I'm on duty this weekend, from Friday at 8am to Monday at 8am. It's supposed to be quiet now, but surprise surprise this doesn't always seem to apply for me...!
Yesterday started easy - 5 phonecalls during phonehours (8-10am), resulting in 3 cats coming in to the clinic, starting at 1pm. One of them even called and cancelled - the cat found a way to escape the house. I got some paperwork done, and left the office at 4 - heading to Liv to pick up the container with sperm (bulls) in liquid nitrogen. While there, I got another phonecall, and had to head back to the clinic, this time a puppy with a sore ear. It turned out to have a hole in it's thympanic membrane - no wonder it hurt! I got to be at home for 2 hours, then back to the clinic at 8. This woman called, her dog had hurt his foot in their yard, and wasn't able to stand on it, and it was starting to get really swollen. OK -sounds pretty acute, so I went to see the dog. It turned out to be pure bullshit - no limp, no swollenness, no pain - only a tiny red mark under it's right paw, between the toes. It might have stepped on a grasstub or something, perhaps some sticking insect. I was pretty pissed, the whole trip down to the clinic was a huge waste of time. In the meantime, I got a few other calls, and had to jump in the car to treat 3 sheep with mastitis - in 2 opposite directions of the district. I started driving at 9pm, and was home around 1am. Busy? No, not at all!!!
Today's luckily been better. First call came after 10, and I went down to the clinic at 12 - to look at the cat that ran away yesterday. It had a nasty wound on it's hindleg, V-shaped, 5-6 cm long and deep. I had to do a lot of cleaning and also take away the upper layer of started-to-heal tissue. Did it bleed? Yep! The wound was pretty deep down into the muscles, and with one severed tendon - too small and narrow to stitch back. But after about 20 stitches, it didn't look half-bad. I'd expected worse when I first saw it. I was happy, owner was happy - so now, hopefully it will heal nicely too :)
I had to take a detour to Borgund on my way home, to deliver a sheeps head to a vet in Mattilsynet. I was supposed to go see a sick sheep after stitching the cat together, but when I was almost there, the farmer called to say the sheep was dead. Not only dead, but already stiff, so she probably died right after he called me the first time. It had a bit of neurological symptoms (stretching it's head back and behind), so Mattilsynet (Food Safety "Department") need to test the brainstem. Since I had to go to Borgund, I decided I might as well do something useful and take the dogs for a walk. I went up Vindhellavegen (old road between Lærdal and Borgund, built sometime in the 1790's), which is pretty steep - in places 1:5 (=20%) steepness!
When I got home, I had to check the temperature, and it's 25 degrees in the shade! The hottest day so far this year! I think 20 degrees was the last "record". Enough talk, it's time to get out and pick some dogpoop in the garden, then I'll sit outside a while - I think I have some ice cream in the freezer :)
I had to take a detour to Borgund on my way home, to deliver a sheeps head to a vet in Mattilsynet. I was supposed to go see a sick sheep after stitching the cat together, but when I was almost there, the farmer called to say the sheep was dead. Not only dead, but already stiff, so she probably died right after he called me the first time. It had a bit of neurological symptoms (stretching it's head back and behind), so Mattilsynet (Food Safety "Department") need to test the brainstem. Since I had to go to Borgund, I decided I might as well do something useful and take the dogs for a walk. I went up Vindhellavegen (old road between Lærdal and Borgund, built sometime in the 1790's), which is pretty steep - in places 1:5 (=20%) steepness!
When I got home, I had to check the temperature, and it's 25 degrees in the shade! The hottest day so far this year! I think 20 degrees was the last "record". Enough talk, it's time to get out and pick some dogpoop in the garden, then I'll sit outside a while - I think I have some ice cream in the freezer :)
Lærdal is the driest place on the West Coast of Norway, and usually all farmers have constant watering of their fields - but not today. It's pouring down! None of the dogs want to be outside, even for a quick pee.
ps - if anyone wonders why it's mostly pictures of the salukis in my blog, it's because they tend to stand still more often and for longer periods than the IGs, so they are 10 times easier to get a good photo of ;)
Sorry (especially to you Margrét, haha)! But I've really been superbusy the last weeks. I thought lambingseason was coming to an end, and that it would be less to do at work - but I was totally wrong! Monday 4th to Wednesday 6th I worked 41 hours, I was so exhausted on Wednesday afternoon that I fell asleep during dinner! After that, it was still busy, but not lifethreatening ;)
I had a visitor today, the daughter of my colleage Bjørg (I rent my house from her and her husband) - Ingrid. She's 4 years old, and loooves my dogs :) Especially Chivas. Above, you see her with Saoudie. She got a baby brother just a week ago, and I got to say hi to him today. He's such a cute little thing! But I'm not very comfortable around babies, they're kind of scary really... ;P
Tomorrow morning at 08.00, I go off duty - and I have the whole weekend off! Eivind has some friends for a visist, and I've heard rumours about party :) Wonder if I should go to Sogndal tomorrow and do some shopping?!? Last time I was in Oslo, I only had time to brush by a bookstore, before heading to Sweden and another catastrophic LC trial for Chivas... Stupid dog! Anyway, I need some new summeroutfits, and I need it badly. 
I have a confession to make - I have become addicted - to the Twilight series. When Chanett Orre were here 3 weeks ago, she had the Twilight movie on her computer, and I suddenly realized that I'd actually bought the book a couple of weekends earlier (the weekend of the first catastrophic LC trial for Chivas - stupid, insecure dog), but never got around to start reading it. Thought it sounded potetially good though, and I never miss an opportunity to buy a book (I easily get addicted to books...). I had no idea it was already a movie, I'm a bit slow on these things, since I don't have a TV and no radiosignals either. We watched the movie, and I loved it. I think I read the book twice the next week, before I headed towards Oslo and larger bookstores - I just had to buy the next 3 books in the series as well. I've finished the 2nd and 3rd ages ago, but still saving nr 4 - until this weekend - I needed something to look forward to! And I'm so used to either work weekends or go somewhere, that I'm afraid I'll be bored with 3 full days with NO PLANS!
I'm having a visitor this weekend - Chanett Orre is here to see what it's like to be a vet in lambingseason... And it's been so quiet on duty! Not one lambing, not a single one! Yesterday, we went out to have a look at one sheep with a uterusinfektion after a bit of a difficult delivery, where the farmer had to help her getting the lambs out. Then, in the evening, there was a sheep with mastitis - she'd given birth to 5 lambs! Last year, she had 6. That's A LOT for a sheep, who's only got 2 teats... But the weather was awsome, sunny and warm (21 degrees C when I checked) - a summer day on May 1st!
It's been quiet today as well. We went to the same farmer 2 times, he had 3 sheep with the same symptoms - classical listeriosis, but they'd all been outside for at least 4 days, and on different pastures. A mystery! While I was there, they got doubletreated for hypomagnesia - just in case. It's been an early spring this year, with a lot of fresh, quickgrowing grass.
I think I have an appletree in my garden - this is what the flowers look like. Beautiful, right?!? I'm not too good at remembering my camera, but this time, I've been good - photos for my blog! There's so much to photograph, if I only remember to! Lambs outside, beautiful waterfalls (lots and lots of water from melting snow in the mountains) and the rivers are wide from all the melting water.
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