a bloody day!

Today, Thursday, I spent on the road with one of the Vets. We drove, and drove and drove, and, by the way, Alberta is BEAUTIFUL!!! Today was the first day that its been clear enough to see the mountains PERFECTLY. I wish I had of brought my camera!
So yes, we drove towards the mountains, to go to this ranch, in order to float teeth. ( Dentistry for horses. ) This guy had 6 for us to do, so one after another we went through the paces of doing thier teeth. Because most of them were fairly young, she took the caps off of their teeth, so basically, the baby tooth was sitting there and the permanent tooth was coming in behind it and she ripped the baby tooth off. Well....can you say BLOOOODY?! and when she went to work on the bottom teeth, I had to pull the horses tongue out of the way. So not only was she covered in blood, but I too was now covered in blood...

By the time we got the 6 of them done, it was after lunch time, so she took me to lunch! That's two days in a row!! (Ive decided I like going on the road with the vets! hahah)

Before leaving the restaurant, we got a call from the clinic asking us to stop at a farm outside of millarville. This guy had a 25 year old mule that hadn't been eating since Saturday, and he just recently noticed him trying to eat snow and drink water, but unsuccessfully, ie. acting as though he could not swallow and simply drool it all out... :( When we got there he was quite the sight. Very very dehydrated, his heart was beating irratically, and was beating extremely fast. So she got the guy to walk him and as he did, he could not even support the weight of his own body and was wobbling around the place. The vet said that it was likely a tumor, and although he could be treated symptomatically at the cost of 2500-3000, with it likely not even doing that much becuase he was so far gone, the owner decided to have him put down. This was the first time that I have seen a "large animal" put down. Lots more drugs required than that of a cat or dog, and no method of "restraint" apart from a halter and lead. He went fast though, and it was obvious that the owners dog knew what was going on. Initially he barked, but then as the mule dropped, the dog became silent and just sat there, and finally when he had passed, the dog began barking again. Very intense.

When we got back to the clinic, I had TPRs to do and a few chores, otherwise that was it! A nice change compared to yesterday! haha


Until next time!
-A