Perth, WA Australia
January
27th 2016
Wednesday it was back to work as
usual. In the morning I helped Todd with appointments, seeing every thing from
cute cats getting vaccines to Pomeranians to Portuguese water dogs. I got to
run a couple appointments myself, which was good practice. I also learned about
crystals and bladder infections in rabbits, since there was a case in hospital.
The first Kanyana animal was a
domestic pigeon that needed an injury on its keel repaired. Then there was a
magpie with a broken blood feather (meaning the feather was growing and the
bird had damaged where the vein was – kind of like cutting a dog’s nail too
short) that was a bit messy. I got to see what a Eurasian coot looks like, as
there was one brought in suffering from what we suspect was botulism (a toxin
that causes muscle paralysis that ascends up to eventually reach the bird’s
head, rendering it unable to lift its neck). A galah with a not-repairable wing
fracture had to be euthanized, as did a kookaburra suffering from multiple wing
fractures and a suspected spinal cord injury. Lastly there was a little bobtail
who had been in rehab for a month without improvement. Radiographs showed what
looked to be a ruptured air sac, or potentially free gas in the abdomen. We
took some gas off to relieve the discomfort, but some fluid came with it and
when looked at under the microscope gave us evidence of peritonitis
(inflammation), so we decided to euthanize the bobtail due to lack of
improvement and poor quality of life.
In the afternoon I got some practice
with ultrasound and cystocentesis (collecting blood via needle directly from
the bladder), learned about psittacosis/chlamydia in birds, and met a little
python who had previously been in hospital for a cloacal prolapse.
I also brought in my goodbye gifts
for the staff today, and was glad that they liked them!! (but really, who doesn’t
like funny coffee mugs?). I’d made sure to get thank you’s for the Kanyana
volunteers and Steve and Sue as well, ‘cause I’m a nice polite Canadian like
that.
January
28th 2016
Thursday was my last day working
with Tim, so I spent the morning helping him out with appointments. In addition
to learning about the animals I was seeing, I got some great lessons in client
interaction and how to handle tricky situations, as well as seeing first hand
what a strong relationship a veterinarian can have with their clients. There
were also two of the most adorable kittens here for vaccines, so that was fun.
We met a tiny little budgie who had multiple leg fractures deforming his legs.
Tim offered to attempt repair by re-fracturing the legs and putting them back
in position, but there was no guarantee the procedure would work. Watching two
little boys say tearful *potential*
goodbyes to their little friend was heartbreaking. Luckily this story has a
happy ending, and we successfully repaired our little budgie friend’s legs! There
were more birds to see; a rainbow lorikeet and a beautiful sulphur crested
cockatoo! I’ve learned so much about birds working with Tim, everything from
surgery, diagnostics, infectious disease, husbandry, and basic care. I owe him
so much for improving my knowledge and skills related to the avian world!
The first Kanyana
patient was a cute tawny frogmouth that seemed to have poor vision. His pupils
were of different size but he did respond to light, suggesting signal was
getting through to his brain and he could in fact see. There was a kingfisher
who’d had an injured wing in the past, and sadly was not improving in terms of
flight ability. We assessed his vision and flying skills, and based on poor
results the decision was made to euthanize. Next was a tiny little silvereye
with a horrible wing fracture, one that we couldn’t hope to repair even if he
wasn’t so tiny, so we euthanized him right away. One of the resident bilbies
was also sent down for treatment of a laceration on its leg. Sadly the bilby
from Tuesday we were supposed to see Thursday had passed away. We also
euthanized a raven suffering from a pelvis injury.
January 29th 2016
Friday was my last
working day in Australia, my last at Wattle Grove :( I spent the morning with Todd in appointments,
where we saw both routine check-ups and sick animals. We met the cutest little
maltese/poodle puppy. A couple interesting cases were the dog with an aural
(that’s “ear”) hematoma and a pregnant dog (oops!!) that we took a radiograph
of to count the puppies (6 little spines…) and did an ultrasound exam on to try
and assess the age of the puppies since the date of breeding was unknown. Not
something you see in general practice everyday! We also scanned a little
corella brought in by the Kanyana volunteer to see if it had a microchip (the
bird was likely a lost pet).
The first patients from
Kanyana were a bronzewing with puncture wounds needing no treatment (didn’t
really get to see this bird), and a little brown honey eater that was favouring
its left leg. No obvious fractures showed up on radiographs, but the poor
little bird was in a lot of respiratory stress so we suspected sepsis and
euthanized it. We then saw a crested pigeon hit by a car which had no obvious
major injuries, but unfortunately died during recovery. Last was a little
quenda hig by a car. He had some broken ribs and maybe some blood in his chest
(hemothorax), but we suspected he would heal on his own and left him be. I also
got to watch Todd perform a necropsy on a canary (part of a larger aviary flock)
before I had to say my final goodbyes and head out the door for the last time.
January 30th – 31st 2016
Saturday was my last big
adventure in Australia. I had booked a swim with wild dolphins excursion with
Rockingham Wild Encounters. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins, but
never in captivity because I believe it is cruel to keep marine mammals in
captivity the way we do. It was a bit of an expense, but I splurged because
when would I have this opportunity again?! I’d wanted to do this the previous
weekend but didn’t book soon enough, so I booked it for Saturday January 30th
which at the time was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day. Well…it wasn’t, but
that’s OK, because dolphins really don’t mind rain and the boat was still set
to go (they only cancel if the weather is really bad). I got up early and
caught the train to Perth where I met the bus and napped on the 45 minute
journey down to Rockingham.
After checking in, going
over safety information and details about the day and how to put on your wet
suit, we were off! There’s no set schedule to this tour as they simply try and
find dolphins wherever they may be. Sometimes that’s right in the harbour,
other times it takes hours to find them. We were lucky that we spotted a few
right away! We were grouped into small little teams. Our guide would hold on to
a battery operated propeller, and we would hold onto each other’s belts in a
line and submerge our faces in the water. The “dolphin girl” would ride her propeller
around with the dolphins, and we would keep our eyes trained on her (either
left or right side depending on which hand we were told to hang on with). Our
first time in the water (I was orange team) we spotted a mother and her calf!!
Very cool to see. It was awesome being so close to the dolphins, who swam
around with dolphin girl right by us and underneath us. Eventually some male
dolphins chased the females away.
The rest of the day was
essentially spent chasing the dolphins around, and searching for good spots to
see them. Sometimes we would get in the water only to have them swim away, or
sometimes we couldn’t maneuver the boat to where they were. It may seem
frustrating to spend hours and hours searching and have little results, but it’s
actually a privilege to see these amazing creatures in their natural state. The
dolphins aren’t fed or confined, so their choosing to interact with us is
purely out of choice. The crew respects the dolphins’ rights to participate in
their natural behaviours undisturbed, and if the dolphins don’t want to be
bothered we leave them alone. We are also asked not to feed or touch the
dolphins to minimize their human contact (which helps control disease and makes
the dolphins more likely to come over, since we aren’t scaring them away by
reaching out). We got to see a group of males playing around before the day was
done, and it’s unusual for males to be interested in us (they’d rather focus on
fighting and sex), so all in all a pretty cool day (despite the cold rain!!).
We also learned a lot about dolphins from the team. It sometimes feels a bit
weird doing these excursions on my own (almost everyone else was with someone),
but I made some friends on the bus ride back.
It is now Sunday and
basically all I’ve done today is pack up my stuff. I can’t believe my adventure
is really coming to an end – it feels like it’s been a lifetime, but I’m also
not quite ready to believe I have to say goodbye! It will be good to see all my
family and friends when I get home though. And it’s certainly been the trip of
a lifetime.
Australia Day outfit! (forgot to put in last post)
Homemade budgie-broken-leg repair!
Tawny frogmouth
Wittle tiny silvereye
Quenda
Off to search for dolphins!
