13/10/2008 by Arielle.

My last consultation of the morning was a very emotional one. A young couple brought in their two 5 month old kittens Belle and Jasmine with suspected smoke inhalation.

They had been woken at 2am by smoke pouring through their ceiling and a fire burning their house. The neighbours semi-detached home had caught alight and it has spread into their home. They were able to get all 6 cats out of the house (luckily the neighbour had no pets), but Belle and Jasmine took fright with the fire engines arriving and darted indoors through the catflaps.

The owner was ready to rush in after them but the house was full of smoke so 1 fireman went in to find them. The owners were both very shaken and emotional and both exhausted. I was thrilled to put their minds at rest that both kittens were fine. The smell of smoke in my room was very strong but both kittens were bright and Belle was purring so much that I struggled to hear her chest sounds.

I asked the owners where the fireman had found the cats and he said he had not asked but was sure that they would been to hide under the stairs - their favourite hiding place when strangers enter their home. They were born in that very spot. I reassured him  that this would been an ideal spot as the smoke from upstairs would not have travelled there. All I advised was bathing both kittens as they would have licked the smoke off their fur. What an ordeal for all of them!

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04/10/2008 by Arielle.

Every evening when I return from work, my children ask me what I have seen in my day. Today’s memorable consultations have to be a gorgeous black Pug puppy called Bubu for his second vaccinations. The owners made me laugh when they said that when he was 6 weeks old, you could not make out any facial features in his tiny squashed black face!

My second memorable case was a Pekin duck that came in. The owner had rescued 3 of them quite literally from the pot (they are the breed used to fatten up for Pekin duck - a delicacy in certain restaurants - not the ones I go to!!)

She had 3 ducks that lived in her garden but had the freedom to leave her property and go onto the canal to swim. She had found one dead and one with a large open wound on his neck on the canal. There were no feathers anywhere so she did not imagine it was a fox or dog but was concerned that a very territorial swan had attacked them.

We x-rayed the dead duck and found a pellet in his chest. How cruel some people can be with such beautiful creatures. She now had the evidence needed to report the incident with the x-ray. The duck that came into my consulting room appeared bright, made a huge mess with his water and droppings all over my consulting room floor; but hopefully will respond well to the antibiotic treatment and will live with his pellet buried in the muscle in his neck.

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01/10/2008 by Arielle.

If you followed the previous entry about Harvey belonging to the old man (Where identichipping a cat was possibly the wrong thing) - it has a happy ending! The original owners were contacted and as Harvey had been missing for so long, they had acquired 2 new cats. They felt that he would be very put out to return home to 2 extra cats and were just happy to hear that he was alive and being well looked after.

The old man was thrilled and will probably have many more happy years ahead of him (even at the age of 94) with his pampered companion.

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26/09/2008 by Arielle.

This did not happen to me today. One of the other vets I work with came into my consulting room looking very stressed. A 94 year old man had brought in a cat for vaccinating. He explained how much he loved the cat. He had called him Harvey and Harvey had ‘chosen him’  he said and had appeared in his garden 5 months ago.

As we always have to scan any stray cat to see if it has been chipped or not, my colleague did the right thing and scanned Harvey, only to find a microchip (to her horror).  After a quick phone call to the national idchip company, she found out that Harvey is actually Elvis and has been missing from a house not that far away from the elderly man, for the last year!

She felt awful telling the 94 year old man. He was there with his daughter and she gently explained to him that there were plenty of cats around in the rehoming centres and they would look for another cat that afternoon.

He reacted like the man in Little Britain by saying ‘ No, I want that one. Now I have nothing to live for!’ What a dilemma. I will find out tomorrow what happened to the cat and poor old man.

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15/09/2008 by Arielle.

We drove for a few hours at the weekend to meet up with university friends whom we had not seen for many years. We all graduated from the same vet school in the 90s and it was wonderful to see them and meet their children.

We shared in the joys and stresses of being ‘veterinary mummies’ and balancing our family with work. One friend Mary really made me chuckle but at the same timeI really sympathised. Like me, she only worked part-time so that her life was balanced between veterinary and her husband and 2 young children. She told me that she worked every morning simply because people actually paid her to listen to her - no one listened to her at home!

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10/09/2008 by Arielle.

My friend (also my childminder) has a lovely Labrador cross called Spud. It was my children who came to tell me that Spud was being sick all over their house that prompted me to quickly visit and help.

She explained how Spud also had nasty diarrhoea when she came down this morning and appeared very weak. She also didn’t do her regular ‘hoovering up’ of the remains of children’s tea under the dining room table. She was a veterinary nurse before having chidren and knew to starve Spud for 24 hours. I then advised a bland diet of chicken and rice for a few days given in a few regular meals.

Just before leaving, I mentioned to my friend to be careful as dogs can carry the same gastro bugs as we get namely E. Coli or Campylobacter. My friend looked at me slightly concerned as I left as she had just started with a really sore tummy!

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02/09/2008 by Arielle.

While we were away last month, my husband had to attend the funeral of an admirable and very brave young man. He was a soldier and dog handler who was killed in Afghanistan along with his explosives sniffer dog Sasha (as both seen in the picture).

My husband spoke little about the funeral except to say that this brave young man Lance Corporal Rowe; had said that one day for his funeral, he wouldn’t like traditional English hymns but rather rock songs (It’s My Life) played. My husband found this the most moving as it made you realise just how young these soldiers are.

I have every respect for this young man and his loyal happy companion Sasha - a golden Labrador. The Military Working Dog Support Unit wrote a poem entitled In Memory of Sasha which I thought I would share with you:

My dog is more than my partner you see,

Because she is a very good friend to me.

She’s the nose I don’t have, the eyes I have not,

She’s one of the best partners most soldiers ain’t got.

Day by day we do what we do best,

Her four paws never seem to rest

She always does whatever I ask,

Seeming to enjoy every task.

I know one day her work will be done,

But for now we can only have fun.

For my dog is more than a partner to me,

My dog is my best friend and she always will be.

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24/08/2008 by Arielle.

What a lovely relaxing 3 weeks we have just had spent with my family in France. They all flew out from South Africa and my children were able to catch up with their Grandparents and cousins. The highlight of their trip was a game of dog Top Trumps. They all played it every dayand we are now all experts at every dog breed mentioned!We returned to a very happy but also very thrilled Slick - our black Labrador. The kennels I usually use let me down and my wonderful friend (who looks after my children as well on the day I work); offered to look after Slick in her home. She also did some pet sitting and visited our home daily to feed Shadow and Buttons. They were all in such good hands.

Back to work now and after 3 weeks away, I am actually really looking forward to seeing all the animals and clients again!

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01/08/2008 by Arielle.

I am off on a family holiday until the 23rd August so my blog will not be updated. I leave you with this which is just so true:

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30/07/2008 by Arielle.

A friend a few houses down the road asked if I would help feed her animals while she was away for a night. They went camping in the Peak District. As the weather was so good, they stayed on a few days longer and she ended up getting more than she bargained for.

I had to feed their ferrets, African Grey, canary, stick insects, tortoise and very old deaf dog with 1 ear and no hair (when my daughter saw him she just said - What IS that?!)

I realised very quickly that the tortoise was not well and took him into work with me. He had a hard abscess on his neck which needed removing so I  sorted him out. One of her ferrets also had a burst abscess under his chin, so I separated him from the other ones and brought home some antibiotic to give him. My friend had chosen the right person to pet sit as when she returned from her holiday, her animals were all sorted!

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