I just want to say “STAT!”
This past week I have been bumming around Canine Internal Medicine at the hospital and enjoying myself thoroughly. Mostly because I have no idea what is going on, so everything is like a little mini-adventure, and because it is immensely interesting. Beau and Faye don’t think it is so awesome, but they get left to rot in their kennels from 7:30 a.m. until the late afternoon, usually 5, but it’s been 6 p.m. on at least one day before I made it home. Beau gets to wander around the house (not that he does), and Faye stays in the kennel (because we are still having some potty training issues) and when I come home I love how they are SO EXCITED to see me. It’s awesome.
So far this week, I have seen them ultrasound an eyeball (posterior lens luxation looking for retinal detachment), aspirate a liver, laparoscope a liver (which was super awesome), talk to people for hours about their dogs, pet dogs for hours on end, learn to be a better tech and work on my animal handling skills, and generally otherwise make myself as useful as possible. The coolest thing is probably a toss up between the ovariohysterectomized dog that still had ovaries (first it makes you wonder and secondly those ovaries were all cancer-y and scary looking on abdominal ultra sound) and the liver laparascopic surgery today.
I love getting up in the morning and putting on scrubs and my white coat with the aesculapius emblazoned on the left chest and hanging my stethoscope around my neck. I feel so… official. It’s like I can at least look the part, and hopefully in three years I can also actually do the part too. I unbutton my coat like a renegade westerner preparing for a gunfight and walk down the hallways with a dog in tow (or in my arms) with a look on my face like, yeah, I know where I am going (but not much else). The hallways are always busy, everyone is running around like mad, and sometimes waiting for your turn to see the ultrasonographer or radiologist or to get help with drawing blood is the hardest part.
Really, above all other things, I just want to shout STAT! after making a request. TV doctoring is so much more glamorous with so much more cool lingo like “stat” than in real life. We just say, “Oh right, that DOA was a DKA with pu/pd and in need of a TPLO.” Well, not really, but those are the first four acronyms I could come up with.
Beau is being a whiner for attention, so maybe I should spend some time with him, since I did leave him for 9 hours today…
vet school | Comment (0)Cut feet, sunburns, and dog fights, oh my
Camping is pretty much awesome, and there is no other way to describe it. There is nothing like being outside, sleeping in a tent under the stars and playing in a murky lake. Steven and I went to Lake Sommerville this weekend, brought all three dogs, and “roughed it” for the weekend. Yeah, sure, we had an A/C unit in our tent and air mattresses and there was a shower facility about a quarter of a mile away. Oh, and his parents served us breakfast, lunch and dinner from their camper in another spot.
When we first got there, Beau freaked like I expected he would. I staked him and Faye out on 20-foot lines and they settled right in to the camping life. They ran around in the nearby field and played with Miko, who was tied to a tree about 10 feet away. We took them down to the water, in which Beau got in and got out as fast as he could. Faye took to it like a duck though – jumping and splashing in the waves and even almost playing with Miko. She’s got a great personality, so mild, so tame, so tolerant and easygoing. She rode in a kennel in the truck bed on the way up and slept in her kennel outside the tent at night.
On Saturday, they got left most of the day at the camp site, but I went back frequently to check on them, moving the stake and kennel out of the sun as needed and replenishing the water bowl. Beau barked his head off at any passerby between napping in the kennel with Faye, and although perhaps a little stressed and hot, seemed to be doing the camping thing alright.
I cut a big gash in my foot on a rock in the water on my way back to check on the dogs, so they got left for a while because I was bleeding quite a bit and couldn’t hobble around too well on the sandy beach. When everything scabbed over, I went and grabbed Faye and we went for a swim, while Beau was locked up in the kennel to keep him from getting into any mischief. She loved it. She splashed and swam… and pooped in the water. She had a big grin on her face, and just loved floating around in the cool water, while I got sunburned beyond belief and Beau napped in the shade.
After lunch, the dogs went back to the camp site for the afternoon, and we went back down to play on the jet ski for a while. It was getting late in the evening, so Steven and I went to check on Beau and Faye while dinner was cooking. While we were gone, Beau had practically dug a tunnel to China behind the kennel. Faye was as happy as ever. I turned around for five seconds to get the hose to wash them down and cool them off, and Steven gave them a bowl of water.
It was in that moment that Beau had had his last straw for the day and he about ripped Faye apart. She was crying, she was on her back struggling, she didn’t even know what hit her. Beau was all flash and gash, something I never would have expected, not in a million years. My little tolerant, mild-mannered moose became a starved, crazed beast in the blink of an eye and he gave Faye some quite impressive battle wounds.
She’s doing okay now, nothing too serious luckily, but she’ll probably have a scar on her muzzle and between her eyes from Beau going psycho on her. She was wonderful at the time too – scared and shaking, but allowed me to examine her face and flush it with water. Needless to say, Steven was wonderful and gracious and helped me get the two of them loaded back in the truck and we brought them home for the night. They were fine here alone and now this morning, other than being cautious, you wouldn’t have known anything had gone down.
I learned three things this weekend on my first camping trip with Steven. Number one: wear shoes in the water. Number two: wear more sunscreen. Number three: leave the dogs at home.
I think I got lucky this time, I think Beau was pushed to the limits and it was all my fault for not seeing the signs of his stress. But I had hoped that things would go well. I guess you live and you learn and there’s not much than can be done about it. Certainly, it won’t stop me from going back to the lake – just this time… dogs in the kennel, or dogs with a sitter. Sigh.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)A Few Rules
Things are settling down here at last. I have seen things in these past few days that I never thought Beau would do, and I am constantly learning something new about managing a household with two mutts tromping about. A few essential rules are emerging that I have to keep in mind in order to maintain the sanity between moose, girl and squirrel.
Rule #1:
Everything has to be done in doubles, at the same time. Beau and Faye must be given a chewy or dinner or anything at the same time, or Beau turns into a savage beast. I’ve seen him scuffle before, but I never thought he would get possessive over resources – he lets my mom’s corgi take anything she wants from him without protest, but Faye better watch out or she gets a face full of teeth. Luckily, she’s learned quick and now only pilfers the toys when Beau isn’t looking.
Rule #2:
Faye picks up on all the habits of the other dogs, good and bad. Inside, she’s calm like Beau. She meanders around and mostly behaves. Outside, she’s a nut and has since learned from Steven’s young German Shepherd how to dig holes in the new sod, how to jump up and claw the back door, how to find the most random things to eat in the yard and destroy them (sprinklers, doormats… even a concrete rabbit).
Rule #3:
Move slowly. She’s still shy. She’s in a place where Beau was about 8 or 9 months after I got him, which is a good place, better than where Beau was when I first got him, but I have to remember to move slowly again, not to raise my arms to high or move towards her with too much intention. I have to remember my body language towards her because at this point she still relates better to dogs than to humans, whereas Beau is a four-legged person at this point.
Tonight we are going camping out at the lake. Beau I think will freak, but Faye has a good head on her shoulders so it might be an interesting experience. I’ve got two tie-out lines and there’s a big tent. And I’m bringing the kennels, just in case. Either way, I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend of jet-skiing, swimming, eating and lazing about in the sunshine. I just hope it doesn’t rain! (and I have to mow the lawn when I get back).
musings, pack mentality | Comment (0)