Posts (page 2)

Some new Photographs.

Jun 14, 2008
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Those are the most recent pictures of our little Pearl :) She is on our bed. You can see her teeth sticking out a bit at the bottom. It seems that her top teeth do not really grow too much any more, but her bottom ones need trimming quite regularly at the vets. She last had them done about 2 and a half weeks ago when she was spayed. Isn't she beautiful? :)

Poster!

May 31, 2008
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Rabbitzocard06

Saturday 31st May :)

May 31, 2008
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So, it is Saturday.

So far I have done some reading and made some notes on Veterinary First Aid.

It was quite a large section I covered. I made notes on the key points of First Aid, the rules of First Aid and how to deal with the emergency phone call and how to assess it over the phone. My arm is now aching from the writing, so that makes me think that I have done enough for now :)

I have also taken Aubrey for a walk in the garden on his lead and harness. We walked around the patio and up to the grass. Next time I think we will have a walk over the scary grass :)

I have ordered a new harness and lead set. I think it will be for Pearl, but Pearl and V might just share it :)

Here it is -

Wing harness

It is actually a small dog harness. I got it from a budget company on ebay. It cost me £5.50 including postage from abroad!! It is so sweet :)

I found this online pet shop -

www.petvogue.co.uk

They have the coolest pet mats in the shape of apples, tomatos, peachs, bananas! They have really cool pet carriers too, like this one -

Pet carrier

It is only £27.99! So many products like this go for £50 and up to £80 and more! They have really good prices.

When I have a little spare money, I am going to buy some pet mats and maybe some of their cool dining bowl sets :)

Hmmmm. So, need to go and hang the washing out, as we have some time without rain! I better hurry or the weather will suddenly turn bad again!!

Wednesday 28th May.

May 28, 2008
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So, I sent off my college application form yesterday. I am really looking forward to hearing back from them. I hope everything goes well.

I am REALLY looking forward to starting college in September. All going well, I will be starting the 'Animal Nursing Assistant' course. When I finish that, I will then do the NVQ level 2 and 3 in Veterinary Nursing.

I am so happy to be doing this.

I cant believe I got the job!

My Second Week as a Trainee Veterinary Nurse.

May 25, 2008
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I love my job :)

I love it :)

This week obviously bought some more sad moments, which included a very pooley cat which we had to put to sleep. I felt sad for him and the owner. When the owner came in to settle the money for the treatments and the 'put to sleep', I gave her his basket and collar. She was upset but she wanted to keep his things, which is exactly what I would have done too.

A highlight of the week was a C Section. A Chihuahua C Section! The mother was having trouble in labour and the owner rushed her in to us. We had to do a C Section. There were two puppies inside her. As the vet took them out, her passed one to my head nurse and one to me. We had to rub them with towels to make them breathe, and keep on checking their little heartbeats. It was so beautiful :)

DSC00310

Here they are :) I was passed the little girl (the top pup).

DSC00311

Mine was the one on the right :) They are so adorable.

I shall tell you more about my second wee later :)

xxxx

Look what kind of flower I am :)

May 18, 2008
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I am an
Echinacea

What Flower
Are You?

"You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you."

My First Week as a Trainee Veterinary Nurse :)

May 17, 2008
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So, I have just finished my first week of my new job :) I loved it. I did 35 hours over 3.5 days. It did make me rather tired but I am sure I will get used to the hours. Over the week, I was getting back from work and needing to fall straight to sleep. I will adapt though. I seem to have already adapted to the early 6am morning get up. I got up quite easily. I relied on my alarm, but as soon as it went off, I got up :) I just need to get used to the whole thing though, so I am not too tired when I actually get back from work.

So, the cases I remember quite clearly over the week. These are cases I was involved in (there are not too many this week, as I was supposed to be on reception for the week).

A white rabbit (I shall not mention the animals names... just incase the owners come across this page) came in and she was very ill. She had been showing a small amount of blood from 'down bellow' for about a week. It was originally supposed to be cystitis. When the lady arrived home from work that day, there was blood all over the patio in the run, and lots of pools of blood in the hutch. She cleaned her up and drove her straight to us. She arrived just before we closed, so we stayed late, which was fine. The vet decided to take some x rays and open her up to see what was wrong, as she examined her and could not find anything from the outside. A catheter was placed in the ear, and she was knocked out. Before the vet even got to Xray her, she stopped breathing. The vet tried everything to start her breathing and her heart again but she was gone. I had tears in my eyes, it was really sad. Just before we gave her the GA, I was stroking her in her kennel, she came all the way over to me, I stroked her on her nose and head, and she gave her 'rabbit purr noise'. She was lovely but I realised she was getting on, she was very ill and in pain, so actually she was put out of her misery.
A very old and ill cat was sent to us. She could not walk and she was just moaning in pain. The vet took a look at her and the owners were told that the only fair thing to do, would be to have her put to sleep. I held her and stroked her head (she too purred) while my head nurse injected her. She just slowly went while she was being stroked. It seemed almost like she knew what was coming.
Another rabbit was rushed in to us. He was 8 years old, and had been having regular operations under general anaesthetic for his back teeth. It seems that in the end he just gave up. The owner was very upset about it. We tried to give him fluids via catheter but we could not get a proper vein anywhere. Everyone in the surgery loved this rabbit, as he was in so often, so everyone was very upset about it. He had lived a long life and he was very much loved and looked after by his owner. He was a lovely bunny.

Those are my main pet memories from the week. I know they are all sad cases but they were the ones I got to help out with, and subsequently, they were the ones I remembered.

I think I shall always remember them.

We have had a few more interesting animals in, like 'Frank'. A bird that our vet has been hand rearing. He is so funny. He flew at me and landed on my shoulder at one point. It made us laugh. He is not scared of humans at all, which is actually a problem.

We had an ill Hedgehog in too. Unfortunately he was too ill, and passed away, but I think we made his last few hours a lot more comfortable than if he had been left outside to die alone.

I have had a really good week. I have enjoyed all of it. I had tears in my eyes during the sad cases but I managed to hold them back quite well.

I love my new job.

I am really looking forward to going to college too. I should start in September on the 'Animal Nursing Assistant' course. Really looking forward to it :)

Photographs and stuff.

May 15, 2008
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I plan on taking alot more photographs. I plan on carrying my camera around with me more often. I want nice photographs of - Joe and Me (as a couple and on our own), the rabbits and guinea pigs, our home, Paris, the dolls, friends and family, my new job. So.... I need to sort out somekind of protection for my camera, so that it can sit unharmed in my bag.... then I can get snapping. It is a good time of year for photographs.... summer is so lovely in photographs (actually, so is the winter but at least you can take photos without freezing in the summer).

I also want photographs of items that are currently in our life (and play a big roll), like our lovely little car, Joe's instruments, the camera etc. I know that sounds silly but I have been wanting to document our life for a long time.

So, I think that Saturday would be a good time to start, as I have the weekend off work.

Talking about work, my head nurse said she is interested in me making a leaflet or something similar about rabbits, and maybe also advertising a rabbit evening, where people can come along and learn about rabbits, they can ask questions and we can tell them lots of things about rabbits. I am really excited about this. I want to put some Rabbit Welfare leaflets out in our vets too. I habe a huge pile at home.

She also wants to start a puppy evening too :)

I am going to start work on the leaflet on the weekend. I already have all the information needed, I just need to put it together in some kind of leaflet form. I am going to ask Joe to help me design it once I have all of the content and photographs sorted.

Lalala :)

I am having a great week at work so far. I have been learning all about reception.... I think I have most of it so far. I need to learn about fequently asked questions and about vaccinations and that kind of thing, so that when a customer asks a question,I can answer it myself.

This week I have also helped out with some cases. Some of them were very sad and nearly made me cry, but I held back the tears quite well. I held a cat while it was being put to sleep.... I stroked its head while he was being injected and he purred. I helped out with a very pooley rabbit, who just couldnt hold on. The rabbits make me very sad. I could see that it was the very best thing for the rabbit though, as it was in alot of pain. Then this morning, we had another rabbit that didn't make it. He was about 8 years old and he had been under GA about once every 6 weeks for a long time. He finally gave in. We made him as comfortable as we could. We couldnt get a catheter in to any of his veins, they were so collasped, so the vet put fluids in another way. We put him on a heat pad and gave hime oxygen. I am happy I can be there to care for them though.

Today I had to help shower/bath an old staffordshire bull terrier. He has mange, so we had to bath him in something that smelt like paint. We had to put a muzzle on him.... he hated the bath. He liked it when we let him out in the garden after, so he could dry off :)

Hmmmmm. At the moment, we are looking forward to going to Paris. In fact, I cant wait :) It is going to be great. I am really looking forward to seeing Paris in June :) We are hopefully booking the rabbits into a rabbit hotel for the 6 days. I am nervous about leaving them :( We have never left them for any longer than a night before! I love them so much. I hope they have a good time at the hotel. They will be the only rabbits there, as they only take in a certain number at a time. They have large pens and a room to themselves, and supervised garden time :) I am going to view the hotel tomorrow after work. I wanted to meet the lady and have a good look at the accommodation. I want them to have the best we can give them.

I got my nurses uniform the other day. My dress has not arrived yet but I have the trousers and tunic. I am looking forward to the dress though. The dress is more 'me'! Here is the tunic and the trousers -

Tunic

Trouser

and here is the dress -

Dress

It is much more summery :)

New Dress on its way from Australia :)

May 15, 2008
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I have purchased a new Blythe sized dress from a lady on etsy (discodoll), she is also on TIB (monsoon). I love the dress :) It has lots of Rabbits on it, so it is perfect :)

It is handmade by the seller and it only cost £7.50 including shipping from Australia! Here it is -

New Dress

How cute is that? I don't know who it will be for yet. I cant decide who it will suit the most. We'll see, maybe it will be something they can share :)

Monday. My first Day :)

May 13, 2008
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So, I woke up (with my alarm) at 5.30am. I got up at 6am and it was lovely and sunny already. I washed, put on my make up and got dressed first. Then I fed all the animals, it was nice to go outside in the cool morning sun and feed the pigs. Next on my list was making my lunch for work. I had my lunch cooler bag ready. I got a wholemeal cob and put a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich filler in it, and loads of lettuce. I wrapped it in foil and in the cooler bag it went, followed by my orange and fruit bar. I filled up my flask with cold water.

I set out for work at about 7am. I ended up being very early, so I waited outside of work in my car. I didnt mind, it was my first day, so I was testing the traffic and seeing how long it will take. It means that I wont have to leave so early tomorrow.

They are splitting my initial training into weeks.

Week one, 'Reception' week. I learn about everything to do with reception. This includes making appointments, answering phone calls, learning the computer system, taking payments, ordering things (equipment, drugs etc).

Week Two - 'Protocols' week. Learning about flea/parasite/worming products and protocols. Learning about vaccinations, repeat prescriptions, euthanasia, house visits and strays.

Week three - 'Theatre' week. This week includes TPR, admitting and discharging patients, drawing up injections and anaesthetics, monitoring anaesthetics, processing x-rays, writing up basic ops, packing kits and sterilizing.

Week four - 'Nurse Appointments' week. This includes flea and worm checks, nail clipping, removing stitches, restraining patients for im/s/c and iv injections and running blood samples.

Week Five - 'Triage' week. This is Emergency situations, Prioritising appointments, Protocol when an emergency arrives and Injured strays.

Finally, Week Six - 'Insurance' week. Free puppy/kitten insurance, Full policy, Direct Claims and accepting claim forms (what you need to check).

Looks like an am going to have a busy first six weeks. That takes me exactly up until I have my week off for our Paris trip :) Thats good timing.

I really enjoyed my first day :) I shall come back later and actually tell you what I did :)

xxxx