Canine's Canine To The Face

The vet world can be a dangerous place, bites and scratches are the usual hazard that we are all aware of. Everyone can recognise the grumpy cat, the Collie that gives you that "look" and the sore old Labrador who can give a growl when you move him. We all know to take precautions. As one of my friends put it, "If you're not careful you could lose a finger, and that's the end of your career".

It wasn't a big scary dog that managed to get me however. It wasn't a cat. Or a parrot. It was a 20 week old Labrador puppy. She had had surgery a few days previously and was just about to go home, so I went to say goodbye. She is the softest puppy you would ever meet, but now getting to full bounce. We'd been having a few talks about jumping up and it looked like she was getting the message.

This time she got a little overexcited though and bounced at my face. Not too scary, she'd be trying to lick me all week, except I was just getting up at the time and took the full force of her nose to my face. Initially I didn't think much of it, then the bleeding started. Oh yes, the bleeding started from my nose. A quick investigation revealed a split inside my nostril out to the real world. Lovely! The poor puppy looked very sad and a bit scared!

I was all for using tissue glue to close this up. Apparently it wasn't allowed, so a trip to A&E was in order. Two sutures (and a bit of a chat about dentals with the doctor) later I was released to head on home.

Everything has healed now, there is a small scar that is barely noticeable, and I'm back to work once again. It's not the big scary dogs that get me apparently, it's the little cute one that lull me in to a false sense of security!

Dear Driver

I'm sorry I wasn't going fast enough down the dark country road at night to suit your needs.

I'm sorry I didn't really know where I was going.

I'm sorry I delayed your journey by about 30 seconds.

Yes, I understood you were upset by the flashing of light and beeping of the horn, there was no need to shout too.

I was on my way to my first equine emergency call you see, and I had other things on my mind such as - What will the heart rate be? Will I need to rectal this horse? Do I have all the emergency numbers? What's the dose rate for all these drugs? Where am I going? What's around this corner? What if I need something I don't have in my car?

Vets driving to emergencies are a dangerous breed, especially new graduates, especially those new to the area who don't know the roads.

I figure getting sworn at, or arriving 5 minutes later than planned is better than a dead vet. So if you're stuck behind me, I'm sorry.

Sometimes I forget...

...that I'm actually qualified and a real person now. People keep asking for opinions on clinical matters, but even more worrying I seem to have the answers at least some of the time.

The past 2 weeks have been manic with busy consultations and various emergencies. In the space of 48 hours we had 5 RTAs! One day I started to X-ray a cat at 9am calculating sedation drugs and then met the first of many RTA dogs. On the plus side most of them survived with only one casualty. It was so manic we even had students keeping an eye on some of the inpatients.

Farm work isn't going as well though. There isn't a lot of it going around and the usual farm vets take most of it. This leaves me with the emergency work which would be great if only I had the experience to deal with it. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to be more proactive and grab some more farm work to get me up to speed.

Equine work, as ever, is evil.

Job

I have a job! Very excited, just accepted it.

It's a mixed practice job in Scotland, close enough to Edinburgh. I don't start for a few weeks so time for getting sorted.

Yay!

Survived

Work is over for another week and everyone survived intact, even the customers. Friday night was a bit of a bad time, but Saturday reminded me why I enjoy my job. Friday was a night with noone really in charge. I was senior at the bar, but not in charge. NL is a supervisor too, but he's only been there for about 3 weeks now. All very confusing. Today's shift was more like the good old days where everyone knew what they were doing and when. But then again team Saturday Day is amazing.

Well I'm meant to be doing something tonight, but I can't remember what. So I'll wait until people find me and ask where I am. Maybe a nap or a walk up the seat is in order. It's a nice night.

More work

Back to work again today - it hardly seems like there was time off at all. We accomplished many tasks of various types, mostly involving lifting and moving stuff from place to place. This probably isn't good for the back, although it isn't too sore today. I'm finding my hips are actually more sore after I do the physio for some reason.

I also started some uni work today too, just some basic web design for a quiz. At the moment it pops up a picture of a sheep breed and you have to guess which breed it is. Not too exciting yet, but the coding is unlike anything I've ever done before so it's a bit of a challenge. Too bad I'm doing it in java. I may try to find something more useful at a later date. The real question is do I have enough time to learn a programming language as well as do a degree and work at the same time? My actual job working on the web design/computer-based learning doesn't begin until Freshers week and it will continue through the year on a case by case basis. Apparently there aren't too many techy vet students out there.

Bored now

And again I'm at work blogging in the wee hours of the day. The main reason for this is that I'm really really bored. There are no intruders and I really doubt there will be after 4am. I may go for a wander but it takes too long to put the various bits of kit on - I may be lazy as well as bored.

So, todays well supplied night bar watcher is dressed in black trousers and an old festival tshirt. On his person he has various bits of kit related (or not) to the general job including a radio (for contacting others around the place), a mobile phone (for contacting everyone else), a leatherman (for fixing or breaking things), a torch (for temporarily blinding the intruders), electrical tape (for the dodgy fan cover), various pens, paper and a whole load of keys. He is highly trained in the art of following intruders from a safe distance and asking them to leave as well as the having ability to call the police without moving the phone.

My mind is wandering again. I blame thinking about butterfat percentages.

Back Again

Well I'm at work again and for a little longer this time. I was at work for 19 hours yesterday (think of the money, think of the money) and something stupid like 20 hours planned today with the joy of keg moving at 7am. Not really the ideal way to spend my morning, but never mind.

Tonight I do have a friend around keeping me company. He is off guarding another section of the building but we are in radio contact and maintaing the perimeter. I could actually do with some company in here because the ice machine is doing its best to scare me to death. First its the rattling of ice that sounds like footsteps. Then the coughing noise as the chiller turns off. Then the random clunking noises it makes for the hell of it. It may be the only thing keeping me awake for the next 3 hours before other people arrive, but I wish it wouldn't. I'm sure it doesn't make these noises during the day.

It really doesn't help that I've taken my glasses off to read and I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eyes. Not actual hallucinations just yet. Maybe soon. The flickering is in single vision, that's how I know it's not real.

Walkies!

I've had a great day! It was great to be outside on a day like this. I was in work, but I had time off to walk a friend's dog. We only went for a short walk, but I had missed the whole walkies thing. Meeting other people, stopping to investigate a bit of grass, bit of a run. It was slightly spoiled by having my work kit on and a lack of shorts - I have to say I got a little sweaty from the heavy rucksac, but overall it was great to be in the sun, especially with a puppy.

Unfortunatly it was all over too quickly and then back to work. I was however outside in the sun. I may have got a little sunburnt :-(

Work

I have escaped work, yay! I am a member of the bar staff (some say senior bar staff) here in Edinburgh. It's a really fun job. We pride ourselves on being the best of the chain of pubs in the area. Where other bars have 4 bar staff on, we have 2. We do not only work bar, we cook food, tend to the building, be security for the building and other things besides. To put it blunty we are great. We do however finish earlier than the other pubs so we do get a chance at going out for a pint. For 2 years now we have been saying we would visit other pubs post-shift. Tonight it happened. It was fun but tiring. I'm due back in a few hours and am mildly inebriated. Whoops!

Weekend

I'm wondering where the time goes. Last thing I knew I'd finished an exam and was looking forward to a few hours of being lazy before work. Now it's Sunday night and I'm no closer to knowing anything for the exam on Tuesday than I was previously.

Friday night was busy. Saturday day was empty until the last hour. Saturday night was mainly spent at work drinking, although I did accomplish some odd jobs that had been needing to be done. And now its Sunday. I have worked for 4 hours, done some revision, but nothing that really defines a day. I did spend about an hour on the phone to my Mum trying to explain how to fit a new power supply in to her PC. I also found out my Dad is engaged. Not too sure what's going on there.

Strange weekend. Dare I say I look forward to the week? I think this exam will be OK, it just depends on the examiner. Some seem to take delight in tripping people up and have warned us they will "take us apart" if we don't know our stuff. Others are much nicer and will offer useful advice. Either way it's only 15 minutes. I can do this. Then maybe some climbing to relax. Alien Rock here I come!