Patiopup's personal compost heap

Oh, yeah, I guess it may be relevant in terms of back-story that they fired the senior full-time vet at the end of October, leaving me as the only veterinarian, without increasing my pay, changing my title, anything. After a month I did get a cubicle in the reception area, for which I had to request a chair. At present, I still do not have a phone extension. Work-wise, it's a small change -- the main issue being that the other vet at least was available to do a handful of surgeries and sign rabies certificates on the one day a week that I work off-site, but the fact that they once again increased my work-load without any pay adjustment (I last received a 1.5% increase in the summer of 2009) was galling.

Of course, they let about 2 weeks slide by between telling me that they were letting her go and telling her that, which was awkward, especially as the mullet had told me that they would take care of it ASAP. Was made easier by the fact that she called in sick for about half of those two weeks, but, still, kind of a pain in the ass, especially as she actually showed something like a work ethic on the days that she did show up.

Anywhoozle, I've been investigating into how other DVMs who do spay/neuter for shelters are compensated, and by a fairly standard per-procedure rate I would have made about $70K last year for surgery alone. I made -- well, quite a bit less than that, for the surgery, the staff management, coordinating or providing medical care for the 8,000 or so animals who came through the shelter in 2010, in addition to pushing long-needed updates for our vaccination and deworming protocols and drafting a mutually protective(and money-saving) agreement with a clinic who provides us with after-hours emergency care and stray intake.

So that's been going on. I don't think I'm even getting my standard 1.5% bump retroactive to my anniversary date (which was a mere 5 months ago).

Ingrates.

Anyway, in resigning, I cited my need to pursue further development of my clinical skills -- which is very valid. I buried my complaints about their treatment of veterinarians for the three page section of the letter addressing what they can do to recruit and retain quality candidates for the position. Very necessary advice for them, since 6 of their last 7 vets have left on bad terms, the once exception being an individual who is fairly remarkable in her political skills and now, ironically or appropriately, does site visits for failing shelters all over North America to advise them on how they can save themselves.

Mmmmmm.

Time for the dogs' breakfast, and then workworkwork.

Wishing you the best of luck in your career, PD. This was just anounced, in case you hadn't heard :http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/jan/vethospitalsjoin

Maybe it's something you'd be interested in, maybe not. Anyway, again, good luck. I glad you took the risk to make a change.

No cattle?

Does she have a job for you?

She pretty much got me this job, and saved me from being fired from it once, so I don't think I'd go there for another hook-up. Really would like to get my hands into something else for a bit, anyway -- would like to play with a bigger tool box for a while...

At any rate, looks like I'll stick around in the part-time gig -- while I was away yesterday, the leaders sent out an email to department heads telling them that. Of course, when I reminded them that staying at half-time would be contingent on retaining my benefits, I was met with, "Oh yeah." Not careful readers, this bunch.



And I don't know that there's anything especially risky about it. It was in my best interest to leave on my own terms and with demonstrated grace rather than wait for them to find a replacement behind my back and kick me to the curb. Better for everybody this way -- if anything, it's probably the most risk-averse course of action I could manage.

I was at the vet today, getting my new puppies vaccinated. I thought of you and how much I hope things turn out well for you. Transitions are hard, I know.

Wow.

Damn these arseholes and the demon they rode in on.

I'm just a Northern California boy when it comes down to it. Wisconsin is very far away from that.

I like it here. People are generally good. They've usually got a healthy sense of humor about themselves and are certainly no enemies to excess -- which is greatly appreciated. I wouldn't have lasted two minutes in a place where Lutheran's didn't place Leinenkugel's before the Lord.

And there's the brats, too.

And the Packer's. My dad told me to always root for the Packer's, because they were the only publicly owned team in professional sports. Which is sort of true.

I have never seen more comraderie among strangers as I did here when the Packers were going to the Super Bowl. The football was good -- and, hey, Aaron Rodgers is a NorCal mountain boy himself, so it was great to see him winning. But more than that, it was going to the neighborhood bar in the winter cold, the place packed to the doors, crowds of strangers joking with each other through ice-cloudy breath over cigarettes during halftime with the "Go-Pack-Go!" chant rattling the windows. All the pink-cheeked goodwill in the hypothermic cold of the Wisconsin winter.

Oh, there's the cheese, of course. There are people in Wisconsin making cheese almost entirely for other people in Wisconsin that is laughably good. If I leave I will be trying to score some of the Hook's 15-year cheddar on my way out. Or settling for the 12-year if I have to. And there's a raw sheep's milk brie you can get here that deserves to be its own meal. It even makes up for their complete inability to make a dry salami.

But still, I'm a Northern California boy. I was raised in the Sierra Nevada mountains, I found and floundered my own way on the central coast. There's a lot of bullshit out there. I picked up a strain of that myself. But it's also somewhere, for better and for worse, where the freak isn't quite as marginalized, where quirks of personality aren't as widely considered defects of character. Which isn't Packer fan geniality, but it is evidence of a sort of goodwill nonetheless.

I read that a common saying in the Sierra Madre is "Tienen derecho." They have the right.

An attitude that appears to go hand-in-hand with a lot of the problems there. Still, something in it reminds me of Sonora, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Tahoe, Sonoma, Humboldt, Chico, Redding...

hmmmm! interesting!

They're marginalizing freaks in Madison now?

No, I get what you're saying.

And can totally identify with the rest of it, as I'm sure you know. (My last year in Madison was the year the Packers won the Brett Favre Super Bowl and the Badgers won the Rose Bowl.)

And man I miss Wisconsin cheese.

Sorta. I feel like there's more expectation to mainstream yourself as a professional here.

Which I don't so much mean in the cover-your-tattoos sort of way so much as a this-is-how-normal-people-think-and-talk sort of way. Not that you don't run into that anywhere, but I think there's a narrower "normal personality" palette to choose from here, just by basis of fewer people, less diverse population, deeper roots, and the like.

I tell you one thing, though: I do enjoy me some lightning bugs.

Really?!

I think of Madison being extremely freak-friendly, and not just the college crowd either. Maybe there are pockets? Geographical, professional, etc.

My jobs in Madison were chock-full of freaks, and very much in the this-is-not-a-normal-way-to-think-and-talk sort of way, though there were some tattoos and hairstyles and piercings and such going on. (Jobs included gofer for medical researchers, bookstore clerk, and administrator in a disability advocacy group.)

My boss from the bookstore (himself wonderfully not mainstream, I think I've already tried to connect you guys a few times) has told me that Madison has changed basically since the #1 place in America to live thing (Money Magazine? 1996?) So maybe the Madison I remember is no longer.

I'm not sure I'm getting the point across, really. I just feel like the majority of people come from a narrow range of background, and it ain't mine, is all. It's a small thing, and I don't really notice it until I go back "home."

I wonder, too, if you're not seeing the general increase in WI conservatism creep into Madison. It's the same with Austin and Tx, I believe. Liberal spots within an increasingly conservative surrounding being effected by the dominate culture of the larger area.

I've not been to Redding now for over 5 years.

used to look forward to that visit every year. it was one of my very favorite places to go work. (always stayed in Red Bluff, cuz it was cheap. nobody wanted to go there)

even took 2 days off once and took my helper fly fishing for rainbows.

I imagine it hasn't changed much.

cheapest dungeness crabs in the world there. at a stinky little mom and pop place.

kinda fitting that you grew up out there...

Sure, I get that. I felt the same in reverse (sort of) re: California and the Midwest (WI/MN/IL/OH). I feel much more at home here than there. I think certain things are just sort of hardwired.

A Victorian in Alameda sounds good. On sandy shore, but 10 minutes from downtown Oakland. Good air, good food, good bars, and lots of people with pets and money to take care of them...

How do you find Columbus, soz? I've been intrigued by it since I got to Madison, but have never had the occasion to actually go there.

(I've driven through the state to the Cleveland airport in the wake of a blizzard, but I'm not going to take that as representative of the location or the seasonal inclination.)

Exceptin' that Alameda might be a little to rich for my britches...

A couple of months ago, I got to work a pyometra. Adult female PBT, likely multiparous. Some good sams had found her on a Friday and thought she was pregnant and doing poorly on the streets, so they looked after her until Monday, as she got worse. By the time they brought her to us, she was inappetent with muscle wasting and pronounced respiratory arrhythmia.

We spun her blood, which showed borderline anemia (likely worse, given her state of dehydration). Rads showed an obvious pyometra. She had minimal discharge at the vulva, so it was not completely closed, but it was close.

Her blood also showed us that her total solids (or protein) was quite low. Given her inflammatory state (pyometra, a pus-filled uterus, is caused by massive influx of inflammatory cells from the blood stream), her globulins likely were quite high, so albumin is likely below 2.0 g/dl.

Slatter's text says that this is a poor prognostic indicator for a surgical patient.

The evening she came in, we bolused her with IV and SQ fluids and injectable antibiotics, to help stabilize her system.

The next morning, her total blood proteins had fallen (thanks to the correction of her dehydration). Once we had an IV catheter secured, we started her on IV fluids and Hetastarch (an osmotic colloid that does albumin's job of keeping fluid in the vessels, for a few hours).

Surgery was as expected. Recovery from anesthesia and surgery were not appreciably worse than with any dog spay, and by the end of the week she was at home with the people who found her -- healthy, warm, well-fed, and -- most important of all for all who would follow her -- infertile.