Thursday, March 14, 2013

Thursday

Today, we had a very quiet morning. Our first patient didn't arrive until after 10:30. Hayley was a cute 4 month old Bichon puppy who was due for her booster vaccines. Dr. Fillerup made me give her her shots so that "Hayley will still like me after you leave". The mare with the foot abscess came back in and we re-wrapped her foot. She was doing so much better; it was good to see her bearing weight on that foot. Then Dr. Fillerup trimmed the toenails on several bunnies while I looked at a beef calf with respiratory disease. We ended up doing a transtracheal wash on the calf to collect a sample for testing and also took a nasal swab. Another puppy came in for vaccines and then Dr. Fillerup and I headed out to the landfill to euthanize an old horse.--CAUTION: the rest of this entry may be disturbing to some readers.-- It was humbling to drive into the animal section of the landfill. Most of the composted carcasses appeared to be from roadkill, but I tried to not look too closely when I spotted part of a goat. A skinny, old white pony stood beside a small horse trailer, looking around and sniffing the ground. Dr. Fillerup spoke with the owner. He was clearly choked up and didn't want to be around to see his old friend pass on. After he drove out and was gone, Dr. Fillerup retrieved his shotgun from the back of his truck. With the owner not present, Dr. Fillerup preferred to use a single shot as his method of euthanasia. Even though carcasses were composted at the dump, any level of toxin (euthanasia solution) was harmful to the environment and to the wildlife that visited the landfill. I will admit it; I was hesitant. I have seen more deaths via euthanasia solution than from a bullet. But it went far smoother and faster than I've seen any death with Euthasol go. It seemed like the horse dropped to the ground before I even heard the crack of the gun. And there was no thrashing, no twitching, no movement at all. The horse lay still. And it brought to mind all of the other times I've seen animal life end, and none seemed as instantaneous, as quick, as this had been. Dr. Fillerup knelt and removed the halter from the gray fuzzy head, and we quietly left. It was a sobering end to the day.

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