Today was pretty neat. I won't lie, I didn't particularly expect it to be. I walked into to work, running on about one hour of sleep. I looked to my co-worker and she shared the same haggard expression. We exchanged the general pleasantries of 'can you shoot me now,' 'how will we make it through this day,' and 'let's just take a nap and pretend today isn't happening.' So, as it would turn out, though I often am eager and smiling, bounding into work with flowers in my heart, ready to care for animals, I am also human. And today I wasn't feeling it.
I trudged up to the commissary to pick up my goat's milk, my regular routine. The bottle was cold and burned the tips of my fingers. I carried it down to his stall, letting it warm in a bucket of water. He was over-eager as usual--hoofs up on the wall, jumping around like a nut, bawling to the nines. 'Crazy,' I said softly as I shook my head at him. But I couldn't help but smile despite my tiredness. As I got in the stall with him and sat on the hay, my eyes drooping heavily, he jumped at me with all force, making his customary grunt of excitement as he grabbed the bottle. Today was to be my last day with him at the vet wing, and today was also my last Tuesday ever working here. Well, that just got me going and the tears started to flow all over me and that stupid little goat. My hope was that he would curl up on my lap and comfort me, but of course it was not to be so. He's insane-remember? So, he just kept trying to find a milk-source and bit my bands, my nose, my ear. He has sharp teeth now and a strong jaw which causes a lot more pain when rasping on my skin. Little snot. I say all these things with the utmost affection. He's in his terrible twos of goat years, I say. He's a nut, yes. But he's my little nut. And so I cried for his growing up, and I cried for my growing up, and I cried because I'm leaving him soon.
On to other news. We anticipated having a busy day today. Well, we were certainly right, just not in the way we expected. The vet got to the zoo and got a report that a sick cheetah named Tambo, with sinus infection-like symptoms and an unwillingness to eat, was doing no better after 4 days. Antibiotics had been tried, but he was resistant to consuming the pills. Doc decided that it was time to anesthetize him and take a culture of his infectious mucous, as well as get some x-rays. Event unplanned. All of our other busy morning activities were pushed aside and we started to prepare the vet wing for the appearence of a large cat in a short time frame. We got the x-ray film processor running, heating pads and towels on the procedure table, IV lines set up, all sorts of tools prepared, paperwork ready to be meticulously filled out during procedure...etc. Then we went to go get the cheetah. The cool thing about this particular cheetah is that he was hand-raised. He's very docile, sweet, and allows keepers to pet him in his squeeze cage. The keepers gave him a sedative while he kindly presented his shoulder, and within minutes, he was getting very sleepy, indeed. Mr. Tambo lay down, eyes closing. He was given additional medication to put him to sleep and when he was thoroughly unresponsive, he was carried into a crate. He was driven to the vet wing and lifted up onto our prepared table. A cheetah, lying right before my eyes. How wonderful my life is. Unpleasantly, my first job was to get a thermometer in his butt and get a temp. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Anyway, once we got a catheter in him and an IV drip of fluids going, we got him intubated. Having oxygen supplied to him through a trachaea tube, he began to be examined. His eyes were highly red and irritated, his nose crusty from snot. He had an audible heart murmur on the right side. His toenails were a little long so they were cut. His teeth could use a cleaning, but we decided not to do it, as it was not the plan for today's procedure. Generally if we've got an animal on the table, we try to do as much routine care as possible, but he was already going to be under anesthesia for a while, so that part was declined today. His eyes were peered into, cleaned, his nose was swabbed and was to be sent for bacterial culture. Blood was drawn, urine drawn, a fecal sample collected in the same invasive way the temperature was taken. After these examinations, the keepers picked up all 83 beautiful pounds of cat and moved him into the x-ray room. We took around 10 radiographs of his chest and head. During this time I was popping in and out of the dark room, developing films as we went, because we have only 4 large casettes. After the photos were taken and the proper amount of fluid had been intravenously given and everyone felt satifsfied that we had accomplished all we had set out to accomplish, it was time to take Tambo back to wake up. He was carried back up to his stall, laid down inside, and given an antagonist drug to wake him up. He began to rouse, still quite sleepy, and we left him to come to in his own space. How cool my job is. I got to hold and move and experience the soft coat of a cheetah today. I got to feel the flattened tail like a rutter, the long thin legs, the big powerful lungs built for running. Sadly, x-rays showed that his lungs were highly filled with mucous, and when we removed the endotrachaeal tube, it was covered in yellow, thick liquid.We sent off several samples for testing and once we know exactly what bacteria is causing his infection, we can treat it accordingly with a long-acting antibiotic. I hope to report of his healing very soon.
Another addition today was a shakey sharpwing teal duck. They are very small and beautiful, and as of now, we don't know what's wrong. I'm hopeful that he too will be healed and happy soon.
Tomorrow will likely be another busy day, because we have lots to catch up on that we didn't get accopmlished today. More to follow!
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