What a Week!

Well, my hopes of not getting called in Monday night were not met. 
Monday:
830PM: finally get everything in order for my llama and head home
11PM: get a phone call that there is a goat on the way in and they would call me when the goat was 1/2 hour away
1115PM: go to bed to try to get a little sleep
1230AM: phone call telling me goat is almost here so I need to head in
1245AM-230AM: help with goat that was having trouble giving birth, got four male goats out of her, all living
315AM: finally get back to bed
430AM: alarm goes off so I could get to school to do the morning treatments on my baby llama

So, after 2 hours and 15 minutes sleep, I headed into school around 540AM and was there until 7PM Tuesday night.  It was a long day but I was busy again on Tuesday with my baby llama so that helped keep me going.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday I had to have the llama on oxygen most of the day as she had been open mouth breathing.  The doctor called the owner to tell him that the llama was not doing well however he said he wanted to wait another night and see how she was in the morning.  Overnight Tuesday night the llama started doing better, she was nursing and her blood sugar was stable.  However, when the owner arrived Tuesday morning he decided, due to financial concerns, that he wanted to euthanize.  So, I got to euthanize my first patient.  The doctor and I were kind of bummed because she had finally took a turn for the better but that is the life of a veterinarian so you just keep chugging along!

Yesterday I had a large bull come in for a hoof trim.  He had two abscesses on his feet so the procedure became quite bloody but we got him on his way after awhile. 

Today I had an alpaca and her baby transferred to me.  The mom presented last night as she was not hanging out with the other alpacas, was lethargic, and not eating well.  We believe that she has parasites that are causing her to have diarrhea and feel crappy so we are treating her for that.  The baby is just here for the ride but I do have to bottle feed the baby as the mom isn't producing a ton of milk.

Also today I had a holstein cow come in that was lame on its left hind leg.  There was a large swelling over its left hip.  It had been aggressively ridden by other cows, enough that it caused it to fall down.  On rectal examination, a large, hard mass was felt to the left of the rectum. Upon further examination and making the cow move, it was determined that the mass was actually the head of the femur that had been dislocated from its socket.  Due to the lesion being a few days old, there was nothing we could do for it and thus had to euthanize it. 

Tonight I am on ICU duty from 12AM-7AM.  Then, I have to stay to work up my alpacas and give any medications they may need and bottle feed the baby.  Good thing I got a full hour and 15 minutes of sleep before coming in! 

One more story.  Tonight, a cow came in a little while before I came in for surgery of a fractured leg. She had slipped on the concrete at the farm and the owner described the sound of her leg breaking as sounding like a gunshot. On examination and radiographs, it was very apparent that the cow had completely shattered here tibia (shin bone in humans).  There was nothing that could be done for her either so she was also euthanized.

I am off tomorrow but have ICU duty Sunday from 7AM-1PM and again Monday morning from 12AM-7AM.  Then I'm off for the week and head to Africa on Friday!