Pictures
Me holding a cayman alligator
Donna holding a cayman alligator
Bat that was rescued eating a wax worm
Same bat with it's wing extended
Rabbit with broken leg
Pictures of us at the Phoenix Herpetological Society
X-Raying an African Grey bird
Pictures of the Canadian Goose surgery
1 of 5 gila monsters that needed sexing
|
|
Week 1
Tuesday (Aug. 23)
Today I met Dr. Todd Driggers of Foothills Exotic Mobile DVM and his technician, Rebecca. I was a little
nervous because I have only spoken to Dr. Driggers on the phone for about 5 or 10 minutes. No paperwork
or anything was exchanged, so he didn't really know anything about me. However, everything worked out
good. I got there a little early and Rebecca was there and I met her. She is shy and quiet, like me. Dr.
Driggers came a few minutes later and he was really nice. I also met Julie, who was temping as a receptionist
until Dr. Driggers could hire a new one.
The morning started out with three surgeries. The first was a spay on a rat. The rat was pretty small and it
was interesting to see Dr. Driggers do surgery on it. Because rats like to chew on their sutures, stainless
steel sutures are used to close the outer incision. The rat was doing great until about the second to last
suture when she arrested. It was amazing to watch Rebecca and Dr. Driggers try to revive her. Unfortunately,
the rat didn't make it. It was pretty sad, especially since the owner was a really nice lady.
The next two surgeries were a rabbit spay, which went fine, and a foreign object removal from a ferret. There
were three hairballs stuck in the intestines of the ferret. Dr. Driggers had to go in and remove them. The
ferret did fine too.
After lunch, I came back and Dr. Driggers was interviewing for the receptionist position. I was in the back
room when he came out and said, "There he is." And Donna walked out of the room. I haven't seen her since
sometime in March! We used to carpool to school together. What a small world. It was good to see her again.
The rest of the afternoon was at the clinic seeing clients. We saw a couple of ferrets, a rabbit, a bird and
a desert tortoise. Very different stuff than I am used at the EAC. We mostly see cats and dogs there.
It was a great day.
Thursday (Aug. 25)
Started out the morning finding out that Dr. Driggers had hired Donna as the new receptionist! That is great.
The Phoenix Herpetological Society brought in a cayman alligator that had something wrong with it's front left
leg. Rebecca and I got to take radiographs of it. It was surprisingly calm for being handled as much as it was.
I found out that reptile pus is hard and is radio-opaque. Since Dr. Driggers shares a facility with another
veterinarian, we walked through their clinic with the alligator. So, of course, everyone wanted a picture
taken with it. I got one too. How often do you get a chance to hold an alligator?
The rest of the morning, we saw a couple of appointments. They were birds. Dr. Driggers showed me how to properly
hold a bird with a towel and your fingers around its neck. Surprisingly little restraint is needed to hold them.
Dr. Driggers explained that with prey animals, less restraint is best. Because they perceive us as hunters and
if we aren't careful, they could die just by us handling them improperly.
In the afternoon, we went mobile and visited three clients. All of them had birds and cats. I was surprised at
them having cats, but I guess they get along OK. It was interesting to see the different setups for the living
conditions of the birds. Dr. Driggers likes to go mobile so that he can see how the birds are living and how
they are being taken care of. He concentrates a lot on client education and husbandry and only treats the animals
when it is necessary.
Week 2
Tuesday (Aug. 30)
This morning the cayman alligator went home. Dr. Driggers worked on it's elbow on Friday. He put some floss
through the joint after he drained it. The keeper at the Phoenix Herpetological Society was instructed on how
to use the floss and keep the wound clean. After that, a 250+ lb pot bellied pig came in to have a squamous
cell carcinoma removed from it's face. After it had been knocked out with gas and we lifted it up on the table,
Dr. Driggers found another similar mark on the other side of the face. Since cancer isn't usually symetrical, he
just took a biopsy, instead of cutting out both sites. Hopefully, it won't be cancer and will just be dermititus.
Saw a few more ferrets, one with some really bad diarrhea that he hospitalized and started IV fluids on. Rebecca
got the catheter in on the first try. She is probably used to doing that with small veins, but I was impressed!
Sometimes I can't get a catheter in on a 100 lb dog.
We went out on another mobile visit. This one was downtown Phoenix in a high rise apartment. I've never been in
a high rise apartment before. The view was very impressive. They had one bird and Dr. Driggers did a little
grooming and some client education.
We finished up the day with a few more clients in the clinic. More ferrets, tortoises and birds. I am learning
a lot and hopefully will be able to use this at the EAC sometime.
Thursday (Sept. 1)
The ferret with diarrhea is doing better. Still has diarrhea, but it is more solid. This morning saw some more
cliets with ferrets, birds and a tortoise breeder. Listening in, I learned a lot about tortoise husbandry and
how to breed them.
Late morning we went mobile. This time to Paradise Valley and a very nice house. The have about 12 or so birds.
Dr. Driggers did exams on all of them and groomed some of them. The owner is doing very well with their diets. I
guess previously, a lot of the birds were overweight and now they are all within normal weight ranges.
In the afternoon, we saw more ferrets and a couple of birds. Then we saw a rabbit that had broken it's leg sometime
in the past. Dr. Driggers thinks it may have been a couple of weeks ago. Rebecca and I x-rayed the leg and it
had been broken at a 90 degree angle! It was starting to heal in that position. Dr. Drigger may rebreak it and
set it more straight, but there are other things going on with the rabbit. It has a lot of fluid in its abdominal
cavity. We drew out over 600 ml of fluid and there was probably more in there. I learned more about restraining here
too. I was holding the rabbit as I would have a dog, then Rebecca came over and started rubbing it's ears. We
barely had to hold the rabbit as the fluid was being drained. I'm still amazed at that!!
I got lots of books to look through. Almost a library's worth. Rebecca brought a bunch in for me and Dr. Driggers
gave me a few. I hope to be able to get through some of them this weekend.
Week 3
Tuesday (Sept. 6)
Today was originally scheduled as a light day, but the whole day was booked before 9:00!! The only surgery for the
day (a rabbit in for a dental) didn't show up! However, the ferret that we removed the hairballs on my first day
came in for a recheck. I got to hold him while Dr. Driggers examined him and removed the one suture that the
ferret hadn't removed on his own. The ferret is doing fine.
We had two very sick birds in also. One was an Amazon parrot and I don't remember what the other one was. I need
to try to remember the different species, but there are so many!! Rebecca and I (mostly Rebecca) took xrays of
both birds. We had to put them under anesthesia in order to get them done. They were taped to the x-ray table
and we shot both lateral and ventral-dorsal radiographs. I forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures
of them. That is another thing I have to remember, my camera!
In the afternoon, Dr. Driggers showed me how to count WBC's (white blood cells) in birds and reptiles. They don't
have neutrophils. They have heterophils instead. The two cells almost look the same, but are still distinct. I
still don't quite have it down, but I am getting there.
Thursday (Sept. 8)
We went to the Phoenix Herpetological Society to work on an alligator that had been in a fight with another alligator.
He had wounds on it's back legs (see photos). Dr. Driggers sewed them up with steel suture and I got to flush
them out with betadine. While we were there the AZ Fish & Game delivered another alligator and some rattlesnakes.
First time I've seen a rattlesnake that close!
Week 4
Tuesday (Sept. 13)
First thing in the morning, we went on a housecall to a lady with a pot-bellied pig as a pet. The pig was treated
just like a dog. It had free reign of the house and even had a piggy-door to go out with! We had to catch it and
anesthetize it. That was fun! Dr. Driggers finally got a hold of it and I stuck the mask over it's snout. We were
there to check out one of it's ears. We originally thought it may be skin cancer, but turned out to only be a
sunburn.
Thursday (Sept. 15)
Learned about metobolic bone disease in lizards today. If they don't get enough calcium, their bones waste away
and they die because they have soft bones. If you don't catch it in time, it is hard to recover from. Also learned
that not only is diet important, but heat and light (UV light) are just as important to their health.
A really cool bird came in this afternoon. It did a lot of tricks for us. I used my camera to take a video of it
(see movie) (I think I lost the movie, but I'll keep looking).
Week 5
Tuesday (Sept. 20)
Dr. Driggers fixed a Canadian goose's leg today. It had broken it and he put a bunch of pins in the leg to hold it
together. I took a bunch of pictures of the procedure. Mostly for myself, but some for the group that rescued it.
We had to take x-rays of it a couple of times during the procedure to make sure the pins were positioned correctly.
That was fun because we had to take the goose off of anesthesia to do it. We had to be fast before it woke up! We
made it both times.
A bird came in that had started picking it's feathers out. I got to learn all about bird behaviour and how to help
the bird without drugs or restraints. Because a bird spends a good portion of it's time in a cage, you have to
give it something to do with it's time. Some of the things is to give it something to rip up like an old telephone
book or put a shredded paper at the bottom of it's cage and put it's food down there. That way, it has to forage
for it's food instead of getting it out of a bowl all the time. Just be careful you don't put the food where they
poop!! [img noborder]http://www.randy.pitcher.com/gifs/laugh.gif[/img]
Thursday (Sept. 22)
Today was only a half day for me. I was asked to work this evening at the EAC for a sick co-worker. However, I got
to see Liberty Wildlife, a non-profit organization to rescue and
place injured wildlife. We were in that part of town to see a client, so we stopped by to check out the goose that
we operated on last Thursday. It was doing much better. Still couldn't walk, but it had started trying to stand.
While there, we took a small tour of the place. I saw a bald eagle and a golden eagle!! Wow! What magnificent birds!
Plus, they are freaking huge!! They both stand between 3 and 4 feet high. Saw a few other eagles that were
recuperating, but from a distance.
Week 6
Tuesday (Sept. 27)
We did surgery on a ferret that had some hairballs today. It didn't take very long and we pulled two icky looking
balls of hair out of his intestines. I actually got to assist a little in the surgery, if you can call squirting
some NaCl on some gauze! The ferret did well and went home with the owners in the afternoon.
Went to see a couple of snakes at one of the top boa breeders in the world. It was pretty cool to see all of their
snakes and the way that they had them organized. A lot cleaner than I thought it would be. One of them tried to
strike my head! Luckily, there was a piece of plexiglass between her and I! I didn't get to handle any of them, but
I assisted Dr. Driggers the best that I could in handing him instruments and stuff.
Thursday (Sept. 29)
Today was my last day with Dr. Driggers and Rebecca. We started off with an enucleation surgery on a little bunny.
It was actually a referral from the ophthalmology specialist. They don't do very many rabbits and wanted someone
who is familiar with doing surgery on them. The rabbit did great and is going home with the owner on Friday.
We went back out to the Phoenix Herpetological Society to check on the aligator that we sewed up a few weeks ago.
She was doing fine. Her steel sutures came out a few days ago, but the regular stitches held up fine. We also
took a look at the cayman aligator that Dr. Driggers fixed the elbow on my first week there. He had some movement
in the elbow. He won't have full use of the elbow, but it is much better than it would have been.
When we got back to the clinic, we sexed some gila monsters and took their measurements. We had to knock them out
with anesthesia so Dr. Driggers could put a scope in their abdominal cavity to look for the sex organs. The two of
them that we did turned out to be male. It was kind of cool handling the gila monsters since they are only one of
two lizards in the world that are venomous. Needless to say, it takes three people to intubate one of them!!
|
