I have been majorly fighting the blues recently and it has taken me off the whole blogging thing, but I will try to do better now that I have made myself open this thing up. I am writing this while trying to keep up with an internet "rounds" on hyperphosphatemia. Rounds go pretty slow, so I try to do something else at the same time, but I may be a bit disconnected.
This past week has been mostly concerned with a little ragdoll patient that I saw for the first time Tuesday. She was presented by a breeder for a routine spay. When I looked at her vulva, I noted that her clitoris was larger than normal. When I expressed her bladder, I noted that the urine seemed to come from the clitoris, which means that the cat was likely an intersex and that was an almost penis. In retrospect, I should have just stopped there, but sadly I decided to continue with the surgery and just go with what I found. I found an obvious testicle on one side, but couldn't find one on the other side. I took out what I thought was the gonad, but it wound up being a tiny non functional kidney after biopsy results. I nearly blew a gasket when I got the results. But after discussing things with a cooler head (Thanks much, Denise!) we took rads and bloodwork and everything looks okay, but the kitten only has one kidney. Unfortunately, I will have to do another surgery on the cat looking for a remaining testis, if there is one. The difficulty comes there in knowing when to stop looking. If a kidney did not develop on that side, there is a good chance that there is no gonad either. But how do I know if I have not found it versus it not being there.
Not many other interesting cases going on. I am winding things up at Allen. Two weeks ago I was told that the tenth of July would be my last day working there. I will miss them, but they really kept me on longer than I had expected anyway. I don't know how to handle things with letting the clients know that I am going to be leaving. It is hard to know if I should just disappear, or if I should let them know. I have got to break a new doctor in on Natasha (my very cranky kitty patient who needs shots every two weeks). One of my craziest clients at Allen actually decided she was going to seek vet care elsewhere after I apparently offended her with some well meaning advice. It hurt my feelings that after all I had done for her she would just give me the brush off. Anyway, she could not find anyplace else to get the kind of care she wanted, so she called us back wanting a second opinion on an ultrasound she had had done. Well, as she had hurt my feelings, I said I would do it, but not for free or anything and that since I was leaving I would prefer another doctor to do it. After hearing that (not the hurt feelings part) she declined to call us back. I hate people; I really do.
I am having trouble with one of our food manufacturers. They make a good product for cats with kidney disease. Unfortunately, it is so good that production cannot keep up with demand and the food has been back ordered for quite a while. I have a few patients that this is the only thing the cat will eat. It is hard when you take the time to discuss diet and encourage them to only eat the diet you prescribe and then the diet is not available when the clients need it. Much head banging against the walls has occurred due to this problem.
Someone on Veterinary Information Network has this quip in their signature: "The only thing more overrated than natural childbirth is the joy of owning your own business." I am so there.
It looks like we have adopted out two of our kittens, which is a very good thing. They are getting big. They are very sweet and well socialized, so I am not surprised that they did well at the adoption fair. But the were losing their cute kitten look, which definitely is a strike against them. Another kitten was left at the clinic this past week, but Debbie fell in love with him right away and she will be taking him home. He is a real lover and very handsome, so I named him Malory after the Johanna Lindsey books.
On a personal front, I am looking forward to being on vacation the beginning of next week. Steve arranged for me to accompany him to San Antonio where he is attending a conference. I just asked Steve what the conference was about, and no surprise, it is about technology and education. It is his new thing. He presented a workshop last week at his school about using and making podcasts and stuff. He is becoming kind of known for this. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. I am trying to decide what I will be doing while he is listening to some dry lectures. Ha ha ha. The Riverwalk and the Alamo are definitely on the list, but I am trying to decide if I want to go to SeaWorld, which doesn't seem like much fun by myself, or the zoo, or something else.
Michael was at Bible school last week. He seemed to have a good time as far as I could tell. The week before he graduated from elementary school. Steve said the ceremony was longer than the one for the high school. We were very proud of him as he won a Presidential Gold Award for academics. I assume it was for math. Given his troubles in school, it was a very pleasant surprise indeed. He has recovered from the severe sunburn and ear infection he received at the fifth grade pool party. Apparently sunburns were epidemic amongst the fifth graders and one student had burns on his feet so bad that he could not come to school because he couldn't wear shoes.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}