room and swabbed the prep table l know what would be cleaner. And anyhow it had a couple of clean kennel incontinence sheets over it.

At the ping l went and pulled my korma curry out of the microwave trying not to burn my fingers as l peeled the plastic off the top.
Then sitting down l plonked a couple of huge spoons of mayo on my korma and swirled it in.
Carefully l took a bite. My face went red, sweat broke out on me, tears started to track down my face my mouth shrivelled in pain and my taste buds screamed as the hot spice hit them. I was determined to crack this curry eating though.
I grabbed the bottle of milk and took a healthy slug like an alcoholic downing his most desperate drink of the day.
A wipe of the face and another bit of blue roll for quick nose blow as the sweat caused my nose to run with fluid as well as my skin and eyes.
Wincing at the thought of all that curry heat still to go l chucked a couple of large spoons of natural yogurt onto my korma and swirled that in with the mayonnaise to try and kill the hot spice.

Another bite and another glugggggg of milk.. a very long one and more blue roll, more mayo. I had a very white looking korma that was going cold with all the condiments but still very spicy. It was surrounded by a small sea of discarded blue roll. And a red faced tear and sweat sniffing human (me) was bent over it.

By now my helpful co-workers were in stitches at my discomfort at what they claimed was so mild it was a stew not a curry. I glared at them and the vet informs me that it is better than watching tv watching me trying to eat what he sneeringly calls a meat stew. Ok so don’t call my korma a curry, but it is bloody spicy.

10 minutes later with sweat pouring off my bright red face, almost all of the milk downed in desperate gulps l reach the end of my spicy chicken korma.
My helpful “voices of advice” aka co-workers push off to do something useful. I throw my empty korma container, table cloths (incontinence sheets) and sea of blue roll into the bin, take one last gulp of milk and go off to look for some constructive work.
Sitting down relaxing on a dinner break while my mouth is burning and my taste buds are singed is not much of a break. Things are improving though l ate the whole lot tonight. I may bring in a tub of butter with my next meal, l hear that’s good for killing spices.

I will be at it again the following night (work time permitting) trying to get myself used to curry because l think by not eating spicy dishes l am loosing out on something. If l ever get the hang of curry’s and spice l may just discover what l am missing out on.
For the moment all l can figure l am missing is my taste buds and an unburnt mouth. I am hoping after all this hell l am not wrong about missing out on something yummy…am l?

I have been on my korma curry experiment for about a year and a half now at home and work. Sometimes l can eat the whole lot provided it is always drowned in mayo, the yogurt doesn't help much. I have found the best way is to get 2 pieces of bread thick with butter and slap as much korma n mayo in the middle as l can and have a “korma sandwich”. When that is eaten I then eat any chunks of chicken left and avoid the rest of the curry.

Footnote:
I remembered a post l did on curry a couple of years ago for those who have not read it l decided to recycle it in the best tradition of saving the environment.
Curry Contest

Evil Antepsin

2010-03-31T10:51:00.002+01:00

I seem to be a bit of a liability to things lately. A couple of days ago l had to give 5ml of Antepsin to a bulldog. I bent down to squirt it in his mouth l wasn’t holding him tight enough as he was a softy. He was panting a lot and moved his head with a jerk as he felt the syringe caused the Antepsin to do a graceful arc through his open mouth and hit the kennel wall. Antepsin is a thick white liquid.

Cussing l got a new syringe. As there was not enough Antepsin in the bottle for the syringe to reach and tipping was out due to bottle shape v syringe length l put the Antepsin bottle lid upside down on the counter and poured the liquid into that, except l coughed this caused me to over pour and Antepsin poured over the sides.

I “yiked” and jumped and my other hand caught a half mug of tea that l knocked over. This spilled into the lower draw that was open. I grabbed some blue roll and started to mop one of the nurses came to give me a hand. I kicked the draw shut, out of sight out of mind. It is sort of a junk draw and needs a good scrub sometime when l am in the mood and not busy.

I went to clean the spilled Antepsin and bottle cap up. More blue roll and a grab to clean spill and lift cap l knocked the full cap onto the floor which threw it’s contents over the floor.

Bending with a snarl l cleaned that as well and lifted the lid, wiped it and put it back on the bottle, stood up and dropped the bottle as l tightened the lid. Luckily my foot managed to break the bottles fall and l didn’t break it.

I placed the bottle into draw and pushed syringe into other nurses hand told her to do the bulldog as l was not going near the evil Antepsin for at least 24hours. I went back to clean the kennel wall and the auxiliary had thankfully got that for me.

That does not count the random bucket of mop water l tripped over, or the fallen over broom l didn’t see till l went sprawling.

Neonate Puppy

2010-03-29T07:30:00.005+01:00

Had an unusual case last night. I went over to hold a neonate puppy that the vet had placed on oxygen. She muttered something about heat bag and auxiliary which l translated as one was coming.

When the beanie arrived l popped the semi comatose pup onto it. After a few minutes he started to make l feel a lot more alive movements (his legs moved). It was obvious he was very poorly but with his slight improvement he stood a chance of being a "goer". He had been hand fed since birth as he had been very weak and his chest did not sound good.

The vet came back and l updated her on the slight improvement in movement.. ie not totally flat but moving legs. While she was standing there l decided to take the pups temperature and see what it was as he had been on the heat beanie for a few minutes. I was chatting and realised l couldn't insert the thermometer, my heart sunk.
The vet saw my face and looked down, the same expression forming. She pulled out a catheter and had a gentle prod around but it was obvious there was no anus. It was covered by a membrane if it was there at all. It explained the collapsed puppy. Food in for 3 days nothing out but urine.

She went to speak to the owner who asked for a quote to repair it. One of the certificate holder vets was just on the phone so we waited for him to decide. He had a look and made a few comments but given the age and state of the puppy the decision was there was no chance.

While the owners signed the paperwork in the consult room, l anaesthetised him deeply so that he would not feel the needle when he was injected.

All puppies and kittens we deliver by caesarian or born naturally at the surgery are checked for cleft pallets and to see that they have an anus. This was a home birth and obviously the owners did not realise. In all my time nursing l have not seen a puppy or kitten without an anus. Cleft pallets are fairly common though.

Lead Trouble

2010-03-24T12:06:00.003Z

One of the techniques taught by behaviourists for dogs that are not under control is to put a long lead on them. Then you have something to grab a hold of but not the dog which when you touch them is a form of reward.

Some dogs have a long lead left on when their owners go out so when they come back they can grab the lead as the dog hurtles out the door and/or grab the lead to get the dog under control.

This seemed like a good idea, however after seeing what happened to a dog that had a long lead on l am now weary and always warn owners to be extra careful if they are not there to keep an eye on the dog.

In this case the lead had wrapped around the dog. From the outside the dog’s prepuce looked normal, this wasn’t the case though. When the dog was under GA and the penis was extruded by the vet it caused a sharp intake of breath and an immediate crossing of legs and wince from the male vet. The penis had been almost cut in half and there was just a thread holding it together. Luckily for the dog the urethra was undamaged or things would have got very complicated but it all healed well.

Re-evaluate Relationships

2010-03-16T11:54:00.003Z

At times it helps to re-evaluate relationships so here are 3 re-evaluations l have been involved in lately:

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The other night the vet who l had always thought was a friend said.
“You know if you are still coughing as badly tomorrow night l am going to give you a jab of Convenia (long term antibiotic)”

“Ohh will it help me stop coughing and sort me out”

“Nope it give me a chance to hurt you as much as your coughing has hurt my ears”

WHHHHaaaaa and here is me thinking he is a friend. I aimed a kick at a tender part of his anatomy but he was ready and jumped back.

“What’s up” was his reply “l could have said l would use stingulox (Synulox) on a daily basis”…at this point he ran up the passage while l plotted revenge.

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Dealing with a 50kg English Bull Mastiff who was lying in the walk in kennel on her doubled over duvet. She was to comfy to stand up and pulling just got her snuggling down harder so l was lying down trying to listen to her heart with my scope. Forget feeling pulses she was to fat.

As l was counting the beats a deep rumbling growl started in her belly and rose up her chest. I lifted my eyes slowly to her face which was lifting a lip up some very very big teeth, well they looked big when l was lying on the floor. My brain worked at 900miles an hour to work out how to grab her mouth shut, pin her down and get out of the deep pile of dodo l was in.

Thankfully she was staring intently at the door crack and a dog that was being walked past the door and not looking at me. I slowly moved my hand to her neck to push down and moved back. Once the dog passed out of her sight she settled down and went back to being a softy.

My heart took some time to settle back into something resembling calm and collected.

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I am not a shar-pei person, placing them with a lot of breeds that should not be allowed. Leaving aside temperament (awful) they are a walking health hazard and l object to animals being bred with health problems that cause them a life of pain because people ‘like’ the breed. If they liked it they wouldn’t allow it to be bred with the problems it has.

However we have had a young one about 5months old in at work. She is very sweet. Not enough for me to like the breed overall but enough that she is getting to be a pest if l walk past and do not stop to give her a cuddle every time.

Life's Ripples

2010-03-13T10:23:00.002Z

I thought it about time l return to bloger land. Update everyone about things and get reading all the blogs l enjoy but have let lapse over the last 2 or 3 months.

My dad’s funeral was on Friday and l have to say the funeral home made it go very smoothly and have been excellent. It turns out they have a tie in to the co-op group. We get free legal aid but when the legal department rang me l had done all that was needed so far. A big relief l now know l have done the correct things just a few jobs left l asked about but those were also confirmed as right. Thank fully because all was in joint names l do not need probate, that was so far my biggest worry.

It was nice to see the family and some of their youngsters who l haven’t seen for years. Boy the small “kids” have grown!.
I gave a eulogy at the funeral and managed to hold it together although l nearly broke down a couple of times. Thankfully there was a mic there I have yet another bad cough and lost/husky voice, a flare up of my before xmas problem.

2 Days after my dad passed another special friend Adrian died. It was to be his 65th birthday on the Saturday and he was a very special person. He had a massive heart attack. Speaking to his wife he also had a horrendous time in hospital. I am not sure if she will take or further.

I have had a letter back from the hospital in sympathy for my dads passing and if l prefer to have the complaints results in writing they understand. If l want a meeting with some deputy head of nursing let them know. I want the meeting and have told them l will let them have some dates.

Work was hard going during January and February l was on the 22-08 shift while a new nurse was found and employed. I was only getting 2 to 3 hours sleep day or night l think through stress. That let this blasted cough hammer me again. I have been doing 13:-23 shifts last week, problem was l did not have a meal all week just a sandwich and bag of crisps each night instead which didn’t help my on board reserves so am feeling even more drained.
I am doing nights this weekend and then a week off and then 13:-23 shifts for the foreseeable future while another new nurse is found. The present one is off to the “dark side” as we call nhs nursing.

It has been a mixed bag at work. The normal amount of dangerous dogs spending the night before going off to kennels, some very sweet others totally evil. The usual misconception that big is nasty and breed specific, when all too often the small and/or other breeds can be just as bad.
The government are on in lala land trying to make everyone have insurance for their dogs. Get the animals, neutered, get trained dogs AND owners and then worry about insurance.

Problems come in batches and we seem to have had lots of epileptic dogs in the last couple of weeks. Before that we have had the diabetic animal batch. And as always the RTA cats come in. Petplan estimated that a cat was hit in the UK by a car every 2minutes. Judging by the amount we have in via one small corner of UK that may not be a high enough figure.

Nearly got myself clawed badly by a cat on Thursday, l was holding for the heart referral specialist to scan. The cat came out of his sedation unbeknown to us as the lights were off…ok and we were chatting which was interesting as both of us have bad coughs and throats. All was well until l stretched my one arm in the air, the arm that had not even been holding the blasted cat.
The cat decided to go nuts on a ketamine bender. I managed to pin it so that MH could get more sedation in it’s iv catheter before the cat ate us both. Of course this happened 5 minutes before we finished so the cat slept another 40 mins more than it needed to had it just stayed relaxed.
Cat’s own fault he had to wait an extra couple of hours for his chicken. Something he loves and was already angry at having missed a couple of good meals of during the day as we k new he would be sedated.

I organised the night staff “post xmas” bash, after a complaint was put in that turning down night staff for a 4.99/head xmas meal was tight to say the least considering it is a dedicated night staff who only work unsocial hours a change of heart was had. As l live down the road from the pub l said l would do it. Was not to bad 16 managed to arrange to come. The one that h/o cancelled before xmas had 21 but a couple of staff had left and others were unable to come for various reasons.

I have worked at a couple of other “normal” day vets which has been nice, seeing life during the day, doing nurse clinics and home sensible hours. Having said that l still enjoy the locum work and do not want to go back to set shifts, asking for time off and the general dog eat dog work of a set routine. No matter how much l may moan about work.

I went mad and bought 14 books off Amazon ¾ of a series of books l have been reading. Not ordered books off Amazon before and was pleasantly surprised all arrived even the ones from Germany and US, they got to me quicker than the uk ones.
I held off getting the books in the l have read will get those soon and a couple are just out so still very expensive. Brilliant writer she writes a lot of different supernatural books. These are sort of vampire based the series called the Dark series by Christine Feehan
Her one book Dark Celebration is set at Christmas and as a treat has 40pages of chocolate deserts at the end of it that people have sent in. I wish l could cook instead l sit and drool looking at them.

RIP Dad

2010-03-01T16:01:00.003Z

My Dad passed today 4/11/1917 - 1/3/2010 You were ever the gentleman a wonderful husband and a great dad.

Update on Life

2010-02-25T13:39:00.004Z

Not forgotten the blog just been a hard time with getting my head together to write much, l have done short tweets though usually from work.

My dad has been in the care home and we have visited pretty much every evening. I have also been on nights and my body has had a hard time this time adjusting. I have averaged 2 or 3 hours sleep a day or night depending if l am on or off duty and the rest of the time l have just been lying around like a wet noodle just feeling to drained to do much.
Last week l went and got another of my bad coughs and have now pretty much lost my voice again so waiting for it to all clear up.

The hospital social worker has not been to helpful she took on my dads case. I have extended his care home stay 3 times as my mum did not feel up to coping and my dad was not 100% happy about being able to manage. The worker was all "he can stay as long as he wants don't worry" but as soon as l went to arrange things l would get a huge lecture.
last week she visited my mum and made clear that there would be no extensions he was coming home this Tuesday regardless. I pointed out the ambulance transport was booked. She was not listening to me just chanting he can not stay ANY longer he HAS to come home. She visited my father told the care home we demanded he goes home no matter what and told him that it was "not his choice to stay in his own home once home" I had to try and calm him down as he was very upset at this. My plan was as soon as he was home the ss was out and a new care worker in l was not having her around.

Last thursday he started to get a bad chest infection, something he is prone to. I got some anti B from the Dr. Only amoxycillan as useful as sugar water but it was something. I wanted him to stay in the home till he was over the infection, the home were happy but no point in speaking to ss as it was made clear no was going to be the answer.

So dad got back on Tuesday at about 15:00. My mum was worried about how he seemed, l put it down to her usual 'molehill out of a mountain'. When l got back at 18:15 he was not good. About 19:30 It took hub and l to get him up to go to the loo and he was not too coherent. The carer's turned up at 19:40 to put him to bed but l decided to send them away and got him an ambulance.

As usual a fantastic pair but after getting him on 02 asap as his saturation was 60% and his pulse was all over between 20 and 49 his temperature was not registering in one ear and 33 in the other he went straight into resus. The stabilised him and he is back in hospital. When hub and mum visited yesterday they said he looked to be dying. Lips blue, non responsive and incoherent. Today the physio rang me to get an idea of what he could or couldn't do and said he was sitting up, and asking for another cup of tea.

The care home said he had not slept the night before he was due home and then he had the ride around in the ambulance till he got home and we all feel it tipped him over the edge. Had he been allowed to stay in the home till he recovered he would have been ok.

We will possibly look at longer term care say 3 or 4 months then reassess if he can cope at home. The care home he was in are happy to have him back they all love him, the only problem was distance for my mum, we will see what happens.

I am fairly slow on work at the moment a big worry for me. Hub doesn't worry l do will see what happens.

Little Old Staffie

2010-02-05T17:26:00.003Z

He was a little old black and white staffie. He came in as a stray. A nasty testicular tumour, his skin covered with sores, many infected, there was a suspicious lump in his abdomen of another possible tumour, he was very thin.

On admit he was placed on a drip, given some antibiotics, food and water, of which he drank a lot 3 bowls full. He was given some id (easy to digest) and ate ravenously then slept snuggled up on his bed.
The next day his drip was removed and he was just given water and lots of small meals of id. And finally cuddles and walks.
He was a happy soul despite his health not being good, and he slept 99% of the time. He was not in a fit state to be shipped off to the kennels, and was a “3 dayer”.

On Wednesday night following the vets instructions the auxiliary got the little old staffie out for me and held him while l clipped up his leg and inserted an iv catheter. He was happy to settle down on the prep table with lots of fuss.
I looked at the 20ml syringe of yellow pentobarb l had drawn up although he only needed 10ml at most. With a grim sense of humour l always feel overkill was better than underkill, strange the things you think of, terrible to most people but a fact of life in the veterinary world.

We fussed him and talked gently when he settled down for his long sleep, as his heart ceased we gave him one last hug and thought that whatever had happened before at least his last days had been comfortable for him. Then his body was slid into a bag and placed in a cold area.

Life flowed on around us and we stepped back into the role of helping the living, death slipping from our minds, until at different time’s death called to us to meet him again as his helper.

Threat Alerts

2010-01-30T09:33:00.003Z

If you are PC then do not read the following. If you still have a sense of humour knowing it is humour (well l think it is l mean it couldn't possibly be true), then the following is for you.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the English issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The Scottish Parliament raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the frontline in the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a neighbour" and "Lose".

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Americans meanwhile are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.

New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA!" Due to continuing defence cutbacks (the air force being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "Shit, I hope Australia will come and rescue us".

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, mate". Two more escalation levels remain, "Strewth!', I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie IS cancelled". So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

Sweet, Loving, Abandoned.

2010-01-25T16:31:00.004Z

Saturday night we had a lovely rottie cross brought in. He was a big dog about 45/50kg. His owners had moved out the house and left him. We got a call via the police to go and collect him. If l was going to get another dog he would have been it. I don’t think he knows what the word “nasty” is and is a big lolloping softie.

He knew commands and so despite being scatty and bouncing all over, when l went into the kennel and said settle now lad he would sit and grin his big happy smile, tongue out, front feet slightly twitching waiting to be told he could move.

He has gone onto kennels l just hope he gets the home he deserves and not some scroat who is looking for a tough guard dog and treats him like dirt.

Breedings Easy In'it

2010-01-21T16:34:00.003Z

I don’t mind giving advice over the phone helping people and their animals, l do it all the time. In certain cases though l get angry that people, in easily remedied situations, have not taken the time to do their own basic homework.

I had 6 phone calls between 04:00 and 06:00am the other day. The woman was hysterical about her bitch giving birth. I told her at one point to “put her husband on who l could hear in the background and sounded less upset. Then go and make coffee, bake a cake, anything that got her OUT of the area the bitch was giving birth as she was winding the bitch up screaming and crying over her, hugging her and poking her and she [bitch] would probably kill the puppies”

“Oh dear, oh no oh my god l didn’t realise l was causing a problem” followed by more crying and howling down the phone. She handed the phone over for this call but did all the rest.

None of the calls were quick all needed Q and A and repeating of A as she wasn’t listening properly. There was no complications just people who had not taken the time to learn. The calls kept dragging me away from the inpatients, genuine cases that l was trying to deal with.

The vet took the 7th call as my arms were full of an injured cat it was to tell him the puppies were suckling and wasn’t it exciting, then she put the phone down. The vet looked at the phone like it had bitten him and, then looked at me and said “What was all that about”?

Was it wonderful, no actually it wasn’t, we were dealing with a genuine emergency who were more important than some woman who should have taken her time to do her basic breeders homework. Who couldn’t deal with the basics of a bitch giving birth normally and who stressed her [bitch] to almost reject the puppies, and interfered with the care of genuinely ill patients because of her lack of fore thought.

If you insist on breeding your dog or cat you should at least learn the very basics about what goes on. Instead the vast majority of people look at an average litter, add a couple of extra babies (optimism).
They then look at what new things they want, after all, why use the money to pay off debts.
They look for the cheapest pedigree stud of the breed needed available, preferably their own male but if not any close ones will do.
Unless you want a cross breed litter with a fancy name then any old mutt or moggie, will do.
Finally they take a calculator and work out how much to charge for each puppy/kitten.

It is no excuse to say that it was an unplanned litter and giggle about how exciting it is and how you wonder what is going to happen or be shocked at what does. If you know the bitch is pregnant deal with it, properly. If the bitch or queen is not neutered learn what can happen, you know that bird and bee stuff naughty sex. If your bitch gets a sudden weight gain and they have been in season a couple of months before what did you assume…they ate doughnuts DUH!
Yes, l had that said to me once that they thought the bitch had eaten some doughnuts lying around.

The checklist below is in no particular order; The majority of questions below are not all the questions, just some basic ones the “breeders” wouldn’t even think to look into and if they do, they ignore the question as it would cost money or time or effort or all 3. After all animals have babies all the time so what's the problem...in'it

Should you look into the various birthing stages and what happens?
Yes…ignore

Should the animals (male and female) have any tests for genetic problems?
Yes…ignore

Should you check the family history of the dam and sire to avoid inbreeding?
Yes…Ignore

Should the mother be wormed pre and during and post pregnancy and the pups?
Yes…ignore

Should there be no fleas about (these can suck usually kitten’s dry of blood)?
Yes…Ignore

Should the mother be vaccinated?
Yes...ignore

Should the homes be checked?
Yes…ignore

Should the mother and the pups be fed on good quality food?
Yes…ignore

Should you look at buying in milk substitute and feed bottles in case needed?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look up information on how to hand raise puppies/kittens?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look into the cost of a caesarean and other vets fees?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look into the post birth problems of mothers?
Yes…ignore

Should you know how old the mother should be bred from till?
Yes…Ignore

Should you make sure the dam and sire are fit and healthy?
Yes…Ignore

Should you only breed at responsible times? i.e. Not at Christmas
Yes…Ignore

Should they make up stupid names and charge a fortune for cross breeds?
Yes… Confirm

Should they make sure their pedigree is registered with the kennel club so they can give out paperwork to charge as much as possible?
Yes…Confirm

Should you advertise as cheaply as possible to make as much money as possible?
Yes…Confirm

See you checked the important things yes; breeding animals couldn’t be easier, now just sit back and wait for the money to roll in.

Bella Mouse and Meetings

2010-01-20T18:42:00.003Z

I had an update today from a friend about an illustrated book he (author) and his wife (illustrator) are bringing out for children ‘Bella Mouse at Mobberley Edge’. Everything is clicking into place with the publishers and the book should be out around March/April time. I will put up more details then on the storyline, where it will be available and price. I do know that they want it keep reasonable which is missing in a lot of book prices nowadays.

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After cancelling the night staff Christmas party and upsetting all the night staff one of the more polite vets drafted a letter of complaint which a lot of us signed. It was then sent to hr at head office, and we heard nothing about it, nor did we expect to.

At the night staff meeting the other day the regional director was a bit upset at the letter saying no-one had asked him. He gave his blessing for it to go ahead if someone would organise it and also arrange for everything to be prepaid. As l am just along the road from where we are going l said l would.
A bit later on he muttered a bit sheepishly, “I didn’t know about it but IF anyone did ask me l would probably have said no before l found out how cheap it was for the meal”. Then he changed the subject, taking time to glare at me for bursting out laughing and telling him that “honesty is the best policy”.

As usually the rest of the meeting was a waste of time but the one admittance to putting his foot in it and a go ahead for the party made up for it.
I also got an ok to put publicity info out in all the surgeries on ‘Bella Mouse at Mobberley Edge’ when the book comes out, no point on missing a chance to help friends if l can.

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I have been trying to get used to posting on Twitter using my mobile phone. The main problem is that it doesn't tell me on my phone how many characters l have used so it is a bit hit and miss at the moment. I won’t Twitter much when l am off duty, unless l happen to be doing anything interesting which is rare.
I like being able to do short notes on things that may not merit a full blog, or l may be able to build into a blog at some later date. The idea is as l get used to it more to give a flavour of life behind the scenes at a vets.

Twitter & Care Homes

2010-01-15T10:36:00.002Z

Well l have tried to go all posh. I have had mobile internet put on my phone and trying to get used to using it, as it is very slow by comparison to a landline this is taking time.
The l got even posher and decided to set Twitter up with the thoughts that l could do fill ins while l was on duty and stole 5 minutes loo time,usually the quiet area where l can catch a quick break and not be called.It really is "time in loo".
I am back on duty this evening so will see how l get on with twittering or tweeting.
We are due phone upgrades in February and march and l am dithering over the iphone 3gs and the blackberry bold 9700. If anyone has those 2 please let me know what you think of them. The phones are a let down on both and l can not decide which to get. Bold has better write up but smaller screen. iphone mixed reviews but bigger screen.

My Dad is in the care home, they are great. As l said before not the most up to date building but they care. My dad is in the lounge/dinning room all day, they are big on tea and it is just about on tap there. Even we get offered in the second breath after hi. Apparently the food is very good, it is all cooked fresh on the premises
There has been a few muddles with his clothes as they were not marked up but the carers labelled them up for us yesterday.
The cost is a lot less as well as my parents only have to part fund it as opposed to full fund. Again a big relief.

The same praise cannot be said of the hospital and his arrival. Last Monday amid all the blizzards in the north west the care home had said their drive up a slope was undrivable and the roads not good. I notified the hospital and left things up to them. On the monday evening when we visited my dad we dropped a bag of warm clothes off for when he moved.

I confirmed with the care home similar situation on Tuesday and again told the hospital, being as how my dad was due to go to the CH on Tuesday.
At about 17:30 l got a call from the ward sister saying they had a land-rover ambulance and were going to take my dad over. I was worried about this but assured all would be well and they would ring the CH.
We went in on Wednesday and were told of the "arrival". The ward sister rang the care home and said we insisted my dad was moved now. The CH were not happy but said well if it is safe, and again assured of the land rover.

At about 19:00 the carers heard a vehicle and went out. There was a transit people mover unloading my dad and his wheelchair in a blizzard, the driver refused to help the 2 girls get my dad inside and they only had indoor shoes on. They had to haul the wheelchair up the slope of a long drive. To make things worse my dad had a thin hospital blanket over his legs and the half open scrub suit he used as pyjamas. They left the warm clothes in a bag. He had been hauled out of bed, put in a wheelchair and pushed straight to the van.
This is a 92year old with severe disability, suffers chest infections, has just been on drips and treatment, body weight about 45kgs no fat, has no proper temperature regulation and struggles to stay warm.

Thankfully he is fine. I have been dithering about complaining as doubt sod all will be done.

Humour and Relaxation

2010-01-11T20:17:00.001Z

If anyone is looking for a property in the Manchester area this may be ideal. I do not think it is to expensive and is ready to move into. one bedroom house

And this is l am told the Ukraine’s version of “You’ve got talent” and boy does she have talent. I struggle to draw one side of a stick man and get the other to line up.

Close Call

2010-01-09T09:31:00.004Z

I took my mum to wynsors shoes a couple of days ago. There was a woman in a bulky Arab dress with headscarf on sort of like a semi burqa just sitting on the isle end on one of the stools if you want to change footwear.
She looked odd from the start and l got bad vibes off her, there was no kids around with headscarves or anyone else who appeared to be with her, she had no shoes around her as if she had been trying them on and was not gazing around the shop looking at the shoe isles. She was perched and just didn't fit in.

My mum got some shoes and sat about 7 foot away and slightly offset opposite the woman to try them on, then walked round to test them. As l was watching her test the shoes something made me spin round, burqa woman stopped dead a couple of feet from the handbag and looked in her bag, snapped it shut and started to walk round the store. She made my hair rise and hackles it was just to false.

I went straight to the bag and hunted in it checking purse, card holder and anything else, all there. My mum looked up and asked what l was doing. I didn't want to worry her so said oh just being a nosey cow, she went back to her shoes.

My skin was crawling at burqa woman walking around the isles, she was not browsing just vaguely acting like she was. I went to an assistant and asked about her and was told..."she asked about extra wide shoes.. come to think of it it was a long time ago".
I told the assistant what had happened she got worried but not sure if she told anyone. I hope so no way was that woman genuine. I am not sure if she had the "dress" as a handy bulky place to hide her stolen items inside or to yell racist if caught, possibly both.

Handy place shoe stores, woman leave their bags and walk about look down a lot so if you go shoe shopping and do try shoes ... carry your handbag. My mum was just bloody lucky.

WATCH YOUR PURSES/BAGS WHEN SHOPPING

Celia the Cuban

2010-01-06T03:32:00.002Z

I wrote about the smaller crocs being moved to their new enclosure at Tenerife Sur Zoo but thought l would tell the story of Celia the Cuban crocodile and her move to the same enclosure…. Once the fence was made higher and croc proof.
Paco had built the new enclosure as he felt the smaller Niles were now at a size they were less likely to get eaten by Celia. Both sets of crocs enclosures had only been temporary ones, true for a few years but only “short term”

Celia had been at the zoo for a number of years. She is a very rare croc being a Cuban and her arrival was different to the normal sort of arrival.
A container ship had docked at Santa Cruz in Tenerife to off and reload cargo. The sailors had been in Cuba and South America on one leg of their trip and had acquired quite a few creatures, mainly parrots. They decided that they would sell the creatures in Tenerife to earn some extra cash.
They had sold most of the animals except Celia, sensibly the citizens of Santa Cruz decided that they would not buy her but stuck to the parrots and few smaller creatures.

At the end of the day when the ship was refreshed and due to sail the crew went back to the ship leaving poor Celia to walk around the streets looking for food and security. The zoo was called and they rescued her. She had been there growing since, and was now around about 7ft and happy in her home.

The trouble with moving her was she spent a lot of time in her pond. It was muddy and impossible to see into, and though only narrow it was deep and Paco insisted she had to be caught not trapped.
This “simple” job was accomplished by pushing a broom handle down into the muddy water and pinning her to the floor. As she reared up in anger a noose was to be dropped over her jaws and pulled shut, then she was hauled out, hogtied and carried to her new home.

No matter how Marco or l said it was a crazy scheme, your hands ended up in the water as the pond was deep, It stressed her out, it stressed us out, we risked injuring her, we risked her injuring us, we got no place he was adamant.
After 2 hours Paco had got bored of supervising, you notice “supervising” he was not putting his hands in there and wandered off but my hub had arrived by now and joined in.
We continued to push the handle down while one of us waited with the noose, every so often we would swop to give a broom pushers a break. You could feel her wizz under the handle as it brushed her. At times she would surface, grab a look and breath and go down again it was crazy. A couple of times we got her to rear up but never managed to get her noosed as she was always at the opposite end to where l was or to far away.

It took about 4 hours before they succeeded in getting her back end pinned, and on cue she reared up by me and l managed to get the noose over her jaws and pull tight.
She slammed around but l held on the other 2 leaping over to help. We got her part way out and more ropes onto her then pulled her out and tied to a plank and immobilised her tail and body.

We carried her over to the new enclosure with the smaller Niles. We were all barefoot, normal for me but not for hub or Marco. Hub cried out as he stood on something but kept going. When we checked his foot later there was just a small hole.

Celia settled quickly into her new home seeming to enjoy it but hubs foot didn’t get better. Finally after about 5 months of limping he allowed me to have a proper look. A dig with a needle and a hard squeeze and out popped a chunk of plastic, it must have gone in deep and the hole closed over it, once out the foot healed.
Celia had her revenge on at least one of us for the indignities of being caught as she was.

Uncharted Waters

2010-01-03T12:09:00.008Z

I was reading Trauma Queen blog and his comment about fitting in a patient (although it was more complex than that and fitting was only a part of it) reminded me of some of the cases l have been involved with.

One of the ones that sticks in my mind was the 2 Labradors (not the real breed) that came in both fitting. You do not get that unless they have access to toxins but the owners swore blind they did not.
We pinned the dogs and got iv catheters in and a hopeful bolus of diazemuls/weight to stop the fitting.
They bolus did nothing so a second then a third followed. This stopped them for about one minute and they started again, going by that the dogs were in deep trouble and would need stronger drugs.

The first test on a simple glucometer with the blood from the catheter stylet drew paydirt part one, they had almost no blood sugar in them. We drew up a “hit” of glucose and put it into them.

The fitting continued and we tried another cocktail of anticonvulsants this slowed them for a couple of minutes but they still twitched. A quick ear prick to check glucose and it was 1. That was crazy it should have been climbing upwards. I called the results over to vet who was gazing at the drugs wondering which he should do and his cussing matched mine.

The vet got me to double the glucose bolus and went to speak to the owners. Coming back with the info the owner was a diabetic on insulin tablet control but swore blind he had all his tablets. The most likely case was he had miscounted in a panic at the dogs fitting, there was no blame as there shouldn’t be in accidental cases, they are that accidents. Ultimately reasons didn’t matter. The 2 dogs were in deep trouble and uncharted waters.

The vet went for the big guns. He set up 2 Propofol infusions using a high dose glucose drip (extra glucose added to a glucose saline drip). Propofol is a drug that looks like milk and used in humans and animals to induce anaesthesia. If you have had a general anaesthetic and the Dr looked like he was about to inject milk, he was probably using Propofol.

Being mixed into a drip and going into the patient at a set rate sends patients into a deep anaesthetic and stops the fitting. The time the patient is under varies on the condition the main criteria being “the shortest possible time” for the problem to resolve.
The patient is allowed to wake up slowly over a period and is observed to see that the fitting has stopped. If it hasn’t or starts again and is not controllable with other drugs they are once again seen into a deep sleep.

The 2 dogs continued to fit so we pumped more and more glucose into them. The magic barrier was 2.5 on the glucose scale. Not for any reason other than it was higher than we seemed able to get and hold them. They would get to 2 and within minutes they would slide back again towards 0.7.

With each glucose bolus “hit” the fitting would slow down to a twitch then within 5 minutes would start to fit. Without the Propofol control they were totally out of control. The longer (and harder) they fitted the more chance their brains would overheat burn out and their organs would be permanently damaged. Not counting what was being done to them with the lack of glucose.
I cooled them as best as l could with wet towels, fan’s and ice packs. The night was luckily quiet on patients and callers so it allowed us to concentrate on these two.

By about 4am we were becoming desperate for glucose. We woke the practice manager and made his night by getting him to go and raid the other surgeries for all their glucose products. We were throwing everything at these dogs, glucose syrup on the gums, Glucagon, injectable iv glucose and glucose No18 drips. The highest we got their glucose was 2 for a short time mostly it was around 0.7 to 1.5.

Around 4:45am we were loosing the patients. The dogs had come in at about 24:00 and had been uncontrollable since then. If we could control the fitting the glucose may have a chance to work, depending on what else had gone wrong that was not showing yet.

We used to have a drug called Sagital which is basically Pentobarb, the drug used to put animals down with but at a much lower concentration. This was discontinued in around 2004 and much lamented, it was ideal for fitting animals. It was then we switched to Propoflo drips.
I remember when the word came out about it going to be withdrawn and the vet l was on with checked out the % difference between Sagital and Pentobarb (for putting animals down).. just in case. I also wrote the dilution down as l worked with different vets.

Taking a breath l asked the duty vet what about diluting down Pentobarb to the Sagital dose and using that as a last ditch. He is very experienced and was a certificate holder in anaesthesia, even he baulked at the idea but we had run out of ideas. He rang the owners for permission as there was a good chance even diluted we would kill them in their state, permission was given.

He diluted the drug down and took a deep breath. Slowly he trickled it into the first dog and the fitting slowed and stopped. Then number 2 dog and the same result. We stood and stared at them and the clock.
2minutes... no fit…
3minutes... no fit…
5minutes... no fit…An ear prick at 5mins showed the last glucose bolus had taken the glucose from 0.6 to around 1.7 things had to be looking up the dogs were due a lucky break.

By 10 minutes there was no fitting but the glucose was dipping to 1 so more glucose bolus.

20 minutes and they still hadn’t fitted; they had more glucose boluses as their blood glucose fluctuated like a fluttering butterfly wing.

25minutes and they hit the magic 2.5 were we to early to think the prayed for miracle was coming that the 2 dogs may just make it against all odds.

30 minutes and 2.8 on the glucometer..

Suddenly then the dreaded twitches on dog two followed almost at the same time by dog one, more of the dilute pentobarb and it stopped again, but the glucose continued to fall back to 0.7 we managed to stop it there.

The glucose wouldn’t climb any more but the fitting had stopped, ok one out of two we could work on those odds just so long as we had glucose we hoped to hold the tide until it turned back in our favour.

By 6am the first dog had started to deteriorate and show other signs to the fitting. The vet rang the owners for permission to put the dog out of his misery they agreed, and were warned that dog two would probably end up the same as the first dog within a short time, probably minutes as they had mirrored each other step for step. In fact as the vet spoke on the phone dog two was showing similar signs.
The owner requested euthanasia for both dogs. As brothers in life they were inseparable, in death they would still be together.
I confirmed the request with him for the vet as it was over the phone and not in writing, a job l hate as you have to get the owner to repeat the request, not nod or just sign a piece of paper.

Wherever the insulin had come from, and it could only be that, it had done its job and pulled the glucose from the bloodstream.

By 06:10 both dogs were dead, the war was lost.

Wound Dressings, Goodbyes and New Horizons

2009-12-31T17:38:00.001Z

Well we got through Christmas. Christmas and Boxing Day was open visiting between 12:00-20:00 which was nice, the same applies tomorrow.

We were told they were moving my dad to a care home a long way away (30-40mins) originally it seemed ok but very far. Then 2 friends who know the home, one who had worked there another who dealt with them professionally said don’t touch it with a 10ft bargepole.
Told this bit of info the hospital pretty much said well he goes home, or you choose a place and you pay and had to move my dad pretty much now (this was 2 days ago) things got fired up, then an age concern friend said no you do not have to panic and the hospital have now given us 7 days.

A lot of ringing round, hell these places are expensive. Today the hospital social worker rang up and got the hint l was stressed, turns out that my folks should be able to get help towards the costs. I rang up about 10 homes over the last 2 days, we visited one today. It was the first home l rang and about 3miles from home so not to bad in distance.

The building is a bit battered but it appeared to be better than the starched clean place my dad was at before in respite. First time round they were great second time lots there was promised but never appeared. The lounges were empty, everyone sat in their rooms. Physio and baths did not seem to materialise etc.

I now have time off till the 15th assuming the cover l am doing while staff is looked for isn’t filled, back at the emergency place. I got a bit of a shock today from them. As l am not employed at the place although spend most of my life there. After our complaint signed by a load of night staff about the cancelled night staff Christmas dinner the regional director is holding a meeting to try and see how to improve things and also about the “not the Christmas dinner 09”
Mind you have been to a night staff meeting with the regional director before and l was one of the only ones that spoke up, after wards he asked me to stay and asked more questions, as usual lot of promises were made but zilch!. Still he does know that asking me to a meeting is setting a demon free who will speak up even if everyone around me is to shy to speak up… just as well he isn’t squeamish really.

Have finished at the small local surgery near my house, I will miss it, the staff are great and even better is that one of the libraries is nearby. My idea of heaven, books on tap.

We were treating a cat with a wound breakdown on it’s chest. This cat has to be one of the most chilled cats l have known. He sits there while you cut the old dressing off and remove the wound padding, which is stitched on top and bottom.
On the second dressing change the vet put a couple of tacking sutures across the wound to close it a bit while it healed naturally, stitches would have broken down again. Puss sat there for the tacking gazing into space.
Re dress is a pad smeared with treatment tacked top and bottom of the wound with one stitch to hold it on, then bandaged across his chest/shoulders/back to hold it all in place.
He gets stressed if you try to take him out his cat carrier via the door but we just take the top off and lift him out then he is fine. The he sits where he is put while he is lifted slightly to allow cleaning of the wound, can be a fair amount of time and picking to get the gunk off, and then the redress (as above) when done tell him ok done and he climbs back into his box and goes to sleep.
He is healing nicely another 3 weeks or so should be just a hairless patch.

At another practice l have spent the last couple of days at l was doing a bunny check. I told the owner we couldn’t do any operation for neutering before the new year. She looked at me very upset and said she wanted it done soon. Her friend and l awaited the penny dropping, finally her friend poked her in the ribs and said don’t be stupid it is in 2 days time and bunny is to small anyhow at the moment. The girl went a lovely shade of red, her friend and l had got bored of waiting though so the joke was flat and we both sighed.

Anyway off to try and get some food then good old hospital trip. Have a good new year tonight and all the best to everyone. I will post next year in 2010

Christmas Wishes

2009-12-22T21:56:00.004Z

Thanks to everyone for reading, joining or commenting (any or all) on my blog. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

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As l probably wont have much time to get on before Christmas l will post my Christmas advice to try and help veterinary staff have a quiet Christmas and you all a fuller wallet. It applies year round but Christmas is a time of many problems.

This is general advice we give out most nights however If at anytime you are worried always ring your vet. All vets in UK have to have a 24hr cover but some use an emergency service (especially over holidays) to cover for them so always ring your vet with a pen and paper handy and listen to what any message or person tells you to do.

If you are upset then get a friend or partner to do the phone work.

Never just turn up always notify your vet you are on the way down. They may have another place for out of hours emergencies or they may be about to operate and need to hold off for your arrival.

It helps also if you pre find a taxi service that will take you and your pet if you have been drinking you can ring them up instead of panicking at the last moment.

If your pet is on medication make sure you have enough to last the holiday period, especially if you are going away. Often it has to be ordered in by the vet and wholesalers have Christmas closures, so get in and order early. Make sure you know what meds your pet it on, write it down somewhere... drug, strength and when it is taken. The vets need to be able to use the info to help your pet.

Do not keep ringing your vet out of hours if your pet was admitted. Christmas is a very busy time for vets. There is usually only a skeleton staff on duty and they will ring you if needed.

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TOXIC

Some of the items to be worried about, especially about around Christmas.

Grapes, Sultanas, Raisins
Some dogs can eat grapes or sultanas or raisins with no problem, others can not. The reason is genetic – so just don’t risk it.

Chocolate (the darker the more toxic)
Only use pet chocolates this has theobromine removed.
Christmas trees often have chocolate and sweets hung on them be careful with pets trying to eat them.

Christmas Plants
Cover the water with live Xmas trees the water can be toxic if drunk.
Other Christmas plants may be toxic. If your pet eats any then ring the vets. They can always contact the poisons centre for clarification.

Do not give any medication (other than that prescribed for that pet with that problem at that point in time) unless you have been advised to as human preparations can be dangerous for animals.
Especially DON’T give cats paracetomol you WILL kill them. Do not give paracetomol to dogs unless the vet has told you can and how much to give.

Minor cuts and wounds wash the wound with a teaspoon of salt in a pint of warm water. Avoid human antiseptic solutions these can be toxic. If you are worried ring your vet. Be careful putting on bandages, often they are too tight and cause damage to the area applied, including loss of limbs.

If your pet has eaten anything it should not always ring your vet to check up if other treatment is needed even if it was vomited up. Not all will have come back up and supportive treatment may be needed.
In UK you can pre buy in some washing soda crystals and keep them some place handy and safe. Inform your vet you have them and ask if you can try those to make the dog vomit.
Only use these on dogs and after speaking to your vet, some items can cause more problems if they are vomited back out.

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CHRISTMAS & BOXING DAY MEALS

Giving your pet a lovely big meal with the rest of the family meal can bring on the good old diarrhoea and vomiting. It is safer to mix a SMALL AMOUNT of food in with their normal meal if you must. Whacking a huge meal of strange food down is asking for problems.

If your or a friends pet is on a special diet i.e. pancreatitis, renal failure, diabetic etc do not feed anything but the prescription diet. Make sure that any friends and family also understand the importance of this. That little bit that can not hurt, may well result in your pet being admitted and needing treatment.

If your dog is an adult or generally over 8mths and gets diarrhoea, and you are pretty sure it was caused by the food you gave them. Stop all food for 24 hrs but make sure they have water. Slowly wean them onto plain boiled rice or scrambled egg or boiled chicken. (no seasoning just plain boiled) then if no more problems over a couple of days, back to their normal diet.

If it is a puppy or under 8mths then ring your vet.

If they vomited stop all by mouth, once they have stopped vomiting for at least 2 hours give very small amounts of water every so often. Too much will cause vomiting. If vomiting restarts stop fluids and call the vet. Water can irritate and cause vomiting, so if your pet has been vomiting do not think "oh this will wash his mouth out". It wont.

If you are worried, if there is blood, if it is coffee grains colour and or texture, or anything looks strange, if at any point, start, middle or end of the vomiting or diarrhoea episode you are worried, call your vet for advice.

If you have a large breed lab, GSD, setter etc dog (but not always large l have known small breeds to bloat) and it starts to retch but unable to vomit They may also appear to have a rounded tummy. Ring your vet tell them your dog has a possible bloat. Bloat is FATAL and needs treating immediately.

For all ages of felines with vomiting or diarrhoea ring your vet. Do not withhold food/water from cats. Ring your vet for advice. Cats can not go without food for long because of the way their metabolism works. If your cat has not eaten for 12hrs it must see your vet.

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CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Lights can cause problems bite the sweets on Christmas trees and get cable in the mouth bite into it and bang.
Pets especially cats get tangled up playing with the lights cables and getting a shock.

Baubles may get crushed in the mouth by a pet thinking it is a ball. If a bauble is broken, bits of broken baubles may be pushed into feet.

Tinsel glittering can attract a pet especially a cat. They start licking it and it goes down the throat. Once inside it can get bunched and jammed, or cause a telescopic effect on the intestines.

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FITTING

Dim lights and turn off TV/radio do not try and comfort the pet. They are totally unaware of what is happening and often bite in a reflex action. They may also defecate or urinate again they are unaware they are doing it and have no control over themselves.

Wait till the pet stops it should last no more than about 2 mins. They can be disorientated when they come round and stagger into things this can go on for some time and is not unusual. They are also very clingy.

If it has one fit don’t go rushing to your vet. Unless there has been other illness over the last few days. Ring and discuss it with your vet.
Otherwise keep an eye on the dog and see if and when it has another fit (make a note of how long it lasts) ring your vet and see if you should take them down.

If the dog stops and goes back into a fit, or doesn’t come out of it notify your vet and go down.

Travelling in a car can bring on another fit which is why for the single fit dogs we advise keeping an eye on them and going to your vet after a few hrs. Dogs may fit once and never again.

In the car do not hold your pet put it in the back if it is a hatchback or estate car or back seat of it is a saloon as per earlier warnings.

If a cat has a fit then it should see the vet even if it is just one fit as they do not usually fit. Wait for a bit though to allow the animal to settle down unless it does not come out of the fit or goes straight back into one.

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The above is not an exhaustive list just a general one. If in doubt:
RING YOUR VET.

And on Life Goes.

2009-12-22T08:39:00.001Z

Monday Night:

On Sunday morning my Mum decided to defrost the car so she could drive to my house a bit later on. My fault for not saying do not attempt to drive.

Next thing l get an hysterical call the car started to move, she tried to stop it and got thumped by the open door and it was now wedged between the fence post and the handrail on the steps.

I got round there and the door being open and going backwards had bent back to the bonnet and yup front was wedged solid. It took 4 of us (made my mum wait well out the way she was hurting. To bounce and push the car round then 2 of us to sort of jiggle the door and managed to shove it shut and past the railings. The 2 people to bend it shut. It goes in tomorrow for panel checks, new door and hope to goodness the pillar (windscreen one) is not damaged.

My mum has very sore ribs will try and get those x-rayed as my dad may need respite care when he comes out if it is the next few days to allow her to heal. After we saw my dad we went into a & e it was a 5hr wait. Waited a bit then left will try and go back tonight if it is quiet and get my mum x-rayed and take things from there. Nothing they can do if the rib has bust other than Paracetamol it is for forward planning.

Work wise Saturday was fairly quiet as most people stayed in, Sunday was a lot busier with a lot of staff not able to get in. The night vet took 4.5 hours to get in. He ended up helping an injured horse. The owner a total pratt (polite term) was pulling a horsebox in a blizzard for gods sake!! it had jack-knifed and l think fallen onto it’s side. He said they got the horse out and put it in the barn at the house in the middle of the motorway, luckily the horse was just lame.

We had a collection of dangerous dogs in. To get them out is done on dog grabs and no contact. One took 30minutes to get it out of the car cage. Not a pit bull a collie cross lab. It had ripped a kids face badly and attacked 2 other people. The other 2 were dangerous rottie’s just in as “involved in criminal activity”.
We had some lovely visions at these terms. Imagined them in masks and holding guns, thing is with those teeth they didn’t need guns.

Update Tuesday am:

Well l am off there is more snow l will have to see how work goes today l wont stay till 19:00 if this carries on as it is quite a trek there and back.

We went into a & e last night for my mum who has badly bruised ribs thankfully no fractures.

Hospital Trips... again

2009-12-18T18:26:00.003Z

Just a quick post. My dad is back in hospital. He has had about 3 falls over the last 2 weeks. We think it has caused a muscle problem in his neck and he was in agony this morning.

The ambulance crew were fantastic. I had a tin of foxes biscuits and was going to take that and get a couple of tins of quality street to take to the main ambulance station. I am only taking the choc's over l grabbed the foxes and thumped them on the seats and said they needed an early morning bicci.

Because of my dads scoliosis (curved spine) they spent about 1hr trying to work out the best way to get him out. Was it muscle or bone that was the problem. Neck brace and spinal board an initial possibility but a no go due to his spine shape/pain. Stretcher nope wont go round all the doors/to tight, chair nope to much pain to move finally ended up on scoop stretcher to the ambulance then transferred to the stretcher there.

So he is back in for ... will see what happens.

Shootings, Chocolate and Work

2009-12-12T18:08:00.004Z

Sorry it has been so long since l wrote or replied. I have been on the good old work treadmill but covering 2 different practices, several days going from the day shift to the emergency job to cover part of the late evening shifts. That means that l have only really glanced at the computer to tired to bother.
Then this week l got hammered with this bug that is going around and have had about enough energy to get me from shift start to shift end with nothing left over.
High temperatures and hacking cough is not my idea of fun. I may as well have lived in a sauna l have been so sweated out.
All l want is to get fit, l have just got over my last problem of 3 weeks cold and laryngitis but it seems health must wait.
Food has been on my list of l can’t face much and l have had so much chicken broth l am about to start to crow.

On the work front the feeling of good will seems to as usual be lacking to many animals. There has been a lot of older abandoned dogs appearing needing veterinary care, mainly for cold and arthritis. Stray puppies are doing the odd guest appearance but they won’t really start to hit till Xmas day and beyond.

Last week we had a cat in that was owned. It looked to have been attacked by a dog and was full of holes. We gave a quick x-ray to check for ruptured diaphragm (from being shaken) or any other x-ray obvious injuries and lo some scum had shotgun’ed the cat.
I lost count at 35+ pellets, it is not easy to count them your eyes tend to get confused.
He was quite bright considering the holes in him. His tail will probably have to come off as that has been fractured in what’s called a high tail base fracture, thankfully his urination isn’t affected.
He had a pellet removed from his stomach and a couple from his intestine. Some may need removal from his legs but the majority will be left as it is better than going aimless hunting and if they are not causing a problem then they are left.

The same night we had a small terrier in. His owners had gone out and come back to find their house broken into and the dog stabbed once into the chest.
Air had leaked under the skin and he was very blown up. His skin felt like bubble wrap as the air rippled under it in the fat, not a nice feeling. He was stabilised overnight and a thoracotomy sorted him out.

Parvo dogs have been pouring in. One night we had 4 in isolation and one stray with kennel cough. The small day practice l have been at has also had several parvo dogs in.

Good old Xmas poisonings are starting to make their way in as well, raisins, grapes and chocolates top the charts at the moment.

I am not a fan of American Bulldogs. The ones l know have all been darn right nasty. That has changed and l have fallen for a big lump of one.
He came in because he had eaten a tea-towel, socks and a few other items, apparently the breed is as bad as Labradors for scavenging. All l have known the AB to scavenge though is human body parts, whichever its teeth can close on. The socks and other items reappeared, tea towel hadn’t.
What a sweet dog, stood there while dripped just trying to give sloppy licky kisses. Post op he was in a walk in on a duvet and then l wrapped him like a big sausage roll in a flower duvet. All you could see all night was his nose, even awake he snuggled in.

A couple of days later he came into the small day practice l am at for an op check. He was a bit subdued still but gave me a nice welcome. I chatted to the owner while Bruno (not his name) sat on my lap trying to give more sloppy kisses while l sat on the floor in reception. Apparently his sister had a pair of pyjamas removed from her not long ago.

2 days after that Bruno came back in for another check and he bounded in. He heard my voice as l came round the door to greet him and almost knocked me over.
His long suffering wallet….sorry owner, said he had removed some newspapers from Bruno that day so he was on the mend.
They do try and keep him separated from items but with kids on hand l don’t think it is too easy.

The American Bulldog is a very powerful breed and needs to be line checked carefully for temperament especially and health. I had a history lesson on the breed in the UK and it was the usual. Bad lines brought over from USA and bred with garden breeders for money.
Then a few dogs carefully chosen and brought over from USA by a breeder and bred but a higher price and carefully checked potential owners. Bruno comes from the careful lines and it shows, too many do not.

The emergency hospital is part of a corporate setup and they have upset the whole night shift. There was an Xmas party H/O said they would pay £25 they were quids in. It was to difficult for the majority of us to get to and day shift were going enmasse, and quite frankly was not really anyone’s on nights cup of tea, a drunken night out with non work friends. Not that we do not like them just they are a different world and most day and night shifters do not really meet.

We wanted a nice get together, chat laugh and just unwind so we organised our own, although l am a locum l am included as l spend so much of my life there and doing stupid shifts and getting them out of the brown stuff.
This split party had been done other years. There is a whole setup of night shift starting at 13:00 in the afternoon and ending at 8am, collection drivers, vets, veterinary nurses, receptionists, auxiliaries. Some staff were not going to go to bed, others missing a couple of hours of shift and going it at about 15:00 not 13:00 (day shift were fine about that) Some of us due to work that night and forgoing a full days sleep. It meant we could all get together and have a lunch time gathering. The place chosen was an all you can eat pub. £5.99/head.

The practice manager rang up H/O on Tuesday to get final clearance and was told tough they should have gone to the night meal. The fact it meant that out of 20 who put their name down for the day meal about 5 could have gone to nights was not their problem.
A letter signed by a lot of us has been sent in not that we expect it to do any good. Night shift is a set group of people who only do nights and unsociable hours. There is bank holidays and weekends and all those family gatherings they miss. If their normal work pattern falls on a weekend they do not get extra. They get less holiday than days and less for covering bank holidays. Yet again night shift has been shafted.

Dog's Rules For Christmas

2009-12-03T08:55:00.000Z

1. Be especially patient with your humans during this time. They may appear to be more stressed-out than usual and they will appreciate long comforting dog cuddles.

2. They may come home with large bags of things they call gifts. Do not assume that all the gifts are yours.

3. Be tolerant if your humans put decorations on you. They seem to get some special kind of pleasure out of seeing how you look with fake antlers.

4. They may bring a large tree into the house and set it up in a prominent place and cover it with lights and decorations. Bizarre as this may seem to you, it is an important ritual for your humans, so there are some things you need to know: Don't wee on the tree... Don't drink water in the container that holds the tree... Mind your tail when you are near the tree... If there are packages under the tree, even ones that smell interesting or that have your name on them, don't rip them open... And Don't chew on the cord that runs from the funny-looking hole in the wall to the tree.

5. Your humans may occasionally invite lots of strangers to come visit during this season. These parties can be lots of fun, but they also call for some discretion on your part: Not all strangers appreciate kisses and cleans. Don't eat off the buffet table. Beg for goodies subtly. Be pleasant, even if unknowing strangers sit on your spot on the sofa -- they don't know any better. Don't drink out of glasses that are left within your reach unless you can get away with it...

6. Likewise, your humans may take you visiting. Here your manners will also be important: Observe all the rules in #4 for trees that may be in other people's houses. (4a is particularly important) Respect the territory of other animals that may live in the house. Be nice to the kiddies. Turn on your charm big time.

7. A big man with a white beard and a very loud laugh may emerge from your fireplace in the middle of the night. DO NOT BITE HIM!!!

Grumble

2009-11-29T17:14:00.003Z

I know l have grumbled on this before but especially in the run up to Christmas and just after the following calls increase 10 fold.

Ringing up and telling me that you have bought 1, 2 3 or 4+ pedigree puppies or kittens (or even non pedigrees) and want them vaccinated is fine and sounds responsible. The vaccination part, not the fact you have multiple animals.

Telling me that you are on benefits and expect to have everything done cheap or free will get you a polite reply (because l have to be polite) but it will not get you free or reduced rates. I will go to very formal tell you to go and call a charity not a private practice. If you start whining on about how much money vets make out of poor people who have nothing, or that it is not convenient to go all the way to the charity practice l will put the phone down on you.
With all your benefits you are often making more than a lot of student veterinary nurses and some qualified nurses.

You want a pet then you pay for it, do not expect everyone else to. Quite frankly if that is your attitude then the chances are the animal is better off being put down because when it needs a vet because it is ill you will avoid paying for it unless it is free and it is likely to become another cruelty statistic.

Telling me that your dog/cat needs a booster, you have become unemployed, are disabled or something has gone genuinely wrong with your life. I will do my best to help you out.

Genuine cases l am only to happy to help but scroungers beware, everyone is sick to death of you "gimme gimme" take take take behaviour.

I said it before and l will say it again:

A Human does not have the right to an animal, but an animal has a right to a responsible human.

(Sorry am now off my soapbox)

Trouble comes in 3s

2009-11-26T21:47:00.006Z

Another week another practice. Actually l am at this one for a few weeks with side trips for nights to my old emergency work and a prebooked couple of days at Christmas at a different vets. Love it here for the friendliness. The vets make coffee, something that's very rare. And the SVN is always shoving a plate of cheese, ham pineapple toasties or sweets or something into everyone's hands. And the others bring in all sorts of titbits.

Friday l walked into prep sniffing burning. The other nurse was pulling the door open on the tumble dryer coughing and l went to help her try work out what was wrong (other than the fact the tumble dryer wanted to go terminal). While l emptied the fluff catcher she found a load under it that had fallen through.
A good clean and l went off to finish setting up op theatre while she restarted the dryer. I walked back into prep a couple of minutes later to find it somewhat transformed. It was now a swirling fog of smoke. Coughing l yanked the plug out of the wall, the tumble dryer door had already been opened.
We stared at the machine mindful of the old saying.. there is no smoke without fire. Thankfully this situation disproved the saying.

Upshot is that they will need to get a new tumble dryer and the radiators are doing sterling work.

Yesterday l unpacked the drugs order and having lent my scissors out had to use my biro to rip open the tape on the boxes. It worked fine, l had about 3 boxes and it was just tape. I am sure everyone has done the same at some point.
Half an hour later a wet, blue flash on my arm caught my eye. The nib had fallen off and my pocket was flooded. And ever time l moved l was being covered. I carefully surgical spirited my arm to remove the blue and went on the look out for something to put on so my tunic could go in the wash.
Last week l had thought about putting some scrubs in the car "just in case" note the term thought about.
All l could find in the practice for me was a blue scrub top (Nurses wear green and vets blue) tough it would do. Apart from the fact l was squeezed tight and had to be careful about movements as l think it would have ripped if l moved to fast.
General hilarity at my new fashion mode greeted me.

Problem 3 was more disgusting. I have every so often the last few days had the odd bad whiff around my handbag. I should clarify l have a haversack not a standard handbag. I had a look inside but could see nothing. With my work l figure some cat or dog anal glands had misfired and some had zapped it, hazards of the job.
I was at work early today and sat in the car waiting for the other 8am nurse to turn up as she has the keys. I decided to clean my bag out. The base in the main section wouldn't go flat and l lifted it up.

At some point in the last couple of weeks l had a dim memory of buying a ham and mushroom pastie. This had somehow got shoved under the base and forgotten about. Needless to say my "handbag" has been scrubbed with hot water and various washing substances (fairy liquid, washing powder, hibiscrub) and is now drying at work. My temporary handbag is a plastic bag.
The others find it hysterical and l have faced a barrage of hysteria and comments all day.

New SVN Training (under consultation)

2009-11-22T09:51:00.003Z

Well it is coming up to all change for the veterinary nursing profession and for the worst. I was going to stay out of it even though on the vetnurse site l go on we were being asked to input our thoughts.
I did ever so well until 22:45 on the 31st of October, consultations closed on 1st Nov. Then l let loose with both barrels. I did say that l doubted they would read my mail as l was sending insults with my comments as l was so angry.

Back towards the end of the 90’s they got rid of what was called the little green book. This training book was thin and easy to use. Had certain tasks that had to be done and no proof of seeing it other than a signature was required.

Then l ended up on the nvq system, on the first lot through l hated it as we all did. It was so badly organised that even the tutors at college did not know what we needed to do. External verifiers changed faster than someone could spit out chewed up bubble gum and all had different ideas. So what one allowed the next wouldn't and that meant more rewrites. With logs and reports and proof about everything.
This has been refined over the years to an over-heavy bit of paperwork and very expensive to run for the practices and has meant a lot of training practices have stopped doing training. The present system needs slimming down, more training practices need to be opened but not like suggested.

Apparently some government funding is ending so now they are throwing baby out with the bathwater and dumbing the whole system down. Of course it is all “consultation stage” yea right and you believe that, most of us (VN's) believe it is a done deal.
I do know that anyone from colleges l have spoken to or who has posted on it on the vet nursing forum l belong to is furious about the changes.

So the new deal will be open to 16year olds, great they are for the most part still very immature and not suitable, certainly for veterinary work.
At the moment students spend time at the practice while they find out if the person is suitable for veterinary nursing. Like all jobs many do not like the reality but even more so in vet nursing.
It has great moments that can make up for the bad for a short time. Over all though is a dirty sad and demanding job. You do a lot of cleaning, you see and help a lot of animals you also help a lot of them die or watch them die as nothing can be done to save them, often for something simple like a new puppy is preferred not the older dog, cruelty to animals is faced daily when you see all the misery that breeders have bred into the species let alone inflicted by bad owners or just random people, bad wages are a big bug, bullying is rife.

The bull on the consultation paper makes out that practices can have new "interns" every year, great you just get someone almost sorted so they can do something and then send them off and a new lot come though.
That practices can have their pick of students. Well actually they can have that now so nothing new there.
That practices won't have to pay students much not even the minimum wage, just a "training allowance". Well that will go down well with some bosses but overall, no pay no reliability or commitment. Wages may be bad now but at least students, are getting something.
At the moment you need to do a minimum number of hours/year in a veterinary practice before you can qualify as a VN that is now being scrapped.

And the really good one. The present system is being scrapped by 2010, the new one needs to be in place by September 2010 intake of students so colleges need to decide how to teach a new not yet designed system in 11 months. Well minus the time to decide what they system will be so call that ohh 4 or 5 months to arrange training.

New deal:

Year 1 - "full time" at college (2 days a week!!) with 25 days in placement made up from 5 days in TP, 5 days in non TP, 5 days in equine practice, 5 days in large animal practice and 5 days in animal based industry such as a pet shop.

I do not know what the difference between a small animal and general is, no one l have asked vet or nurse knows. Then there is the fact that vn’s have nothing to do with large animals generally. Even those that work at a large animal practice very rarely go out with the vets. Many small animal nurses have horses but many more have no contact and have no wish to, they prefer to work in small animal work. As to pet shops, WTF are we meant to learn there?
In 5 days you will only be allowed to mop floors and make coffees. Practices won’t allow untrained people, for the most part kids to do anything else, especially in this day and age when suing is rife.

Year 2 - full time as an employed student at any practice - could be TP or "auxillary" TP. The portfolio will be abolished and the student will have to fill in an online folio, no-one has mentioned if this folio is checked by anyone or if the student does it themselves. There will be no need for assessors or IVs - just mentors and moderators.

Link to the new guidelines

As to rcvs reading my comments, apparently they have sent thank you emails out to people that replied.. Funnily enough l never received one. I am of course devastated at this turn of events, l chose my words so carefully.

WOW l Won

2009-11-17T23:03:00.003Z

Woohhooo l had to make a phone call to the emergency clinic yesterday to sort some dates out. The receptionist told me a rep had been in with my prize and she (receptionist)was guarding it till she was able to give it to the head nurse. I was confused as to what l had entered or won. Every so often l enter the odd competition and use the practice details as locums do not seem to exist to drugs company's. As l do not expect to win l then ignore possible results, working on the theory l never win.

A bit later on the HN rang back to sort dates and open the envelope while l was on the phone. I was gobsmacked when she told me l had won £200 of improve cpd vouchers to be used as l wanted whenever. I had won the competition on marbocyl medicated shampoo. I remember l entered that as l was bored one day.

I was having a look at Improve site today. There is a couple that caught my eye. anaesthesia and exotics and pain management but as they are not till next year l have time to decide and there is new course's all the time. I am interested in the wounds talk they do as well the HN is one of the tutors, brilliant at wound treatments l have learnt a lot over the years from her still more to learn though.

I'm Gonna Die!!!!

2009-11-14T16:39:00.005Z

Siamese, although generally nice cats tend to be neurotic. If they get ill then they know they are going to die. Whether it is a life threatening case or a sore toe. They are full of eastern mysticism and "know" things. This can make them noisy and frustrating as they make sure you know how they are suffering. They are vocal whether lying pathetically on their bed or stalking around the kennel.

The following is a typical but shortened conversation with one. They tend to never shut up.

Siamese ... yowll grrr mmmrrp mrrrppp... (I am going to die)

Me...No you are not, you are just a bit ill.

Siamese (shaking drip leg in air)... Yowwwll grmph yooooowl (I am a siamese l KNOW l am going to die, you are going to embalm me)

Me...No you are not eating and a bit dehydrated that's what the drip is for. (passing a bit of warmed chicken over)

Siamese (muffled as mouth full of chicken)...yowwwlll mpmmph grrrrrmph (You don't know what you are talking about)

Me... If you are going to die you are going on a full belly then

Siamese...mphph (swallow) yowwwllllll yoelll yowll grrr mmmrrp mrrrppp (I tell you l know l am going to die)

Me... Well is it worth wasting food on you if you are going to die?

Siamese (Glaring at food bowl)... Yowwwlllll (Gimme!)

Me... Only if you shut up for 5 min. so l can do your pulse and respiration.

The above Siamese went home the next day, as do so many despite their "I'm gonna die" conviction.

L8 Arrivals

2009-11-12T09:07:00.003Z

Had to share this. Hub does skydive coaching for new exp. jumpers on the way up the system at the centre he jumps at. As so many do not want to leave the nest and he has to almost boot or bribe them up a next level he has decided to start an 8way team for competition with the hard core ones that do not want to leave and hang on in there with claws dug into the nest screaming and crying excuses.

He has decided to call it L8 arrivals. It is all a play on words 8 as it is an 8 way team, L8 arrivals is for those who do not make it into whatever formation as they are to "late" and also for those who are always delayed getting kit or whatever.

It is going to be a very "serious" team and one of the members has taken the liberty of doing the first official painting of the team (the L shaped item on the right of the picture is the plane on take off) As you can see the team are in perfect harmony and will go far.

The wording that doesn't show to well as l had to shrink the pic says.."I forgot my helmet" This is the artist who did just that as about to climb into the plane last weekend.

Vetnurses and Bonfire Night

2009-11-09T18:50:00.002Z

Just because you are working does not mean that you need to miss out on the fun of bonfire night, toasting marshmallows can be achieved with a bit of ingenuity.
The only problem was that some hot marshmallow dripped into the lighter and it blew it's lid off with a loud pop.

Remembrance Sunday

2009-11-08T08:47:00.003Z

“They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

RHODESIAN ROLL OF HONOUR

Did You Know

2009-11-05T21:13:00.003Z

Wow l have got so out of kilter with my blog over the last 3 weeks or so mainly since l got ill. Anyhow l am in the middle of writing a long one and this is just a quick stop gap for a chuckle while l catch up. I am on night 2 of 4 nights so won't be much good for brain work anyhow.

Sound Bites

2009-10-30T20:10:00.004Z

I have been at a small practice this week but it is busy. They do a lot of nurse clinics which is great to have the interaction. Generally people are there as they want to listen and ask questions. To many places just have the odd one usually a post op check and it doesn't utilise nurses skills properly.
Where l have been nurses do micro chipping, health checks (dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs hamster, birds), post op checks, geriatric clinics, nail clipping (all above species)2nd(primary) vaccinations, basic behaviour clinics, more complicated they are sent to specialist behaviourists and several other clinics.

It has been my week for injuries though:
Have had both arms attacked with teeth and nails by cats .
Inside of one arm scratched by psycho rabbit.
Back of my hands scratched by nervous guinea pig.
And the best was a retriever that chomped my finger when l reached to its lead to get it out the kennel. There was no warning the teeth just snapped like a shark, my reflexes were a bit slow and it got the base of my finger. Pulling the hand out scored the teeth upwards to the tip. The HN had to under sign my remarks about what happened in the accident book and l said to put down... "Heard nurse swearing loudly about **&%^*& bitch" This was vetoed to just verbally.

Toadstools for Tea

2009-10-23T22:58:00.003+01:00

It has been a poisonous time on shift this week not counting the usual cases that we have in.

Had a cat in whose renal parameters were all over the place but the worst was the way the calcium was heading to ground zero on subsequent checks. Given how his bloods stacked the vet was certain it was antifreeze tox. It is so depressing to see a lovely cat folding in and dying his bloods going worse and worse and nothing we could do would help. The vet rang the owner about 2am and had a chat.

A dog we had in had decided on a walk that those yummy orange toadstools growing out that nice smelly pile of cow dung were put there as a meal just for him. Being as he was a Labrador by the time the owner got to him and got him off the “meal” there was not much left.
He had a bad night of hallucinating (we think) as his eyes were like saucers and he was falling all over the place. With the aid of lots of iv fluids and some other treatment at the end of 24hrs he was able to go home with just checks for a couple of weeks.
We were all relieved to see him go because he was farting with a vengeance. To quote the vet “something horrible crawled up the dog’s arse and died” Critical care was so aromatic even with my bad cold l could smell it.

Another Labrador had been pulled off different toadstools [not orange ones] to late and he was very bad. His pcv (thickness of red blood cells) was 76. It should normally be max 55. He was so dehydrated that he did not have blood but syrup in his veins.
He needed fluid flung down his iv in vast quantities. He was shaking and collapsed, he had stinking blood leaking out of his rectum and saliva running like a bath out of his mouth. In fact saliva flowed out of the kennel like a tide onto the floor.
His owners were rung in the middle of the night and warned that it was unlikely he would see the morning and to be prepared for the worst.
Never say never though, at about 4am he was more alert, moved to a comfier position on his own and slowed down salivation. I went to do his stats and he raised his read and checked me out. By change over at 7am his rectal blood had stopped leaking.
He whizzed through 3 litres of fluid in 10hours on my shift, not counting what he had before l got in and more during the day, when l got in l the next night was over the moon to find out he had gone home. Again checks over the next couple of weeks but looking good.

Mind you l recon it was the noisy cat in the kennel above him must have helped keep him awake. He was claustrophobic. He had been in an RTA his back leg was past salvation. They had put a support dressing called a Robert Jones on and he had been going mad the dressing had slipped and it needed changing. The vet decided that if he was in so much pain the leg would come off in the night but in the mean time the 2nd dressing slipped.
He held the cat while l cut it [dressing] off, after first unscrewing the leg a couple of times so it faced the correct way.
We put him back in the kennel to see if he would settle down often animals just can not handle the dressing.
No it was obvious the leg was not bothering him but he loathed the kennel. He would pin himself to the door shaking it and yowling in anger leg whirring in the air. When not pinned to the door he did not even look at his leg but gazed angrily out. Stats were impossible, as soon as l tried to slide open the door l was being attacked by angry cat.
We got too busy for the leg so the vet gave him a very deep sedative and he took several hours to wake up to the agitated state he had been in.

His leg was removed the next day and he was sent home, a bit woozy but he was so stressed, first act on awakening was to attack the door. By now he had made his feelings clear that it was better he was sent home with less strength analgesia treatment instead of keeping him in overnight for stronger as we would normally do.

Yet 2 more dangerous dogs in that were grabbed on behalf of the police with instructions to slide water under the door lob food over the top and don’t go near them. One bit the collection driver the other tried.
Actually it was 3 dangerous dogs but number 3 was a boisterous staffie cross with no manners. We had him out having a game and a hunt the treat time and he was fine with us, what he needed was discipline. The most dangerous thing about him was his snapping for treats so we dropped them on the floor.

Live Safari SA

2009-10-21T15:34:00.005+01:00

I have discovered a fantastic new site. It is called Wild Earth TV. It is based at Djuma Game Reserve in SA. They have a fixed cam at the waterhole and a roving cam that goes on safari twice a day, three on certain days. It is all live and best savoured with sound as the presenter talks you through things going on. They have the full spectrum of game there all the big 5 and nothing is set up. There is certain regular animals seen a lot from buffalo to leopard and hyenas who all have names.

On the night safaris it has night vision so you get a better view of things. When not on night safari they have a "fireside chat"

There is a small chat room attached to the site and the control watches that and relays info. You can also send in questions and comments direct via email which they try and answer during the safari or fireside chat. It is very interactive, with regular viewers being an important part of the overall safari with their feedback and they also hunt answers for the presenters. It is like no other show l know, a schedule is posted so you know what is going on when.

Below are a couple of links for it l have found the first link the better one but it seems to vary for different people:

Link 1
Link 2

Enjoy, just don't let you boss catch you at work

Treasure Hunt by Boat

2009-10-18T18:22:00.004+01:00

We were back in Tenerife at about 8am or some ungodly time that is similar, with about 40 or 50 others in Puerto Colon marina having a briefing for a treasure hunt by boat.
B, Liz and l were on Liz’s boat but one of the boats had a problem so the crew was shuffled round and 2 brothers about 19years old joined us. You could see their “oh god oldies” contempt look. Bad move that look we intended to win. Safety and general rules were explained and we were given our first clue. Group huddles were dotted around as we tried to hear what others said or read their lips, not allow others to hear or see us and try and work out the clue.

We were off…. Brian untied us and started to climb back in via the folding windscreen when Liz gunned the boat. I grabbed him and pulled him down, he slammed into the bottom of the boat and broke the floor… “The hell with it it’ll fix” yelled Liz. The 2 lads went a bit green.

We arrived at the first clue point in Los Cristianos and the 2 lads and l swam ashore. The clue was about octopus and there was a bar by that name. We found the next clue after a bit of a hunt round the bar and ran back to swim to the boat to decipher it.

The next clue took us back to Puerto colon and some more running around. Clue 3 was to spaghetti beach. This was a nice secluded beach for nudists. We were told to go there and look for a mermaid. The 2 lads and l swam ashore again now life got fun. Nudists do not like to be stared at. Our task was to find a mermaid. As B and l used to go to the beach quite often l was nude however the 2 lads were a bit shy and kept their trunks on. I stayed close to keep an eye, and try to head off trouble.

They tried to look innocent while staring hard at people but things started to get a bit hot well not really under the collar as there was none. I had to jump in several times and explain we were looking for a mermaid and why. After about 10minutes no luck so we swam back to the boat to consult. Another good look at the clue and nope it had to be the beach. By now word was getting round and we got some good natured jokes but still a fair lot of black looks from those who thought we were lying. The lads were getting flustered but hung in there. Then they found their mermaid. A tattoo on a female, at that point the beach settled down and black looks became grins. We spread the word about 14 or so more boats would be coming through assuming their crews managed to work out the clue.

We were nicely in the lead when we headed to the next point. This one required B to swim ashore as he had to do splicing of rope. Well that’s what we thought but there was no one at the bar where we worked out there should be. Back to the boat and a confab then swim back to shore to double check. B stayed on board and let us do the work. Nope, the locals looked at us like the spaghetti beach patrons had. Trying to discern signs of intelligence on us as no sane person could ask questions like where do we get the splice rope and who is in charge of this check point. Back to the boat and a zoom to a couple of other villages but they did not have the right description.
Back to the village and still no luck then back to the boat. We had a quick discussion and decided we had to get back to base to see what was going on. By now the lads had realised we were out to win and were grinding their teeth about anyone catching up with us which by now of course other boats were doing.

The organisers comment was.. “Well we can not tell you if you are right where you went, but we have managed to trace the person and they did not expect anyone so soon so stopped for a beer”… Liz bent down and gave her evil eye look …”and” she snapped.
“And errrr” said the organizer knowing it was not good to upset Liz she was not a shouter but would verbally and with a sweet smile cut him into little bits with no swearing taking place.
“We have lost time because your lot wanted to drink” she said still glaring.
“Oh umm yes err how about 40minutes off your final time is that ermm fair?”
Liz straightened grinned and we powered back to the village.

Once again we swam ashore with B this time and sure enough, there was the splicing rope. By now the other boats were there and a lot of cussing was going on as people tried to either learn fast or remember old skills. Thankfully B has kept up old skills, god knows why but it came in useful and while he was trying to admire his work l ripped it off him and the lads hauled him off balance to get the message. He was a bit grumpy stuff him we had a race to win.

The last clue was to swim to the beach at la Calleta below the church run up to the church and run around the outside twice.
Well it isn’t a beach but a rock strewn area. We had a debate about this as by now the wind was up as a storm moved in and the sea was getting rough. We were in a small powerboat. A lot of the crews on the other boats decided against it due to the water and weather conditions, their captains refusing to risk crew.
Of course we were going to win and that mean doing every section. So the 2 lads and l took the plunge. It was hard going to shore but not to bad. The rocks made it tricky and we got a bit rolled going ashore. The slope to the church was hard as we were tiring by now and twice round the church was a killer. The lads were in front of me, they slowed down to see if l wanted help, l shoopered them on as l just needed to get my breath back.
By now no crews were coming ashore, the sea was rough and a couple from the last boat but ours said they were going to ring for a car to collect them, it was to rough and their boat pulled away.

Just to make it more fun did l mention we did not have any life jackets, funny how thoughts strike you at the wrong moment. I looked at the waves thought “aghh f*ckit all will be fine” and ploughed in.
Part way to the boat l knew l was in big trouble. I had done too much over the course of the day, then the final run’s round the church wasted what l had left, l cramped. I managed to tread water and on the crest of waves l saw the boat, the lads were struggling but almost there. I adjusted my direction and tried to swim but l wasn’t going to make it.
I waved my arms in the double arm “I am in trouble” signal. Liz and B saw me and waved back. I stared in disbelief. I tried to swim slowly and started to go under struggled back up. Again waved FFS they waved back grinning. I was in disbelief B and L had both done diving ok l wasn’t 100% sure if l gave the signal for diver in distress or not, but for Christ on a crumbs sake the fact l was stopped and kept going under, the waves were deep troughed now and a lot of white about the sky black it must have been obvious to the blind l was in trouble.
Nope it wasn’t, I looked back and realised the beach was too far and by now being hammered hard with breaking waves. I had 2 choices l swam and got to the boat on my own or l drowned.. while friends and family happily waved me downwards.

So l swam if you can call what l managed swimming. I saw the boat in flashes when l crested waves, l tried to spit out water when l went under, which was a lot, and struggled to break surface and gulp air when l could, while ignoring my cramps and exhaustion and finally l got to the boat. It was only when l was too weak to reach up for a lift that the idiots realised just how far gone l was and jumped to help me. The lads got back in to help push me upwards, B and Liz hauled me in.

I lay collapsed all the way back getting my breath and when l did l gave a broadside to B and Liz that left them in no doubt of what l thought about them. There was a hell of a lot of apologising from the pair of them. I forgave them eventually it took some time though. I was scared as hell on that swim and l really did not think l would make it. By now it had also sunk into them just how close they had come to waving me down to a watery grave and they were having a good hard think about things themselves.

As we had done all the clues and with our 40mins off our final time meant that despite almost being a crew member down we were the winners, with a certificate to prove it.

Laryngitis

2009-10-13T16:46:00.004+01:00

Woke up Sunday morning after a not great restless night had lost my voice and felt pretty grotty. Great way to start a set of night shifts and of course Sunday was manic. 9 ops, 30+ in patients, isolation and overflow isolation full, icu full and from 23:00 the usual set-up of 2 nurses a vet and auxiliary. At least l did not need to answer the phones. I remembered at 7am that l had forgotten to take a break. I sort of took one then till l ended at 8am interspersed with my morning change over and oops l forgot to do's...

Last night quieter but l had to take several phone calls after the vet had gone to bed and the other vn and auxiliary had gone home. l sort of squeaked sorry laryngitis to callers but most never seamed to notice anything strange. The collection driver put the phone down thinking it was a rude phone call. He got the message on the callback l did.
If one more person laughs at the whisper interspersed with squeaks that l am producing instead of a normal voice l am going to brain them with an upside down dog food bowl full of rancid food.

2 nights left before my 4 off. There must be some bug going round as the day shift have been calling in sick faster than flies on a wound. Back to the good old problem. 1) l don't feel l am sick enough to call in sick 2) l am self employed not that that makes any difference see 1) and 3) Trying to find emergency night cover is like looking for a werewolf at a vegans convention... it just isn't going to happen.4) And finally nights like to stick it to days to show we are better than they are and need less sick time.

Simons Cat

2009-10-10T18:12:00.007+01:00

Sorry l have been a bit MIA lately. I was doing nights and they were very busy so l was a bit brain dead. Then l came off duty with a series of 10 books that the trublood tv series is based on. Have read all 10 in under 3 days. Have to say l loved the books, tv series big rasberry.

As l have been lazy l decided to do the latest Simons Cat that has just come out, have to say l love them they are brilliant.

Hedgehog X-Ray

2009-10-02T22:29:00.006+01:00

Have a nice x-ray of a hedgehog. Thought l would share it here. You can see the spines along the side of the hoglet like a halo.

Hoggie came in collapsed, the vet x-rayed to check for anything obvious. Nothing was earth shakingly showing and he made it through his problem and went to wildlife rehab, many don't. They get poisoned, hit by cars and sliced up by strimmers.
Worse case l saw was a hedgehog that had 2 long red stalks with black tops on sticking out of a hollow cavity. We think a tractor pulling a hedge cutter that was working the area had cut the top of his head off and scooped much of his brain out. We all leapt for the pentobarb unable to believe that what we were seeing was still alive. The soggy noises as it tried to breath and the waving stalks that were his eyes confirmed it was.

Nights With a Difference

2009-09-30T13:34:00.005+01:00

Well it has been a 4night shift of cases that we normally see in singles coming in in pairs or triples unconnected to each other.

2 cats in needing back legs amputated due to damage from cars, both damage to the right hind and both long haired dark tortoiseshell cats.
1 dog in that needed it’s front leg amputated. Running around in the woods it had somehow ripped the whole lower section of it’s front leg off. Apparently only 1 bit of skin held it on. When l got in the leg was all padded up prior to the op the next day once he was nice and stable. I am told that even the vets and nurses looked ill when they saw the damage, the dog was dark brindle. A doggie version of dark tortoiseshell in cats

3 dogs in attacked by other dogs and a lot of damage done to all of them. One of the dog attack dogs was a stray. Severe bite wounds to her front legs and shoulders. When she was under GA for clip and clean they pulled some scabs off and a fountain of pus erupted.
She was very flat for 2 nights, then at about 5am the third night had an “ok no more malingering” moment and started to eat and try to stand. It took till the end of the 4th night before she could walk without falling over.
Her tail never stopped wagging although we muzzled her to inject her as she was so sore and some of the injections sting, even then all she did was cry.
I had a word with the collection driver and he is going to arrange for her to go to a friend of his with an animal rescue to be rehomed. She is a very sweet dog and l am crossing fingers for her.

2 bitches in unable to urinate and blocked solid with bladder stones. Both needed operations, very unusual for bitches to get blocked.

2 animals brought in by police, made a change normally we have to send the collection van.
1 cat that 3 police brought in the back of their van after 2 cars had hit it [cat]. This cat needs to choose a lottery ticket. Apart from bruising it was unhurt.
The second was a dog whose owner had been arrested for being stupidly drunk and abusive. It was a very sweet dog the copper wanted to adopt it and was upset that it was owned.

2 dogs with ear damage that needed head dressings on. One was one of the dog attack dogs with neck and ear wounds. Usually we only get the odd head dressing animal through.

2 jaw cases one a stray dog. His mouth wouldn’t shut, thinking it was a broken jaw he was given a GA. Nope his teeth were so rotted he couldn’t shut his mouth. All teeth removed and about 8hours post op he tucked into a bowl of sloppy food. If anyone wants to rehome a grey grizzle lurcher about 6 or 7 years old let me know, he is great with other animals. This one will also go to rescue.
The other jaw case a young cat with facial damage including a fractured lower jaw according to the owners they have no carpet and the cat was having a mad half hour, couldn’t stop, slid and smacked into the wall.

1 hard talk with police control and badgered an inspector at "Someplace Police" into giving us a fwin for collection of a dangerous dog, and rspca giving a log to have it put down. The Inspector was reluctant as it was a put down at owners request and not police request but the owner couldn't get the dog to us.
I found out afterwards that the law has changed about a month ago and neither police, rspca or us knew. The collections driver did and told me when he brought the dog in and said we couldn't put it down and why.

Now if a dog bites someone and the police are informed it is not allowed to be put straight down, even at the owners request, the police have to prosecute. And they can not prosecute an owner if the dog is dead. So it goes to special holding kennels until post court case, then it is put down. A wonderful waste of police time and money and added stress for the dog.
So l could have trumped the inspectors reluctance without horse trading damm. At least l know for next time because the will be one, Inspectors are tight with their fwins.

This does not take into account the usual post op recovery cases, heart and kidney failure cases, isolation dogs with diahorea and vomiting, RTA pets, general medical cases, and bunny with gut stasis.
The bunny we had in was evil and although not eating normal food was partial to human fingers which made syringe feeding and giving bolus fluids fun.

Ahh well l have just agreed to another load of nights. I wish l could say l liked days as much as nights but for all my moaning about nights and the lack of sleep it is my favourite because you never know what will come through the door next.

World Rabies Day '09

2009-09-27T16:48:00.005+01:00

September 28th is World Rabies Day Organisations around the world will be aiming to raise awareness and understanding about the importance of rabies prevention on the third annual World Rabies Day on 28 September.

Having had to go through the injections after my brush with a bat in UK behaving strangely that l was handling at work, there is rabies in some bats in the UK, and seen a dog shot back in Rhodesia when l was growing up. The dog was unknown on the tea plantation and so it’s was a risk. I am aware of the risks involved with rabies and they scare me.

What shocked me was the statistics of human deaths over 55000/year. At least 100 of the 150+ death a day are children.
Here are some personal stories of those who have had contact with rabies some died and others survived after post exposure treatment.

The following is from the BVA website.

“While we are used to discussing the risks of rabies to pets, most vets probably know much less about the risks of rabies to humans,” says Zoe Belshaw, a member of the BVA Overseas Group. “World Rabies Day is an ideal time to promote understanding of this devastating but preventable disease.”
It aims to dispel some common misconceptions – such as that a deep bite is necessary for the disease to be contracted. ‘A lick on broken skin or mucous membranes or a scratch from an infected animal is sufficient,’ it points out.

Rabies kills at least 55,000 people each year, half of whom are children under the age of 15. “Rabies is primarily a disease of children, who are particularly at risk from this terrible disease, due to their close contact with dogs, the major global source,” said Dr Deborah Briggs, Executive Director of the Alliance for Rabies Control. “Children are more likely to suffer multiple bites and scratches to the face and head, both of which carry a higher risk of contracting rabies. Children are often unaware of the danger that dogs transmit rabies and may not tell their parents when a bite, lick or scratch has occurred from an infected animal.” Many animals carry rabies not just dogs but it is dogs that people tend to focus on.

The World Rabies Day Alliance for Rabies Control initiative aims to bring together relevant partners in an effort to address rabies prevention and control. “This is a coordinated effort to let the world know that this disease can be readily prevented through education, pet vaccination and increased human awareness of proper wound management and administration of rabies vaccination after an exposure has occurred,” added Dr Briggs.

Very scary just how prevalent rabies is. The sites give info on how to deal with suspected contact and on just how it affects lives daily around the world. If you do not get post exposure treatment, rabies has a single outcome once it has manifested, and to get there is hell.

Remember that your family and friends are often jetting off to affected countries on trips and volunteer programmes, it may just affect you.

The gentleman depicted died from rabies in 1959, soon after the photo (courtesy of US CDC ) was taken.

Governmentium (Gv)

2009-09-25T09:16:00.001+01:00

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron,
25 assistant neutrons,
88 deputy neutrons,
and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 4 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Carrot's

2009-09-22T15:05:00.001+01:00

I spent last week at a lovely practice. They have taken on a rabbit with a problem back leg and named him “Carrots”. The leg wound broke down and so the decision was taken to remove it instead of messing about.

Carrots isn‘t kept in his kennel during the day but has the floor area of small furry’s to walk around in. He has taken to the place like a duck to water. If the main room door is left open by mistake then you suddenly have a rabbit appear round the corner as if he is on a shopping trip, unconcerned about barking dogs or hissing cats.
At night he has to be locked up or he sets the alarm off. Apparently he is not too amused about the locking up idea and throws a foot stamping tantrum when he is shut in.

I was dealing with a rabbit in a bottom kennel in the furry ward. It was at the very back of the kennel so with a lot of groaning as my knees objected to the floor as l bent down. I ended up lying flat out to reach my patient. Carrots suddenly jumped up onto my back and starts walking up and down. I was unable to do anything except threaten him if he used me as his loo. Thankfully he got down but only to stick his head in the kennel then jumped back up and made himself at home until my upright movement as l groaned up warned him l was about to grab him and evict him so he jumped off and went to look for another comfy spot to sit.

About 30mins later l popped in to get something from the room and he was sitting on top of a cat carrier stored in the room and ripping the plastic bags to get to the dill, and other titbits that were on top of them them. Needless to say l was not popular with him when l removed the bags and put them out of reach.

There is a big wrangle going on at the moment as several vet nurses want to adopt Carrots, once the dust settles he will be off to a good new home.

Reast in Peace Wibble

2009-09-17T19:06:00.005+01:00

Wibble (left), Santa (middle), Poca (right)

Last night l rang B when l left the cpd. He was worried about Wibble. I got back and she was very mauve and gasping and coughing. I took her to the animal emerg. hosp. where we (me working, Wib's snoozing) spend most of our lives. I was thinking frusamide, pain relief and 02 for a few hours and see how it went.

As l drove into the car park it hit hit me, Wib's sore front leg on Sunday. It was a strange soreness but l figured it was her spondylosis playing up again. It eased up by Monday. The pain was was a thrombus again but a severe one, the clot had moved through and hit hard into her lungs this collapse was irreversible.

I got Wib's onto 02 and rang B l felt awful l had not insisted he came, l told him the outlook. He was staggered he said she was very poorly all day and didn't realise she was so bad but agreed it was fairest and best for her.
A last word with the vet l asked her knowing the reply especially when l told her what l believed. Then l nodded my head at her to start the injection. The staff left us to have our goodbyes.
I wanted to stop the vet and say "no no she will be ok" but l didn't. The same way l didn't when the decision had been taken with the other members of the family that have passed through our lives. What l was doing was my final gift to Wibble that hub and l (and everyone who knew her) loved. To have stopped the vet would have been for me not for Wibble.

Today work was hell and everyone was wonderful.

Last night l needed something positive l pulled my Angel cards out upside down (so l couldn't see them) l was giving them a good shuffle and a card fell out l turned it over and have taken that as my special meaning, Yvonne is one of the Angels.

Wibble is with her Aunties, Santa and Poca and Ginger the cat and all our other animals.

Could You Just.....

2009-09-13T16:55:00.004+01:00

The owners were new to the area and booked the dog in for a routine castration. So it was slotted in with the normal set of ops and the day was fully op and consult booked. One vet was off ill on the day but all was planned and doable, just, without the duty vet needing a stress break (hit of double strength coffee and several bars of chocolate)

Alas the best laid plans of mice and men…

On pre-op check it was discovered that the owner of the dog for castration had neglected to mention the dog was cryptorchid. In other words only one testicle was descended. This is a potently dangerous situation for the animal. Testicles are supposed to be outside the body to be kept cool, trapped inside they can mutate into tumours. Sometimes it is a major hunt for the reclusive testi. It may be felt it may not. It may be in the abdomen, or in the groin almost “home” or any point between the 2 areas. It may be tiny and easily confused with other bits of muscle or fat or a fair size. The vet can spend over an hour chasing it down thinking they have found it every few minutes leaving a large area to suture up post find of the errant testicle.

The owner continued with her shopping list. While the patient is asleep, could we just remove both hind dew claws, the dog had badly ripped a hind dew claw a couple of times in the past year, and the nail was growing back in strange shapes. The owner was worried it may happen again, oh and clip all the nails.

The dog had an umbilical hernia. It was tiny, there was no lump, just a small hole that his old vet had once felt, could we just repair it.

Could we just give him a nice deep ear clean, the dog had recurrent ear problems so while he was asleep, a clean would be ideal.

Oh and an identichip would be the icing on the cake, or by now to be precise, the straw that broke the camels back.

Post unavoidable “vet stress break” the hn called a vet to help from one of the practices quieter neighbouring branches. The op’s were started and I landed the above fun job as the hn had the dental to do, she pointed out l hate dental machines.

I placed the identichip as soon as he was asleep. With how much there was to do sods law said something would make us forget it. Yes it was on my anaesthetic op sheet, ops board and consent form but with the way the day was going, l was taking no chances.

The hidden testicle was possibly felt in the groin and after a lot of groping and going a lot deeper than originally thought would be needed the errant article was found. The dog got lucky only 2 abdominal and 1 prepuce wounds, main testicle, hidden one and hernia repair.

Hind dew claws were simple to snip as only skin held them on. All that was needed was a couple of stitches a side and a dressing. I took over the dressings and ear clean as they were at the end of the op and the vet wanted the “powder room” She dragged the hn away from her coffee and gossip. Sorry, “work based discussion” to cover the anaesthetic for me.
The hn and call in vet’s 4 ops of dental, that had potential to turn into a nasty job, had turned into a short scale and polish, and the 3 cat castrates were pretty quick only minutes. She and the call in vet had a nice hot mug of coffee and a chat, making sure we saw them.

His ears were not too bad. I got a bit annoyed looking for the chunk of gunk that l couldn’t clean and realised it was stuck in the otoscope end. As I pulled the scope out the ear l caught the gunk and it pushed to the side so when l looked down in case it was inside the scope nothing was there, pushed back into the ear it pushed the gunk back into view.

Finally done, 2 of us carried him all 50 kg of solid dog back to his kennel. Oh the joys of human nurses that have special hoists. We snuggled him under his blanket and stood up to stretch. As l pushed my hand into my pocket to pull out my packet of smint, my hand slid down though a smelly wet brown mess. It was a gift to me in my pocket from my bloody patient as we carried him back to his kennel and l hadn’t realised. So much for a nice smint. Next time l carry the front end of the patient.

Computers and Chocolate Biscuits

2009-09-09T09:10:00.002+01:00

Well l have spent the last 2 weeks at a small practice and we have been wondering if the world, or the town we are in more precisely has gone mad. Every pet in the area seems to have had a need to come in and several times we have had to make appointments with one of the other branches to handle overflow.
Thankfully l was up to speed on the computers as l have been on late’s which end at 19:00 which means once ops and cleaning up is done l am on reception.

Monday l finally have an early finish as l was on mids which was a 9am start.
One of the reception computers was pulled out and looked like a computer version of rip. it had been playing up last week and looks like it finally died over the weekend.
I barely sat down on reception when l had to take the first payment of the day, l was unable to get the cash till open to get change. The computer/till system is meant to work independently so if one dies you do not have this problem, great start to the day. The client said just pop his change (pence only) into the charity box.
I had a word with the head nurse (hn) who was snarling at the back computer while trying to add histories for patients that had been to the emergency vets over the weekend. For payments l suggested we send invoices or ask for cards. She was past caring; l had enough computer problems without caring what was going on with hers.
This left me with a fist full of cash so l shoved it in an empty draw and hoped l would remember which office draw it was, the room is a bit of a tip.
Next minute the vet appears and tells me that her computer won’t print labels; quick test showed no computers would print labels. This meant hand writing labels. Money wise the clients were happy to card it or pop back to pay bills.
A practice rang up and wanted a history for a client that was leaving the area. Guess what won’t print. I read the very short history over the phone and tell them l will send the history at some point in several light years time if any of us survive the day.

The hn stomped through and rang head office told them that the reception computer seemed to have fully died after spending last week crashing all the time, this had caused overall chaos. HO said to ring the computer people they promised they would dial in and fix things. The hn and l did not query how they would do that when one of the computers was turned off at the wall. Life had enough for us to do without caring about some mythical dial in.

Finally the receptionist came in she was on late’s the hn and l fell on her like starving wolves telling of all our woes. The reply was as she knows nothing about computers except what she does what were we telling her for. Miffed and rebuffed the hn and l did what any sensible person would. Ran away down the back and got op’s ready for the vet’s, leaving the receptionist to sort the mess down the front.

Part way through the standard ops of spaying and castration the receptionist came through and said that she had sorted the computers; we must be incompetent as with no knowledge she had them all working.

I pulled the short straw with the dental. I have mentioned before one of the reasons l like nights is we do not have dentals. First get the dental machine working, these are designed by experts who do not use them. The vet cussed her way through tooth extraction, she used to do mixed work (farm animal and small pets). She hated dentals and would always swop a dental with a vet that preferred dentals to farm work and they were both happy.
Anyway the dog had lots of teeth out on both sides and a stitch a gum flap, this was needed to help extract one of the large molars.

At this point the receptionist came through again to dental/prep room. She had coffees and chocolate biscuits. I know l am trying to stop chocolate but l had to have a couple of biscuits as a stress aid. Apparently the vet from one of the other branches that was in charge of the computers was round and sorting things, l never got a chance to ask why? As she said she had fixed them.

Recovering post munch of biscuit and quick coffee hit, l took over again from the vet who was glaring at the dogs mouth, daring anything else to be wrong as she felt her part was finished and keeping an eye on the patient. The vet went to get her recovery aid and write the patient up.

I started to clean the teeth and the tooth scaler died. Water bottle full… check. Machine switched on… check. All knobs seem to be in right place…check. Dental machine kicked hard… check, nothing so look for hn. She is new and not used to the machine so repeats what l did to same effect. Then she had an idea and said hang on there is 2 bottles try and fill the other one. I did and it worked. Now what is the use of having a back up water bottle if both of them have to be full to work but the machine only takes water from one bottle at a time. To the normal mind when one bottle is empty you flick to the other and when that is empty THEN the machine stops. No not this devil you need both full even though one is back up and not in use.

Turn patient over and start to scale that side. “Errrrrmm” clear my throat trying to think how not to make the vet want to run away. Vet looks at my face and you can see her heart sinking, then perk up “Have you done something wrong”.
“Gee thanks for that, no but you need to do something with this canine”. Her face fell. I continued “I can feel a depression in the upper canine under the gum”
She came over and felt it. “No no that is fine no….” and with a deep sigh asked me to go and get M (the other vet) and more experienced at dentals so she can check see if it needs to come out. Although she knows it does, she is hoping it is one of those cases where there may be a lifeline. M comes through and has a feel, no words needed.
Canines are difficult to get out because they have such a deep root. So more gum flap incision and a new trick taught by M to extract canines involving drilling into the base of the tooth, a nice big hole in the gum for more stitching and 2 happy vets and vetnurse.

Patient back in recover and trotting through to get Wib’s so she could go out for a pee break l walked past a strange male scowling at a computer muttering in Irish under his breath. I assumed he was the vet/computer expert. Hope he was enjoying himself because anyone that wants to fix the stupid things must have a screw loose them selves.
He was still in the same position when we came back a few minutes later and l tied Wib’s back up in reception.

Back to clean up kits, theatre and prep/dental areas. Lunch by now a distant memory, not unusual with me, I seem to miss out on lots of breaks. I must start putting my foot down as most people do and insist on taking them. Except l can not be bothered to l just grab what l can when l can, l hate starting again after l have unwound.

At least on late consults we had all the computers working and 2 vets, which was just as well because it was a busy surgery, fit in patients kept coming through the doors. I ran out the door at 17:30 relieved to let someone else play with the computers.

Tuesday l was on early l was there but no one else so l couldn’t get in. 15minutes after hanging around l rang one of the local branches as they are friendly with the staff from my place and go out partying etc so l figured they would have phone numbers, except they were still on answer machine till 08:30. So l had to ring head office asking what was going on was anyone ill. Finally at 8:30 the missing student turned up using rude language about school run and traffic.
We were as busy as Monday but thankfully the computers all worked. And l escaped as afternoon consults were starting.

Only this week there then off to another practice next week. Wonder what surprises life will treat me to there. That is the beauty of locum work. So many new routines, computer systems and staff to learn then rush off onto the next one just as you get the hang of things. I love it.

Head Dressing's

2009-09-06T18:34:00.008+01:00

Wibble is very good natured and often used for student practice of various bandaging techniques, much better than a doll. I managed to get some photos of her in "model mode". Bandaging is generally done by nurses vets tends to mess up they are always in a rush.

First fold the ear over the head and pad it, making sure your wound is covered by melolin or whatever dressing you want.

Then apply the first layer make sure it is not to tight especailly under the throat.

Then your next layer anchored nicely round the other ear

Finally your last layer

Now get a pen and write do not cut and a shape of the ear. Ears have been removed by people cutting through what they thought was just bandages.

Check the tightness at every stage so the patient can breath then step back and admire your work... and write in that warning!!!

Tail Base Fracture

2009-09-03T09:09:00.004+01:00

Possibly the cat had been jumping off a fence, a fairly simple exercise but somehow the tail had got caught, maybe in a gap in a panel. The downward body weight had fractured the cat’s tail at the base. Being caught with closing doors is another culprit.

This innocuous fracture has cost a lot of cats their lives. There is a nerve that appear in this area, it’s job is to ensure the bladder empties, and knows when to empty. If this is damaged it may take anything from weeks to never to get better.

This fracture means a long hospital stay for the cat as it has to have it’s bladder emptied every few hours. A catheter is not generally placed to empty the bladder as the vets want to see if any feeling is coming back and the cat makes any moves to urinate by it’s self.
The tail hangs down limply and if the cat recovers the tail is amputated so that it does not get caught in anything else. Tails are not repaired if they are fractured just removed.

The cats get very grumpy at having their abdomen squeezed all the time, even if they are sweethearts in between the squeezes. It can take several weeks before the vet is happy for the cat to go home. The cat may or may not be better. Sometimes they are able to take over urinating again, at least with the knowledge that the balloon in their abdomen needs the toilet, often not in litter trays though. If cats are lucky enough to get some feeling back their tails are amputated and they can resume a semblance of normal life.

Often though the urine the cat is passing is from bladder overflow. The owner may take the cat home and take over expressing the cats’ bladder, or come in two or three times a day for the nurse to do it till the owner gets the hang of it. Some people decide that they can do that for the rest of the cat’s life, this is rare.
Even with the owners doing the squeezing it is stressful and places unnatural strains on the cats body, renal failure may start or if it is an outdoor cat the change to indoor cat can be very stressful for them, sometimes the cat will go just downhill the decision is taken that the stress is to much.

The bladder is full and visible in the bottom portion of the x ray it is the large oval shape tipped at a slight upward angle.

"Operation Revenge" on the Para

2009-08-29T18:42:00.004+01:00

It was back in the 80s and l was manifester at Capital City parachuting based at Biggin Hill airfield, the famous WW2 airfield in Kent, our DZ was 9 miles next to Brands Hatch racing.
The Saturday weather at the DZ was not good enough for jumping as cloud was at floor level. The committee of “Operation Revenge” leapt into action.

Pete C was steered into the canteen with the offer of free coffee and snacks by a regular who wanted to ask him some questions about formations. Others stood as watchers so if Pete decided to leave the canteen they could pass word.
When he was out the way students who arrived for the day’s parachute course were grabbed by their necks in friendly embraces, taken to one side and given muttered instructions- "Something strange is going to happen during canopy handling, do not tell anyone keep it quiet, your instructor knows nothing" They looked bemused but followed instructions by keeping silent and walking off like nothing had happened.

The best 2 packers were locked in the packing shed. Certain people walked to their cars to collect plastic bags, they slid to the packing shed trying to look innocent. The 2 guards at the packing shed were leaning across and blocking the door talked innocently about canopies and formations. They glared at the bag holders, checking the contents and making sure the passwords were muttered. The bags were pushed into the packing shed and the suppliers whistled away innocently. No entry of anyone was permitted.

The course instructor went to the loo with severe stomach cramps and all other instructors were unavailable. Pete C an instructor, aka Red Devil aka Member of the Parachute Regiment worked for us part time was asked to run the course. His ego carefully polished when told how excellent he was as an instructor and we were so relieved he would step in and do the course, Pete was turned loose.

Excitement started to build; the packers needed more ammunition so members of the club were hauled by their throats into quiet corners and gave what they could when the nature of their giving was explained. Pete had pulled to many stunts on to many people and it was payback. Finally and just in time the ok was given from the packing shed, the rig looked perfect no one, not even an expert, and Pete C was an expert, could see or feel anything wrong, the bomb started to tick.

The students walked out behind Pete who was in his element. Talking and preening to a group that contained pretty single women. His luck had to be in the way they stared at him like he was a god, if only he realised it was staring at him with eagerness at what was coming which was not what Pete had in mind.

The group went out to begin canopy handling. They learn what a parachute looks like, how it comes out when you leave the plane, how to control it. He glanced at the bigger than usual crowd that had collected on the veranda. He decided that as they were not jumping they obviously had nothing better to do.

Brian the CCI (chief club instructor) ambled over to a group of regulars who seemed to be behaving strangely. Strangely = how a group of regulars and instructors, came to be standing outside in not nice weather, watching a class of students doing canopy handling. As he opened his mouth to ask what was up he was shushed by an instructor and got a kick in the shins (the kick was from me) He tried to glare but another regular told him to shut the *&&^ up. Brian, as is usual for those in charge, was the last to know what was happening. He had been busy so missed the briefings held in the bar some time before. The drama unfolded:

Pete grabbed the rig that a minion handed him. He talked to the class about the rig, showed them all external parts and explained their uses. Next he attached the leg straps to the pegs to keep the rig still.
The observers stopped pretending they were talking and waited, holding their breath……

“As you fall away from the plane the static line will start to pull away from the pack.” He looked at his charges making sure they were following him. They seemed to be.
“Next the top of the para… WTF out came bras, panties, thongs, jockey shorts, petticoats stockings. He stopped dead and stared, his jaw hit the ground, he pulled more in disbelief and underwear and bits of clothing flowed out of the bag. The class and the entire DZ collapsed in a heap, tears rolling down the faces of many.
He just looked up and mouthed … “You Bastards” at his audience in front of the clubhouse but even he had a good chuckle, when he recovered.

The Next Generation.

2009-08-26T20:25:00.001+01:00

The other day a young female came into work with her 8week old puppy. The puppy was due it’s first vaccination, great, she was being responsible. No not exactly she was walking the puppy. Her record stated she had been warned not to walk the puppy until 7-10 days after his second vaccination as he was at risk.

The svn explains she should not be walking the un-vaccinated puppy on the pavements but especially not in a veterinary surgery.
The client looks blankly at her and says “wot you mean?”
The svn tries to slowly explain “wot she means” but the blank look shows she isn’t really getting through.
Client sits down slowly pondering the information, puppy sits on the floor, because it is on the floor already and it can have a nice sniff and lick at all those smells and whatever.

The vet calls the client in and client’s first words as she is walking through the door… “Wot do they mean l shouldn’t walk him” vet can be heard repeating almost word for word what the svn and receptionist had warned the client about.

Client goes home with puppy they are due back in 2 weeks. I stuck my head around the door to make a sarcastic comment to the vet.
She cuts me off shaking her head in despair “The puppy is 8 weeks old, and she is to scared to pick up it’s bloody food bowl, the puppy growls at her. And the best part is, she is pregnant”.

The betting is closed on what age it will get put down for attacking the child or dumped for attacking the child. The betting is also closed on what future child she is bringing into the world. We are reckoning by 10 it will be known to the police as an out of control delinquent.