September 19, 2010

September 19, 2010

For the last month as I have been organizing plans to head to Australia for the breeding season I have had the feeling that it might not work out.  Mostly because I have not heard much from the office lady in response to most of my emails about what I need to do to get my visa.  Turns out she was sending emails to a wrong address.  Long story short, they were planning on me getting a working holiday visa for which there is little paper work and no waiting period.  Unfortunately, the working holiday visa only is available for 18-30 years of age.  Since I am older, I would need to be sponsored, registered as a vet in Victoria, and several other steps that I haven’t been receiving because the emails were being sent to the wrong address.  So last week I got an email from the office lady giving me a couple options.  I could come as a visitor and they would pay for the plane tickets, housing, and living expenses but couldn’t legally pay me a salary.  The other option is that I could come down sometime in the future when the many steps to get a visa could be done in a timely manner and I could stay for a longer period of up to 12 months.  I let her know that I would love to stay in touch and hopefully arrange a time when I can come and stay for 12 months if it works out for me and them.  I really don't know if it will ever happen but I guess worst case scenario if I finish here in a year I have an option in Australia.

I was relieved in some ways because I am really happy here in Vegas and would really hate to miss the NFR.  It became pretty clear to me shortly after I graduated high school that I would really never be able to compete in the NFR so it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in the NFR as the arena Veterinarian.  I hope to be able to do that for at least one of the performances.

August 31, 2010

August 31, 2010

Some firsts happened to me in the last couple days.  My first emergency call was last Saturday during the day when Dr Ballard got backed up with a bunch of calls he sent me out on a colic.  It was pretty routine really and nothing to exciting happened.  A grey arabian named Ben that was pretty much better by the time I got there so I just passed a naso-gastic tube and gave him mineral oil and palpated him and felt nothing abnormal.  My first night emergency was this Sunday night when Dr Schur didn’t want to come back up to this part of town.  It was a horse that had been bitten by a dog.  I expected a wound or two that I would clean up, give some antibiotics and a tetanus shot and be done but it turned out to be a lot more than that.  The horse was Crissy a small black mustang 14 years old.  She was not broke to ride but was gentle.  She has a pit-bull that is another one of the many out there that are great with people but can snap and really do a lot of damage like I saw with Crissy.  She must have been running around in her paddock for quite a while fighting off the dog because she had hundreds of bite marks on all her legs.  On her chest and thighs there was strips of skin hanging down and large chinks of muscle exposed underneath.  She was very sore and didn’t like to walk.  The dog also was in bad shape.  She was happy but had all of her teeth kicked out and who is to say she didn’t have broken bones but she sure didn’t act like it.  It wasn’t going to end well for her because there is not much hope for a dog that if given a chance would attack like that.  Heaven forbid that she do that to a human being if she gets wound up.  Not much to tell about the job, I trimmed up the flaps hanging and left some antibiotics and instructions to keep the wounds clean and call if she still is lame because this could mean that a joint or tendon sheath was bitten into and is infected.  I have called a couple times but haven’t been able to talk to the owner.  The other day though, I did drive by and saw Crissy standing in the back yard looking normal so I can assume hopefully that all is well.