Current Events & Weird Stuff

Current events- An odd couple of weeks: 

Seeing things that are a little outside the norm keeps life interesting around the clinic. This week has been a little more unusual than most… so far, here are the oddballs for the first part of October: 

1.     A dog that had been in a fight with a beaver. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen something like that. Apparently, a beaver is a worthy adversary. If you’re thinking about picking a fight with a beaver…. You may want to think again. This dog was chewed up from one end to the other, but was doing well at home as of this morning. 

2.     A cat that came in for sneezing. It turned out to have a 4.5 inch long piece of grass stuck in its nose- we took a picture on top of a piece of 4X4 gauze. Here it is:  

This supposedly happens a lot, but I’ve only seen it a few times.  It had about ¼ inch of the blade sticking out of one nostril, which means that the other 4.25 inches was up the nostril, into the sinuses. It either wrapped around in there, or was actually going down the back of the throat. 

3.     Another C-section on a Sunday afternoon- smaller litter this time.  We called in five people from the clinic crew to be sure that there were enough folks on hand for this one. You never know how many puppies you may find once you get going.  For this c-section, we delivered 6 puppies (5 girls, 1 boy); all were doing well when we called the owners to check in on them the next day.  The puppies have already been named: Betty, Savannah, Wilma, Pebbles, Bubbles, and Harley.  You can see a picture of them at http://www.bulldogsofalabama.com/Puppy_Photos.html.

4.     Dr. Fraser diagnosed a cat with a pair of bladder stones that looked like two halves of a quail egg when she pulled it out during surgery. I’ve been collecting bladder stones since I was a kid working in a clinic, so I was pretty fired up about this one. I’ve got some pretty neat stones. It may be the only collection of its kind in St. Clair County.  My favorite one is about the size of a grade-A large egg that I pulled out of a miniature Schnauzer. 

5.     Dr. Compton has been working with a 19 lb. dog that has a respiratory infection caused by a particularly nasty bacteria (it’s a multidrug-resistant strain of Pseudomonas). His big symptom has been a periodic retch/wheeze that echoes off the walls. The owners are dedicated and have come a long way with him. The dog’s name is Jack, but the owners have renamed it “Hack”. 

I’ve got my topic for the next blog ready to go- “How to Rob an Ostrich Nest”.  It’s another adventure from my time in vet school. I should have it finished by this weekend. 

-RAB