Eye Clinic 2007

Well this weekend was amazing!!!! My AC, Faith, 2 other team members and I packed and piled into a van at 10 AM on Thursday morning and were headed on our way to GEB to volunteer at the annual eye clinic. Eye Clinic is an annual event in which all active broods and studs, dogs that are on breed eval as well as selected retired broods and studs travel to the Canine Development Center to get weighed, a vet check up, annual vaccinations, interceptor and frontline, evaluation(like a mini IFT test) in front of the Director of Canine Development-Lee and the Senior Director of Breeding and Placement-Jane who video tape the session, and the most important part- an eye exam by the well renowned veterinary ophthalmologist Dr. Marjorie Neaderland. We arrived at the CDC Thursday afternoon after a 5 and a half hour drive to check in with my PE- the PE's have a workshop the days before Eye Clinic- and see if she would be available to go out to dinner with us that night. We also double checked what time we were supposed to be at the CDC in the morning. When we arrived we were enthusiastically greeted by Lee and Jane and were allowed to watch the end of one of the PE's training sessions. They were working with Suzanne Clothier so it was cool to see her in action. We helped set up for the next day and then left to go check in at the hotel. It turned out that my PE wouldn't be able to make it to dinner so we went out by ourselves. The food was great! We retired to the hotel and spent the rest of the night discussing ideas for class and things that we thought should be worked on. The next morning we arrived at the CDC bright and early -7:00. We helped by getting breakfast ready and got last minute things around to be ready for the start of the day. At 7:30 we had a group meeting to make sure everyone knew what they were responsible for and to get our new t-shirts and our name tags. I got to talk Sarah for a brief time (she worked both days but being so busy we barely saw each other)which was cool. The first dogs were scheduled to arrive at 8:30 but since everyone was ready we started a bit early by taking the dogs from the breeding kennel through. These were the dogs that were on breed watch or in heat. The first station is check in. You receive your paperwork which has all info needed for records (last vaccinations-needed vaccinations, last weight current weight, eye charts and eval). On the paper there may have been stickers at the top. Each sticker means something different (yellow for needing urine sample, red for needing blood drawn for DNA, green- I think- for a vet appointment and so on). They also receive a green eye sheet. While the fosters signed in it is the handlers job to take to dog from the side and administer eye drops. The eye drops dilate the pupils so that the Ophthalmologist can see all the structures that she needs to. From there we take the dog around the corner to the weigh station to get a current weight. It is very important that these dogs are not over weight. We then either give the dog back to the foster or take the dog through the rest of the stations depending on what the foster would like us to do. Sometimes fosters like to watch other people work their dogs, think the dog will behave better with someone new, have more then one dog or if they are dogs from the kennel.After the weigh-in we got to the vet express station. At this station the dogs get any vaccinations they need - rabies, bordetella, DHLPP, and Lyme- as well as get a blood test for heartworm. There are volunteers at this station that check the paper work for what each dog does or does not need, enters them into the computer and there are other volunteers that restrain the dogs so that the Vet Techs can administer the vaccines or draw blood. Most dogs do well with this but some dogs are scared so fosters are their to reassure and of course when it is all over all the dogs get a cookie for being so good. This station is also where the urine goes if they need to have brought a urine sample.If the brood or stud is active they go on to the active supplies station. At this station the fosters will pick up the supplies that they need for the next year. They get their heart worm and frontline and sometimes they get their ear cleaner. If they are not active they skip this station. If they have a red sticker, they wait in line for the DNA testing room were they will meet with either Dr. S or Dr.B for their blood draw. Also any dog that needs to talk to a vet can wait as well. Then the dogs move on to the evaluation station. Any training collars or head collars are removed and the dogs are handed off to a PE. Jane announces the dogs name and the names of the parents and then they are ready to go. The PE walk/ trot the dogs around the ring. They are tested on adaptability to new handlers and dog distraction as the waiting dogs are lined up right nest to the ring. After they are walked around the circle they have the startle test with the umbrella and the noise test with a tin full of coins. After that they are given back to the handler and sent on to the next station.

We then head upstairs-the older dogs take the elevator and wait in chairs for the visit to the eye doctor. One by one the dogs are brought into the closed exam room in the vet hospital. They are lifted onto the exam table and the lights are turned off. Dr. N then looks into the dogs eyes with two different types of instruments. After a minute or two she has all the info she needs. She fills out the green eye sheet which stays with the vets and gives back the white paper and we are on our way again. Either Dr. B or Dr. S are available in the vet clinic if any last minute questions arise or if Dr. N needs to talk to them about a certain patient. There is also another lady who enter all the data into the computer.

The next station is for the retired broods and studs to purchase their supplies for the year. They pay for supplies as they are no longer active in the colony where the active dogs get theirs for free. If the dog is active they skip to the check out station. Someone stands by the door to collect the white sheets and to make sure that the dog has completed all of the stations. After that they are on their way back home or if they are lucky on their way to a "Date". Well over the two days I was kept very busy. We saw ~180 dogs on Friday(8AM-~4PM) and ~105 dogs in half a day on Saturday(8:30AM-~11:30AM). On Friday I started out as a handler. I was a runner to get the kennel dogs and starting the fosters and dogs around in the circuit. That was going well and then there became a back up at the vet station and they needed another restrainer. They came looking specifically for me being in school to be a vet tech. That was fun as I held for three different people and got to learn what each person wanted in a holder and got really efficient by the end. I then helped fill up syringes. By that time the self proclaimed "handler coordinator" (or Nazi- haha, right Sarah?) came looking for me to go back to handling. Pretty soon I went to relieve my friend Faith from the job she got roped into doing...being a lifter at the eye check station. She just had back surgery not too long ago so she couldn't stay up there too long. I helped lift about 15 dogs and then the guy who was supposed to be lifting showed up so I headed back down stairs again. This time I found that we needed an eye dropper so that became my new job. That was interesting to try and get eye drops into the smart dog who knew to squint their eyes and turn their heads just as you thought you had it. LOL. Finally it was lunch time. After lunch I was back to handling and then eye drops. We were semi slow for a while only a couple dogs came in so a 2 of the handlers went around with old friends which left me with one handler. And wouldn't you know that is when everyone decided to show up!!! It was down to me and one other handler and then a lady came in with 2 dogs so then it was down to just me! I can say I got to be a real energizer bunny and really good at giving eye drops! Just when I thought I had it under control up walks another lady with 2 dogs. O NO! Luckily just in the nick of time one of the PE's came to help. The poor vet station came running to see if I could hold again but I had my hands full as well. Finally we were down to just waiting on one dog. So the handlers went over to the breeding kennel to see 2 of our region raised dogs that were in heat and to see Gala -Gretchen (my AC is raising her) and Glacier' sister. We also got to see the E07 litter. We had been watching them all day playing out in the puppy run with their toys. They were soo cute all little yellow labs all waiting to go home to their new raisers or weekend home socializers. The last dog never showed up so we got to leave and headed out to dinner. That night we were all so giddy that we couldn't stop laughing even at the stupidest things. The best part was when it was just me and one other team member in the room as everyone else was outside so she said we should lock the dead bolt. I thought it was a great idea so i turned over on the bed just there was no bed to land on so I landed on the floor. We were laughing so hard I think we almost choked! We played Uno which was fun and then everyone went to sleep for an early start in the morning. Saturday we were back at the CDC at 7. We got breakfast ready again and were all ready to work. I took the eye drop job for most of the day. I worked Finesse-Yellsea's mom- though the stations and got to see Ina again. Wow...soo big. Cant believe my I pups are a year old! After that we got lunch and Faith waited impatiently for her reunion. Her 4th puppy Scotch got released at 5 months old for severe hip and elbow displasia. He was adopted by one of the trainer at the training school. She and her husband drove to the CDC so that Faith could be reunited with her GSD Rooie. He was huge topping out at 85 lbs and is all legs. Such a cute boy and very happy. It was a great weekend. I got to see some old friends and met new ones. I got to work some very awesome dogs like Alex and Dharma. I also got stories of Mr. Mork and what he was like in the kennels. What a good boy. Everyone loved him there are were sad to see him go into training. They all still hold out the same hope that I do...that there are Mork and Mindy puppies in the future. lol. My favorite part of all was I actually that got to work a shepherd this year! A big beautiful male named Wheeler. For the last 2 year people at eye clinic would think that I was deathly afraid of shepherds because I would refuse to work them. That was not the reason I would not work them and in fact I LOVE GSDs. The real reason is that I am afraid of Faith and my AC. lol. They are HUGE GSD ppl and it is always a fight to see who gets to work them. Eye Clinic was really fun but a lot of work. I am ready to go back.

**ALL pictures are from previous Eye Clinics as this years are not posted yet**