September 06, 2004
4:02 p.m.

The horse that we suspected rabies on came back negative. Thank goodness, I was a bit nervous there. The necropsy said that her liver was pretty messed up, which could account for the colic, as well as the neurologic symptems.

We did surgery on this eight month old colt on Wednesday. The horse belonged to one of our big breeding clients, and he had been up at the clinic for a month waiting for surgery. The client was behind on his bill, so we had to wait to do surgery until he paid. We all became fond of the little guy, how could you not. The surgery went really well, he got up smoothly, and was back down in his stall, happily munching on hay by three that afternoon. I was off Thursday, and when I came in on Friday, I noticed his stall was empty. I asked if he had gone home, to which Carol replied that he might have died. What? He had been fine Wednesday. I went out into the large animal ICU, and saw him in the stall, still alive, but not looking good. He was breathing like he had run a two mile race. About fifteen minutes later, he went down, and we couldn't get him up. Within half an hour, he simply quit breathing. We sent him off for necropsy, and it turned out he had salmonela. Dr. C was saying like 30% of horses carry it dorment in their system. The anesthesia and surgery were just too much for him, and he died. I don't know, it's just always easier when it's an animal that you don't know that well. I keep haveing 'what ifs' racing through my mind. I hate losing patients.

I have also had to deal with enough parvo cases in the last week to last me a lifetime. If you don't know, parvo causes profuse bloody diarrhea and vomiting. This lady is a breeder, but just doesn't have the money to get them vaccinated. I'm sorry, but if you can't even afford vaccines, you sure as hell don't need to be breeding dogs. She's had five dogs die, one dog is at another vet clinic, and we have treated four dogs, losing one to the virus.He was a cute eight month old puppy, dead because they couldn't be bothered to vaccinate. We are using every isolation cage we have. We had to send her to another clinic because we were out of cages. We have great success treating parvo, but it can still be deadly. This whole week, every time I would clean one cage, the next dog would be blowing out with diarrhea. I swear, my whole week was cleaning those freaking cages. Parvo is highly contagious as well, so it's a pain in the butt to take care of the parvo dogs. You have to dip your shoes in clorox, spray your clothes down, and wash your hands every time you handle one of the dogs. My hands are so dry and chapped. She's going to be spending about three hundred dollars per dog, when a fifteen dollar vaccine would have prevented it. Please vaccinate your dogs.

I started school a couple of weeks ago. It's going pretty good. I have the same professor for math that I had for the first class I took, which is pretty nice. He's a great teacher. The first night of class, he dismissed us, but every person in the class room stayed behind to debate a math problem he put on the board. How many math classes have ever been -that- interesting. Another night, he let us leave after only fifteen minutes of class. English is..eh..it's okay I guess. I just hate writing essays. I know, so does every other person in the world. I can't wait to get that class over with.

I still have the kitten I took home to bottle feed, I think I am going to take her in tomorrow to get her Feluk/FIV test, and shots. Then, as much as it pains me, I am going to try and find her a home. I just get so attatched, but like I said in the previous entry, I wuold rather take the older cat, than the cut kitten. I've been calling her Spawn..short for Demon Spawn of Satan. What can I say, the kitten has a mean streak :) She knows what she wants, and will attack your feet until she gets it.

Anyway, I have an essay that I really need to finish instead of spending my time here. I really despise school sometimes. Why is it I want to subject myself to eight more years of this?

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