I decided to put some info up on those nasty little hidden problems that are often overlooked. In this case worms. Many thanks to Arlo from Guthrie Communications whom l "borrowed" the articles from.
Targeted specifically at cat ownersProfender aims to educate owners about the importance of worming their cats and visiting their vets.
Pet owners visiting the site will be able to profile their cat to determine the optimum worm treatment regime. To help improve compliance, owners can also subscribe to a free SMS or email reminder service to alert them when a worming treatment is due.
The results of a new study highlighting the prevalence of Angiostrongylus vasorum infection as seen by UK veterinary surgeons, combined with the low awareness amongst dog owners of this parasite has led Bayer Animal Health to launch a nationwide 'Be Lungworm Aware' initiative.
I have seen 2 dogs die of lung worm. Neither was pleasant. The first one was taken in collapsed and lungworm can be hard to find but x-rays of lung patterns were suggestive, although no lungworm could be found in lung samples sent for testing.
Initial treatment was started but the dog reacted badly and the dose was lessened. After several days the owners decided that the dog was suffering, he was anorexic and very depressed and had a lot of fluid on his chest the vet’s couldn’t clear as he passed on bloody fluid poured out of his lungs in a flood.
Post mortem confirmed what he had.
The other dog did not survive that long and the owners decided not to have a PM done but x-ray patterns and history suggested that again Angiostrongylus vasorum was responsible.
The new campaign will be backed by a hard-hitting national advertising, PR and radio campaign which kicks off in April, the initiative aims to highlight the prevalence of this potentially, and often fatal infection, and to drive pet owners to their veterinary practices for further information.
The initiative also sees the launch of a new educational website for dog owners on Lungworm. The site offers further information on the infection, including likely signs, how to obtain treatment and a video of the lifecycle of the parasite showing the threat posed by the lungworm's intermediate hosts - slugs and snails.
The study revealed that 16% of vets questioned had one or more confirmed cases of the disease. A further 10% had seen dogs that they suspected had the infection. However, only 6% of dog owners questioned in a UK wide survey had unprompted awareness of the parasite.
Bayer's Chris White said: "These results are no surprise following the reports last year of confirmed cases of Angiostrongylus vasorum as far north as Glasgow. The disease has seen a rapid rise in importance over the past few years highlighted by the number of vets and nurses that attended the Advocate CPD meetings held around the country at the end of last year.
"The 'Be Lungworm Aware' initiative aims to educate owners on the risks associated with infection, to encourage them to visit their vet for further information and discuss their dogs' parasite protection plan."
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, 11 April 2009
Doggie Smile
Teeth are an important part of animals that are neglected all to often. Dogs and cats come in with horrendous manky teeth, especially little dogs. And you just know that they have been licking “mummy and daddy’s” faces.
If people took a better look at their pets teeth l think they would think twice. I will do separate posts on teeth of animals l have known as it is so wide ranging a subject.
Animals can get damaged teeth as well in accidents or by chewing stones. With younger dogs the teeth are generally damaged by grinding or breaking by the above 2 routes, as opposed to humans who have rotted teeth and need fillings or caps.
Nowadays there is options to have your dogs teeth capped or filled. It is not cheap and is very specialised and only carried out on teeth that are healthy unlike us humans who tend to have it done due to bacterial problems and already weakened teeth.
I do a lot of work where there is consultant dentist a couple of days a week. A few months ago, knowing that l am always taking photos he asked me if l wanted to get some photos of his newest job.
He did not have to ask twice. I went off and got quite snap happy as it was the first time l have seen tooth caps for dogs. The dog had damaged teeth from a car crash and was getting a nice smile back.
Pre Fitting
Post Fitting
If people took a better look at their pets teeth l think they would think twice. I will do separate posts on teeth of animals l have known as it is so wide ranging a subject.
Animals can get damaged teeth as well in accidents or by chewing stones. With younger dogs the teeth are generally damaged by grinding or breaking by the above 2 routes, as opposed to humans who have rotted teeth and need fillings or caps.
Nowadays there is options to have your dogs teeth capped or filled. It is not cheap and is very specialised and only carried out on teeth that are healthy unlike us humans who tend to have it done due to bacterial problems and already weakened teeth.
I do a lot of work where there is consultant dentist a couple of days a week. A few months ago, knowing that l am always taking photos he asked me if l wanted to get some photos of his newest job.
He did not have to ask twice. I went off and got quite snap happy as it was the first time l have seen tooth caps for dogs. The dog had damaged teeth from a car crash and was getting a nice smile back.
Pre Fitting
Post Fitting
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Post Spay Bleed
It is not often we get in a patient that is such an emergency the vet doesn’t have time to do anything but operate straight away, with barely time to do a proper hand scrub. In fact l only remember this happening once not long ago. Going straight in as the vet was about to do was virtually unknown and was an indication of just how bad the dog was.
I was ambling up from dog ward to do the stats in cat ward when the vet, arms full of dog pouring blood came fast down the passage. Propflo, kit, spay bleed was all he said as he turned the corner and headed to theatre suite.
Sometimes a bitch spay will bleed. It may be a suture has slipped because the owner has allowed the bitch to jump on or off furniture or allowed a slightly nutty bitch to run around despite instructions. Maybe a suture slipped as it was not tight enough. The bitch may have been in season when spayed and everything is engorged this can cause problems post op. Usually a vet won’t spay in season bitched but they may have to for some reason or she could just be coming in and was not checked properly on admit or not showing much and was missed. Bleeding may be generalised ooze as she has an undiscovered clotting defect or for some unknown reason.
Usually the first line of defence is a tight belly wrap to put pressure on and keep a close eye for strike through and pray there is none.
Operating on a post op bleeding bitch is never easy. They have to find the short stump remaining from what was removed, buried somewhere in the abdomen amongst all the abdominal contents. And while yes, the vet knows roughly where it is, real life is never that simple. They also need to check all surrounding areas for any bleeding.
I pulled up 15ml propflo, a bitch spay kit and sterile gloves then headed to theatre. The vet had an et tube ready. He barely had to wave the anaesthetic under her nose (so to speak) oh well if l had not pulled 15ml he would have wanted more. I connected the gas, unrolled a kit and while the vet scrubbed up l gave her a clean and undid the skin sutures on her abdomen. We had to use surgical prep moving her to theatre would have taken to long.
Gloves on and back the vet took a deep breath then snipped out the remaining internal sutures. Blood bubbled up in a red flood that ran over the sides of the bitch in small rivers, the vet went hunting.
I put popped 6 (large) abdominal swabs onto his kit. The small normal ones were as useful as emptying a dam with a teaspoon.
“What’s her name” l asked to put it onto my op sheet.
“Don’t know, verbal consent”
“Tsk your helpful” l mumbled he flicked a grin at me.
“You want fluids in her” l asked?
I got a grunt l translated as yes and was about to yell for a hand (so l did not have to leave the patient, theatre is a bit away from the main area) when the auxiliary appeared. She had tracked the vet following the blood trail and wanted to know what to do about the owner in the waiting room.
Well l said after you have helped me with a leg you better print a consent form and we could go from verbal to written consent.
I don’t like placing catheters when the animal is on the op table. The leg is sticking into the air and so it is high, instead of bending and looking down you are looking up. You have to consider the vet operating and can not move the dog and have to worry about sterility. Once it was in l attached a bag of No11 some bolus of voluven and placed more into the bag.
Blood transfusion would wait for now. We have a limited supply unlike human hospitals. Once the bleeding was controlled then the vet would look to give blood transfused. No point putting it in if it runs out and we have no more blood. It also depended on the owner due to cost.
People have complained about vets and costing. The NHS causes a problem in that people have no idea of cost, and then start to call vets greedy for charging a market price without realising the cost of the treatment. However go to a country that has no NHS and try and get human treatment. I am not sure that they would operate let alone do fluids, drugs and assessments until they had credit card or insurance details.
The bitch was weak stats but stable and pure white under anaesthetic. I prefer stronger stats, stable and pink but at least she was alive even if she fitted the term ‘just alive’.
Mutterings were coming from the vet and he was shifting instruments about obviously struggling.
“Want another kit you look to be getting low on ‘bits’ and should l scrub up” l asked
Another grunt, this vet was usually a happy soul who would normally make a comment with a big grin and was always good natured, all l was getting was grunts. Things were not good in the innards l perceived.
I placed another kit for the vet and called for the other nurse to take over the anaesthetic while l scrubbed up and pulled on gloves.
Scrubbing in can be confusing. As a vetnurse you get so used to NOT touching anything and suddenly you have to touch instruments and op sites.
It works in reverse for vets. If they are observing they are forever being “OYED” by the vetnurse as they are about to reach in and touch something. In fact some vets will only observe if scrubbed, it saves them being told off.
I had to hold instruments in various positions to keep them out of the way. Instrument rings on various fingers, hand tilted and fingers splayed to try and follow instructions and one hand free to pass instruments or hold others.
The vet was struggling, he had found the stump but there weren’t any slipped sutures, instead it was a sort of general ooze from different areas.
Finally everything was as ooze free as he could get it. Part of the problem was there was no set vessel bleeding. When he tried to suture the tissue that was bleeding it was very friable and tore easily.
When he decided he did not need me any more holding instruments l took back the anaesthetic, the other nurse went to check the inpatients and eventually he closed the patient up.
I gave her a clean as best l could to remove as much blood as possible but did not want to wet her down to much. After that and while she was still recovering he helped me to put a tight belly wrap on her.
Not the best of dressings as she was floppy but made easier though when you have a rugby playing vet holding the patient in the air as if she was lightweight. Was he a football player he wouldn’t have been able to hold her, ok l am biased but it is true.
Normally we do not want owners to wait but in this case we made an exception because of the circumstances and the owner was still in the waiting room, the auxiliary had made her tea. The vet went out to have a word with her and get himself a cuppa, and everyone else bar me, I only like my Dr Pepper.
Post operatively the patient was placed onto another iv catheter and a bag of blood was attached to that. She was closely monitored for any more bleeding, thankfully there was none and after a couple of days she went home, making a full recovery.
All operations even routine carry a risk, the vast majority are free of post operative problems. For my mind and most others in the veterinary profession the benefits of the standard elective operations like spay and castration outweighs post operative risk.
Un-neutered males or females are at high risk from tumours, babies and pyometras, hormonal problems, species specific virus passed during sex or fighting not to mention injuries caused with others of same sex after the mate they want or accidents with cars while looking for the dog/cat in heat.
If you do suspect anything post operatively after any operation on your pet, or if you are worried about anything, contact the vet straight away. In this case it was very obvious but it is not always and it is better to be safe than sorry.
I was ambling up from dog ward to do the stats in cat ward when the vet, arms full of dog pouring blood came fast down the passage. Propflo, kit, spay bleed was all he said as he turned the corner and headed to theatre suite.
Sometimes a bitch spay will bleed. It may be a suture has slipped because the owner has allowed the bitch to jump on or off furniture or allowed a slightly nutty bitch to run around despite instructions. Maybe a suture slipped as it was not tight enough. The bitch may have been in season when spayed and everything is engorged this can cause problems post op. Usually a vet won’t spay in season bitched but they may have to for some reason or she could just be coming in and was not checked properly on admit or not showing much and was missed. Bleeding may be generalised ooze as she has an undiscovered clotting defect or for some unknown reason.
Usually the first line of defence is a tight belly wrap to put pressure on and keep a close eye for strike through and pray there is none.
Operating on a post op bleeding bitch is never easy. They have to find the short stump remaining from what was removed, buried somewhere in the abdomen amongst all the abdominal contents. And while yes, the vet knows roughly where it is, real life is never that simple. They also need to check all surrounding areas for any bleeding.
I pulled up 15ml propflo, a bitch spay kit and sterile gloves then headed to theatre. The vet had an et tube ready. He barely had to wave the anaesthetic under her nose (so to speak) oh well if l had not pulled 15ml he would have wanted more. I connected the gas, unrolled a kit and while the vet scrubbed up l gave her a clean and undid the skin sutures on her abdomen. We had to use surgical prep moving her to theatre would have taken to long.
Gloves on and back the vet took a deep breath then snipped out the remaining internal sutures. Blood bubbled up in a red flood that ran over the sides of the bitch in small rivers, the vet went hunting.
I put popped 6 (large) abdominal swabs onto his kit. The small normal ones were as useful as emptying a dam with a teaspoon.
“What’s her name” l asked to put it onto my op sheet.
“Don’t know, verbal consent”
“Tsk your helpful” l mumbled he flicked a grin at me.
“You want fluids in her” l asked?
I got a grunt l translated as yes and was about to yell for a hand (so l did not have to leave the patient, theatre is a bit away from the main area) when the auxiliary appeared. She had tracked the vet following the blood trail and wanted to know what to do about the owner in the waiting room.
Well l said after you have helped me with a leg you better print a consent form and we could go from verbal to written consent.
I don’t like placing catheters when the animal is on the op table. The leg is sticking into the air and so it is high, instead of bending and looking down you are looking up. You have to consider the vet operating and can not move the dog and have to worry about sterility. Once it was in l attached a bag of No11 some bolus of voluven and placed more into the bag.
Blood transfusion would wait for now. We have a limited supply unlike human hospitals. Once the bleeding was controlled then the vet would look to give blood transfused. No point putting it in if it runs out and we have no more blood. It also depended on the owner due to cost.
People have complained about vets and costing. The NHS causes a problem in that people have no idea of cost, and then start to call vets greedy for charging a market price without realising the cost of the treatment. However go to a country that has no NHS and try and get human treatment. I am not sure that they would operate let alone do fluids, drugs and assessments until they had credit card or insurance details.
The bitch was weak stats but stable and pure white under anaesthetic. I prefer stronger stats, stable and pink but at least she was alive even if she fitted the term ‘just alive’.
Mutterings were coming from the vet and he was shifting instruments about obviously struggling.
“Want another kit you look to be getting low on ‘bits’ and should l scrub up” l asked
Another grunt, this vet was usually a happy soul who would normally make a comment with a big grin and was always good natured, all l was getting was grunts. Things were not good in the innards l perceived.
I placed another kit for the vet and called for the other nurse to take over the anaesthetic while l scrubbed up and pulled on gloves.
Scrubbing in can be confusing. As a vetnurse you get so used to NOT touching anything and suddenly you have to touch instruments and op sites.
It works in reverse for vets. If they are observing they are forever being “OYED” by the vetnurse as they are about to reach in and touch something. In fact some vets will only observe if scrubbed, it saves them being told off.
I had to hold instruments in various positions to keep them out of the way. Instrument rings on various fingers, hand tilted and fingers splayed to try and follow instructions and one hand free to pass instruments or hold others.
The vet was struggling, he had found the stump but there weren’t any slipped sutures, instead it was a sort of general ooze from different areas.
Finally everything was as ooze free as he could get it. Part of the problem was there was no set vessel bleeding. When he tried to suture the tissue that was bleeding it was very friable and tore easily.
When he decided he did not need me any more holding instruments l took back the anaesthetic, the other nurse went to check the inpatients and eventually he closed the patient up.
I gave her a clean as best l could to remove as much blood as possible but did not want to wet her down to much. After that and while she was still recovering he helped me to put a tight belly wrap on her.
Not the best of dressings as she was floppy but made easier though when you have a rugby playing vet holding the patient in the air as if she was lightweight. Was he a football player he wouldn’t have been able to hold her, ok l am biased but it is true.
Normally we do not want owners to wait but in this case we made an exception because of the circumstances and the owner was still in the waiting room, the auxiliary had made her tea. The vet went out to have a word with her and get himself a cuppa, and everyone else bar me, I only like my Dr Pepper.
Post operatively the patient was placed onto another iv catheter and a bag of blood was attached to that. She was closely monitored for any more bleeding, thankfully there was none and after a couple of days she went home, making a full recovery.
All operations even routine carry a risk, the vast majority are free of post operative problems. For my mind and most others in the veterinary profession the benefits of the standard elective operations like spay and castration outweighs post operative risk.
Un-neutered males or females are at high risk from tumours, babies and pyometras, hormonal problems, species specific virus passed during sex or fighting not to mention injuries caused with others of same sex after the mate they want or accidents with cars while looking for the dog/cat in heat.
If you do suspect anything post operatively after any operation on your pet, or if you are worried about anything, contact the vet straight away. In this case it was very obvious but it is not always and it is better to be safe than sorry.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Daze Off
Saturday was a day off and even though wanting to stay in bed, having done a 17hr and 9hr shift on the thursday and friday l decided to drag myself out and head down to Derby for the site committee meeting for the big July Braai and June POTS (pig on the spit weekend) that the ZRWAF are holding for fundraising.
Beechwood Park is a lovely campsite with several large fishing lakes, a go kart track and for those that do not want to camp about 9 log cabins. It is surrounded by pretty countryside as well with Elveston Castle on the other side of the road.
Beechwood is set in about 30acres and because l knew it would strain Wibble with her heart l carried her a lot. After tramping over half the campsite the southern contingent turned up (late) and we had to retrace our steps.
Some of the group tried to beat (or kill) each other go-karting then southern contingent (again) made more work by wanting to look inside the cabins.
Back to the other end of the site as management were free only for a few minutes, then back to the other side of the site where we had been to examine the new site section and our camp overflow which will have some golf holes in by the time we arrive in July.
By the end of it all my arms were dropping off. Wibble is only now about 8kgs but she got very heavy. I am not normally a “carry the dog” person but she would have had a bad time had l not carried her. So l had the hard time instead. She doe not like being carried anyway and struggled quite a bit which didn't help. Still at least she isn't a big dog.
A yummy pub lunch just down the road from Beechwood at Harrington Arms helped to lift the spirit. Excellent food and a small pub garden with dogs on leads welcome and a big bowl of water for the dogs.
I went off to see friends in Derby back midnight then work the next day at 7am. By the end of work Sunday l was drained.
I want to get the garden sorted no time for the wicked as they say l have started to dig it over. Spuds to go in soon and my tomato seeds are coming up nicely in their little seed tray.Hub had a moan as he say's l have chosen the soggiest part of the garden, clay and boggy. My idea is to work my way across and do it on the slightly raised section just l want the garden dug over.
I bought a small hand fork to weed pre turning which l have hardly used sticking to the big fork instead. Forget the weeds and grass and some fancy small hand rotary thingy which l returned within an hour as totally useless. It won’t even work in my plant pots l had a go to see if it could get into even potting soil.
Few days off until Easter when l am doing all of it on the night shift. Trust me to say yes to a bank holiday. I know that it is going to be lovely and sunny the whole time and l will sleep through it.
Beechwood Park is a lovely campsite with several large fishing lakes, a go kart track and for those that do not want to camp about 9 log cabins. It is surrounded by pretty countryside as well with Elveston Castle on the other side of the road.
Beechwood is set in about 30acres and because l knew it would strain Wibble with her heart l carried her a lot. After tramping over half the campsite the southern contingent turned up (late) and we had to retrace our steps.
Some of the group tried to beat (or kill) each other go-karting then southern contingent (again) made more work by wanting to look inside the cabins.
Back to the other end of the site as management were free only for a few minutes, then back to the other side of the site where we had been to examine the new site section and our camp overflow which will have some golf holes in by the time we arrive in July.
By the end of it all my arms were dropping off. Wibble is only now about 8kgs but she got very heavy. I am not normally a “carry the dog” person but she would have had a bad time had l not carried her. So l had the hard time instead. She doe not like being carried anyway and struggled quite a bit which didn't help. Still at least she isn't a big dog.
A yummy pub lunch just down the road from Beechwood at Harrington Arms helped to lift the spirit. Excellent food and a small pub garden with dogs on leads welcome and a big bowl of water for the dogs.
I went off to see friends in Derby back midnight then work the next day at 7am. By the end of work Sunday l was drained.
I want to get the garden sorted no time for the wicked as they say l have started to dig it over. Spuds to go in soon and my tomato seeds are coming up nicely in their little seed tray.Hub had a moan as he say's l have chosen the soggiest part of the garden, clay and boggy. My idea is to work my way across and do it on the slightly raised section just l want the garden dug over.
I bought a small hand fork to weed pre turning which l have hardly used sticking to the big fork instead. Forget the weeds and grass and some fancy small hand rotary thingy which l returned within an hour as totally useless. It won’t even work in my plant pots l had a go to see if it could get into even potting soil.
Few days off until Easter when l am doing all of it on the night shift. Trust me to say yes to a bank holiday. I know that it is going to be lovely and sunny the whole time and l will sleep through it.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Georgy Girl
Back in Tenerife at the rescue kennels, Georgy was a Berdino (Tenerife breed lightweight mastiff type) At some point she had escaped from whoever owned her and was found walking along the road by some German tourists with her choke chain grown into her neck.
We cut out the choke chain with no muzzle on her, ok a recipe for disaster but l didn’t have any muzzles and a tape would have ended up where l wanted to work. So l took a chance on her behaviour as she had been up to that point. I was not let down, she just stood there. She was so sweet tempered with people and other animals it was amazing, l don’t think she knew what nasty was.
She had those horrid cropped ears a mutilation thankfully banned in the UK
Treatment was Synulox tablets (those good old pink antibiotics, the mainstay of the veterinary world), wound washing three times a day and wound powder too help keep off flies, the wound healed perfectly.
Even if it was in UK it is unlikely that a vet would have carried out surgery as the edges were granulating and starting to heal. It was the centre of the wounds where the collar was that was still open. And in situations like hers to quote Tony when l showed him the photos, time is a better healer than a scalpel.
I named her Georgy after the 60s song “Georgy Girl” by The Seekers as l felt the outside cropped ear tough dog look was unfair and it in the words of the song..."There's another Georgy deep inside"
Georgy was rehomed in Germany as were most of our dogs.
The damage was similar on both sides of the neck
The wound under her throat looked like some one had tried to slice her throat.
We cut out the choke chain with no muzzle on her, ok a recipe for disaster but l didn’t have any muzzles and a tape would have ended up where l wanted to work. So l took a chance on her behaviour as she had been up to that point. I was not let down, she just stood there. She was so sweet tempered with people and other animals it was amazing, l don’t think she knew what nasty was.
She had those horrid cropped ears a mutilation thankfully banned in the UK
Treatment was Synulox tablets (those good old pink antibiotics, the mainstay of the veterinary world), wound washing three times a day and wound powder too help keep off flies, the wound healed perfectly.
Even if it was in UK it is unlikely that a vet would have carried out surgery as the edges were granulating and starting to heal. It was the centre of the wounds where the collar was that was still open. And in situations like hers to quote Tony when l showed him the photos, time is a better healer than a scalpel.
I named her Georgy after the 60s song “Georgy Girl” by The Seekers as l felt the outside cropped ear tough dog look was unfair and it in the words of the song..."There's another Georgy deep inside"
Georgy was rehomed in Germany as were most of our dogs.
The damage was similar on both sides of the neck
The wound under her throat looked like some one had tried to slice her throat.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Humour Pictures
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