Dear All,
Well, it's been a busy few weeks - there are signs of Spring peaking through everywhere... daffodils mainly! And the clocks are supposed to go back (or is it forward??? Argh!) tomorrow and then it's officially "British Spring Time" (Seriously, that's what it says on the calendar - not sure about other countries! ;-) ) However, as I look out the window this morning, there is bright sunshine, with big flakes of snow coming down.... there are clouds, they just don't seem to be where it's actually snowing! Oh, and it's 3 degrees with a "real feel temperature" of about -6 later... can't wait. 
We had the police in last week - no no, they didn't come to arrest anyone, they'd bought in a dead buzzard. Yup, you did read that right, a dead buzzard. So there is this policeman standing at the front desk, in all his official uniform and he's holding a frozen, dead buzzard. No, i was not able to resuscitate the unfortunate bird - they just wanted it x-rayed to check if it had been shot! Unfortuntately, the game keepers around here (not such a gross generalisation, I'm afraid) tend to view any animal that is not a grouse, pheasant or partridge (the last two being shipped in in their thousands as day old chicks to provide something sporting for the "guns" to take potshots at when the "Glorious 12th" of August comes round) as vermin, which needs to be eradicated at all costs... even if they are a protected species. So the policeman had to check that there were no bullets/pellets in the buzzard. There weren't any, so it was then being sent for toxicology to check if it had been poisoned... they take these things very seriously up here! I know, everyone from SA is raising their eyebrows and going "they have time and resources to investigate bird poisonings????"
Was on call last weekend, and was kept very busy, mainly playing midwife to various animals! My first call was to a calving, which went suprisingly smoothly! I think the main reason for this was that the farmer had recently been run over by one of his own cows and had hurt his back, so he hadn't tried to do anything with this calving. Paul, one of the other vets, had been up to see this farmer quite soon after he'd been hurt, and he said that the farmer would suddenly get a twinge of sharp pain, and start f-ing and blinding, then just as suddely stop, and apologise for his Tourette's episode! Anyway, after getting the calf out, the farmer asked me to go and see a ewe that he thought had lambs in her that had died. So we go upto the lambing shed, which is quite a decent setup, all the sheep in neat pens, walkway down the middle, hot water - pretty luxurious as lambing sheds go. Anyway, set about checking out the ewe, and because I was concentrating pretty hard, I initially didn't notice the music that was reveberating around the shed, until Barry Manilow started crooning and I looked up to see the most enormous boombox positioned on the shed wall, connected to a loudspeaker! I'm not sure what the sheep make of all that - I'm sure they need something soothing and restful... don't think whale sounds would quite do the trick, but maybe something similar???!!!!
Then had an older lady come in with an ancient samoyed - big, fluffy white thing, not unlike a canine version of a sheep. So I go through the pleasantries, and then ask what the problem was with the dog. And the owner says that he's been "not quite right in himself" recently, hasn't been eating, and has been walking a bit oddly with his backlegs. She also thinks there's a problem with his balls. Now, it is a little bit disconcerting to hear a rather prim and proper old lady say there's a problem with a dog's balls - usually they just go, "there's a problem....you know, down there" and gesticulate vaguely at the back end of the dog! So I got over my initial suprise and lift the dog's backleg, and my oh my hat was there a problem with this dog's balls!!! Well, one ball in particular, which was the size of a grapefruit and rock hard! No wonder the poor thing was having trouble walking! With that thing hanging in the breeze! Anyway, we mercifully castrated him and he walked out of the surgery a much happier bunny!
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