Photo shoot-take two

These pictures are at least a little better than yesterday.  He's not an easy dog to photograph.  He isn't particularly interested in standing still and he's not overly excited about treats or toys so most of the photos turned out with him looking in the opposite direction.  It didn't help that I was running out of daylight and there was no sunshine.  But, it's a start. 

He was quiet as a mouse in his crate last night-has only barked once or twice at the cat.  The first time I let him out of his crate yesterday he walked about two steps and lifted his leg on a piece of furniture.  I promptly make it clear that was not acceptable behavior and so far he has not offered to hike in the house again.  Outside if fair game-even if he doesn't make it off the deck.  Fair enough.  Zodiac doesn't always make it off the deck either. 

In fact yesterday Quinn and Zodiac were traveling the yard together taking turns marking everything.  I informed Jerry that the boys were literally having a pissing match.  Boys will be boys I guess. 

Look what we got!

This big fellow is our new foster dog, Quinn.  The shelter was calling him Hector, which I did not like.  "Quinn" is Irish in origin and loosely means intelligent.  This shelter is really easy to work with (we also got Holli, Abby, and a few other MOKAN grads there) but they have terrible names.  Anyway, Quinn was picked up as a stray and was running out of time.

I've only had him a few hours but he's a nice boy.  Good in the car, good for his heartworm test and microchip and let me shove a huge dewormer down his throat.  He was also good for bathing and brushing.  He's quiet in his crate, takes treats gently and likes dogs and cats. 

Other than being a little naughty about coming inside after playing (I had to go out in the rain and get him) he only has one bad habit that I have noticed so far.  He marks.  A lot.  Especially for a neutered dog.  I was hoping that wouldn't be the case when I discovered he was neutered already but hopefully he will get that out of his system soon enough.  Because right now he can't be off the leash when he's out of his crate in the house.  I have no idea how long ago he was neutered.  He was found that way. 

I think he's about 3 years old.  And I mentioned big-this guy is a solid 54 pounds!  And not fat.  I might like him a bit leaner but he's certainly not overweight.  I'm undecided but think he might be mixed with Aussie. 

These pictures don't really do him justice-he's actually very handsome but wouldn't look at the camera for me, and also inside pics are never good.  I hope to have better ones soon.  And should know more about him as well. 

More show and tell

This puppy was unknowingly underneath a lawn mower when the owner moved it. All things considered, he was pretty lucky. He had to have a flap of skin sutured back down and you can see here he has multiple fractures in multiple toes. He will probably have arthritis in this foot later in life but hopefully that will be as bad as it gets.

Sleeping Arrangements

Someone snuck onto the couch.



 Using her best "please mom, don't make me move" face.

 Looks a little squishy.

 Better.

 Someone seems to take up her more than her fair share.

 Now she's definitely taking up more than her fair share!

 Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Instant Gratification

A little show and tell from surgery a few weeks ago...bladder stones!

The Borders

How can you not love this face?  Seriously, it's precious.

This was taken after running almost 9 miles, doing agility and playing ball. She looks all right huh?  Tireless.

Fun run and other stuff

A few weeks ago I took the girls to an AKC fun run put on by a new local agility group.  I wanted to take advantage of being able to use treats and toys in the ring.  Lyric thought this was a fantastic idea-she charged up the teeter with all the confidence in the world, did 3 perfect sets of 24 inch weave poles and hopped right up on the table.  I think that was a worthwhile experience for her.

Legend, I'm not so sure.  We did a lot of waiting in line before her turn, which usually doesn't help matters.  She seemed somewhat detached when we entered the ring as apposed to the last fun run we did where she went in wild.  And I didn't realize her frisbee wasn't in the car so all we had was  fleece tuggy, which isn't as good as her frisbee...at least not in the land of Legend.  So she started out kind of stressy and promptly refused the A-frame.  I showed her the toy, she relaxed, played and had fun doing all the contacts, weaves etc like a champ.  I'm not sure if that was a productive experience for her or not.  But we are no worse off for sure.

On the health side of things I finally resorted to giving Lyric i/d and only i/d.  Her stools became more or less normal so I started experimenting with treats.  Evidently Greenies are a no-go.  I reduced Legend's phenobarb dose by 25% at the beginning of the month-so far, so good.  Zodiac appears to remain in perfect health.  Saturday I found one of my barn cats covered in pus and puncture wounds.  But he seemed no worse for the wear, I cleaned him up and sent him on his way.  Everyone else seems fine.

Speaking of Zodiac, we did a pet therapy visit this afternoon with mentally handicapped teens.  Some of the cute questions they asked included "would you have brought him here if he was mean?" and "would he attack a bad guy?"  I assured them the answer to both of those was "no."

Last weekend we did a two day spay-day event at the shelter.  Technically we did spays and neuters but mostly spays.  Friday I did 23 cats-not too bad.  Saturday I did 22 dogs.  That was a lot of work.  Several were small, but most were adults and overweight.  All in all it was a successful event.

Lastly, a sample of some recent iPhone art.

At long last

My parents have been searching for the dog for months.  And months.  Seriously-it's been a while. And don't worry, nothing happened to Gus.

But finally, all that searching paid off.  Meet 4 month old "Lacy!"  New name possibly coming in the future.

We don't know what she is, but she sure is cute!

Parasites Part 5: Coccidia

Coccidia are also intestinal parasites, but are not worms.  They are single celled organisms picked up in the environment similar to the way most worms are acquired-by walking through infected soil and then licking of the feet.

Once in the intestine the organisms multiply within an intestinal cell and destroy it.  Each of the new organisms infects another cell and the process continues, destroying an exponential amount of intestinal cells.  This process results in a watery, and sometimes bloody diarrhea.  Coccidia organisms are shed in the feces of an infected pet and once in the environment can be infective within 12 hours.  It takes 3-11 days for appearance of coccidia in the feces after ingestion.

Coccidiosis is most common in young puppies and immunocompromised animals.  Diagnosis is made via finding organisms on a fecal flotation but sometimes small numbers can be hard to find leading to a false negative result.  Sympotmatic animals are often treated based on signs of infection, especially if they have already been dewormed with routine products several times are parvo virus negative.

The most common drug for treating Coccidia is Albon but there are some other drugs that have been used.  Albon is often administered for 5-10 days.  Because the organisms become infective so rapidly, re-infection is a common problem.  Picking up all fresh stools is vital in eliminating infection.

Coccidia are resistant to all routine disinfectants but can be eliminated by steam cleaning-which is obviously impractical for the backyard!  For this reason, all in-contact animals, especially puppies are often treated prophylactically as a means of eliminating and preventing infection in a household, kennel, or shelter.

Prognosis is usually good unless the animal is severely infected and dehydrated.  Most treatment is done as an outpatient unless IV fluids are needed

Zoonotic Potential
The species of coccidia that infects dogs is not infective to people.

A Star Is Born

Lyric had her Banfield photo shoot yesterday.  It went really well and was pretty fun.  And food was served so that always makes it worth it right?

Anyway, there were several scenes shot the day we were there.  All the dogs got to do some shots in the mock clinic and also some fun, candid photos.  By the way-they used actors/models for the vet and the tech.  If I worked for Banfield I would be offended by this.  But that's not the point.  Lyric got to do scenes with the "vet" and "family," also some with just the "vet."

Then there were some scenes were they only used one dog.  Lyric got picked for all of these!  Words like favorite, perfect, fabulous, too easy,  and so much quality were used to describe my little star and her photos.  She really knows how to ham it up for the camera. She got to model having her teeth brushed, having topical flea meds applied, getting brushed, and playing with a teenage girl.  All the cast and crew and modeling agent loved her.  Hopefully we will get to more shoots for other things!

They said it would take several months but then you can start looking for her at a Banfield near you!  She could be in literature, the website, posters, signs, etc.

For legal reasons I couldn't take or post any photos. But you can see here what she did when we got home. I guess it's not easy being beautiful.

Scanning project-vet school

Our anatomy dog with his head cut in half.  I thought this was the coolest part.  And yes, that's a brain.  As you can see (well sort of given that his body is gone) he was a big, beefy pit-bull type.  To show you how desensitized we got to death I used to crave steak during the muscle dissection part.  Lab was long ok?  A person was bound to get hungry   I'll spare you the rest of the anatomy lab photos...unless you really want to see them.

 From a trip to a vet student convention in Colorado.  This was not a very educational experience for us as you can see.

 This was a cart of cadaver legs.  I presume we were reviewing anatomy or practicing suturing.

 Driving the mule team!

 Junior/Senior Banquet

 Selling dog food at the Gentle Doctor Benefit

 Getting ready for open house

 Mule club

Parasites Part 4: Tapeworms

There are two kinds of tapeworms.  For simplicity we will refer to them as the "flea" tapeworm and the "rodent" tapeworm.

These are those nasty little segmented worms you see around a dog's anus.  The adult worm is actually 6 inches long or more and lives in the small intestine.  As the worm ages, new segments are produced and the older ones fall off.  These are the ones you see in stool or around the anus.  The segments are about the size of a grain of rice and while fresh will still be moving.  Later, they dry up and look like sesame seeds.

These segments contain a packet of eggs and once broken open the eggs can continue the life cycle.  The most common tapeworm is the flea tapeworm.  For this life cycle to continue the tapeworm egg must be ingested by flea larvae.  The flea continues to mature to adulthood with the tapeworm larvae present in what is now an infective stage.  The dog then ingests the adult flea while grooming and the young tapeworm is released into the intestine where it sets up shop and about 3 weeks later you can see segments in the stool.  Tapeworm segments are eggs are not directly infective to dogs, cats or people.

Rodent tapeworms are acquired by eating (as you may have guessed) the internal organs or rabbits, rodents, and some other animals.  The life cycle proceeds similarly to the flea tapeworm at this point.

Tapeworms don't usually cause much harm to the host but they often create an "emergency" when discovered by an owner simply because of the gross factor.

Tapeworms are rarely seen on fecal exam because the segment must first break open to release the eggs.  Most commonly tapeworms are diagnosed by visualization of the segments.  Both kinds of tapeworms can be treated with praziquantel, only the rodent tapeworm can be treated with fenbendazole.  You only need to deworm for tapeworms once to eliminate them but a dog can potentially (not all fleas carry tapeworms) be reinfected every time it consumes a flea.  Therefore, flea control (or minimizing hunting of rodents for the other variety) is necessary for tapeworm control.

Zoonotic potential
Humans can theoretically be infected with a tapeworm but they would need to get it the same way the dog did-by ingesting a flea, or even worse, rodent guts.

Yes, I've been playing on my phone again

Scanning project-grown up stuff

From when we were dating

At a vet school function

I was an animal science major as an undergrad and every year the College of Agriculture puts on a fun show where you can choose a species of farm animal to show.  The first year I chose a horse-the obvious choice for me.  This was the one I was assigned.  I think her name was Black Mare.  

The next year I chose a sheep.  We had to shear them ourselves.  They did not trust students with good clippers.  It took me four hours over 3 days to shear the sheep.  The next year I did not participate and then I went to vet school.

 Physics lab

Homeowners!

 Back in the days of one dog and one cat

A family photo-pre Legend and Lyric

 The three amigos

 OK-so maybe not so grown up