Little Old Staffie

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.

Sweet, Loving, Abandoned.

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.

Nights With a Difference

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.

Carrot's

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.

The Stray

I am going away till late Sunday night. There is a fundraising braai down derby way for the Zimbabwe/Rhodesian group. I somehow landed toilet and environmental so l go down tonight to help with setting up.

I write a bit of poetry and thought l would post some of the poems every so often, l wrote this a few years ago. I left the type of animal and sex out deliberately. All too often people walk past averting eyes as they do with humans but the stray can not talk or beg often they are in a lot of pain and/or totally debilitated. By the time they get to the vet it’s to late to do anything. This is my quiet honour to all strays that end up suffering whether it is just from being lost, lonely and hungry to being in extreme pain.

THE STRAY

Eyes full of sadness
Hope has left,
Hunger gnaws the belly
And pain cries from the body.

Yet in that hell, is left a trust.
That the next human along
Will reach and not cuss.

The touch is gentle
A soft caress,
A whispered goodbye
And slowly you die.

Life has gone,
Pain and sorrow too,
Now peace your soul will find
Rest…you deserve it friend

© CL VN 6/7/03

Cats and Steering Wheels

We lived in Lanzerote for about 5months and quickly renamed it Lanzergrotte. We hated it. There was 2 days when there was no wind blasting over it. It was very flat, there was hardly any nice big trees. It was just… grotty.

One morning we were heading into work when l saw a cat injured and alive by the side of the road. Hub slammed on the brakes as l bellowed. I jumped out as did he but moaning at me for scaring the pants off him, should have been more observant then not my fault. The cat scooted into the high grass. We tramped all over, nothing so had to give up.

At work hub stopped and went a bit pale and said “oh no l wonder……”
He undid the engine and there was the cat balanced on it. I managed to grab it and hauled it into the car it was not in a good way. When we hunted it he must have darted back and climbed up under the van.

We went in to tell them that we had to find a vet to take the cat to so it could be put down. Our South American helper gave us advice on where to find the English semi retired vet. l rang her and warned he we were on the way in and we went back to the van. Only the cat had disappeared. This did not make sense as it was firmly locked in.

Hub stood outside and turned the air blue with his mental thoughts, he refuses to swear aloud if people are around. When we met he would apologise to me if he even said buggar, he has moved on since then, he doesn’t apologise to me but still won’t swear in company. I am the one that can and does out cuss a trooper. I saw a tail hanging out of the dashboard. Oh well at least l found it.

Enter the toolbox and stressed husband. The more hub took the front of the van apart the higher it climbed and it finally became obvious that it was not coming out conscious. Hub put the dashboard and steering wheel back as best he could so that he was able to drive (just) and we set off.
This was Lanzergrotte and not UK so we had a roadworthy vehicle. I mean the steering wheel was solid even if everything else was hanging apart what more was needed?

Finally about 4 hours from finding the cat arrived at the vets. The vet was semi disabled took one look and declared no chance. She couldn’t bend her body to even see it properly, and agreed it was not coming out alive. She gave me the pentobarb and asked me to inject it as best as l could. I managed into the abdomen.
It is an area used if needed and is just a very slow way of introducing the medication. It doesn’t hurt and given the state of the cat was the only option. After about 30minutes the cat was dead as the drug had worked it’s way slowly through the cats system. We managed to pull it out even then there was a lot of bending and tugging. The pelvis, which 99.9% of the time in cats involved in RTA’s was fractured, in this cat was in bits. At least it was now out of it’s pain.

The horrific thing was that until the vet had arrived on the island in the mid 80’s any animals that needed putting down they injected strychnine into it, refusing to believe anything else worked. The vet was so horrified and upset she started to treat animals despite being disabled and in a lot of pain all the time.

Bank Holidays Night's

Had a busy 4 bank holiday nights, with a high but not uncommon good weather case load which was yet again a good example to have pet insurance for dogs cats and rabbits.

Surgically we had a mix of major and simple cases with stitch ups, x-rays and repairs for dog or cat RTA’s or attacked by dogs (quite common), bloats, splenectomys, diaphragmatic hernia repairs (abdominal contents end up in chest cavity, breathing becomes somewhat difficult), pyo-metras (get your bitches spayed and avoid this), eye removals and other surgical cases.
Eyes always turn my stomach when they are hanging out; Eye pop outs happen a lot in the smaller flat faced dogs, a bang on the head and no proper orbit to hold the eye in place…. Splat.

Recovering all the above post op and general medical cases in such as: FUS (blocked bladder cats), fitting dogs, kidney or heart failure cases, haemorrhagic gastro enteritis (bloody shits-pouring out) vomiting and a general mixed medical bag of other medical cases.
There seems to be a spell of fitting dogs going through the area at the moment. Not sure if human nurses have spells where you get a lot of a certain type of medical case in.

In the exotics section we had a head tilt duck belonging to one of the staff who was very sweet, various rabbits another common patient, rats and ferrets.
Finally isolation was occupied just to make sure that there was a long extra walk to trudge during hourly obs checks.

One stray that was uninjured but came in as emaciated was not, he was just hyperactive. Weight did not get a chance to settle on him. He spent the weekend in as none of the rescue kennels collected.
When he came in I put him into a walk in kennel, went back 5mins later to dog ward and as l opened the door this white streak shot past me, stopped for a chat to Wibble and on my “oy you git” looked at me with a catch me smirk and shot up the passage. I cornered him at the connecting door.
Needless to say climbing out of a walk in kennel earned him a place in a smaller inescapable standard hospital kennel and he treated us to the “staffie bull terrier scream” all weekend. This seems to be an inherited trait that certain SBT have, no other dogs do. Think magnified nails on a board with full lung power for hours and it gives you an idea. He wanted out, his fault he could have had space.

A lunatic cat who was a recovering surgical case from yesterday decided last night he felt better and played the game of ‘fling yourself out the door because the human will catch you before the floor’. He also grabbed me nails out (the only way!) when checking the patient next to him so l had to have one hand fending off or tickling him through his kennel door.
I was playing 'squeeze the head' last night whenever l did his stats. Hold head between hands and squeeze gently but firmly. As soon as l stopped he would hassle me for “more more squeeeeeze pleaseee” honestly you would think he was the only patient in the place, a total purr bucket.

On Sunday l was holding a cat and trying to stop him pulling out the vet's eyes as he was in a bad temper when the evening nurse standing chatting mentioned that did l know the cat was peeing. I suddenly realised what the warm wet feeling was. I was soaking my entire tunic had soaked it up like a sponge. Needless to say l went on a dry top hunt.

A splenectomy (tumour ruptures on the spleen) came in on the second night and off the table at about 03:00.
Last night, which was thankfully my last night, we had a bloat dog with splenectomy. This happens quite often as the stomach twists the spleen gets involved and also flips and is unsaveable this does not involve tumours but trauma. He came off the table at about 4am.
On change over the student VN went to triage a dog and came back with a dog who had been retching. One look and l told her to go meet me at prep table while l set up drips as he was another bloat case.
The vet came over stole him for an x-ray which was great because he lifted him onto the x-ray table for me and saved me the hassle of lifting the dog onto anything so l could do his iv lines and take bloods. Rugby playing vet’s have a use l keep telling him that.

At least l was able to avoid the op. After l got fluid lines in and sent the bloods off with the student for running l passed it over to one of the newly arrived vet nurses who gave me a jaundiced “no need to be so happy” look over her mug of tea as l went off to finish patient change over, before running away to my bed.

Ditch the Bits

Back in Tenerife and Tony the vet was over from UK. We (hub and l) had taken about 10 dogs up for neutering. Added to the feral cats that Judith had trapped and taken over it was a long day waiting for kits to sterilise and neutering animals in various order to get the best from the day until we headed home.

In Tenerife there is no cremation area for animals. They go into the dustbin then to the dump. In this case it was the body parts and a load of other veterinary stuff from Tony that were to go into the bin. However on the way back from Tony’s the bin areas all had people parked in them and we did not really want to drop our “bits” in public as some was starting to get smelly.

We got back to the kennels and went to unload the dogs when l saw this little bitch tied to the gate and almost at full term ready to whelp. I quickly rang Tony and asked if he could do an emergency abort on her, no problem. I unloaded the dogs as fast as possible and we headed back to Tony.

It may seem cruel to abort but the volume of strays meant that the cruelty came in adding more. Not to mention there was no place to keep a bitch and pups as we were full. It would have meant putting two dogs to sleep to get a kennel. This would add mum and an unknown amount pups for several weeks till they could be rehomed, assuming that all survived.
Tony operated and we all headed back. By now very tired and getting late. I had feeding to do, let them have a bit of time out and finally home about 9pm.

We only needed to use the car over the next 3 weeks or so which meant the van sat and happily relaxed in the underground garage at the flats. I needed to go and get something out of it and went to open the doors. My nose twitched, oh god! My heart stopped as a memory sunk into my brain…along with the now powerfully overpowering smell as l opened the door fully. The interior of the van shimmered in a vicious miasma.

All the body bits, the dead foetus the stuff we had taken from Tony and said yup don’t worry we will throw it away. With all that went on it was all still in the van. I got rid off it asap, it almost floated to the bins. Thankfully the van had been underground if it was parked in full sun, the thought does not bear thinking about.

l had to go and break the news to hub. I prefer to draw a veil over the resultant discussion…ok ok argument. I still maintain that he was also in the van and had just as much to do with forgetting as l did, especially as he rested while l checked, fed, watered and let out all the dogs.

When we left the island over a year later the van still had an aroma in it when it got hot but not as bad as when l opened the door that day and realised that we had forgotten to “ditch the bits”.

Christmas Stray

I have been debating with myself about posting the following. The dog a German Shepard cross is a Christmas dumped dog. He was tied up and brought in a couple of days after Christmas day by the dog wardens. The vet checked him then asked me to put him down on humane grounds as he was in pain.
He had a lovely temperament, he licked the nurses hands who was holding him then gave me a final calm look as life faded from him when l injected him.

I think there may be 2 reasons for him to have been dumped, there could be others but this seems to me the main 2 reasons:
(1) I do wonder if he was owned by an elderly person, family visited and did not like the “smelly dog”. They made an excuse and got rid of him, probably by telling the relative they would take him to the vet to be “put out of his misery”, then saved the money it would have cost at the vet's by dumping him.

Often old people have dogs and cats that end up in a state. They are scared to ask for help and or can not afford it. If you do know someone that is elderly then offer to help clip nails (if you feel confident enough) or even groom or walk the pet if they need help.
If you see a problem then contact the charities and local vets ask what their policies are regarding helping the elderly, some vets may be willing to do things on a pre-payment so a few pounds a week to build up a help pot.
Basics like nails and anal glands are nurse’s jobs and if it is a special case they are often happy to do that as a free clinic.

(2) I may be totally wrong about the dog and he is owned by the same people that dumped him. He became a Christmas casualty because a new puppy had his place.

For the second problem especially, if there was a tighter control on breeding and owning, then a lot of this would be brought under control. It could be self financing if a large enough amount was paid to own and or breed. Special rates could be brought in for elderly people as animals are often a vital part of their mental and physical health.

I am afraid though that animals like this and also healthy animals young or old will continue until a politician steps up to the bat, and brings animal ownership and breeding under control, and people start to see pet owning as an honour and not a right.

Close up of the tumour


The tumour was situated under the front leg.

Santa

Santa

White and black dog back of the line up in the main picture. She was a sweetheart and no one human or animal was nasty, she was very dim. Santa was the most psychic animal we had and l trusted her judgement on humans totally. She had been abused and could sense things in people even if they looked normal. She did not growl but her body language changed.

We went up Teide taking hubs Mum for a drive on Boxing Day. A car was by the side of the road and as it drove off a dog ran out. I bellowed “they dumped that dog”
Hub slammed on brakes and started to reverse. We got back to her and both jumped out the car. She took one look and ran off about 30feet looking up the road. When hub moved she was terrified so he sneaked slowly back to the car, every move he made she jumped and l attempted to catch her.
This was finally accomplished after 20 rounds of ring around the car and we continued with our drive. It took months till she trusted him totally and never felt safe around men.

Santa’s skin was appalling. I don’t think it was Scabies and it did not smell like Demodex whatever it was it was raw and sore. We decided the best thing was to have her put down.
The next day we went to the vet, and spent about 3 hours outside. One of us would say ok the best thing is to have her put down, the other would agree. Then the one that said have her put down decided maybe not. Talk about indecisive!
In the end we went in and spoke to Sara the vet. She said there was nothing she could do about the skin and that Sana had an infection pointing to her vulva. Actually Santa was just in season not a pyo, we left.
Later that day we went to a decent vet and he got Santa started on baths. It took about 6months but finally she was clear.
Tony neutered her as soon as her skin cleared up and he was happy with it also it had to coincide to when he was next out. It was a long time in between and we acquired Wibble and a kitten (Ginger) and Santa gave them milk till we had her spayed.

Santa was such a sweetheart, she always seemed to be in the wars and never complained and gulped any medication. She always had a bad eye, it never usually bothered her if it did we would put cream in, she chipped a bone in quarantine, that had to be removed, she got bad arthritis- treated, she had incontinence – treated.

I would take her into work to keep a closer eye on her. If she saw an open kennel she would jump into it the occupant would look at her confused and she would give them a dopey look and a lick. No matter how nasty the dog was, they never got nasty at her. She would lie in prep next to the desk and never needed tying up, the only time she moved was if she needed the loo would walk to the back door and await someone opening it.
If we met strange dogs when l was walking my 3 l found it was best to let Santa say hi and establish friendships first. That meant Wibble would then feel less scared and because the other 2 were ok Poca lost her excuse to jump in and rip the throat out of the poor passing dog for saying hello.

I used to hand raise a lot of kittens & some puppies. Santa would do the work, however if she trod on one and they cried she would jump up in the air very upset. She would not jump sideways and you needed to grab her and move her sideways, there was always a look of relief that the babies had stopped crying.
Her biggest brain wave was when a tiny kitten walked between her front legs and tried to get into her food bowl. No luck it was to small, so it planted a paw on her leg and tried, still no use. Santa woke up from her munching daydream, looked down, you could almost hear her mutter “ola baby” as she picked up a mouth full of food and spat it out by the bowl. Kitten happy, Santa happy she had solved something for one of her babies, me not happy and scooped kitten out of dog food and cleaned up mess.

She lived to about 14years old (we guessed her age at 1 when found). Around 4 years ago l got home and hub said she wasn’t “right” one look and you could see she had decided “no more” it was in her eyes. We took her in and after she had gone the vet felt a tumour in her abdomen. There had been no sign, l feel bad l had missed things. The only consolation was she did not show anything and it was only when she had gone that the lump could be felt. Very often tumours can not be felt in the abdomen as the animal ‘boards up’ but she had seemed happy till the end and l am sure she is surrounded by loads of babies, that would be her idea of heaven.

Chrismas Eve on Duty

On Christmas Eve l had been down to do the 14:00-22:00 but was asked to swop at the last minute to 17:30-03:30. I slunk into the house at gone 4am slurped a mug of coffee, tripped over books because the stairs light blew and l happened to be looking up at it when it flashed and seared my eyeballs and all l saw was flashes for 10minutes.

Work was as expected busy. I went straight into the kennel area on arrival to be told “Hurry up you are in theatre in 10minutes”. We had a splenectomy op (removal of the spleen). The patient was stable for the first part of the op. The last part was a bit of a nightmare as the patient did heart stops and other fun games with me. I was the anaesthetist for the op. Anyhow we all survived, the vet and l with more grey hairs, the patient minus a spleen. His recovery was good though considering the op and a bag of blood was dripped into him, along with other fluids.

Spleen operations are always a guarded diagnosis. In older dogs the spleen is often the target for tumours. They reach a certain point then rupture. The abdomen fills with blood, the body goes into shock and the spleen needs removing to stop the bleeding or the patient dies. Bleeding has often gone on over a week or so with the owner thinking the dog is a bit off colour then the dog's collapse.
The liver and other organs are checked for mets (spreading tumours). If there is mets then generally the patient won't come off the table, 98% of the time if you find mets then they are well advanced. The owners are rung and recommended that the patient is inoperable. Even if they came round the shock of the operation will mean they die within a very short time post operatively often within a couple of hours and it is not fair on the patient.

There were several minor ops during the night. Including a border collie that was very nervous. A nervous dog is the worst if it bites you. They are scared so make the first bite the one that counts. Luckily he didn’t bite, well l got called over by the vet who decided to get him out and the vet seemed intact. He had decided to do a “just” op. These will “just” take 5minutes in this case a quick leg stitch. It ended up as tendon repair and not as straightforward.

A diaphragmatic hernia repair was ending when l left. I kindly gave the night nurse that one, figured the other 2 ops l was involved with was my quota for the night, l did the inpatients instead.
A diaphragmatic hernia (rupture) is caused by extreme trauma, in the cat’s case due to a car hitting it. The diaphragm amongst its other jobs is the “muscle barrier” between the abdomen and the chest. Puss had a lot of trouble breathing because his liver, spleen and stomach were sharing space in his chest with his lungs, if he had not been castrated his testicles would have been in there as well.

We had a Doberman in who weighed about 50kg. At one point his drip line blocked so l so l sat on his bed in the walk in kennel to undo it, clear it and reattach it. This was not too easy. I ended up trying to fend him off my lap. He had a mental image of himself as being a tiny little puppy not a blimming big but sweet lump. We came to an agreement; he sat on my lower legs/feet and crushed those while l sorted his leg out. When left alone he howled until you went in gave him a cuddle then he shut up for about 30minutes. Seemed 30seconds gave 30minutes of silence in his currency.

Day shift had managed to get a lot of inpatients home, thankfully. Still we added a quite few into the empty kennels. Including a wild goose with one leg, the practice manager will take the goose. He has a huge pond and all water birds go to him. The vet and l upset the night nurse. She is a veggie and we discussed how the best way to cook the bird. Would the loss of one leg mean that it was lacking for those who liked leg meat etc? It cheered the evening up she took the bait and hell, we reeled it in.

The little stray pup is still in. His leg is still borderline to be kept or removed. He can not use it and it sticks out straight. He is zooming around happy with life. I did manage to sort of snap a photo of him but it was hard as he does not like to keep still. If there is quiet spells he is taken out and allowed to run riot around the place, if busy he runs round dog ward while we clean his bed. The other night he dived into Wibble’s bed then peed all over it when he got overexcited.

Christmas day was spent having a quiet Christmas day at my parent’s house. None of us like the noisy type day that is generally beloved so for us it was ideal. I would like to thank my folks for a relaxing day.
Hub was given some stilton. Oh joy now whenever l open the fridge l get attacked by this tub of stinky stuff that smells like 2months worth unwashed socks. I regretted making the suggestion to my Mum about getting it as a gift when hub undid the tub and smelled deeply muttering about ambrosia. We defiantly differ on the meaning of the word ambrosia.
I got some money and am saving up for a Sony Reader. It means l won’t have my books falling apart because l read them so often.
I was also given a lovely laser fairy cut into a block, it sits on a small flashing reflector and I’ve placed my special crystals on top of the block. They look perfect as the light shots through the fairy into the crystals in different colours.
We gave my parents a digital photo frame, the Kodak P720. I would recommend it as a gift. I used a 1 gb card for it preloaded 120 photos from the past times and loads of space for new photos.

I am off until Monday and intend to catch up on about 200emails that have collected. And may even consider giving the house a good clean, assuming l am not sidetracked by falling asleep on the settee. My years of nights have played merry hell with my metabolism and now l feel tired at all different times. It seems this is normal amongst night workers. New Year resolution, learn to say “no” when asked to do last minute shifts and changes. And take more days off and cut down on double shifts.

Junior in his buster collar. We have tried him without but he wont leave the external fixator and wound alone.

The Stray Puppy (Part 2)

This is just a short blog, l need to go and watch the inside of my eyelids. Tonight has been a very busy night at work. I met myself a few times! The important part and why l put this up now was that l have updates and photos on the staffie pup. He had his op today, there looks to be quite a lot of nerve damage but with physio will see how it goes.

X-Ray of the right femur 2 positions. 1st is a side view 2nd is lying on his back. The red arrow points to the fracture.





































He had an external fixator applied. The x-ray is a final check before the xfix is set in place. The small round looking things are staples closing the op site.


When l got in at 14:00 he was recovering in critical care.



At 17:00 He was having a snack.

19:00 He had to have a buster collar on as he was trying to eat his drip line.
22:00 he was evicted into dog ward l popped a toy polar bear in with him for company as he was yapping and bouncing up and down. I also removed his drip as he was eating and drinking and took his buster collar off. If he starts to pester the external fixator though, it goes back on.

The Stray Puppy (Part 1)

I was at work last night. The dog warden brought in a staffy puppy. He is very sweet. Someone found him Sunday and kept him overnight. They finally rang the dog warden Monday evening to say when they had found it and it had been limping.

He was limping all right, the femur was fractured and the leg was literally "swinging in the wind". It is too high a fracture for us to put a supporting dressing on so he has had a strong dose of pain relief and anti inflammatory. He may have a concious x-ray overnight if he lies still enough.
He had some food when he came in so a GA is out. If not then he will have a GA Tuesday and the surgeon will assess him. I do not know what will happen to the pup, chances are it will be repaired and rehomed but that will depend on the x-ray.

If you find an animal and there is anything amiss please make sure that you contact the dog warden or rspca, as soon as you find them. Even if they are fit they need to be taken to someone (vet, rescue centre,dog warden, etc) that deals with strays who can scan them for a microchip and hopefully trace the owner.
The RSPCA in the NW are often slow at collecting, blame the head office not the ACO. They do a bloody hard job in the face of extreme abuse often over how long they take. There are about 4 ACO (animal collection officers) and they cover a huge area, the whole of the north west UK.
The local dog wardens may also be slow. Help them all by arranging to take the animal in to a vet, ask them to let the vet know you will take it in and they can arrange collection from there.

By law UK vets have to offer first aid, even if that is just putting an animal to sleep. I know some practices that begrudge even pain relief and l have had to sneak it to them with a junior vets ok on the strong drugs l have used. Nothing is noted and drugs given passed on verbally so only the nurses and one vet knows what’s been given and when. A nurse or vet will sneak back overnight unpaid to give more pain relief. Yes it is shameful but the animals will always have someone in the practice to supply their needs above or below the management radar.

Where l went last night they are the opposite. Blood tests, x-rays and general anaesthetics, chest drains, feeding tubes, oxygen therapy, fluid therapy about 90% of the strays need iv fluids and all drugs are supplied.
Each animals needs are assessed. Uninjured strays are shipped off to rehoming /rescue centres as soon as possible. Terrible injures to animals means put down on admit. Those too old, too old and ill, young and too ill, if they are dangerous, or it is just not cost effective to repair them. The animals in these categories are given 3 days, this allows for owners to come forward. The 3 day patients are the worst ones. You nurse them, often intensely over 3 days, then they are put down.

If an operation is possible then major operations are carried out. Amputations, eye removals (one only eye if both needed removal they would be put down) Legs and pelvis are repaired, wounds repaired, spay or castrate is done, and the nurses arrange re homing.
3 nurses tend to specialise and have “black books” although all of the nurses join in.
There is an internal stray fund and anyone that gives a donation, the money goes into that and is put to good use. Check if your vet runs such a fund. To be fair someone has to pay for the drugs used, they are not cheap.

On the other hand when you see the amount of healthy strays that are destroyed, are you doing right by major operations and taking a home a healthy animal may have gone to? That healthy animal is often then destroyed?. Many agree, others see those that agree as cruel. Generally those who think it is cruel, have not had to deal with the sharp end. A rescue centre that is snowed down under healthy unwanted dogs or strays. No where to put them and seeing long term animals getting cage sick.
If anyone has any answers please let me know.

Putting anything down healthy or ill is not easy. You learn to sit hard on your feelings and make excuses or you would tear apart. Even so all of us have those moments when emotion takes us and when it does it is a really hard belly kick. Stress and depression is rife in the veterinary profession. I understand vets have the highest suicide rate. A lovely vet l knew committed suicide about 4 weeks ago. Veterinary Nurses also have a high suicide rate.

The problem is not easy to resolve and until breeding animals and unregulated sale and ownership of animals is brought under proper control it will continue.
Dogs Trust and Cat Protection League (CPL) and some of the smaller charities have packages to help with neutering contact them and do not let your pet have even one litter. Each of those "sweet babies" will grow up and someone may well breed from them and continue the problem.

The stray puppy snuggled under a blanket.

Basura's Story

This is one of the many stories of animals that came into K9 animal rescue in Tenerife.

Basura (Rubbish) was the only name that fitted him. He was a Belgium Sheppard cross breed(well looked like it) He came in very thin like most of the dogs we got in, but he soon filled out. We had no other history on him.
I did try and find a different name for him but nothing suited. No matter how tidy something was, he destroyed it.

He loved concrete bricks. Common stones were not worth his time. They had to be the big concrete blocks that he could destroy. And if not in destruction mode he would try and horde them for when he was bored. Being that the kennels were in the middle of a builders yard it was his idea of heaven. He would trot across the yard holding blocks he had thieved from various piles. I would trot behind him using strong language, grab the blocks and replace them, while he was already off raiding another pile. Needless to say his teeth were fast wearing down.

I tried to make the dogs nice beds with a solid wood base surrounded by concrete blocks and a thick padding of ripped up newspaper for bedding. I did not think it was possible to make as big a mess as he made. After a couple of days l removed the blocks. It was asking for trouble leaving them there. I tried to make a wood surround to keep the paper on the bed, forget it. He was going to hurt himself on the nails.
His kennel partner always had an “I am a long suffering wife” expression on her face bless her.

He was hyperactive and would bury a block in the sand then come back after running a few times round the compound and “find” his block. Sometimes he would forget where he buried it and sand would fly all over as he got more and more frantic.

I found a lovely home for Basura with an English couple. They had a young dog for company if they were not there, they liked walking and were very active ideal for Basura.
Unfortunately for Basura they had to ban him from bringing stones and bricks into the house. In Tenerife the houses tend to be flat roofed with a seating area on the roof.
Apparently they got home and Basura and their other dog got all excited. Basura could not resist giving a loud “WOOF” The fact he was holding a concrete block in his mouth was immaterial. He wanted to say hi so he dropped his toy. Luckily the family had been looking up and were able to dodge the item when it smashed down from a drop of about 20ft.

A Quiet Night

It was a quiet night last night thankfully. Only about 15 inpatients including a couple of unstable glucose dogs on hourly bloods, oh joy. A few general ongoing medical cases, post ops, couple of RTA’s, an injured bunny and hamster. It was Lhasa Apso night about 5 of them in. The vet was to blame we reckon, he admitted he had been thinking there had not been many in lately, by the time he got in last night we had a full collection of them.
Oh and the computers were down and the computer company did not work on weekends, ok for a normal practice but not good news for a major 24hr veterinary hospital.

Had a lovely stray golden retriever in from an RTA, he was conscious enough after about 2 hours to check his reflexes. 3 of his feet felt nothing despite the vet squeezing had as possible with my forceps, the 4th foot had a slight twitch.
I suggested to the locum that we needed to get him onto the x-ray table and asked him to help me shift the dog, at about 44kg not light.

The locum vet was a semi regular but normally on consults. He not used to the inpatient side. With some injuries the vets had to call ongoing or end treatment as there is no owner to do it. If it is not fixable it is cruel to leave the patient suffering. The x-rays would hopefully give the information the vet needed to diagnose either way.

The second picture was the “finder” a compression fracture of one vertebra and along from that a total spinal fracture. Either were a death sentence, it was a no go for the poor lad and he was put down.
He looked like he had been well loved and somehow got out. The dog was not id chipped so no way of contacting anyone, hope the owner contacts the practice.

A cat was admitted with a terrible tongue ulcer, he had not eaten for at least 2 days other than the odd pick of food. By the time the vet had debrided the area it looked like half of the underneath of one side of the tongue was gone. I popped the cat back in his kennel.
Later l walked into cat ward as he recovered to stagger mode. He seemed very distressed. On a hunch l got a bowl of ad (very fine food especially good for tube feeding) sloshed it with water to make is even sloppier and the cat became a “Dyson vacuum” he surfaced every so often to take a breath and then slurp some more, when the bowl was empty he burped and fell asleep purring.
Que 1 happy vet one happy and vn, the big worry had been would he eat or need a tube placed for feeding, the question had been answered.

The photo was taken pre-debride.

2 More Police Calls

The call came in, in the early hours from the police about a pony wandering along the busy ‘A’ road.
The driver was not to sure if it would go in the back of the van, but we had been assured it was only a tiny animal.
He was also worried about being kicked. I gave him a big sheet and told him to cover the pony’s eyes and all would be fine, and finally a couple of tied together dog leads to go around animal’s neck.

He trundled off and came back about an hour later with the pony in the back. We lifted it out in a reverse of the procedure to get it on-board.
We covered pony's eyes over (if we did not the driver was not helping me) and finally hurt our backs lifting him out.
We only had isolation free that was practical for use. I raided all the bunny hay l could find and found and bucket for water.
He was claimed later in the day, he had gone walkabout from a gypsy encampment.

I am not surprised that police go nuts at the paperwork. Apparently the copper was writing down that the pony was facing in a north easterly direction along the side of the eastbound carriageway on rough ground. Along with a lot more erroneous information. I mean for gods sake doe’s it matter?

Pony in 'iso'








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l worked at another practice when the police rang ahead that they were bringing in a dangerous dog. It had almost attacked the officers that grabbed him and they were bringing him in at great personal risk.
I grabbed dog grab and gloves and awaited the great coming.

About 10minutes later a big van turned up with 2 very scared police officers in.
“Be careful” they shouted as l creaked open the side door slightly to get a look. It did seem very quiet for a killer dog, then l saw it.

A small Jack Russell Terrier was scratching his ear, and making grunty noises at the itchy feeling.
“Psst, whatya doing scaring those poor lads”? l said to him
The dog waddled over and licked my hand. I picked him up and carried him in past 2 very deflated police.

I don’t know what excuse they came up with to other officers that asked about the “dangerous dog” but l am sure they managed to think up some excuse.
To be fair JRT can sometimes be nasty. l knew one that no one could get near, he was deaf, kept in a stable and never handled.
This one was sweet, l think it just was the lads were genuinely scared of it.

A Ticking Off

l was asked to take over the kennels that K9 (in Tenerife) had been given from the council. On the phone Elsie (chairman of K9 also trouble shooter and fluent Spanish speaker) described the place in her usual understated way style, “Well dear, it is a bit rough, but you will soon get it sorted”
I did take note of the you and not the us, that was a big clue. Although to be fair Elsie was a lady who arranged things. Not a messy sod like me that piles into something without worrying about the consequences or cleanliness.

She had under described the kennels. There was 10 of them and 2 small alcoves. After a week or so I scrounged some wire,wood and a door and made an alcove into an 11th kennel.
The kennels themselves were ok. Breeze block, with proper weld mesh doors, and back sloping asbestos roofs. There was a hose pipe and running water. A centre drain that ran down the middle of the open air kennel passage, went underground to just under the compound wall and into the open air too an area l ended up calling “The Swamp”.
The problem was the filth. The kennel floors were about 5 to 8” deep in dry compacted dog poop and fleas and ticks ruled the place.

2 dogs in when we took over. One of the dogs was a German Pointer type that l called Danny the other a scruffy little mutt. Mutely went straight up to a foster home post bath and l did not have anything to do with him, he went to Germany for a fast re-home.

When we met the dogs looked like they had growths on, getting closer l realised it was bunches of tick’s that looked grey grapes hanging off them. I decided that while in theory you shouldn’t pull ticks off this was a no choice situation.
I bought the best tick killer l could find and soaked the dogs in it. After their wash l started to pull off handfuls of ticks and drowned them in left over tick killer.
It took about 3 hours to bath them and make sure that all the ticks were off them. The dogs were bleeding quite a bit by the end, a course of antibiotics was defiantly called for.
This was the opening skirmish in a war between the ticks and myself.

Danny had to stay in for some time, as we had no foster space or flights to Germany for him. His kennel was the first one cleaned, I left him tied up outside, he enjoyed sunning himself.

The next big shock came on the Friday, we had had the kennels for a couple of days and were still awaiting keys for the compound. The council informed us no one was allowed in on the weekend. l spent several hours outside the walls looking for a way in. No luck though l could not get in. It was surrounded by high walls, locked gates and rough ground. I have to say that was one of the worst weekends l had.

Elsie did manage to get a key by the following weekend thankfully. For the first weekend though, we had nowhere to put Danny, so we had to do what the council used to do. I put in several buckets of water in case one got knocked over and scattered lots of small bowls of dry dog food around. Danny got through the weekend ok.

I asked what happened on bank holidays and told oh same as weekends. As it turned out, on fiesta days, one of the council workmen that l got to know who that loved animals would come in and do a check, in his own time, to see the animals were ok.
He said If the kennels were full then every so often the vet would put everything down and it would start again. He felt, and l agreed that the dogs were better on the street, taking their chances.
In the kennels no one had cared if they fought or were hurt. At the end of the day they were only going to be put down. My friend used to let a lot of animals go but had to be careful he was not caught.

I had a heck of time trying to de-poop the kennels. The compaction was so dry that water ran off the top off it. I ended up with a sharp knife, digging it into it, and taking out bits to allow the water to seep under and help lift the mess. I gave up on gloves they kept tearing. It took me about a week of digging and scrubbing to clean the floors.
A few people did come along to help. They never stayed though once they saw what was needed.
Ticks were a constant problem. Every few minutes of digging l had to do a quick check to see what l need to pull off myself. Fleas l gave up on, they were to small and fast to bother about.

Cleaning the Kennel walls was in theory easy, no compacted dog poop. In practice all out war developed between the ticks and l. They lived deep in the cracks.
I used the strongest tick killer and disinfectant l could get my hands on. I would soak the walls, scrub them and flush them. The walls looked spotless.
l would put Danny in with bags on his feet. This was protection so he would not get poisoned by any disinfectant l had not managed to wash away. I would stand back from the kennel quietly talking to him. Within minutes whole battalions of ticks would swarm down the walls towards him, l have never seen the like.
I would haul him, out rampage into the kennel and slaughter ticks as fast as l could. They in turn would do a fast about turn and head for the cracks.
I tried to do it with myself as bait, not Danny, but l would not see so much as a head of a tick. I could only suppose it was body heat, or vibrations.
It took almost a month for me to kill all the ticks in about 4 of the kennels that were worst affected but l won eventually.

As a kennel became scrubbed and cleaned it was placed in use, by the end of the month K9 kennels were open and full with about 22 dogs.

The Throwaway Society

Sadly the world is a throw away society and it is shown in the care of their animals. All to many are dumped in favour of a younger, newer, fitter model.

The great news the other day was that Los Angeles is getting hard on owners. Last year LA animal shelters took in 50,000 cats and dogs and destroyed approximately 15,000 at a cost of $2 million. Now any dog or cat over 4 months old has to be neutered.

The ordinance does exempt some animals, including those that have competed in shows or sporting competitions, guide dogs, animals used by police agencies and those belonging to professional breeders.
The average pet owner, however, must have their dog or cat spayed or neutered by the time it reaches 4 months of age (as late as 6 months with a letter from a vet).

First-time offenders will receive information on subsidised neutering services and be given an additional 60 days. If they still fail to comply they could be fined $100 and ordered to serve eight hours of community service. A subsequent offence could result in a $500 fine or 40 hours of community service.

I wonder if apart from guide dogs that owners of unneutered animals have to pay a whopping great yearly licence fee. I understand this is the case in Germany, but there is no news on that being part of the LA ordinance.

Recent reports state in UK say that over 100,000 strays were collected in 2007. These had to be cared for by local councils or charitable organisations, and a huge number were destroyed.
The best present would be to hear that the LA law was being enacted in UK as well, and a big yearly fee for unneutered animals paid, l can but hope.

In UK vets do not like to neuter under 6 months the excuse is that animals bodies have not had time to form correctly and bitches risk getting bitch spay incontinence.
I find Tony Boardman MRCVS comments on lack of confidence in their own skills by vet’s to be more realistic. Finding immature sexual organs can be difficult but with practice it is not that hard.

USA have been spaying dogs and cats from 2months (females) 10 weeks (males) for years. You can bet that if there was a risk, being USA and with their litigation culture they would not do it.
Males are slightly older when castrated usually over 10 weeks when their testis have descended.
One UK vet l spoke to that is happy to neuter young animals said that a study he read was that there can be at most 1mm difference in mature growth size height.

My Wibble was spayed at about 10weeks old, is now 15 and never had a problem. Santa (now deceased) was about 2years old (a stray) and ended up with bitch spay incontinence from about 10years old.
l had any stray pups done in the K9 rescue kennels from about 2 months old or as soon as Tony arrived on a working trip. When we caught any feral kittens, the same rules applied they were spayed or castrated. All of them the younger they were the faster they recovered.

Quite frankly unsubstantiated (to my mind) comments on problems from neutering early are immaterial to the reality of the present out of control animal situation.
Those who think it is wrong to neuter young should be the ones that pump pentobarb into animals veins that are fit, young and healthy. Not one animal, thousands of them, just because there is no where for them to go.
Some people say animals should not be "just put down". Well keeping an animal for months, even years in a cage, that grew up in a family is a cruel sentence and many animals mad.
Death is a better option than life, Life would have been better not formed in the first place.

Included with spay/castrate to stop the stray problem is to have all dogs and cats microchipped.
Next to an animal having no chip, the worst is an animal having one that has no contact details. Either the owners had the pet id chipped but never sent the paperwork in or they have changed address or phone and not updated the chip company.

Dog wardens usually do id chipping at a greatly reduced rate. And if you are having an operation done on your pet (say neutering) then often id chipping is done at a reduced rate by the vet.
Even if you have a cat that never goes out, it can still escape, and the only real hope of rejoining you is an idchip.
Id chips are put into every animal including parrots, tortoises, fish (Koi), zoo animals etc. Even expensive plants are often idchipped.

Have your pet spayed or castrated, have them microchipped and have them insured. And do not forget.

******* An Animal is For Life, Not Just For The Present*******

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No blogging tomorrow. I've spent the week working halfway down the country at an amazing referral practice and drive home after work tomorrow night.

“Normal services should be resumed Saturday night”

Bowel Movements

I decided to slightly change the name of the blog to allow for other anecdotes and stories from other times in my life. Like in working at the SPCA in Bulawayo, or Tenerife with the animal rescue or Tenerife Zoo and other jobs that l have thrown myself into.
My initial thought for a title was something like, "The Barefoot Veterinary Nurse", as l am, whenever chance presents it's self, barefoot. The trouble is that type of title has been taken. So l contented myself with a rather bland title l have up now until something more original springs to mind.

I have just pushed my birds eye chicken curry dinner into the microwave. In theory very mild in reality l need half a bottle of mayonnaise on to cool it down.

This made me think of the mass "bowel" problem when l ran the kennels in Tenerife.
We were having a lot of problems from the local council over the kennels. Originally they had asked us to run them but now about a year later they were getting pushy as they wanted the area for other unspecified things.

Almost all of the strays were rehomed in Germany. They did a lot of fundraising for us and were happy to take strays as they have very strict laws on animal breeding in Germany and a lack of especially smaller dogs.
It could be difficult to arrange transport. Originally we could book dogs on with no owner and send them, then a law somewhere changed and they had to have an owner.
This meant our German speakers would have to try and arrange people who were on holiday to accept a dog as theirs for the trip home. The airlines were aware of this and accepted it so what was the use of the rule?.

We had meetings with the council who were uncompromising. They go or they die, they were only dogs. We got hints that the kennels would be suddenly and forefully shut. Thankfully it never came off. Anyway by a supreme effort our German speaker managed to get 18 special places on a plane because of our circumstances.

So l began sorting rabies vaccinations and getting paperwork for the parvo, distemper etc ones l had already given. Making sure that l had all the confirmation for no heartworm signed up. Local vets were happy enough to provide this for us, they were nice enough, it was skill they lacked through bad training.

Arranging helpers and transport for 18 dogs and 18 travelling crates, from bull mastif size to cat size. At our end to the airport, at German end onward to foster homes.
All crates had to be delivered well before the day to set up, match dog to kennel space wise and then get them marked up for each traveller.

Freezing enough water bowls so that water did not slop out on take off/flight. A slow thaw meant the dogs did not go thirsty.
Plenty of torn paper for bedding. This soaked up any spill and made a warm bed for the dogs to snuggle into.
And NO sedation this is the biggest killer. Flying lowers the blood pressure, sedation lowers it more and the heart stops, or in such an alien environment the unsupervised animal can go hyperaesthetic (nuts)and injure its self.

Making sure that all paper work was attached to each crate so it could be viewed but not removed and lost. This was the last job done but it all had to be pre sorted so that it flowed on the day.

I was up for 5am on "The Day" and went into the kennels. As l arrived a smell assaulted my nose. Diarrhoea flowed in each kennel. I was stunned, my mind was blank in horror. If they did not go today then every animal on that list went into a bin bang. That was how important this mass flight was. There was no rescheduling, no second chance. With the circumstances as they were it was go or die.

An emergency call to Tony to confirm Buscopan (control of diarrhoea especially when pain or abdominal discomfort is present) and Kaolin and Morphine (to stop the flow) both medications in max. doses.

Then Buscopan, syringes, needles in hand l got busy injecting every dog. Buscopan goes into the muscle, and stings like heck. You often need help or a muzzle to go this route. There was one person me, and l had no time to muzzle anything.
By the time they had screamed or snarled in outrage the next dog was being pulled out and the stunned patient was flying back into the kennel. I had no time to be nice and l felt awful hurting them.

The dogs were just getting over this assault when l was hauling their heads back and pouring Kaolin and Morphine down their throats. I did 2 rounds of this to allow for "paint effect" spitting it out and painting everything with the mix.

By now it was about 8am and volunteers were yawning in. They were met with the sight of a barefoot madwoman covered with diarrhoea, Kaolin and Morphine, and trying to check temperatures and give instructions to helpers.
Some wanted to wait with the flight but they were vetoed, and everyone was in agreement that we had no choice.

Finally we had the dogs cleaned and we set off. The dogs stomaches had settled. Some crates were to be assembled at the airport for ease of carrige others were solid wood and non dismantalable. All paperwork was in order and by the time the flight left several hours later we were all emotionally shattered. I refused to leave till it was wheeles off "just in case" and everyone else felt the same.

The dogs arrived almost clear of diarrhoea and set off to new lives. A day later later l discovered the problem. It was bad bag of food, l had given the remains to one of the helpers as she had run out for her dog. A phone call the next day and she was giggling. Of all days for me to open that bag of food, the day before a major logistics attempt you couldn't script it.

The remaining 4 or so dogs were scheduled to fly out over the following few weeks but if worse came to worse we could foster them in houses short term. Then a couple of weeks later the council decided that they had been to abrupt and backed off. Slowly the kennels returned to full.
Several months later l left the island. About 8 months after that the kennels were moved to a different council area.

Special thanks for help goes to Judith for humour, mental grounding and travelling crate contacts, Elsie for her fluent spanish, German Sue for arranging the flight transport and everyone else who ever reads this and was involved on the "Big Day".

From Floppy Dogs to a Rant.

It started out steady yesterday but then seemed to end up going a bit mad. We were several nurses down so that did not help.

There is a big German Shepard Dog (GSD) in l will call Max. He had been an RTA at about 3am. His main injury was a pneumothorax (chest full of air). When night shift came back on duty they were all shocked to see him. He had come in almost dead and no one would have bet on his odds of survival.

Now he was trying to leap out of the kennel whenever the door was opened, this was often as he had been having his chest drained every 30mins. When l got in they had decided as the amount withdrawn had been dropping it would be left for an hour.

As everyone was battered from playing grab the 10mth old nutter in mid air game, or the lift the floppy dog back into the kennel, l was given the job of official "air puller".
First pull was depressing at 650ml of air, oh well back to every 30mins. After a couple of hours though it settled down and by 23:00 we were only getting fairly small amounts out after an hour or so.

"Max" has a wonderful temperament which makes it nice to deal with him, a lot of GSD are dangerous. Max's problem is he hates to be in a kennel so you have to try and keep him in the kennel by pushing your head up and blocking as he tries to leap out. Sometimes he gives in and lies down, other times he pants and dribbles in your face and hair knowing you hate it and that you are stuck, hands holding the 50ml syringe and working a 3way tap.
Calling for help is no use as everyone is busy doing other jobs and this in theory is a simple job, as he is a softie. If he gets out he stands still for his draining.
Great except try and get him back in the kennel. Back legs slide slowly down front legs go stiff and he folds drunk style to the floor. You are left to lift bits of a roughly 40kg totally floppy dog into his kennel bit by bit, as he does his best to push just enough to slide out.
Slide him round on the floor like a mop head so he is facing the door, he bounces up and is all "Ohhh goody, no more kennel" Turn him back to the kennel and down he goes.

A sweet old terrier came in via a police collection call. His owner was walking down the street and started to kick the dog, ripped off all of his clothes and ran away naked. Well that was other peoples problem the old dog was lame on his back leg but we were not sure if it was an old injury or a new one. He was on pain relief and rest overnight and reassess today (Saturday).
From there it will be treatment on a new injury, decisions on what or if anything can be done to help the old injury. Then off to the rescue kennels where they will decide what his future will be. If they can track down relatives to look after him that will be the first course of action.

I managed to leave just in time last night. I am not a fan of breeders or dog breeding. A bulldog with whelping difficulties turned up. I guess the owners got the dates wrong or are new. Bulldogs are so screwed up thanks to the breeding that they are all caesarian to give birth. If they do manage to give birth to one pup the rest are caesarian out so the stress on them is lessened by elective caesarian.
Bulldog litters often come out all dead from deformations or just a couple dead with deformed bodies.

It gets better l was speaking to a bulldog breeder once he told me that it takes 4 people to support a pair of attempting to mate bulldogs as their legs can not support the effort. An Aussie vet was telling me that over there they just use artificial insemination a lot easier and in that heat would have dead dogs.
One research team was looking into bulldogs stamina and needed them to walk a certain amount of time round a hall (l or 2 circuits) the test was abandoned as none of the dogs could compete the walk.

While nice but ugly bulldogs are a walking disaster of inherited problems and for this people pay upwards of £2000 for one.

Many breeds should be allowed to die out. The extreme cruelty of their existence should be lived by those that want to breed them, not the animals whose crime was to be a source of income.

For information on genetic disorders in dogs, go to

Outright lies are often told to prospective buyers about problems associated with breeds but if they ask the correct people, vets and vet nurses, prospective buyers should be given the correct information in as much that is known but the website is the full known and often updated lists of a lot, but not all breeds.