A Bird in the Hand.

I am at a small surgery for August weekdays, no nights and weekends and a lovely group of staff. Well no nights and weekends unless l get a call in like l did last weekend to my old job.
This practice is one of those places where if l go on the motorway it is a big circular trip. No traffic lights but at certain times long tailbacks. Option 2 is straight across a couple of towns with traffic lights but half the distance. I have yet to decide on the best route.

We had a dove in a couple of days ago it had been found collapsed but did try and fly so the decision was made to try and treat it. Yesterday it had a fly round the room till it met the glass on the door then slid down it. The vet decided that it was well enough to be let go, any longer would not do it any good.
A couple of hours later when we had some spare time l took it over the road and threw it towards some bushes to let it live or die as nature would decide. He flew off landed near a bush and walked under to get his breath back.

The aux and l were having a chuckle about it coming back across the road and demanding room and board or something to drink, l got up to get something from the waiting room and stopped dead…. A pigeon was crossing the last steps to the pavement, jumping onto it and walking towards the door. I took a few seconds to realise it was a different species and bird just initially they looked similar. The bird made short work of a bread crust by the door and flew off.

That got the aux. and l reminiscing and she was telling me about a blackbird they had rescued at one of the branch practices she had worked at.
It was very poorly and they carefully nursed it for about 5 days when it was able to fly. She took it to some bushes near the practice, threw it up into the air….. and it exploded in a puff of feathers as the magpie that was nesting in the trees took it out, landed on it and ripped it to bits.
She said he jaw just hung open they did not realise the magpies were there. She wanted to kill the bloody bird for what it had done and also felt very guilty for the end of the poor blackbird. There was nothing she could do except stare in disbelief.

Swan Song

A hissing double armful of feathers and glaring eyes owned by the Mute Swan was carried in by the collections driver. “Where do you want him, isolation?” Usually we put wildlife down there as it is quiet and away from the bustle.

“Did he look injured or what” l asked.

“Dunno” was the helpful reply. “He seems happy enough he landed in a ladies garden. A group of idiots was giving me a load of mouth so l made sure that his head, hissing and glaring at them over the gate, was the first thing they saw when l went out. After that all l heard was **** **** that thing has rabies and they legged it” This last comment of his was delivered with an evil smirk.

To be fair swans can be daunting, they are big, hissy birds, especially when they stand up tall and flap their wings. They are not a bird to handle unless you are confident. If you do need to move them a short distance hold their necks, just below their heads they are generally fine, you can aim them in a direction by turning their head and push them gently on their bodies. Sometimes have to get hold of their body/wings with the other arm as they may get upset and wing you. If they do peck or clobber you with their wings then it can hurt.
For longer moves they need carrying. RSPCA and RSPB have fancy swan bags with zips and handles, us poor folks have to make do with arms only. As swans get heavier and you release their neck hold to get a double armful of slipping body and kicking feet they twist round and depending on their mood, glare into your eyes or peck you where ever they know it will hurt you most.

I gave the swan a quick once over, there was nothing obvious. And thankfully no swan feather mites, well I’m told that is what they are. Grey, about the size of peas that have been on steroids and they stalk well slide with a bolshie strut on their multiple legs in and out around the feathers, usually around where your arm would go and daring you to grab the swan.

The vet grunted from the desk where he was writing up notes “Put him on the floor here in prep we can see how he’s walking”

Once placed on the floor the swan drew himself up, flapped his wings to settle his feathers and disrupt dust and paperwork which all went flying around in the wind, then he hissed at us, shook his head at the state of the place. Never mind that he caused it with wing wind, and went for a walk.

Dog ward door was closed so he peeked into the laundry room, and withdrew fast, good move there was a tottering pile of blankets in there ready to fall on him.
Small furries ward (rabbit, ferret, guinea pigs, birds etc) and combined bedding storage had a close inspection, luckily no patients in. He was about to climb onto bedding that was being folded so I quickly shoopered him out. Swans have big gloopy faeces that splat and l did not want clean bedding messed up. The look the auxiliary gave me warned l would be in a worse state than the bedding.
Swanny hissed at me but followed the direction l was turning his head and shoving his bum and walked out the door and back towards the sink in medical prep. I was about to take him down to iso. when he settled down, stuck his head under his wing and went to sleep.

This stumped me swans never do this they stalk about, hiss, shit, and if you annoy them peck or wallop you with their wings. I looked round for some ideas and the consensus was he is quiet and well behaved leave him be, let’s see what happens. So l got him some food and water which he ignored and we carried on with work.

He was very comfy, ignored all the patients that passed him, looking in amazement at the strange headless feathery thing “thing”. We had to climb over him to get to the sink and all he did was sleep or open an eye and then snooze again, unreal. Finally after about 4 hours l had to shift him, I needed to wash a cat, it had some gunk on it and Swanny was just too much in the way.

I tried to push him backwards a bit but he got annoyed and went for a walk, back to small furries and settled down between the bedding store and kennels by the 2nd door. I stuck a warning note for no entry so he did not get squashed and we left him.
Apparently he was finally moved and placed into a walk in kennel in dog ward at about 7am just before day shift all started to trip in.

He was released at a suitable swan take off pond later in the day and flew off, quite happy after a good nights sleep.



What did you wake me up for?

Goosed

I was on the mid shift last night which means l finished at 22:00. We were pretty busy most wards dog, cat and critical full with a suspect lepto in isolation. Still overflow and small furries was empty so it was not to bad.

Last night was the first time l have seen a cat bloat. Dogs bloats for us on nights are fairly common. Roughly one every couple of weeks. Cat bloats are pretty much unknown, in 7 years l have never seen one. This one presented as collapsed and screaming when it came in. At first the thought was it was a thrombus (a blood clot) but no the feet were all warm. A dose of our strongest pain relief was administered and when it started to take effect it would also sedate the cat slightly.

As soon as he was injected with pain relief a quick x-ray was taken and the classic elbow showing of bloat and the chest in a bad way. We had a locum vet on who is not used to bloats as they are very rare in general practice. I set up for him to do an emergency decompress.
With the first decompress we took about 80ml air out. The cat was more settled and iv catheter was placed. Normally one would be placed first but we had not been able to as the cat was in so much pain keeping it still long enough was impossible.
The second decompress removed roughly another 80ml of air. A final x-ray showed that the bloat was much reduced.
We did not want to do any more gas removal in case we caused more problems than we solved by adding holes into the stomach with a large bore needle and possible leakage.

The assessment of the night vet who came on duty later in the evening was that the chest was in a bad state, this lead to mouth breathing and to much air diverting to the stomach, the stomach filled with air and somehow it moved enough to trap the air. Withdrawing the air allowed it to settle back to normal position and expel the remaining air, thankfully, as the cat would never have survived an operation.

When l left the cat was sitting in his incubator purring away. He still has a long haul to go the heart and lungs are not good and he is over 10years old but he came through step one.

We had an unusual patient in, a goose. He had a bad leg cut 4 days before. It was felt that dressing and strict rest would do the job. He had been in overnight, then home for 3 days. Wonderful blue eyes he had and was very well behaved as he was a pet not a wild goose. The vet undressed the wound and BANG! out poured blood. Sods law a dressing was not going to work we would have to do an op. He reapplied a tight pressure dressing while l tried to not get attached into said dressing while holding the leg out.
I took goosy to an empty walk in kennel and he was a bit rude when placed in it. He had been wrapped up in a duvet for some time with just his head out so he needed a good wing swing. Trouble was l was clobbered by him but it was not personal as wild geese are this was more the lines of.
"Well it was your fault for not getting out my way"
Once he was happy he had both of them and they were working he allowed me to pick him up and place him on his newly made bed.

It seems to be Diabetic season at the moment and we have at least one animal in a day on a glucose curve.
This means glucose taken every hour or two hours for 24hours. Last nights one was a sweetie, allowing us to take blood and stats etc. as though it was an everyday occurrence. I took her general stats but her drip had stopped and wouldn't unblock when l adjusted her leg position and tried to flush it this did not work either.

I undid the drip line, bunged her (iv) catheter blasted the drip and reattached her line, went to tape it in and her teeth missed me by mm's, she made it clear l was on her dinner list, and sweet doggie was not playing ball any more.
Great, the drip line disconnected and blood decided to descend as it had a lovely open hole. While l could not get near my patient. My cussing drew a vet who asked if he could help. I legged it passed him for a muzzle and yelled yes stay there. I got back with vet and dog gazing at each other warily and thrust a muzzle on my patient before the teeth could move. While saying to the vet right get that iv in while l secure her.

Do you mean this he said holding drip line up and (iv) catheter attached to it. He reattached the drip line, she had moved and bingo... it had come out. Oh well so much for a sweet patient, she would have to have a redrip later, l was going off duty and she needed to settle down.