Before I Returned To Veterinary Medicine, I Was In Cabinetmaking And Wood Technology, And There Were

A Typical Work Day:

I work Tuesday through Friday, averaging 38-42 hours per week, and I'm on call Saturdays and Sundays, My Mondays are very similar outside of my working hours, with seeing patients being replaced by studying, the occasional personal medical appointment, and my 2 standing appointments for my vocal therapist and my psychological therapist.

Mornings Before Work

05:00 First Alarm, Morning Stretches, Review of Daily Agenda

05:15 Dream Journaling, Self-Love/Positive Self-Talk Affirmations, & Morning Devotional Prompt

05:30 A Morning At The Office Podcast / Morning prayer

06:00 Wake up critters, and take the dogs out for a potty break

06:10 Feed Critters

06:15 Morning Cardio - Fasted 2-4 mile walk-jog with Phobos

06:45 Morning Hygiene

07:00 Medicate Chewbacca & Scoop Cat Boxes

07:15 Breakfast & revise notes over coffee with the news in the background.

07:45 Get the cats into their respective rooms, get Phobos ready to go to work, and Chewbacca set up for the day

Work Morning

08:00 Clock In, Return calls, and Check in Surgical Patients Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

09:00-12:00 See Patients (GP, Rehab, & Surgical) Tue Wed Thu Fri

Afternoon

12:00 Lunch, feed Hannibal, Olive, and Chewbacca their lunches, and Noonday Prayer (BCP + Forward Day by Day Reading & Meditation)

13:00-17:00 See More Patients (GP & Rehab)

15:00 Clock Out Fridays

15:00-17:00 Sports Conditioning Phobos (Fridays)

17:00 Dinner & Vespers Prayer, Clock Out on Wednesdays

Evenings

17:00-19:00 Course work Wednesdays & Fridays, See Patients Tuesdays & Thursdays

19:00 Medicate Chewbacca + Feed All Critters plus Clock Out Tuesdays & Thursdays

19:15 Strength Training Workout

20:00 Shower, Evening Hygiene & Supplements (Melatonin & Magnesium

20:30 A TV Episode, knitting, blogging, checking social media & my personal emails.

21:30 Screens off for the night and Compline via smart speaker followed by fireplace sounds

22:00 Bed Time

That's a typical work day for me! Okay, Bye! 🩷

Slow dancing to George Strait in the living room, Scrambled eggs made into breakfast tacos, stolen kisses over coffee mugs, the surprise appearance of Sugar and creamer in the fridge in a house where the coffee is always black, PBRs next to Coors Banquets, cozy nights and early mornings that are still slow paced and sweet, not minding that one of them sings off key and the other performs 3 nights a week, 2 left feet learning to two-step because it makes the dancer smile and laugh, sharing a pew and stolen glances over the sermon, range days and rainy days, stolen hoodies smelling of horse flesh and a forge, bourbon and woodsmoke, candid photos, splinters in palms patching up slag burns on forearms, shared prayers and shared breaths, a Pecan and a Possum, all eyes in the bar on the couple on the dance floor but they've only got eyes for each other. Hoof testers next to chisels, steel and maple. Hand crafted Belts exchanged for hand carved knives. Critters creating chaos, and the chaos being just fine.

people will really be bothered from you for being soft, and living life at ease. i’m sorry, i don’t run on chaos, cortisol, and victim mentality. i show up for myself. i put in the work. i’m kind because it keeps my spirit light, not for applause. you should try it, and you’ll feel less triggered from others living with calmness and appreciation.

The best breeders I know do 5 things:

1. Deworm and get Veterinarian Administered Vaccines for their puppies

2. Health Test all of their dogs both genetically and through programs like PennHip or OFA and have standards from these organizations they expect their breeding stock to meet (Good -> Excellent for OFAs generally)

3. Do tons of early neurological stimulation for their puppies and are working with their puppies daily from the time they are born

4. Include anti-breeding contracts on their produced dogs that are "Pet" quality, and have very strict breeding contracts for their dogs of greater than pet quality (usually enforced via co-ownership) BUT may not specify Spay/Neuter in their contracts. I'm staunchly against early spay neuter as someone who works in rehabilitation and general practice because I see the long term effects of early spay neuter on the daily. They also tend to leave spay neuter in their contracts to the best judgement of the dog's primary DVM.

In the practice where I'm employed, we don't sterilize earlier than 6 months unless there are extenuating circumstances. We were also one of the first clinics in the area to adopt Balance.it fresh food feeding programs and recipes, the first to refuse convenience euthanasia (we still do B.Es), and the first to refuse the declawing of cats.

We've also limited our crop and dock procedures. We've done 10 medically necessary docks in the decade I've worked here all of which were due to injury, mutilation, or disease processes. With 3 ear amputations due to tumors or significant injury. We also refer our cosmetic crops to another doctor for clients who would otherwise get backyard crop jobs.

Your breeder should not be pushing against core vaccines and monthly preventatives. They also absolutely should not be pushing against BOAS surgeries, especially on pet dogs (and a lot of the breeders I know who push against BOAS are the ones whose dogs got them anyway.)

why do breeders push against vaccines and spay/neuter? ive never understood this

The cynical answer, that i think is the truth deep under the anti-vax rhetoric, is that it's a way to save money and excuse the fact that they are selling puppies that have never been vaccinated or dewormed, despite being 8 to 12 weeks old. Exams and age appropriate shots and dewormers eat into their profit margin. Maligning these and building distrust of veterinary staff helps hide their shitty breeding practices, and gives them a somewhat captive consumer population for the homeopathic bullshit and supplements many of them also sell. And quite a few will say that if you get them these vaccines or dewormers that it will make them *more* prone to getting the disease or conditions like epilepsy. This tells me that that have parvo on their property and shitty genetic lines.

Some breeders may truly believe all their bullshit, but the person they learned the bullshit from? Knows it was bullshit and just wanted more money and control.

*EDIT* missed the s/n part, but that goes back in to building distrust of vets to keep control over their customers along with not understanding the studies.

And it's also a great way to excuse shitty hips or elbows if you can blame early spay/neuter.

Sacred image

Hi Paul

We are not doing well. I crave Lizard time with my best friend so bad. Lizard time is when we go to our local lake and lay on the rocks in the sun. I miss laying on the rocks in the sun.

Seasonal affective disorder havers how are we all coping

[ID: Two versions of the cat screaming at food bowl meme. The first has a clock showing 4pm and is captioned "WHY IS IT NIGHTTIME". The second has a November calendar and is captioned "WHY IS IT TEMPERATURES".]

Sorry, I've been away lately, Y'all. The patients have been good and interesting, and instead of blogging about it here, I've been talking about it with my local Farrier (and living my childhood horsegirl's dream of dating & attending church with a kind and handsome farrier) so I've been a little busy, I'm also on Instagram now under the same tag. Sooooo yeah