Animals evevrywhere..

So my news is that a couple of weeks ago I quit my customer service/ food making job and I'm now working as a Vet Nurse in 2 clinics. That plus studying makes life pretty busy and it's all animals, all the time!!! Valentine's been sick, to add to stressful matters but is once again recovering. Last week we did at least 20 surgeries at work, and I haven't had any days off for over a week so my homework is becoming a big pile of things not done, but it's all good! We did blood smears and microscope work in class on Monday, and I had Frankie with me- he was probably more of a hinderance than help, but I managed to successfully identify white blood cells under the microscope, which, if you were in my year 10 science class, you will know is a small miracle! Well, I must go- cages to clean before it's back to work again!!

Hearts, hugs and kisses..

These are the cakes I made for Peter's 4th Birthday (yesterday) and Valentine's 7th Birthday (today.) Happy Valentine's Day to the rest of you!! Classes are back and I'm doing Pathology and Monitor and Maintain Health this term, which so far has caused a pile up of papers on my desk, hurt my brain, and forced me to take a pee sample from Frankie for class. I've been working a lot of shifts (more on that later) and had no time for errands or blogs so that's all for now :)

The Joy and Pain of Dog Psychology..

Over the past few years, as I’ve studied Vet Nursing and become a “Mama” to a dog for the first time, I’ve developed an interest in dog psychology. I think when you love and cherish someone, you want to understand them, and the majority of pet owners today consider their animals to be family members. So, like many others, I’ve read the books, watched the TV shows, and even attended the seminars.

If I thought I had the patience, I might go into dog behaviour and training rather than nursing, but there’s that little (ok, big) part of me that doesn’t want to be charged by angry Rottweilers daily!

To get back to the point, dogs can be baffling. I have no idea why Frankie seems to think it’s so important to roll on his back in the middle of the hallway every morning, while batting at his facial hair with his front paws. I have no idea whether he licks my legs incessantly out of love, or whether he’s thinking “this moisturiser cream sure is tasty!” I don’t know why he insists on putting every darn thing in his mouth, driving me crazy with worry about intestinal blockages and toxicity. Maybe that’s just because he’s a dog.

I understand that dogs don’t think the way we do, and I find a lot of the techniques that involve communicating with your dog the way another dog would (i.e. using body language, energy etc.) really work. As most people who know us are aware, Frankie was adopted from the RSPCA and came with a few issues. He has been quite afraid of men, and really does not like trucks, though he has improved since we started a Classical Counter Conditioning program with him.

Yet he has a new issue- over the past few weeks he has developed a habit where he’s lying on his side on the bathroom floor, and as he starts to get sleepy his legs shake and tremble.

Being a Vet Nursing student, I have that problem that I hear so many medical students also have, of thinking I recognise every symptom I learn about- in this case, in my own dog. I’m driving myself, the dog, and probably my boss, crazy. My first thought was “Oh God, he’s shaking, I hope it’s not neurological.” I don’t think it is- he stops shaking when I call his name, so it doesn’t seem to be a physically uncontrollable thing. He’s always had the tendency to shake on occasion, when he’s cold or scared, but the bathroom hasn’t been cold and I don’t think he’s consciously afraid of anything in the room.

So why is it that in recent weeks, 90% of the times that he falls asleep in the bathroom, this happens- yet it rarely happens if he’s sleeping on the couch, the bed, or even on the carpet in another room?

The only thing I can think of is that when he had an injured foot a few weeks ago, I disinfected the wound and applied a spray bandage twice a day- in the bathroom. He didn’t like that because it hurt. (I had no idea how much until I put the spray bandage on myself- holy crap that stings!!) I know he’s a very sensitive dog, but it seems like a bit of an overreaction if that’s the reason? I haven’t put the spray bandage on him in at least two weeks, so why would he start this now? The only other theory I have is that he could be picking up on my anxiety- I’ve been more stressed and worried than usual since Belle died, and I’m not sure how aware he is (or isn’t) of that.

The plan is to keep liver treats in the bathroom to see if I can create positive associations for him with being in that room, and hopefully in time things will get better.

Anyone have other any ideas or experiences to share?

H is for..

H is for "Happy Birthday Henry!", my goldfish.
H is for House- yesterday was 2 years since we moved, and therefore adopted him.
H is for Home- Mum and Dad got back from 2 weeks camping on Saturday.

It's been a stressful few weeks. I don't like being home alone at night- it kind of makes me nervous, though I don't mind the peace, quiet, and freedom from other people's mess during the day! I don't do well with the lack of sleep so I've been a little extra cranky.
As life would have it, during this time I was dealing with the fact that Missy, my cockatiel, was diagnosed with cystic ovaries and she may also have a liver problem. So far we're handling it non surgically and she seems to be happy and improving. Valentine, my budgie had to have a course of antibiotics, and we thought Peter the rabbit was having problems with his teeth again but he seems to be doing ok for now.
The downside of my having this many fur-kids within a couple of years of each other is that they all hit middle age around the same time, and are starting to have these issues. I had to have known that, but it doesn't cross your mind when they're all cute and baby.
I had my Mum's cousin's rabbit stay with me while their family went away too, and he is just the sweetest creature. His name is Wombat, and though he stunk my house out with his pee smell, I can forgive him because he did not bite me, unlike Peter.
So I've been taking care of him, my 7 pets, my 22 year old brother who didn't even know Demazin was sold from a chemist, and the new lawn.
Ok I don't do flora. I'm 100% fauna here, you give fauna a dish and they know how much to drink. I can't ask the grass if it's thirsty, and I have a seriously brown thumb. I've owned 4 plants in my whole life, one died, and the other 3 aren't looking good! So it's a miracle the lawn survived. But we're all ok. A little tired and longing for the beach, but that's all.
I booked a dog friendly holiday today. It's not until September which makes me worry because it leaves a lot of time for anything and everything to go wrong, but hopefully all will be well and it'll be nice to get away for the first time in 5 years! I won't be taking the rabbits or birds with me as the trip would probably just stress them, and they couldn't participate in the activities Frankie will be able to anyway.
Only 2 weeks until classes start again. I have a pile of 5 books and 3 magazines, all about dogs and Vet Nursing that I was hoping to have read before I'm loaded with assignments again but that doesn't seem feasible right now. I'll just have to do my best!
Hope everyone is well and happy oxox

Happy New Year!

So, it's January. The month that deludes us into thinking we will suddenly be capable of doing the things we failed to do a hundred times before, and causing us to be disappointed in ourselves when we realise we are still screwups. Yeah, not a fan. :)
I don't believe in making New Years Resolutions for this reason, but I do believe in having goals. Some of mine at the moment are;
To spend more time one on one with Missy and Valentine (the birds.) I obviously love them, but it is harder to give them as much attention as they deserve since we got the dog.
To be more consistent with Frankie and his training- this is my biggest downfall. He gets away with doing things he's not allowed to do, because he does them when I'm already doing 30 things at once, holding 25 objects and running 15 minutes late for work. So I don't bother to follow through correcting him.
To become a better driver (yeah, wish me luck with that!)
To cook more. I mean meals, not the cakes I make a few times a year.
All of these things involve time I do not have, so we shall see how that goes!
We spent New Years Eve at home with some family friends and I somehow fell asleep at 10.30, before waking up at 11.57pm, just in time to watch the Sydney fireworks on TV. We were talking about how we should really make the effort to go in to the city and see it live one year. People travel from interstate and other countries to see it, so we don't take advantage of living here! Frankie freaked out every time he heard fireworks so we didn't get much sleep after that. His resolution (well, mine for him) is to stay out of the kitchen when people are cooking, and have his teeth brushed every single day! I love my doggy.
I asked my family what their New Years Resolutions are. Mum said hers is to "give money to buskers because I'd be really embarrased if I had to sing in public." (What??? Lol.) Dad's is "to survive." That's a good one.

Merry Christmas!!

3 Days 'til Santa comes! December has been a busy month for us, with work, Christmas parties, and getting new lawn in our backyard amongst other things. We'll be doing the traditional family things over the next week so I thought I'd say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year now!!!!

Remembering Belle

My sweet little budgie, Belle, passed away yesterday morning at 7am. She was 3 ½ years old, which is fairly young for a bird, but had been sick throughout her whole life.
She was named after the princesses in two of my favourite Disney movies- Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, and she was beautiful.
She was white with rather unusual black and blue markings, and I always thought she looked a bit like an abstract painting. She was tiny, even for a budgie, but what she lacked in size she made up for by being louder, braver, and crazier than either of my other birds. She was also the most naturally tame, I barely had to work to train her at all- she sat on my shoulder and climbed on my finger from pretty much the first day, after seeing Missy and Valentine do it.
She loved to sing as loud as possible, hang upside down for no apparent reason whatsoever, and explore- she was one of those creatures who would climb into anything, eat anything, love anyone. She got along well with all the other pets and was quite well behaved when she needed to be handled for all the diagnostic tests she underwent in her life.
For the first few years she saw a lot of Vets, in our attempts to figure out why she was always so sick. They gave her a bunch of treatments, some of which helped temporarily, some of which never did anything for her. They never figured out what was wrong. We changed her environment completely, changed her diet, tried everything.
Eventually we had to make the decision to ‘let go and let God’, as long as she was comfortable and happy. She had almost a year of good life after that, and every time we thought she was close to the end, she surprised us and bounced back. This time she didn’t. She died just after I woke up yesterday morning. She was singing and preening the night before, so we never got to the point of having to choose euthanasia. She looked peaceful and didn’t seem to suffer. We buried her under the Mulberry tree in our yard, a tree often filled with birds and purple flowers. Purple was her colour- mainly because Missy hates purple, and being the little sister, she got all the hand me downs that Mis didn’t want. I miss her very much and it will take a while to get used to seeing two cages instead of three, but I know we were blessed to have her and probably lucky she lived as long as she did, under the circumstances.
Hopefully she’s in heaven now, playing with Opi and all the other animals and people we loved and lost.