So here are some of last weeks highlights:
- Stray cat was brought in by the animal control officers. We aren't sure whether the cat was hit by a car or attacked by an animal, but it was missing about 10 square inches of skin on its left hip and the whole area was infected. Despite being very hurt the cat was still kickin and was so aggressive we had to burrito it in a towel and use a mask to sedate him. Luckily the vet was able to get it all cleaned up and remove the dead tissue. Kitty is now healing and much less angry.
- We had a ferret in the clinic that was maced by police. Apparently the owner was resisting arrest and the police shot mace grenades in through the windows. They discovered the innocent ferret after arresting the man and took the poor animal to the vet school to be decontaminated. While the poor guy should have no lasting damage, he has lost almost all of the fur on the middle of his body and looks more like a fleshy tube sock at the moment.
- While working in the wildkind department, an officer brought in a raccoon that was found living in a backyard shed. The guy was apparently easy to catch, but once in the cage proceeded to freak out. He peeled up the metal bottom of the cage, so by the time we got him his hands were bleeding profusely. Bob, the head of wildkind was able to coax the raccoon into a larger cage to get a good look at him. This is the biggest raccoon I have ever seen. We usually work with babies and adolescents that are up to 20 lbs. This guy was probably >35lbs. He is also a little worse for wear. His left eye is milky and blind, his tail is missing and his teeth would make Austin Power's cringe. After doning shoulder length chain mail gloves and leather armored gauntlets, Bob grabs the guy out of the cage and wrestles him to the ground. He ends up having to sit on him and can barely control the head while another employee feels the furless patch between his shoulder blades. Unfortunately for old man raccoon it was covered in small scabby bumps. I learn that this is a sure sign that this raccoon has distemper. This deadly disease apparently causes self mutilation (there goes the tail), gingivitis (there go the teeth), and eventually death. It is highly contagious and very few animals survive. We unfortunately had to euthanize the hardy old bugger even though he looked like he may have been on the road to recovery as it would be impossible for us to re-release him knowing he had the disease. On a gruesome side note, Bob once saw a distemper raccoon chew off its own penis.
- Wildkind had another raccoon brought in that had been hit by a car. The adult male was lucky enough to not loose any limbs. Bob had done a good job of stabilizing him but he was still not eating well. The vet agreed to take a look at the guy's mouth. It took Bob and another vet tech to get the pre-surgery morphine shot into the guy, but 5 min later he looked very happy and very stoned. It was pretty easy getting him fully sedated and intubated. Turns out that the car had crushed all of his front teeth and they were now infected. The doc was able to get all of the infected teeth pulled and sewed the gums back together with dissolving sutures. The raccoon should have no problem in the future because the teeth most essential to eating (canines and molars) were thankfully intact. Last I heard, the raccoon was recovering well and eating again
That is Bob in the blue scrub top
Well that's it for now. I am going to try and be disciplined and keep recording interesting cases.
