Today I did my first pick up of my brochure drop. I got one order, woo!
I don't know whether to be really happy that I got one order or really sad that I only got one order. But one order is better than no order I guess.
However they added the prices up wrong so I will have to get them to change their order. *Sigh*
Luckily I have another drop to collect tomorrow. And then I will start going door knocking and commence the scary task of talking to strangers.
I mean, I know I talk to strangers on a daily basis at a vet clinic, but it's ok there; they are coming into my territory and most of the time they want to see me. However when I go door knocking I am on their territory and often they don't want to be disturbed at their home.
I think I might disturb people at businesses. Most people like an excuse not to work for a couple of seconds or minutes.
So that is tomorrow sorted out.
On a really plus note: I have two interviews lined up next week for some locum and part time vet work. So that will be great. woo.
That reminds me, I need to be cool and write a blog post on good tips for giving your cat and dog medication as well as other vet advice.
Edit:
I apologise for the lack of pictures. Sometimes I'm really lazy and don't get there.
It actually takes quite a long time to draw pictures.
Othertimes, it's cause boyfriend is wanting attention. Poor thing, can't blame him, I mean, I know I'm awesome.
Cheers my lovelies
Friday 21 June 2013
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Avon Drop
So yesterday I did my first drop of my Avon brochures. I was too chicken to go up to the doors and knock on them to talk to people.
People are scary!
I've dropped off a good 72 brochures so hopefully someone will want to buy something from that.
But really, I just need to toughen up and actually knock on doors.
I should get my first Avon pay in about 2 weeks. So I've just got to hold on until then.
Hopefully the money gods (and generally good luck gods) will move in my favour.
One thing I noticed while doing my brochure drop is that people have letter boxes in strange places. I always though you had to have your letter box easily accessible to the posty and have a concrete or dry path to it.
Many of the ones I put my brochure into were in the middle of a lawn or above grass. What made it worse was that it was raining and muddy. (There has been a bit of flooding going on in the country. Not really in Auckland (just surface flooding), 'cause Auckland hardly ever has problems with the forces of nature, except perhaps the occasional tornado).
Anyway, my shoes are crappy and like to absorb water, so I had wet feet. :(
*squelch squelch*
Possessed letter boxes
Soon:
Feed me your soul , ahem, letters:
Come and get me!:
It's actually really hard to find pictures of letterboxes that are not easily accessible, must be a New Zealand problem.
People are scary!
I've dropped off a good 72 brochures so hopefully someone will want to buy something from that.
But really, I just need to toughen up and actually knock on doors.
I should get my first Avon pay in about 2 weeks. So I've just got to hold on until then.
Hopefully the money gods (and generally good luck gods) will move in my favour.
One thing I noticed while doing my brochure drop is that people have letter boxes in strange places. I always though you had to have your letter box easily accessible to the posty and have a concrete or dry path to it.
Many of the ones I put my brochure into were in the middle of a lawn or above grass. What made it worse was that it was raining and muddy. (There has been a bit of flooding going on in the country. Not really in Auckland (just surface flooding), 'cause Auckland hardly ever has problems with the forces of nature, except perhaps the occasional tornado).
Anyway, my shoes are crappy and like to absorb water, so I had wet feet. :(
*squelch squelch*
Possessed letter boxes
Soon:
It's actually really hard to find pictures of letterboxes that are not easily accessible, must be a New Zealand problem.
Monday 17 June 2013
Cat show
I vetted a cat show the other day for the first time.
It was a very new experience for me.
It was a rainy day. My boyfriend and I turned up to the community hall that the show was being held in. There were lots of cars there,so we figured we were in the right place. We got out of the car and walked into the foyer only to be confronted by snowmen, Santas and Christmas lights. ??? Umm, thought this was a cat show. Maybe I'm in the wrong place? So I walked decided to just walk into the hall anyway just incase and luckily I did as this was in fact the place that the cat show was being held. It just for some reason had a Christmas display in the foyer at the wrong time of year. I eventually realised that maybe they were getting ready to celebrate Mid-winter Christmas, a tradition some countries in lower hemisphere do, because we are greedy and one Christmas isn't enough.
SO I popped in and wandered around looking lost until someone asked if I was the vet and then informed me that the club manager hadn't arrived yet.
Basically when I vet the cats for the show I need to have a club manager with me to protect me from any grumpy breeders who are not happy with my decision.Sounds....exciting, maybe I should have backed out then. But then I reminded myself I needed the money and I was also doing this as a favour for one of my favourite breeding clients.
So while I waited for the club manager I had a look around the stalls at all the gorgeous kitties. Talked to them, tried to tell them it would be ok (they didn't believe me). My boyfriend got snaffled by a breeder that saw the only young man in the room and wanted to tell him about her breed. (She was pretty cool actually). I skulked off and looked at adorable kittens.
Eventually the club manager turned up and went through what I had to do. He told me that while vetting at a cat show you do a mainly visual exam and only if you decide that you are worried about the cat do you get it out and you feel it's lymph nodes and examine it more closely.
This was completely alien to me.
Whenever I see an animal to vet normally, I do a complete nose to tail examination, including temperature and auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) of the heart and lungs, before declaring it healthy.
It felt really strange declaring a cat healthy just by looking at it.
Plus, I like to cuddle the kitties, so not touching them wasn't as cool. However the lighting was crappy, which gave me a good excuse to get them out under the guise of looking at them better and cuddle them.
So anyway I got to grips with not touching as many kitties as I liked and was pretty happy with most of them. Most of the breeders were really cool and their cats were awesome.
However there was one kitty that gave me a bit of grief. The kitty was nice, but the owner not so much. I decided to vet this cat out, as its eyelids were all inflamed, it had blepharospasm (squinting) of the right eye, bilateral epiphora (excess tear production) and generally looked like he was feeling pretty crap.
These signs that I have listed are common clinical signs for feline respiratory problems, such as feline herpes virus, chlamydophila and rhinotracheitis virus (cat flu basically). This is a lovely disease complex that can be passed on through sneezing, fomites, coughing and contact. A fomite is something that they touch that carries the germs to another animal if they touch it e.g. a brush or food bowl etc.
Upon informing the owner of how her sick kitty will be vetted out she was adamant that he was just fine and I was stupid. She also uttered a few other grumpy words in my general direction.
I tried to remain as calm as possible and I think I did a pretty good job, until it got a bit scary with the woman yelling "Is that the vet!?" and charging towards me. Luckily the club manager stepped in and convinced her to drop it. Another club official talked to her and calmed her down, so I did not get assaulted. Yay.
What was awesome was that my lovely man was standing beside me the whole time being my bodyguard which really helped. Without him it would have been a whole lot scarier.
But that's not the end of it. What made the whole procedure worse, was that the cat I decided to vet out was brought by a Judge!!! So she was grumpy not because I denied her of earning a potential ribbon and prize but because my ruling might mean she couldn't judge. She was lucky though, as I decided to rule it as a precautionary measure, which meant the cat could be removed from the show but the lady could still judge, and I could go home alive.
Everyone else was so lovely though. They all came up to me and apologised for the debacle and then started telling me some cool stories about turtle surgeries and neat things like that.
I also got to meet some old breeder friends and have a catch up as well, so all in all I generally had a great time, and I got paid for it! Not much, but every little bit helps at a time like this.
Here are some of the cool breeds I got to meet:
American Curl:
Munchkin:
La perm:
Ragdoll:
Exotic:
Persian:
Bengal:
Sphynx:
Oriental:
Maine Coon:
Norwegian Forest cat:
So I had a pretty exciting day. After that I went home and had a nap to destress.
It was a very new experience for me.
It was a rainy day. My boyfriend and I turned up to the community hall that the show was being held in. There were lots of cars there,so we figured we were in the right place. We got out of the car and walked into the foyer only to be confronted by snowmen, Santas and Christmas lights. ??? Umm, thought this was a cat show. Maybe I'm in the wrong place? So I walked decided to just walk into the hall anyway just incase and luckily I did as this was in fact the place that the cat show was being held. It just for some reason had a Christmas display in the foyer at the wrong time of year. I eventually realised that maybe they were getting ready to celebrate Mid-winter Christmas, a tradition some countries in lower hemisphere do, because we are greedy and one Christmas isn't enough.
SO I popped in and wandered around looking lost until someone asked if I was the vet and then informed me that the club manager hadn't arrived yet.
Basically when I vet the cats for the show I need to have a club manager with me to protect me from any grumpy breeders who are not happy with my decision.Sounds....exciting, maybe I should have backed out then. But then I reminded myself I needed the money and I was also doing this as a favour for one of my favourite breeding clients.
So while I waited for the club manager I had a look around the stalls at all the gorgeous kitties. Talked to them, tried to tell them it would be ok (they didn't believe me). My boyfriend got snaffled by a breeder that saw the only young man in the room and wanted to tell him about her breed. (She was pretty cool actually). I skulked off and looked at adorable kittens.
Eventually the club manager turned up and went through what I had to do. He told me that while vetting at a cat show you do a mainly visual exam and only if you decide that you are worried about the cat do you get it out and you feel it's lymph nodes and examine it more closely.
This was completely alien to me.
Whenever I see an animal to vet normally, I do a complete nose to tail examination, including temperature and auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) of the heart and lungs, before declaring it healthy.
It felt really strange declaring a cat healthy just by looking at it.
Plus, I like to cuddle the kitties, so not touching them wasn't as cool. However the lighting was crappy, which gave me a good excuse to get them out under the guise of looking at them better and cuddle them.
So anyway I got to grips with not touching as many kitties as I liked and was pretty happy with most of them. Most of the breeders were really cool and their cats were awesome.
However there was one kitty that gave me a bit of grief. The kitty was nice, but the owner not so much. I decided to vet this cat out, as its eyelids were all inflamed, it had blepharospasm (squinting) of the right eye, bilateral epiphora (excess tear production) and generally looked like he was feeling pretty crap.
These signs that I have listed are common clinical signs for feline respiratory problems, such as feline herpes virus, chlamydophila and rhinotracheitis virus (cat flu basically). This is a lovely disease complex that can be passed on through sneezing, fomites, coughing and contact. A fomite is something that they touch that carries the germs to another animal if they touch it e.g. a brush or food bowl etc.
Upon informing the owner of how her sick kitty will be vetted out she was adamant that he was just fine and I was stupid. She also uttered a few other grumpy words in my general direction.
I tried to remain as calm as possible and I think I did a pretty good job, until it got a bit scary with the woman yelling "Is that the vet!?" and charging towards me. Luckily the club manager stepped in and convinced her to drop it. Another club official talked to her and calmed her down, so I did not get assaulted. Yay.
What was awesome was that my lovely man was standing beside me the whole time being my bodyguard which really helped. Without him it would have been a whole lot scarier.
But that's not the end of it. What made the whole procedure worse, was that the cat I decided to vet out was brought by a Judge!!! So she was grumpy not because I denied her of earning a potential ribbon and prize but because my ruling might mean she couldn't judge. She was lucky though, as I decided to rule it as a precautionary measure, which meant the cat could be removed from the show but the lady could still judge, and I could go home alive.
Everyone else was so lovely though. They all came up to me and apologised for the debacle and then started telling me some cool stories about turtle surgeries and neat things like that.
I also got to meet some old breeder friends and have a catch up as well, so all in all I generally had a great time, and I got paid for it! Not much, but every little bit helps at a time like this.
Here are some of the cool breeds I got to meet:
American Curl:
Munchkin:
La perm:
Ragdoll:
Exotic:
Persian:
Bengal:
Sphynx:
Oriental:
Maine Coon:
Norwegian Forest cat:
So I had a pretty exciting day. After that I went home and had a nap to destress.
Thursday 13 June 2013
Avon
Righto.
Another day and still no news on vet jobs.
Yesterday however I signed up to become an Avon representative. It's all very exciting. I learned a lot about the company. They have the Avon Foundation which has raised and donated hundreds of millions of dollars for breast cancer research, domestic violence awareness and disaster relief.
When I learnt that, I gained a whole new respect for the company.
So now I need to spread the word.
The most intimidating thing I think I will find is the door knocking. Hehe.
Oh well, gotta earn my keep somehow.
So soon I should hopefully be up and running!
Another day and still no news on vet jobs.
Yesterday however I signed up to become an Avon representative. It's all very exciting. I learned a lot about the company. They have the Avon Foundation which has raised and donated hundreds of millions of dollars for breast cancer research, domestic violence awareness and disaster relief.
When I learnt that, I gained a whole new respect for the company.
So now I need to spread the word.
The most intimidating thing I think I will find is the door knocking. Hehe.
Oh well, gotta earn my keep somehow.
So soon I should hopefully be up and running!
Monday 10 June 2013
How to prevent expensive vet bills.
Now we all know that taking your animal to the vet can be very expensive at times, due to vet medicine being non-government subsidised, the fact that it's a business, the fact that there are huge overheads and the fact that staff need to eat and pay bills . However there are ways that can make the process a lot more affordable:
1. Make sure you have pet insurance.
There are many pet insurance companies out there and many vet clinics will advise you of one or two that would be good for you. They may even set you up with a pet insurance company when you bring you pet in.
So make sure to ask about insurance when you go in to your clinic and they will be happy to help you.
Depending on your policy pet insurance will cover a wide range of conditions that aren't pre-existing. So insure your pet as soon as you get it and make sure you are familiar with what your insurance company will cover.
Pet insurance is well worth it.
However one problem with pet insurance is that it only tends to cover cats and dog and does not tend to cover exotic pets. So if you can't find a pet insurance that will cover an exotic pet then this brings me to my next point:
2.Set up credit with your vet clinic.
Many vet clinics will happily allow you to put a certain amount of money into your account each week, (This could be anything from 5-20 dollars a week), so that if need be and an emergency happens or unexpected costs occur you have a little stockpile at that clinic, which could put a size-able dent in your bill.
Personally I like it when someone has credit , cause it is always nice to be able to tell them that they don't have to pay anything that day.
3. Follow your vet's advice.
Believe it or not we are not out there to fleece you of all your money. Most of us are in it for the love of animals and when we advise on pet care we do it because we are ethically obliged to do it. We do a lot of preventative medicine and this comes in the form of annual health checks with vaccinations, annual blood tests, defleaing, deworming, proper nutrition etc etc.
So how does getting your pet regularly checked and vaccinated save you money?
Well, by keeping your pet healthy it is less likely to get sick.
Getting your pet fully vaccinated when it's a puppy or a kitten and fully wormed and defleaed may seem really expensive at the time, but it is nothing compared to the cost and suffering that you and your pet would go through if they were to contract one of those diseases that the vaccinations protect against.
Take Parvovirus for example: it is a very dangerous disease which unfortunately takes the lives of thousands of dogs every year. Parvovirus can cost over a $1000 to treat and even if you spend thousands on your puppy the prognosis may be guarded to poor as the disease may have affected it too badly to save it.
Parvovirus is easily prevented by a proper vaccination regime that would cost you a fraction of the price that treatment of the disease would cost.
When your vet tells you not to take your puppy for a walk until the full vaccination regime is completed then follow that advice. This is because the animal does not have full protection from those diseases until at least 10 days after their last scheduled puppy vaccinations. One vaccination is not enough to protect your puppy, they need several spaced 3-4 weeks apart.
Make sure to be on time with your vaccinations as well. During their first vaccines it is very important that they are 3-4 weeks apart as the immune system takes at least 2 weeks to form antibodies to a pathogen. And at the 3-4 week mark the levels of antibodies are at their ideal level to respond to a booster shot. So this is when the next booster should be given in order to fully cement the immune system's reaction to the disease in its memory. The timing is crucial.
So if you are too late for the booster vaccine then the whole regime needs to be started again and thus you end up paying more money.
So I really advise that you follow your vet's advice as they will prevent you from having to spend more in the long run.
It's just like a car, small but regular payments for tuneups and checks will save you from having to pay a huge bill at the end, for something that could have been easily prevented by those small check ups.
Edit: Another way to prevent expensive vet bills is to become a vet. That is one of the reasons I became a vet - so I could look after my animals as soon as they needed it, prevent preventable ilness, not have to worry about as much expense and know that it would be just that little bit cheaper for me.
I don't have to pay for consults or the full price on products (it depends on the clinic you work at what you get). So it's a kind of good way to get cheaper vet bills, however you do have to end up with a giant student loan; one that can number in the hundreds of thousands. So I suppose in that regard it is a very expensive vet bill, but at the time it seems cheap. lol.
1. Make sure you have pet insurance.
There are many pet insurance companies out there and many vet clinics will advise you of one or two that would be good for you. They may even set you up with a pet insurance company when you bring you pet in.
So make sure to ask about insurance when you go in to your clinic and they will be happy to help you.
Depending on your policy pet insurance will cover a wide range of conditions that aren't pre-existing. So insure your pet as soon as you get it and make sure you are familiar with what your insurance company will cover.
Pet insurance is well worth it.
However one problem with pet insurance is that it only tends to cover cats and dog and does not tend to cover exotic pets. So if you can't find a pet insurance that will cover an exotic pet then this brings me to my next point:
2.Set up credit with your vet clinic.
Many vet clinics will happily allow you to put a certain amount of money into your account each week, (This could be anything from 5-20 dollars a week), so that if need be and an emergency happens or unexpected costs occur you have a little stockpile at that clinic, which could put a size-able dent in your bill.
Personally I like it when someone has credit , cause it is always nice to be able to tell them that they don't have to pay anything that day.
3. Follow your vet's advice.
Believe it or not we are not out there to fleece you of all your money. Most of us are in it for the love of animals and when we advise on pet care we do it because we are ethically obliged to do it. We do a lot of preventative medicine and this comes in the form of annual health checks with vaccinations, annual blood tests, defleaing, deworming, proper nutrition etc etc.
So how does getting your pet regularly checked and vaccinated save you money?
Well, by keeping your pet healthy it is less likely to get sick.
Getting your pet fully vaccinated when it's a puppy or a kitten and fully wormed and defleaed may seem really expensive at the time, but it is nothing compared to the cost and suffering that you and your pet would go through if they were to contract one of those diseases that the vaccinations protect against.
Take Parvovirus for example: it is a very dangerous disease which unfortunately takes the lives of thousands of dogs every year. Parvovirus can cost over a $1000 to treat and even if you spend thousands on your puppy the prognosis may be guarded to poor as the disease may have affected it too badly to save it.
Parvovirus is easily prevented by a proper vaccination regime that would cost you a fraction of the price that treatment of the disease would cost.
When your vet tells you not to take your puppy for a walk until the full vaccination regime is completed then follow that advice. This is because the animal does not have full protection from those diseases until at least 10 days after their last scheduled puppy vaccinations. One vaccination is not enough to protect your puppy, they need several spaced 3-4 weeks apart.
Make sure to be on time with your vaccinations as well. During their first vaccines it is very important that they are 3-4 weeks apart as the immune system takes at least 2 weeks to form antibodies to a pathogen. And at the 3-4 week mark the levels of antibodies are at their ideal level to respond to a booster shot. So this is when the next booster should be given in order to fully cement the immune system's reaction to the disease in its memory. The timing is crucial.
So if you are too late for the booster vaccine then the whole regime needs to be started again and thus you end up paying more money.
So I really advise that you follow your vet's advice as they will prevent you from having to spend more in the long run.
It's just like a car, small but regular payments for tuneups and checks will save you from having to pay a huge bill at the end, for something that could have been easily prevented by those small check ups.
Edit: Another way to prevent expensive vet bills is to become a vet. That is one of the reasons I became a vet - so I could look after my animals as soon as they needed it, prevent preventable ilness, not have to worry about as much expense and know that it would be just that little bit cheaper for me.
I don't have to pay for consults or the full price on products (it depends on the clinic you work at what you get). So it's a kind of good way to get cheaper vet bills, however you do have to end up with a giant student loan; one that can number in the hundreds of thousands. So I suppose in that regard it is a very expensive vet bill, but at the time it seems cheap. lol.
Sunday 9 June 2013
My fish decided to get a fungal infection. :( He's a big fish I've called him Fishy, cause I could never think of a name for him. Maybe I'll call him Walter. He suits Walter.
Ok so Walter decided to get a fungal infection and he also decided to kill my other little fishy, Billy. It was very upsetting, I feel very responsible for my pets and get very upset if anything happens to them, even if they are fish. They are my responsibility and their lives are in my hand. So I was devastated when I found little Billy all dead and bruised around his head. He went to the porcelin express. A few words were uttered and he was flushed.
Meanwhile my other little fishy Pom pom is doing well. Walter ate her tail off, so I had to rehome her into another tank and now her tail is beautifully growing back. But there is no way I am putting her back in with Walter. Walter is a Piscicidal fish! He can live in solitary confinement for now with his fungus.
Anyway I've treated the water with Methylene blue and malachite green. Doesn't seem to be working. So will have to do some research on treatment for fungus in fish. :/
Here is Walter with his fungus. Excuse the quality of the pictures, I took them on my phone and phone doesn't have a macro setting.
Here he is hiding behind the driftwood ready to pounce on some unsuspecting fish:
He has the killer instinct.
Here is little Pompom:
She doesn't like the camera:
Here's a prettier picture I took of Pom pom earlier:
And a picture of Walter and Billy before the fungus and the murder:
Oh and that's a snail on the glass there. The snail doesn't have a name.
Cheers. Love you and your piscicidal fish!
Ok so Walter decided to get a fungal infection and he also decided to kill my other little fishy, Billy. It was very upsetting, I feel very responsible for my pets and get very upset if anything happens to them, even if they are fish. They are my responsibility and their lives are in my hand. So I was devastated when I found little Billy all dead and bruised around his head. He went to the porcelin express. A few words were uttered and he was flushed.
Meanwhile my other little fishy Pom pom is doing well. Walter ate her tail off, so I had to rehome her into another tank and now her tail is beautifully growing back. But there is no way I am putting her back in with Walter. Walter is a Piscicidal fish! He can live in solitary confinement for now with his fungus.
Anyway I've treated the water with Methylene blue and malachite green. Doesn't seem to be working. So will have to do some research on treatment for fungus in fish. :/
Here is Walter with his fungus. Excuse the quality of the pictures, I took them on my phone and phone doesn't have a macro setting.
Here is little Pompom:
She doesn't like the camera:
Here's a prettier picture I took of Pom pom earlier:
And a picture of Walter and Billy before the fungus and the murder:
Cheers. Love you and your piscicidal fish!
Back to the Basics
Ok. So there aren't many jobs going out there for a Small animal vet at the moment. I have applied for as many as I can think of. Now I think I may have to start cold calling.
It's pretty hard really, I'm not used to having nothing to do all day. Having worked at one of the busiest clinics in all of Auckland, sitting at home is boring, however it is very relaxing and I am using my time to relax and go over my notes.
The issue of eating and paying bills is still there however :/
So yesterday I applied for call centre jobs and jobs as as a temp.
The temp agency didn't want me, probably because I don't have enough experience being a temp.
Oh well, their loss.
It's pretty hard being a vet looking for a job. Vet jobs are few and far between and you don't have any experience doing anything else so no one else wants you. :(
Or you're too overqualified for things so they don't want you for that either.
I mean if I got into vet school and graduated (you must have an A- grade average to get in), I'm not stupid, give me a chance! *sigh*
It's pretty hard really, I'm not used to having nothing to do all day. Having worked at one of the busiest clinics in all of Auckland, sitting at home is boring, however it is very relaxing and I am using my time to relax and go over my notes.
The issue of eating and paying bills is still there however :/
So yesterday I applied for call centre jobs and jobs as as a temp.
The temp agency didn't want me, probably because I don't have enough experience being a temp.
Oh well, their loss.
It's pretty hard being a vet looking for a job. Vet jobs are few and far between and you don't have any experience doing anything else so no one else wants you. :(
Or you're too overqualified for things so they don't want you for that either.
I mean if I got into vet school and graduated (you must have an A- grade average to get in), I'm not stupid, give me a chance! *sigh*
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