29/09/2007 by Arielle.

Today has been particularly exhausting. There are many of us out there juggling children and careers and today I felt (and looked as you will see at the end of this post), about 10 years older than I should!

My 3 year old daughter had me up at 2am with a nasty sickness bug and and I ended up having to bath her and wash all her bedding and then sleep on the floor in her room as she continued to be violently sick until the morning. I lay there on her floor in the early hours planning how I was going to organise childcare for the day. As it is a Saturday, my husband looks after our children but he had to go out this afternoon so I relied on a friend to babysit during this time. With my daughter so ill, I felt the only solution was for my husband to bring me the 3 children at work and they could watch a DVD upstairs until I finished consulting.

My day at work was emotionally draining. I remember learning that there was a 2% chance of a consultation being a euthanasia in our daily veterinary routines. I had triple that statistic today as I had 4 very old animals to put to sleep.  Two of them were gentle and very old dogs who could not stand, a cat with a tumour on his skull who had stopped eating and a very old rat with pneumonia. Each and every case drained me emotionally as I felt for the weeping owners who were losing such valuable members of their family. Even the rat belonged to a young man who cried apologetically in my room.

My children were very good thankfully so I could concentrate on the last few hours of consulting, but by the end of the day, having had not much sleep and trying to keep an eye on them and give each case my full attention; I felt exhausted.

When it finally came time to go home, the cleaner at the practice held the front door open for me and my children as my hands were full. She said to me as I left - ‘Are these your grandchildren?’ I know I looked tired but to be asked this left me feeling VERY old and miserable!

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27/09/2007 by Arielle.

  This is a strong reminder to all rabbit owners and rabbit lovers out there that they MUST have their rabbits vaccinated against Myxomatosis. I had about 10 rabbits to vaccinate in one day this week as there is Myxomatosis about at the moment in most areas. It is an awful virus that is carried by midges. As we have had such a wet summer, there is an outbreak of midges that will settle on dying wild rabbits and then carry the virus to your pet rabbit. If you board rabbits as a pet sitter, ensure that they are vaccinated.

The vaccine is not 100% effective but it is the best we can do against such a fatal disease. See my article on Myxomatosis under rabbit health.

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24/09/2007 by Arielle.

A lovely pet sitter came in today with her own pets to be vaccinated. She used to be a veterinary nurse but now runs her own very busy and very profitable pet sitting business.
I asked her how she was getting on. She said that she loves her business but the only downside was having to take her holidays out of season. Her next holiday has been booked to go to Australia in January. She also casually commented on the fact that she was saving to buy her own house next year. For someone in their early 20’s, this made me realise that pet sitting WAS a profitable career!

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22/09/2007 by Arielle.

I had my full Saturday as a veterinary GP today and it was just one of those days - every 2nd animal I saw seemed to want to bite me. There was the enormous gentle-looking Dogue de Bordeaux-Porter (who looked very much like the dog in Turner and Hooch)and who stood very patiently for his yearly booster, but when it came to clipping his extremely long claws, he used his full strength on me, my nurse and his owner to stop us. I eventually had to give up as I could not risk one of us getting hurt by his enormous bulk. The owner purchased some clippers and as he left, said he would try to clip one nail at a time whilst Porter slept on the sofa. I imagined him lying there with one eye open!

No sooner had he left than a tiny blind and very old Yorkie came in also to be vaccinated. I did my health check and opened a little mouth that just revealed gums - no teeth (very common for old Yorkies). When I gave him his injection, being blind, it took him by surprise and I was shocked by his speed to bite but knowing he had no teeth, I did not pull my hand away. Amazingly, I felt a sharp sting and looked at my thumb to see blood pumping out - he had managed to get his one and only back molar through my thumb!

After that I was on guard but they just kept coming - an adorable tiny russian hamster that the owner never handled that thankfully never managed to get me, a rabbit on a harness that did try to bite me, an aggressive Westie with a growth on its lip - impossible to see it without losing a finger! My 2nd last client was an elderly crossbreed dog that looked exactly like a black fox. She had been bitten by a Rottweiler over her head. She was extremely lucky as the bite wound just missed her eyeball. When I tried to gently clean her wounds and saw her lips curl, I decided maybe just antibiotics would be fine!
By my last consultation - a check up on a rabbit that was as sweet as pie, I surprised the clients by not charging them at all as she was the only animal who had not tried to bite me!

When I was home making the dinner, my 6 year old daughter wanted to know what animals I had seen as she loves hearing what their names are and how sweet they are. When I told her about all the animals that just wanted to bite, she looked at me and said ‘Maybe I won’t become a vet’.

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20/09/2007 by Arielle.

A lady in the village stopped her car to ask me and my 3 year old daughter if we had seen 2 chocolate brown labradors running through the village as they had escaped from her farmhouse. My daughter listened carefully as I asked her where she lived just in case we did see them and whether they were used to sheep as we are surrounded by sheep farms. They would obviously be at risk if a farmer was to spot them bothering his sheep.
My daughter then spent the whole morning worrying about these labradors and asking me when we were going to look for them. She raised herself as high as she could in her carseat and scanned all the fields that we passed on our way to Tescos, hoping to spot 2 brown frolicking labs. I found myself also dangerously looking around as she mentioned them so much instead of concentrating on the winding roads ahead!! I do hope the owner found them. Labradors are just my favourite breed.

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19/09/2007 by Arielle.

You are reading my very first entry into the world of blogging! It is quite exciting and I so enjoy doing this. I have just made my site - (petsitting advice) go live and I so hope it will help many petsitters out there. I love nothing more than helping others and if I can do it in the comfort of my own home, so much the better!

I have kept a diary for 23 years so every day of my life has an entry and I will share a little of my world with you (and try not to bore you too much!)

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