Joey’s Pet of the Week

By Scott Lackenby | Dated October 24, 2013

Hi everyone!! How are you all?? This hot and windy weather really does not agree with me. But I really can’t complain, at least we aren’t worrying about bushfires and having to evacuate. I feel so bad for everyone who is going through that at the moment. I can’t imagine having to pack what you can and leave everything else behind and hope for the best. Not to mention all of the injured and misplaced animals. I know how hard WIRES, Animal Welfare League and the RSPCA are working to help all of those animals who need some help. You would of read Nurse Katrina’s post about us taking donations for the organisations that are helping out. I’m super excited to say that you have all been so generous. We’ve had donations of bird seed and dog food and dog beds and blankets. And Nurse Sarah took up 13 bags of donated clothes with her to the Springwood area today! So thankyou to everyone who has already donated, and thankyou in advance if you will be dropping things off in the next few days.

I’ve been an itchy boy since I last spoke to you all. I had been grooming a lot and was generally uncomfortable. I was up to date with my Frontline spray and I had had a Comfortis tablet, so we knew it wasn’t fleas. Dr John gave me a good going over and said that I had a minor allergy, likely from all the pollens and dust and smoke in the air. I had to have an anti-itch injection, which I was surprisingly good about having and Nurse Katrina gave me a sponge bath in an oatmeal shampoo, which I actually really enjoyed! I have been much less itchy since then.

Another busy week of the nasty ticks. We admitted FIVE cases on Wednesday!! Unfortunately we lost one, a gorgeous 13year old Birman. You’ll be sick of hearing me say this, but I can’t stress it enough. MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING TICK PREVENTION ON YOUR 4LEGGED FRIENDS!! While using the appropriate prevention at the appropriate intervals does not guarantee that your pet won’t get a tick, we find that the length of and severity of the symptoms are less than they are for the animals who have not been on prevention or have had it applied late.  For advice on what you should be using, give my Recpetion Nurses a call.

Tomorrow will be a sad day for GVH. We say au revoir to our star casual nurse, Nurse Sarah. Nurse Sarah has decided that she is going to enrol in summer school this year in preparation for starting a double degree in science and teaching. While I’m not always very nice to Nurse Sarah, (I bite her A LOT!!) , I will miss her a bunch and we all wish her the best for her future studies. And if she doesn’t come and visit me, I will go to her house and bite her!!

My pet this week was extremely exciting for me. I love most animals, maybe not dogs so much, but I will chat to cats, and bunnies and birds when they come in. So when Goldie the chicken came in yesterday, I thought it was by birthday again! Poor Goldie had been attacked by a fox the night before and had some nasty wounds. Goldie was pretty sore and sorry for herself when she first came in, her comb was saggy and she just wanted to sit quietly with her eyes closed. But if we woke her up, she would walk around and have a cluck. Dr John and Nurse Jess cleaned and flushed her wounds and we put in a quite cage in the hospital to let her rest. The big worry with traumatic events like this for small critters like chickens, is that they can go into shock. But we were the ones in shock when Nurse Katrina went in to check on Goldie after lunch and found she had laid an egg!! Everyone was super excited about this!! We’d never had a patient lay an egg before!! Unfortunately Goldie took a turn in the afternoon and she went to heaven 🙁  Goldie’s family were naturally upset, particularly given that they had had her for several years and she has survived a nasty infection that had left her blind in one eye the year before.

If you want to help out with our Bushfire appeal, please check out Wednesday’s post. Don’t forget to check out my Pet of the Week album for pics of Goldie and also a great pic of Ziggy, an amazingly handsome German Short Hair Pointer that came in for desexing today. Enjoy the rest of the week and I’ll catch you all next week. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo