My patients, My life

   I suppose that is a legitimate question that deserves some sort of a quasi-reasonable response.  If I were to offer excuses for my lack of posting these past few weeks I would blame the long days of summer as reason number one for my literary silence.  As you may know, Melody and I bought a 36 acre farm upon which we now reside and are building a new home.   We both spend a lot of hours on maintenance and care of our property in an effort to eventually live in the middle of the vision that we both share for our new found paradise.  With daylight until about 9:00 p.m. each evening we are making a good deal of progress toward that end.  After dinner there has been little time left for sharing my days with my readers but I’m going to make an effort to get everyone caught up.  I keep a camera on my desk at the clinic in order to photograph some of my patients and those photos will serve nicely for a quick view at my world these past few weeks.

Not a "bad hair day" that's the way they look!

     These first two photos are of an Osprey that  was hit by a car not 3 miles from our clinic.  He flew too low across the highway and was struck by a car which created a series of really nasty open fractures in that wing.  The Osprey is a particularly “high strung” bird and unlike many other large raptors, opreys don’t make good patients.  Although this bird’s fractures were quite manageable surgically, his behavior (rather misbehavior) in rehab after surgery has caused irreparable damage to the carpal or “wrist”  joint in his wing which will preclude his ability to ever fly again.  That notion brings me great consternation but this bird taught me a great deal that I can, hopefully, use to return another injured Osprey to the wild some day.

Kathy, my tech, and the Osprey

     One morning one of the biologists from the Refuge happened upon a Gopher Tortoise that had been HBC on the highway. Starting to sound a bit familiar, right? As it turned out, this female tortoise had left her burrow to make an annual deposit into the gopher tortoise egg bank.  I guess to her the grass looked greener on the other side of US 98.  I swear, if someone can’t see and avoid an object the size of a Gopher Tortoise on the road…. well, you know.

     This girl got roughed up a bit but after we stabilized her condition and while waiting for surgery she laid 3 eggs in her cage.  Unfortunately she scrambled 2 of them but the third is now in an incubater and we are all on obstetrical stand-by for the blessed upcoming event.  I will sure let you know about that one if it happens. Anyway, we went to surgery later that day and I replaced her missing scute with a shiny new acrylic one.  She did great, started eating and indicated she wanted to say goodbye. 

Female Gopher Tortoise with missing scute.

A new acrylic scute

     Because there are all kinds of regs governing the movement and release of these animals, I can only say that while I was showing her a prospective new burrow on our farm, she escaped from my grasp and down the burrow she went.  No matter how much I pleaded, she refused to come back and get back into her cage.  It has been several weeks since I have seen her and then I saw her the other day eating wild blackberries.  She acted like she did not recognize me but that acrylic scute gave her away.  She looked good and I had  to smile a big “Turtle-time” smile.       

Subcutaneous fluids for dehydration

Post Op with her egg

      It has been a great privilege in my new practice to care for a number of goats.  Goats are very popular around this area, possibly because so many people have a few acres of property that lends itself well to the services of these perpetual week wackers.  These clever little creatures get themselves into all sorts of mischief.  But the story on this family of goats was much more tragic. They were attacked and some killed in their own yard by a couple of dogs that went berserk. Goats are essentially defenseless against a dog and these guys just got shredded. Their owners are wonderful people and have suffered almost as much as the goats.  It was with a heavy heart that I had to euthanize one of them but two others are recovering at this time.

Maria prepares Ivy for surgery on her leg

Little Ivy clearing her head after surgery

    Goats are cool to have in the clinic as they make really cool little noises as opposed to barking and howling.  In addition, their little poo piles sweep up so nice and neatly and don’t stink the place up like doggie poo.  I’m just real sweet on goats.

     I met another turtle courtesy of the Rudloe clan down the coast. This time it was my friend Jack who met me in the lot with a 22 pound snapping turtle.  Someone had brought it to him because it appeared that his abdomen was protruding through the leg holes in his shell.

     This creature was most intimidating and certainly garnered instant respect from me as I examined him looking for more insight into his issues.  I ran a battery of tests, xrays and cytologies as well as reading and scratching my head all week.  I finally emailed my pathologist friend at Disney (the one who hooked me up on the Whoopers) and begged him to talk it over with his team.  I sent x-rays, photos, lab reports, cytology findings along with my notion that I was out of ideas.

Serious Chompers

     While waiting on his reply I had just about come to the conclusion that this turtle was nothing more than very well fed, to be kind. In other words he was just fat – Sumo Fat.  To test my theory I filled our big clinic tub with water and when he was two feet deep the water pressure pushed his abdomen back in the way it was supposed to.  Dang, I felt like Columbo.  I had a fat snapper that had obviously been eating well and was equally sure that he was ready to return to where the buffet was being served.  So that evening Melody and I delivered him back to the river where he eagerly headed off to dinner.  The next day Scott the pathologist sends me an email and asks “Norm, do you think he might just be fat?”

Notice the flubby protrusions from his shell

  Moral of this story: It is harder to convince yourself that something is not wrong than to diagnose what is wrong.

           There has been sadness as well. I have been trying to help address some problems with infectious disease at the animal shelter.  It is difficult to go there and see all the homeless souls but even harder to see them sick.  We are going to get it fixed, of that I am sure, but it is difficult to be patient when there is suffering. 

     I have exciting news to share soon.  Peace…