Okay, I must be insane........

I want to help out at the clinic, since we are now short staffed, but
now I've been working at the clinic since Thursday and I'll be
continuing to work there all next week, if not the entire day at least
part of it.

And I have a test on Wednesday on drugs.  *sigh*

I'm a glutton for punishment.

Okay here's what's been going on in my vet tech world.....

We are FULL with boarders.  With Easter and Spring break everyone is on
vacation and we have a ton of animals.

Did I mention that we are short staffed?

Zeus and Tucker are staying.  Which seems like any normal dogs, except
that they are staying until 4/15.  The other fact is that they are
Great Danes

Zeus is 170 pounds and Tucker is 130.  You almost need a saddle.  I'm
only five feet tall and both of them come up past my hip.

Poop patrol is already a big job with so many boarders, but have you
ever seen the bowel movement of a Great Dane?  It's not pretty,
especially when Zeus decided to have diarrhea.  ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!

We had a bunch of cats, several of them who went home today.  Betsy was
staying, who is psycho cat.  But Jen my supervisor decided to give her
a small box to curl up.  With all the stress of walking the dogs,
feeding the dogs, helping the doctors, I ended up being the one lucky
enough to try to get Betsy from the cage to the carrier.

Well, Betsy was in the box.  So I grabbed a towel and despite her
growls and hisses, i threw it over her and the box.  Then I quickly
reached in and uprighted the box with her inside.  The towel prevented
her from escaping.  Then I picked up the whole thing and carried it to
the table where her carrier was.  Sue opened the door and I removed the
towel and Betsy walked inside, hissing.  I had successfully done it
without getting shredded!!  *pause for evil laughter*

Charlie also went home today. I mentioned his buddy Misty in the last
journal.  Unlike Misty, who is borderline psycho, Charlie is the
complete opposite.  He's meowing all the time, all for attention.
THere were times when I would open the cage and scritch him and he
would stary PURRING.  Then I would grab his fuzzy tassle and he would
chase it around.

People have been talking about rug greeblings, bed greeblings and
stereo greeblings......

Well Charlie found the "cage greeblings"  Poor Charlie would be
attacking various parts of the cage, scattering litter tray, newpaper
and food everywhere.

We had a cat named Beau, who would probably rival Bandit, who needed
bloodwork and a urine analysis.  But apparently Beau had bit a vet tech
the last time he was in.  Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Time to bring out the box.  Put kitty in box and attach hose.  Turn on
oxygen and later turn on isofluorane, and watch kitty take a nap.  Take
out kitty and get blood and urine and put kitty back in carrier.

Bear in mind, I didn't get to help with this, I just watched.  I don't
have that much experience with mean cats.

Su Ling, who I've mentioned before, is a Tonkinese and is QUITE vocal,
especially if no one is paying attention to her.

Well I gave her a bath today, and she really didn't like it. She
complained the entire time, but didn't try to shred me.  But when I
stuck her in the cage with the cage dryer, she was very vocal at her
discontent.

People wonder what it's like with so many boarders, well here's a brief
insight.

We try very hard to make sure that all the animals are in the largest
possible confinement.  But if a Daschund is in a run and a Labrador
comes in for boarding, the Dachschund is going to be moved to a cage.
it's a game we play called Musical Runs/Cages, where we are moving
animals from place to place to make room.  You have to be reasonably
quick too, because you could be in the middle of it and suddenly a
doctor will need your help.

And speaking of which, one reason why I've been so burned out the last
few days is that the there are things that need to be done but you are
in the middle of it and suddenly pulled aside by a doctor that needs
help.

I operate by the saying, "when the doctor says 'jump' the tech says
'how high?'"  So I could be in the middle of something, but if the
doctor comes into treatment with an animals, I stop what I'm doing, and
help the doctor.  Then after whatever the doctor needs is finally done,
I have to remember what the heck it was I was doing in the first place
and get THAT done.  What was I doing?  What do they need?  What day is
it?  Where am I?

Fortunately Dr. S's two young daughters came in to help out the last
few days.  It's great that we can have the extra help, but
unfortunately, they are very young, so we have them do the easy stuff.
It still took us a long time to close tonight.
Tomorrow is Sunday.  I haven't worked Sundays for a long time, and for
a good reason.  Sundays are vaccine clinic days.  So in addition to the
normal stuff; walking, feeding, medicating and helping out the doctors,
we have walk ins that need vaccines.  So things can get hectic at
times.

Oh and BTW, it's Daylight Savings Time, so I lose an hour.

Great...................

I stayed up late tonight and got a few flash cards made.  But of course
by the time I'm home I desperately need a beer so I'm not really into
studying or doing ANYTHING.

Argh, must get some sleep,

Take care everyone,

Kristi