Tales from a Wild Vet: Paws, claws and furry encounters. Jo Hardy

      

Copyright

      This book is based on real-life experiences. However, many details of the scenarios, and names of the animals and owners, have been changed to protect client confidentiality.

      HarperElement

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperElement 2016

      FIRST EDITION

      © Jo Hardy and Caro Handley 2016

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

      Cover illustrations © Sarah Tanat-Jones

      A catalogue record of this book is

      available from the British Library

      Jo Hardy and Caro Handley asserts the moral right

      to be identified as the authors of this work

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      Source ISBN: 9780008142506

      Ebook Edition © April 2016 ISBN: 9780008142513

      Version: 2016-02-29

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Chapter One: Mickey and the Miracle

       Chapter Two: Hedgehogs, Doves and a Very Cross Pheasant

       Chapter Three: Tosca

       Chapter Four: South Africa

       Chapter Five: First-time Surgery

       Chapter Six: Monday Morning

       Chapter Seven: People and their Pets

       Chapter Eight: Hoping to Help

       Chapter Nine: On the Side of the Animals

       Chapter Ten: The Handprint

       Chapter Eleven: The Thank-you Chicken

       Chapter Twelve: Margaret the Pig

       Chapter Thirteen: A Better Future

       Chapter Fourteen: Just Like Us

       Chapter Fifteen: The Trouble with Cats

       Chapter Sixteen: A Cheeky Chicken, a Daft Duck and Piles of Puppies

       Chapter Seventeen: Morocco

       Chapter Eighteen: Wedding Plans and Lucy’s Surprise

       Acknowledgements

       About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

       Mickey and the Miracle

      ‘There’s something wrong with Mickey. Can you help?’

      The elderly couple standing in front of me were visibly upset. She had tears in her eyes, and his lower jaw was trembling.

      ‘He’s off his food. He’s normally so full of life, but for the last couple of days he’s been so quiet. And this morning he was sick and there was … blood,’ they told me.

      I looked at the small brown-and-white mutt sitting on the examining table, looking up at me solemnly with big, trusting brown eyes.

      ‘Hello, Mickey,’ I said. ‘What’s up with you then?’

      He was a mixed-breed terrier; there was probably a bit of Westie and a bit of Yorkie mixed in with some Cairn in his background. His eyes peered out through a fringe of white hair and his small silky ears flopped over at a perky angle.

      I looked at his worried owners. ‘Let me take a look at him while you tell me a bit more about what’s been going on. How old is Mickey?’

      His owners, Mr and Mrs Thomas, told me that he was seven, which is still fairly young for a small dog. He was a rescue dog, they explained. They’d found him at a dog pound when he was just a puppy and they’d been devoted to him ever since.

      As I went through a basic examination, which Mickey tolerated patiently, I rattled through a mental index of possible causes for a dog vomiting blood. The trouble was, it could mean so many things. Had he swallowed a foreign body? Did he have a tumour? Did he have gastritis? Did he have stomach ulcers? Did he have worms? Or might it be an infection?

      This was my very first case as a fully qualified vet, and it had to be a complicated one. I had been hoping for something simple; a dose of worms, perhaps, or a vaccination and a bit of flea advice. Instead, here was Mickey, with his mystery condition.

      It was early August 2014 and I had been a vet for all of three weeks. After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) I’d signed on with an agency as a locum and here I was, on my first day at Braxton’s, a small practice