"Herd Health Check"

When I worked at East Holmes Vet Clinic, there were several farms with good-sized dairy cow herds. Remember me saying that dairy cows are some of the most cared-for animals? Most dairy farmers rely on their vet to make sure their cows stay healthy--Because a healthy cow is a productive cow. At East Holmes, our bigger dairy clients had regular "herd health checks" just for that reason. CT Farm doesn't have cows (maybe someday) but, we have a lot of critters.

Meet Dr. Amity Wise (three weeks from having her baby!). She is a graduate of the Ohio State University (Go Bucks!!!) and a veterinarian at East Holmes Veterinary Clinic in Berlin, and is one of the four very talented vets at the clinic. She has been coming to my farm to do "herd health checks" on my brood for almost two years, I think. She's a great vet and am happy to have her.

As I mentioned last week, today was going to be "herd health check" day at CT Farm. The agenda: Four of the five dogs, all eight of the cats, the guinea pig and the horse were getting vaccines and a looking-over. This is why the vet comes to me and I don't go to them.

We started with the downstairs kitties. Milk, Jo ( He's really an upstairs kitty. He likes to hide, so he got put in a crate till we were ready for him.), Abby, Eddie, Lou and Mo. You are probably wondering "downstairs kitties"? Yes, some of the kitties live in the basement. I call it their "lair" or I also refer to it as "the kennel". I used to board dogs and cats, hence "the kennel". And yes, I boarded dogs and cats in my house in the basement. No, it really wasn't noisy. Many of my clients liked the set-up because I was so close to their pets and the dogs and cats got a lot of extra care that they might not have gotten somewhere else. But, that's another story for another day. The cats did pretty well. Roscoe and Toby were in a run waiting for their turn. Toby, however, was not due for any shots. Roscoe was a good boy for Dr. Amity.

Then, we moved upstairs. Alex gave us a little trouble, but nothing major. Justin never likes to give up his blood for his heartworm check, so Dr. Amity brought a tourniquet. That was the ticket. No problems getting blood today. Sadie was next. She is getting a little wear on her and Dr. Amity recommended she be on glucosamine tablets to help her joints. Old Tuffy was last. It makes me sad to know that he is starting to show the signs of being almost 11. She found changes in in eyes, but not bad. Possibly a yeast infection in his ear, a little more arthritis in his hips and a bulgy muscle on the inside of his right hip. The bulge has us stumped for now, but she is recommending an ultrasound and some other tests to get a better idea of what it might be. Poor Tuffy...He's my baby.

That was it for the dogs and inside cats. Dr. Amity took a quick look at Timmy, the guinea pig. He's a little overweight. I was so impressed how well he let her look at him. She looked at his mouth and teeth, looked at his feet and felt his belly. He never freaked out! I thought he would, but he didn't. He was a very well-behaved pig. She recommended I give him some harder foods like carrots to help him wear his teeth down. A guinea pig's teeth can become overgrown, a condition know as maloclusion. We don't want that to happen.

After "the pig", we headed out to the barn to vaccinate Connie, the barn cat. Then, it was on to Duncan, the horse. She vaccinated him and checked his teeth too. Duncan didn't need floated like we thought he might. Teeth what? Floated. Horse's teeth continually grow. Some horses wear their teeth in a manner that starts forming small points, hooks and waves to the teeth. This can lead to mouth ulcers, grain dribbling, etc. The teeth then need to be "floated". The instruments the vets use to file the teeth back down level are called "floats". Floats are long tools with files on the ends. The floats are different shapes and sizes to perform specific tasks of filing. The horse is usually sedated enough they don't care this is going on, but awake enough to stand. Some vets use a "mouth speculum" to keep the horse's mouth open during the procedure.

All-in-all, things went well. I gave Dr. Amity a small baby gift--some onesies with a cow on one and a horse on the other. She really likes working on horses and her husband, Dr. Aaron Wise (also at East Holmes) is more into cattle. So, I thought that would be an appropriate gift.

We chatted a bit and she climbed into the vet unit and was off. If some of you have never seen a vet unit before, it's really cool! The "unit" is usually a truck with a fiberglass insert that slides into the bed of the truck. It has several compartments. This is a picture of the back. These things hold A LOT of stuff! You can see the bottles of drugs, vitamins, etc. in the pull-out drawers. The sides, which I didn't get a picture of, also lift up. Usually there is a small refrigerator too. Some even have a way to dispense hot water! It's not as good as the clinic itself, but comes pretty close. I used to be a veterinary assistant to an equine vet, so I've been around a vet unit or two. Oh, the memories!