Yay, it's Friday
Sep. 17th, 2010 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
donnalotusIt's been an epic long week - first full week back at work since the trip to Hawaii. I have been flat out with work as we have a training course running next week which we're only partially prepared for - go team. So, somehow on 3 days a week (technically) I'm supposed to make it all happen. So far, we're getting there, but I'm still taking some work home over the weekend. This is my choice because I have absolutely no leave at the moment, other than 1 ADO stored up which I'm taking on the 27th, and I still want to take a few hours in the afternoons of next Thursday and Friday - 1. because Thursday is the Equinox and I'll be getting ready for Lodge things, and 2. Friday Michael is flying up to Sydney to visit friends for the NSW long weekend, so I need to get him to the airport without hitting major traffic getting through the CBD.
So, I've organised to do 5-6 hours overtime on the weekend (provided I don't hurt myself!) for time in lieu. I love my boss :D
But that's not really why it's been a huge week. On Monday night Michael and I got home to find Spooks, one of my rats, near catatonic on the bottom of their cage. Our vet wasn't open, so I had to take him to the vet in Avonsleigh which is about 15mins away. By the time I got there he was passing on. The vet said it was an infection and liver failure - I hadn't even known he was sick! He'd been eating fine, but he had been sleeping a lot more than usual, in fact he'd been a bit sluggish in the morning and I'd thought about having to arrange a check-up at the vet in the next few days. Turned out, I didn't have that kind of time.
The silver lining is that I found out what a complete and utter fail our vet is. This new vet is FANTASTIC. He really knows his animals, and you can tell he's just been in the business forever. He showed me things that any vet apparently should have picked up, and although she did diagnose the mycoplasma and gave them antibiotics for it, she never really looked at them other than to listen to their breathing. She does seem to be a relatively new vet, but what made me angry was that when I took the boys to her I asked specifically if she was familiar with and knew about small animals, particularly rodents. She assured me she did.
I took Raf and Rom back the next day to see the new vet, and he took one look at them and said "They're not well at all!" Here's where I get really upset and angry. When I'd taken all three to see the other vet about 6 weeks back, I'd expressed concern that their hair was a little patchy in places, and she said it was probably just excessive barbering (grooming) and pretty much said there was nothing we could do other than to separate them. I'd expressed concern about their weight, because Raf in particular was underweight and she blamed it on the myco and put him on antibiotics. That's all she did. She didn't even handle them the second time I took them in.
The new vet actually WEIGHED them and said that they're both quite underweight. I knew Raf was and we've been feeding him separately to the others because he was just getting too excited and not actually eating, and they would scoff all the food before he got around to eating. He said they had dust mites and that was causing the patchiness in their fur, and he instructed me to clean their cage down with bleach and pyrethium to get rid of the mites and throw out anything that couldn't be washed down with the bleach. He has me bathing them daily in an iodine solution to get rid of the mites and help with the itchiness. Just in ONE DAY I've seen an immeasurable improvement - ONE DAY! They're on a massive vitamin boost in their water (which I'd already been doing), they've being fed HUGE amounts of food (which they really love LOL) including little yogurt treats for calcium. He's got them on daily antibiotics for the next couple of weeks before he sees them again, AND on a weekly dose of something for internal parasites.
All these things answered the questions I had when I took them to the local vet, and she told me there was NOTHING wrong with them other than the myco.
It's very disappointing, and heart breaking because I had to bury one of my babies due to her ignorance or simple don't-really-care attitude.
So I've been very busy with the boys, making sure they're getting all their treatments each night, and making sure the cage is kept REALLY clean, and so on, some nights I haven't stopped from the moment I get home until 10pm when I crash in bed. I'm glad to do it though, at least I feel like I'm now doing SOMETHING to look after them and achieving something, because I can't see their hair already looks better, they're not scratching like they were, they're not grooming each other like they used to (in hindsight they were probably trying to get the mites off each other), they're bouncing off the cage walls all happy and excited, and they are IN LOVE with their new yogurt drops. In a few months, when I'm not quite so angry, I may write a letter just informing the local vet of what happened and how disappointed I am that she didn't diagnose or prescribe any treatment for some pretty basic and obvious things, things she should have known if she knew anything about rats, apparently.
I have a pretty breezy weekend planned, just chilling and taking it easy. It's going to be another full on week next week.
We have the training which starts on Wednesday and I have Monday & Tuesday to make sure we're ready for that. Equinox is on Thursday and will likely be a long day because the caretaker for the Western Medicine Wheel is likely going to have a very early start to the day and I said I would be up for that, then I work, and then I'm going to M's after that for the other Medicine Wheel and an evening ceremony with the Full Moon.
Next Saturday I'm flying up to Queensland (last minute decision) to attend a Shamanic Practices for Women workshop - this one is being led by M's teacher, who is an amazing and gifted elder, and I knew as soon as I saw the flyer that I needed to go to that because it's much of the teachings that I'm preparing to take on, and I get a very strong feeling that these opportunities to study with this elder will not be offered in a few years time, so I need to go now. I took the opportunity to reconnect with my half-sister up in Brisbane and I'm going to stay with her and spend most of Saturday hanging out with them. The workshop is on the Sunday, and then I'll fly home late Monday night. I'm REALLY excited, it's like go, go, go!
So, I've organised to do 5-6 hours overtime on the weekend (provided I don't hurt myself!) for time in lieu. I love my boss :D
But that's not really why it's been a huge week. On Monday night Michael and I got home to find Spooks, one of my rats, near catatonic on the bottom of their cage. Our vet wasn't open, so I had to take him to the vet in Avonsleigh which is about 15mins away. By the time I got there he was passing on. The vet said it was an infection and liver failure - I hadn't even known he was sick! He'd been eating fine, but he had been sleeping a lot more than usual, in fact he'd been a bit sluggish in the morning and I'd thought about having to arrange a check-up at the vet in the next few days. Turned out, I didn't have that kind of time.
The silver lining is that I found out what a complete and utter fail our vet is. This new vet is FANTASTIC. He really knows his animals, and you can tell he's just been in the business forever. He showed me things that any vet apparently should have picked up, and although she did diagnose the mycoplasma and gave them antibiotics for it, she never really looked at them other than to listen to their breathing. She does seem to be a relatively new vet, but what made me angry was that when I took the boys to her I asked specifically if she was familiar with and knew about small animals, particularly rodents. She assured me she did.
I took Raf and Rom back the next day to see the new vet, and he took one look at them and said "They're not well at all!" Here's where I get really upset and angry. When I'd taken all three to see the other vet about 6 weeks back, I'd expressed concern that their hair was a little patchy in places, and she said it was probably just excessive barbering (grooming) and pretty much said there was nothing we could do other than to separate them. I'd expressed concern about their weight, because Raf in particular was underweight and she blamed it on the myco and put him on antibiotics. That's all she did. She didn't even handle them the second time I took them in.
The new vet actually WEIGHED them and said that they're both quite underweight. I knew Raf was and we've been feeding him separately to the others because he was just getting too excited and not actually eating, and they would scoff all the food before he got around to eating. He said they had dust mites and that was causing the patchiness in their fur, and he instructed me to clean their cage down with bleach and pyrethium to get rid of the mites and throw out anything that couldn't be washed down with the bleach. He has me bathing them daily in an iodine solution to get rid of the mites and help with the itchiness. Just in ONE DAY I've seen an immeasurable improvement - ONE DAY! They're on a massive vitamin boost in their water (which I'd already been doing), they've being fed HUGE amounts of food (which they really love LOL) including little yogurt treats for calcium. He's got them on daily antibiotics for the next couple of weeks before he sees them again, AND on a weekly dose of something for internal parasites.
All these things answered the questions I had when I took them to the local vet, and she told me there was NOTHING wrong with them other than the myco.
It's very disappointing, and heart breaking because I had to bury one of my babies due to her ignorance or simple don't-really-care attitude.
So I've been very busy with the boys, making sure they're getting all their treatments each night, and making sure the cage is kept REALLY clean, and so on, some nights I haven't stopped from the moment I get home until 10pm when I crash in bed. I'm glad to do it though, at least I feel like I'm now doing SOMETHING to look after them and achieving something, because I can't see their hair already looks better, they're not scratching like they were, they're not grooming each other like they used to (in hindsight they were probably trying to get the mites off each other), they're bouncing off the cage walls all happy and excited, and they are IN LOVE with their new yogurt drops. In a few months, when I'm not quite so angry, I may write a letter just informing the local vet of what happened and how disappointed I am that she didn't diagnose or prescribe any treatment for some pretty basic and obvious things, things she should have known if she knew anything about rats, apparently.
I have a pretty breezy weekend planned, just chilling and taking it easy. It's going to be another full on week next week.
We have the training which starts on Wednesday and I have Monday & Tuesday to make sure we're ready for that. Equinox is on Thursday and will likely be a long day because the caretaker for the Western Medicine Wheel is likely going to have a very early start to the day and I said I would be up for that, then I work, and then I'm going to M's after that for the other Medicine Wheel and an evening ceremony with the Full Moon.
Next Saturday I'm flying up to Queensland (last minute decision) to attend a Shamanic Practices for Women workshop - this one is being led by M's teacher, who is an amazing and gifted elder, and I knew as soon as I saw the flyer that I needed to go to that because it's much of the teachings that I'm preparing to take on, and I get a very strong feeling that these opportunities to study with this elder will not be offered in a few years time, so I need to go now. I took the opportunity to reconnect with my half-sister up in Brisbane and I'm going to stay with her and spend most of Saturday hanging out with them. The workshop is on the Sunday, and then I'll fly home late Monday night. I'm REALLY excited, it's like go, go, go!
