søndag 31. mai 2009

Topaasin Dahlia BB-2

Topaasin Dahila, Esso daughter in Finland, went to her 2nd show this weekend. From junior class, she went BB-2 with res-CAC! There were 10 IGs entered. At her first show (March 15th), she went BB-3! There were 25 IGs entered.

Congratulations to breeder Sirpa and owner Leena!

A patient of my own...

The weather's been brilliant today - sun from a (mostly) cloudless sky all day! I haven't had too much to do at work, so I've spent a lot of time at home. I've got a fenced garden, and my backdoor can be open all the time when I'm at home. I've spent a lot of time in the garden today, cleaning up dogpoop and later just relaxing and reading a bit. I went inside at 8.30 pm, and after maybe 30 minutes, I noticed Vita looking kind of strange. She'd started to get a swollen lip, by the corner of her mouth. I got a few phonecalls, and didn't have time to examine her closely for half an hour. Then, the lips on both sides of her mouth was swollen and hanging, and her nose was almost twice s wide! Her right eye was beginning to look poofy too, so I had to be vet to my own dog today. A shot of cortisone and some antibiotics did the trick, and now she's almost back to normal again! But if you think this slowed her down for even a minute... Nope, not at all! Full speed ahead!!! She's a bit too curious for her own good, and my guess is she tried to eat a wasp - not the smartest thing she's done in her life ;) A farmer told me today, that I live on the side of the river where "huggorm" (in english? some sort of snake) can be found, but I doubt there's any in my garden, I've been stumping around all day :)

lørdag 30. mai 2009

Happy Birthday Chivas - yesterday!


I was so busy yesterday that I totally forgot about Chivas and Beida's Birthday! Happy Happy Birthday to you both!! 3 years old, and I've soon had Chivas for 2 years - time sure flies :)

Hot Hot Hot


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 :)

tirsdag 26. mai 2009

On a rainy day...

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.
The weekend was very quiet, I had no plans. The weather was very nice, so I spent a lot of time in the garden with the dogs, and we also went for a few walks. I've been on call today and yesterday, but it's really quiet now. Just a few sheep with mastitis and a load of perscriptions for deworming for lambs and ticktreatment!

The Norwegian IG Comitee are arranging an Open Show for italian greyhounds (unofficial show) on June 6th - and we have 25 IGs entered!!!! It'll be lots of work, but so much fun :) And on Sunday, I've entered my dogs for NKK International show at Drammen, hoping for a CACIB for Easy, and a nice placement for Esso. At that point, he's only got like 3 days left until he can take his last CACIB for his Int Championship - it's so typical that the Calender is moving in the wrong direction, or he might have gotten it that weekend...

Other plans - maybe a trip to Belgium in July? And the Swedish Sighthoundshow last weekend of July. Then I'll drive North, home to Svolvær for a holiday - and luckily just in time for the Lofoten Showweekend first weekend in August! August 8th, a friend of mine is getting married, and of course I'll be at her wedding! That's my big excuse to drive home to Svolvær this summer - it's quite a long trip, so it's not something I do every year. There's also NKK International Show in Oslo in August, where I HAVE to go - I need to hunt that last CACIB for Esso, and he won BOB and BIG-3 there last year :)
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 ;)

lørdag 23. mai 2009

BBQ and Laksen

Eivind invited to BBQ yesterday, and of course he didn't have a BBQ and had to borrow mine ;) Nice food, good beer (from a local brewery in Flåm, named after Ægir, the brewer God of the Vikings!) - and then we went out at Laksen. Live band, so it was CC 150kr. I had a great time :)

And today was a pleasent surprise - no hangover, no headache! And that's despite mixing beer, Gin&Tonic and some Whisky/Cognac thing (don't like it, but was kind of dared to drink it...). The dogs woke me up at 10, and I was too much awake to NOT get up. It's a nice and sunny day, so I spent some time with the dogs in the garden, and later (when I was a bit more rehydrated) took them for a walk. When I came home, it was 19 degreed Celcius in the shade, nice!

torsdag 21. mai 2009

It's been a while...

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 ;)

Today is a national holiday, don't know what it's called in English - Kristi Himmelfartsdag. I'm on call, as usual, but it's very quiet. 2 phonecalls so far, one visit to a sheep with mastitis. If I weren't on duty yesterday as well, I'd probably make someone call me to check if the dutynumber was coupled to my phone! I went for a walk with the dogs and my colleage Liv - a plan like that would normally make some farmer call immediately, but for a change, I got to walk in peace :)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 got some new dogbooks as well (did I say that I love Amazon.com?):
  • The Winning Edge - George Alston (superfamous professional handler from USA)
  • New Secrets of Successful Show Dog Handling - Peter Green (superfamous professional handler from USA)
  • The book of the Bitch - book on how to best take care of a bitch/puppies etc - don't know how much I'll learn from that, seems pretty basic so far, so it might be something to give away (Margrét?)
  • Raising a Champion - not opened yet, no time!
I'll probably end up with a dog book library before I turn 35, haha

lørdag 2. mai 2009

Almost summer!

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.