Today was our annual vaccination and health exam day, when our vet Dr. Brenda Culver from Montana Veterinary Specialists & General Care in Helena came out to the ranch to do all the dogs. In years past Brenda was able to do all the dogs AND the cats in one day, but with our growth it now takes about seven hours just to do the dogs. Having Brenda make a 'ranch call' saves us a lot of time and effort, since we don't have to make multiple trips to Helena. The annual visit also gets the dogs all on the same schedule, making everything easier to manage.
We started off with the dogs who live with Alayne and me in the main house and in the cottages next to the house. That's about half the dogs, actually! Brenda and her vet tech Heather A. turned our welcome center into a temporary vet clinic for the exams. In the first photo Brenda (on the left) is examining blind Evelyn. The chart on the wall behind Brenda is a highly detailed illustration of the eye and its various internal structures; with more than half of the animals at the ranch blind (46 of them), this eye chart helps us better understand the various causes of blindness that we experience here.
In this photo Brenda is doing an eye exam on blind Helen. The eye Brenda is shining the light on is undergoing some changes -- it's now red -- but is still comfortable. Helen is built like a tank, weighs in at 100 pounds, and is one of those ferocious Rottweilers who will absolutely, positively lick you to death. Helen is just one of the gentlest, sweetest dogs we've ever known.
By early afternoon we moved over to Widget's House, where we worked on the dogs who live there. In this photo Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, is enjoying the attention from Brenda and Heather. He was hoping to get a kiss from Heather, but his breath stinks, so no way, pal! Because he can't open his mouth, we have some dental cleaning issues with this young fellow, but otherwise he's as healthy as can be.
By the end of the day, the roster counted 36 dogs examined and vaccinated. As a follow-up, we will be scheduling two dogs for echocardiograms after detecting heart murmurs, several for dentals, one for surgery to prevent bloat, while two others had blood drawn for tests.
Brenda will be back later this month to do the cats. Oh yes, the cats!
(Click on photos for larger images.)
Gotta love housecalls!!! Your vet team is amazingly efficient to check all your those precious dogs in one day!! (The photo of Helen is particularly adorable!)
Posted by: Nina | August 08, 2006 at 03:15 PM
Great work Dr. Culver & Heather. I'm sure the doggies were more comfortable being on their own turf. That was great that they came out to you & the pooches! All you lovely dogs deserve big hugs for being such good patients!
ginger & Tobias
Posted by: ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | August 08, 2006 at 02:01 PM