Friday, June 4, 2010

We have been having a busy spring with both large, small and exotic animals! We currently have a soon to be 3rd year UGA veterinary student, Heidi, riding with us 3 days a week. Our hospital has a small feature in the current issue of Southern Distinction magazine. Over the past few months, we have had to take a miniature horse mare and her foal to my house...in the back seat of our truck, removed an insulinoma and an adenocarcinoma from an older ferret, spayed a rabbit, neutered several more rabbits, did allergy testing on 2 horses with seasonal itchiness, as well as a number of other things... We love this time of the year! Flea and tick season is in full swing due to humid spring we've had-if you need information on how to combat fleas and ticks, please contact us. If you use Frontline Plus and think it is not working, Merial will send a representative to your house and go over ways to reduce the flea population-this does require a 3 month purchase of Frontline for ALL animals in the household, but this is free support that Merial offers. Please contact us for more information if you are interested!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter! Well, Friday was a CRAZY day-4 appointments, 2 dog spays, 2 cat neuters plus had to go take a sick miniature horse to my house, 1 long dental with 24 extractions and several clients coming in for flea & tick meds!! Tis the season for the bugs to be out! Had 2 emergencies Saturday and had to euthanize an older dog today :( Spring has sprung!! Today, reorganized the examination room by adding countertop and cabinet space-looks more open now! It is certainly a challenge trying to fit everything we have in a 600 sq ft building, but we do a pretty good job of it!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

We have had a fairly quiet end to last week but this week has picked up nicely, as has the weather! We have been busy sterilizing dogs and cats for both individuals and the Washington-Wilkes Animal Shelter, as well as seeing routine appointments and farm calls. Last Friday attended a conference at UGA but this is how Caitlin's day started: our "rescue" cat in the office has 5 kittens and decided to bite Caitlin as she was changing her food and water bowls, resulting in her dumping the water all over herself...That is sometimes the way the day starts here!

Large Animal Pictures

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Today, spayed 2 dogs and went to xray a chronically foundered horse-had severe rotation in all four feet, especially the front. Regardless, he has good days now and again and is getting along fairly well for the degree of rotation! It's unfortunate that horses need to spend so much time on their feet. Laminitis or founder is not uncommon, especially in horses that are overweight, with metabolic disease or Cushing's disease. This is the time of the year where owners need to start restricting grazing to these horses, in order to reduce the risk of founder. Once a horse founders, it is more prone to do so in the future! We will see where this guy is in a year to see if corrective trimming can reduce the degree of rotation some.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Today was initially an uneventful day at the office, with only one cat neuter scheduled. However, we ended going to Elberton on a call, seeing several puppies and one sick kitty. You never know what is going to happen around here! The cat had renal (kidney) failure, although he was only 7 years of age. Most cases of chronic kidney failure in cats are due to old age. However, in younger patients, we may suspect a congenital kidney disorders, such as kidney cysts, or a toxic insult (ethylene glycol toxicity or antifreeze poisoning is not uncommon, although the course of action is rapid in these cases). Cats in kidney failure usually present with weight loss, increased thirst (called polydypsia) and thus increased urination (polyuria), inappetance and vomiting in the later stages. Kidney disease is diagnosed by urinalysis and blood work. There is no treatment for chronic kidney disease, only supportive care with a dietary change to a renal diet, supplements that may control levels of phosphorus and potassium in the blood and administration of fluids under the skin. Unfortunately, by the time the blood work reflects changes consistent with kidney disease, at least 75% of the working units (nephrons) of the kidneys are damaged. This kitty cat had fairly elevated values of kidney analytes in his blood work so the prognosis is poor:(

Monday, March 22, 2010

Very quiet day at the office! Performed uterine culture on a mare pre-breeding but that was about it! However, received our new mobile office phone, a Blackberry Storm 2, and was enjoying the updated technology with it! Our office is also participating in the March of Dimes for Babies at the Clarke Central High School Football Field on April 30, 2010. Any donations are appreciated-our goal is to raise a minimum of $1000 for this cause. If anyone is interested in donating, please go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1389818. We would welcome anyone interested in being a team member as well!

Friday, March 19, 2010

It finally feels like spring! Quiet morning at the office, then went out to float an older horse's teeth. Routine dental care will ensure that your horse will have a healthy set of teeth for most of their life! We offer dental specials with 10% discounts twice a year through our office and have both a hand float set and a power float set (we use the Swiss Float). Some veterinarians utilize only a power float; however, this may result in removing too much dental surface and can also overheat the tooth and damage the pulp. We use our Swiss Float primarily to reduce single teeth that are overtly long and to help restore a contact surface that would not be restored by hand floats alone. Once we got back into the office, we neutered a male cat (quick walk-in) and a Great Pyrenees. Good way to end the day:)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Slow day at work today...Was able to finish fencing my pasture at home for my goats...thanks to Caitlin for all her help! Tomorrow we will have a busy day. Today, looked at Gigi, the rescue dog with the oronasal fistula and the repair failed:( May see if the surgeons at UGA are willing to "donate" their expertise to repair it. It's a difficult region to repair due to the prevalence of bacteria in the mouth and the action of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. The fistula doesn't bother Gigi, but causes a snotty nose permanently...not ideal if someone were to adopt her down the road! We'll figure out what are options are next week-will have to wait 4-5 weeks before another surgery is attempted!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Today started out slow then picked up speed...neutered one cat, spayed another in the morning. The afternoon we looked at a traumatic horse eye injury, floated teeth and examined a lame mare. Horse eyes are prone to trauma due to their location in the skull. Most traumatic injuries result in some degree of corneal ulceration and are painful as the cornea is a very sensitive tissue. We usually examine the horse's eye after sedation (if needed), blocking the horse's upper eyelid (they have strong eyelid muscles!) and stain the eye first. We usually use fluorescein stain (the yellow stain your ophthalmologist uses on you) but we may use Rose Bengal stain if pinpoint ulcers are suspected. If the ulcer is fresh and does not need debridement (gently removing non-healing layers of cornea), we will put the horse on broad-spectrum eye antibiotics and atropine, which helps dilate the eye and offers pain relief by helping with spasms within the eye itself. If uncomplicated by fungal or bacterial organisms, most ulcers will heal fairly rapidly. Blood vessels will grow from the edges of the cornea and move in towards the ulcer to help heal; these vessels grow at a speed of approximately 1 mm a day and can give us an idea how the healing process is doing. Hopefully our eye case today will heal well; however, with horses, there can be a number of complications if healing does not progress as expected. Our lame horse this afternoon was most likely a subsolar abscess, which usually results due to a deep bruise in the sole which becomes infected and creates an abscess. She should do well with time and anti-inflammatories. So, our day started slow but, as happens a lot lately, picked up nicely this afternoon:)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

We got a new sign at the office!! Met a large, thin and hungry goat at a farm call yesterday-almost took my fingers off when I gave him some horse treats! Today, cleaned up a large hock wound on a horse-barbed wire fencing is not the ideal material for horses! We are enjoying the warmer and sunnier weather on our farms calls! It is a slow day for us at the office-not a common occurrence anymore! This gives us time to catch up on our paperwork and restock the truck.

Monday, March 15, 2010

I decided to start a blog based on our veterinary experiences in rural Georgia, as you never know what is going to walk through the door...it could be a dik-dik, an African crane, a hamster, a goat, a mastiff or a feral cat! So far, no miniature horses walking through the door...but have plenty to see out in the field! Had an interesting surgical case last week-repaired an oronasal fistula in our rescue dog, Gigi: this was a hole between the roof of the mouth and the nose, resected a proplased rectum in another rescue dog, rescued 2 thin boxers, did surgeries every day, looked at an old down cow, etc.. The beauty of being in mixed practice and having an ambulatory truck is you never know what the day is going to be like! We'll see what this week brings! Gigi seems to have recovered from her surgery quite well!