\”I\’d like you to come and give my two old dogs a check over, please… They seem to be slowing down, and not enjoying life as much as they used to.\” So I collected the details, and booked them in for a visit later in the week. It was a hot, dry day. Townsville, Brownsville, […]
The Magic Dog Diet Read More »
There were two quite distinct camps at vet school. The large animal crew, and the smallies mob. The large animal ones (I used to be one, back in the day) tended to favour redwing boots, wrangler jeans, and large felt hats. The smallies crowd were altogether better dressed (and, dare I say, better behaved as
I have been seeing an old, grumpy Rotti over the last month or so. \”I\’m worried about his eye- it\’s always full of thick, gunky green stuff, even when i clean it out regularly,\” his mum told me. He, a big Rotti, was carrying on like a pork chop in his cage, growling, barking, not
I met a dog with no eyes this week. Just two furry sockets, a bundle of happy joy, running around the yard, barking, playing, happy, coming up to me to say hello. I\’ve seen blind dogs before, but never a dog who had lost both eyes. \”His name is Basher,\” his mum told me. The
Blind Dogs can be Perfectly Happy! Read More »
I helped two very deeply loved pets to the other side of life yesterday. I sat with couples; fragile, raw with grief, agonising over whether this was the best thing for their old friend. Tears fell like gentle summer rain. I sedated their old friends, and then gently, with reverence, slowly injected an overdose of
Euthanasia: It\’s hard to know when… Read More »
I had been hard at work in my first job for about 4 months. A lot of the early nerves and tension had faded away, and I was feeling a bit more confident about being able to cope with whatever came in through the door. It was a quieter day, when a lady brought her
An Unusual Lameness – Legge Perthes disease Read More »
London was an interesting place to work in – I did quite a few temporary locums there. I would pack up my backpack, hoof it down to the local train in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and wait. The train would hiss to a halt; I\’d scramble to get my pack on, grab my guitar case, and
A very smelly tomcat Read More »
It was a short locum, a month or so of work. The clinic was in one of the homogenous, grey cities that teem across the landscape outside of the M25 motorway that rings London. I found my way through the tangle of rail, rocked by the clatter-sway of the carriages through endless soot smeared suburbia,
A Dangerous Drug Indeed Read More »
I woke up early this morning, and all the animals and pets who have touched my life paraded through my memory. I grew up on a cattle property in North Queensland, way out in the bush, 60 miles from the nearest town, so I have been surrounded by all sorts of animals all my life.
Animals who have touched my life Read More »
It was years ago, well into my time in my first job. I had been to this blokes dairy farm quite a few times, and he was a funny bugger. Not funny ha ha. Just funny – difficult to talk to, hard to find a connection. It was always an uphill battle to have a
