New Year Celebrations

New Year here was a novel experience. I was invited back to the farm up at Wallabadah. So in addition to 6am runs up hills (for which the family decided they had a mad Scotsman in the building) I have been feeding cattle in the morning. Medicating those that are sick and then drinking ‘til 2am. Still as the saying goes, no point in flying with the crows if you can’t soar with the eagles!
There is a hell of a lot of Skippies in the area. There are a lot less after Christmas as shooting Skippy appears to be a National obsession. And here I thought it was the National emblem (Oh wait it is the National emblem!) So in the evening we went shooting (or in my case shooting near them!) I think I gave one or two a Heart attack.
Other animals that are predated by the major primate carnivore in this area are pigs. So in true local tradition we went pig hunting one afternoon. Considering the beer intake it is probably best that this doesn’t involve guns at all. It involves these characters.

These are loaded up onto a Ute along with everyone who is out for a days hunting and they have seat belts. The humans don’t but who cares about them.

The dogs are there to find and hold the Pigs. What seems to happen is that they get to a spot where they can see pigs and then release the dogs. Then they chase after one until the dogs’ corner them. Then someone grabs the pig and kills it with a knife (See no guns). The pigs that are suitable for consumption are collected up and taken home.


I suspect from looking at the teeth the beer is needed for Dutch courage, especially as it sometimes involves crawling around the undergrowth. The undergrowth is inhabited by what I thought was the Australian Equivalent of Loch Ness monster, Snakes! But we came across this fellow.

He is venomous not quite dead and wrapped around my arm. This was an injured red bellied black Snake we found in the Scrub. There is a story that I am not going to share with you here to that.

So with a haul of pigs the crew head off to the pub


I promised someone a picture of me disappearing into the horizon, I am not sure this was what was in mind but you’ve got to take what you can get.

However the views and area where they hunt are spectacular.

Early morning runs

Hi once again and Happy New Year.

I've spent the New Year on An Aussie Farm and have taken the chance for early morning runs up hills. This may not surprise many of you. However the views here are worth it. More on what the locals get up to in these places later.

Boxing Day Races

I went racing on Boxing Day with the McGilchrist Boys as part of the Hangover cures!!
These are the Quirindi races (apologies for the spelling but its late). I wasn't gambling but I should have put money on way after midnight.

Merry Xmas

I don't in any way condone the giving of pets as Xmas pressies but when they are this cute it is tempting.
I am talking about the pups people get your minds out of the gutter
Any way I was off to Sarah Parents place for a party with some Shy retiring types ( We couldn't find them ;-) ) However The Farm looks like this.
And cattle are fed the same here as at Home though Cotton Seed is a major by product used here.

Merry Xmas everyone!!!

Hi all I was going to put lots of pictures of Horses that are now unfortunately dead but that was too depressing.

So all I am going to put is Merry Christmas everyone, have a good time over the festive period.

More piccies and News next week

Feathered friends

On my way to work last week I noticed these by the side of the Road

It certainly beats the number 37 bus to Bush

However I have to report that Gary the Galah was sadly jealous of these and flew off in a tantrum. He has yet to return!!! Though he is perhaps enjoying liberation

Best of luck to him!!!

A cute picture

To make up for the gruesome ones

Dog case (with gruesome photos)

This is an old Kelpie whose owner brought the poor mutt in yesterday "with a lump" obviously there are two guess what the rest of the pictures show!!!

As you might have guessed there were some fairly major blood vessels in there!!! It took me a while to get them all ligated

was left with a fairly large defect. I was 2 1/2 hours on this animal

Multiple layers of closure and walking sutures meant that I was able to close the wound.Its not the prettiest and I am worried about tension on the suture line, of course there is probably spread in other locations and there is no way all the cells were removed and, and and.......... that is for another day. I might persuade the owner to X-ray the chest and biopsy the lymph nodes when we get the histology back!!

and what you need to see when you have finished is a cup of coffee walking through the door in the hand of the surgery nurse.

Unlucky cat

A case report for the more Veterinary interested of you!!


Look away now if sqeamish!!!



An adult male tabby cat presented after being missing for 6 days with a severely damaged fore paw (See picture below). Pain control and antibiosis was administered and the animal fed watered and cage rested overnight before surgery. In the morning the cat was anaesthetised with medomitidine/Buprenorphine/Ketamine combination and maintained on Isoflourane.
The cat was given Hartmanns fluids IV throughout the procedure.



Amputation was carried out of the whole scapula for aesthetic reasons and to ensure removal of all necrotic tissue as well as avoiding future trauma to the site.
During the operation After transection of the racial nerve plexus but prior to closure cardiac and respiratory arrest occurred but were restarted following adrenaline administration and mechanical ventilation . The cat recovered consciousness but appeared to be in pain and developed respiratory distress. The animals level of consciousness deteriorated until breathing stopped. The animal was placed on a mechanical ventilator and O2 therapy instituted. Dopram sublingually and IV was administered, but no response was noted, cardiac failure occured an hour later but was rescued by adrenaline administration and reflexes improved but never went above pupillary dilation. After 5 hours monitoring (some 10hours after surgery) terminal cardiac arrest occurred and no recovery was attempted. The owner took the animal home and no post mortem was possible

Xmas Party

This is slightly confusing but the theme of the Xmas Party was Sporting Heroes, quite why these lovely Pirate Wenches were there I am not sure but we all invaded Don's Garden so I guess these two wenches and the rest of the pirate crew were usefulThey claimed to have been rowing past and just had to launch a broadside. They were expensive on the Grog too I hear.

I was for a brief and terrifying moment captured but lived up to the Ginger Ninja name and escaped the clutches.

Though the Olympian Gods were present (and have upgraded their look with shades!)

They presided over some Games as they do including some X rated Sock wrestling

Though a 3 to 1 disadvantage in numbers was I thought a little unfair ;-)
We ended up drinking in under the stars after a few of us landed in the pool and needed to dry off!!

Don and Sharron Provided hangover cures, BBQ breakfast mmmmm.

Random things

Its been a toughish week with xmas parties and things, especially the things as I had my second post op bleed of my career (so far) following a speying operation this week. Though she went home perfectly well after a day or two. I was still cursing a lot! Started when a ligature slipped and went downhill from there really.
Anyway this is Scooby at home which is fairly unusual for Scooby as he appears at the Clinic regularly. He isn't sick he just runs away from home and comes to visit. A wet nose in the back of the Knee while you are doing something else around the clinic lets you know he's arrived. We put him in a Kennel outside and the owners wander over when they have a minute to reclaim him. As I was going to the stables at his home last time I gave him a lift back. I suspect he would go anywhere in the car and be very happy about it.


In case you thought I escaped lab work, this is proof that I was doing ELISA. In this case a snake venom detection kit. One of the nurses dogs decided to eat a snake and we tested the blood, the second test where we read the instructions detected Brown snake venom.; Just don't ask what the dog was bitten by according to the first! Still we had no clinical signs so I think he must have been immune. Its not the first time he's done this!

Anyway Gary has been making friends again and this is Sarah Crosby with him. He looks quite content there.

Gary is with me in the flat for the weekend so he will likely be "helping" me as I write today.

We have aquired a Clinic bird. This is Gary the Galah supervising Sarah at my Desk. He was handed in on Monday and we are thinking of keeping him around.

He's not to bright and fairly uncoordinated so we have to avoid the cats but he has cured Nat of her dislike of birds

Clinic Characters

I was going to show you pictures of Sarah who is a body double in films, Jake a clinic Nurse and the new Clinic Gallah but blogger won't let me do what I did last night so I will try again tomorrow!
Goodnight all

My office

For those of you in my old office back in the moredun institute I thought I would let you look at the office I run around in these days. Its pretty bloody dry out here. There has been a drought for the last 4 years and it literally hasn't rained in that time. The ground is all like this with no cover at all so that if it does come it will wash away all the top soil in a very short period. I might see this as they are predicting high rainfall in the next few weeks.
Farmers are investing in high tech means to get the best out of the water. I was shown around a maize farm where they run pipes under the plant lines to water the soil from below. Tissue and soil sampling allows control of rates and fertiliser application through the same system. Those farmers that aren't will probably have no crop to sell.
Cattle farmers don't have the same options in water control and feed is very scarce so prices are down and farmers are reluctant to get the vet out (the same story as home really). However soil appears to make up a lot of the faecal content here as grazing is right down to the soil. Even the horses are grazing bare paddocks and sand colic is a real possibility.

irresistable force vs immovable object

This is a pony I was called to treat a couple of days ago, Lesson number 1 in the horse care manual is don't run into it with your pick up and a addendum to lesson one is if you do call the vet asap. Leaving it 24 hours is a very bad idea. (probably not as bad as idea number 1 but still not good) If you do both of those things the hind leg will look something like this. The black bit is I believe bone!

Fortunately this horse is not showing pain at the moment but I don't know why, it should be in agony.
I was able to pass a finger into the joint space and a fairway up the tendons from the wound. You can see from the pictures how swollen it is around the joint.
On xray there appears to be whole bits of bone gone. The calcaneus has been sheared and pulled up the leg by the tendon I think and joint involvement is a distinct possibility
We decided to euthanase this horse on welfare grounds. However we had to wait for the owner to get back from hospital as he had broken his leg after falling off a motorbike that day.

Poor bloody horse!

Construction in Aus

The clinic in Narromine has had a rearrangement of the stables. Though instead of say taking them down in pieces and moving the pieces they decided to pick them up as a single building


So if you were in Narromine you might have been held up by a moving building.



It arrived in the practice garden with only minor damage from say trees roads fences, in fact anything that couldn't move really. Don, the Boss is desperately trying to keep it uptight but too late.


But its now finally at its new site and all we need to do is tie it down in case there is a strong breeze.

Statistics

Its a well known fact that 79.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot and the remainder are invented after 5 minutes thought. I only say this as I appear to have multiplied or divided some of the results in the Thesis by the product of a random number generator. So for the weekend I have been pondering the genesis of these numbers and I am completely baffled.

Oh well It will come to me what I did........ Bloody Statistics.

The Veterinary side of my life is getting busier, a lot of that being because I have to drive huge distances to get anywhere. However there is the occasional honoured Guest in the Practice!

Though there were far more interesting things to do than stand still and get your picture taken, a scratch on the back from Amanda while you check out these boxes for instance.

However its always good to pamper the nurses to make sure you get that extra bit of special care. A back rub always goes down a treat!