April 27, 2010 "Good people live here"

Over the years, I have noticed that there is apparently a secret network among stray cats. I think it must operate much the way the hobo signals worked when men were riding the boxcars looking for work. They used symbols to indicate things like "a kind woman lives here" so those who came later would know that they would probably be given something to eat and be treated well.

Just last week, we saw a sweet 8 week old kitten who had found such a symbol directing her to some of our clients. She had found the home where a kind man and woman live. These people over the years have taken in several strays - from adult to kittens - who just show up one day at their home.

We have several other clients who have taken in kittens (in some cases whole litters) and adult cats. They make sure they are healthy, vaccinated and spayed or neutered and then these lucky felines are given to other kind homes.

It is truly a gift for me to be able to work with these clients who are so giving to the animals that others have just seemingly tossed aside. I am not sure how or where the felines are posting their symbols that lead them to their new homes, but I am glad their system works.

Jan, RVT

April 24, 2010 -- The Break in

I feel kinda bad that my blogs are always negative.. I think I must use this to vent..sorry!

So this morning Roxanne and I came in to work to find that the practice had been broken into. Not the best way to start the day! It's more than inconvenient; it's scary, messy, and not to mention, expensive!

Luckily, no pets were harmed and not much was stolen but our door was destroyed and our sense of safety tested.

A special thank you to the very kind officers that spent the morning with us and to our clients that came in during the chaos!

Tomorrow will be a better day, I just know it!

~Alisha

April 20, 2010 Come home George!

This weekend I went through what I would consider, one of the most heart breaking experiences that I have ever gone through...I lost my cat. My first pet as an adult, George Cat-Stanza, I adopted him from a shelter 4 years ago to help me get through a rough time in my life, and now I had lost him. He must have escaped at some point while I was coming and going onto the back patio; how did I not notice? I felt panicked, guilty, sad..and even though I work in a pet hospital and deal with these situations from the other side, I didn't know what to do. I really didn't. Knowing all that I know, I hadn't done the things I should have to make finding him any easier. No microchip, no collar, (he's an indoor cat for goodness sake!). It's embarrassing to say that I hadn't followed the advice that I give to clients every single day..but I hadn't, and now I lost my best bud, George.

I posted ads online, I called shelters and local pet hospitals. I recruited friends to do a search party, but it's a little difficult to find a cat. I was so devastated. I couldn't stop checking outside the windows, and every strange noise I heard I was convinced was him meowing.

It had been 4 days and no George. I left food outside for him just in case. I received one email from a lady who thought that she had seen a tabby cat that had been hit by a car on the highway which ironically was right down the road from me. As sick as it made me, I knew I had to find out if it was him. I felt a glimmer of hope when I discovered that the tabby cat was actually a raccoon.

Then, just as quickly as George had escaped, he reappeared. I noticed the food I had left on the patio was gone, but thought that it must have been the squirrels that had eaten it. I opened the patio door just to check and in ran my tiger striped friend. He seemed okay aside from a few fight wounds.

George has been home for only 24 hours now and is already microchipped and a personalized collar with my phone number is on its way!

Lesson learned.

~Alisha

Just did a victory dance with Jan. We had a cat come in Saturday for a urinary blockage. This is a relatively common problem, especially in young male cats. Treatment involves anesthetizing the pet and passing a urinary catheter to empty and flush out the bladder. Left untreated, this can be fatal. Luckily, our astute owner noticed the signs (yowling, straining to urinate) early and brought his boy in to the hospital.
As is usually the case, cats don't cooperate and after the procedure he pulled out his urinary catheter. This almost always means we will be repeating the placement of the catheter, but in this case he urinated a large amount overnight and went home feeling great this morning. Yea!! Although we aren't out of the woods yet, the fat lady has not yet sung, we're not counting our chickens yet...we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, or in veterinary terms, the pee is in the box.
Now we start the long road of diet change and monitoring, but we can hope that he continues to do well without recurrence.
Dr. Paige Maasen

April 6, 2010

One of the most uncomfortable aspects of my job here at Trailridge is being so involved with the practice as a business and at the same time being what I feel, is personally involved in so many of our clients lives.



Today I received notice from one of our major distributors that they are making many changes with the items they sell to us, which we in turn sell to our clients. One of the changes is, (gasp!) a price increase! It makes my stomach turn. I know all too well how difficult times are for many of our clients and I hate delivering the bad news that prices have gone up, yet again. I know as a business that we have to continue to pass down the increase but it really is difficult and I tend to feel irrationally guilty when I see the look of panic as I give the final total at check-out.



Just know that if we had anything to say about it, we wouldn't keep making these kinds of changes when so many are struggling! We want our clients to be able to take the best possible care of their pets and we know that in reality, the cost of that care can be a major factor in whether or not that is possible.

Thanks for reading!

~Alisha, Office Manager

April 2, 2010

It's that time of year. We had our first dog with fleas this morning. Several other clinics in the area are seeing dogs with ticks. As bad as the winter was, many of us probably have slacked off on our flea and tick prevention. To prevent infestations, start flea and tick prevention now. As a trained professional, I decided to test the theory that having indoor only cats and no other pets in the house meant my cats would not get fleas. WRONG! I can now definitely confirm that theory as totally false and save the rest of you (and your pets) from testing that theory for yourselves. My cats, Boris and Melvin, have served as the poster children for why all pets need to be treated with prevention. It took several months of treating my boys and the house to get rid of the fleas. Don't let this happen to you - it was not pleasant for my boys or me.
Jan Hueben, RVT