Did someone call for a doctor?

Poor, precious Nellie.
Yesterday, I was gazing into her big, soulful brown eyes, when I realized that something was staring back. A raised area on her right cornea. An ulceration? Foreign body? Oh, dear.
There have been very few times Nellie has given me cause to worry. The worse time...HERE. I thought she was going to die.

So, who ya gonna call? That's right...KatDoc.

A PSA for Kathi's vet practice: If you live in Cincinnati and are looking for a caring, fun vet, Kathi is the one to go to. The office is very clean (and smells great, if you can believe it), is staffed with nice personnel, and of course there's Kathi herself.
(I don't know how much info Kathi is comfortable with me sharing, so if you are interested, go to her blog and you can snag her email there)


Isabelle is becoming quite the photog. She has been practicing with my camera and she is responsible for the following photos:


Nellie waits impatiently for the doc to arrive.


The good doctor prepares her instruments.



The boo boo is on this side....


Here's a close up...that whitish spot on the upper left quadrant of her eye.

After putting greenish stuff (I think that's the technical name for it) in Nellie's eye, first Dr. Kathi used a Wood lamp, then an eye shiner thingy (another technical name):

I had to grab Nellie in a bear hug (with both arms and one leg) to keep her still...


And here you can see the green stuff starting to leak out of her nose. Fun!

The diagnosis: A puncture of her cornea by something very thin (not Hooper's teeth, like I assumed) like a thorn or something in the yard (teasel, maybe? We have plenty of that). Treatment plan: Eye ointment, which should clear it up in 3 to 5 days. If no improvement, Nellie will need to be placed under sedation so Kathi can 'scrape' at the spot to see if there is a foreign body. Let's hope it improves!


Gratuitous picture of me....gee, Isabelle. That's not bad. At least my teeth look nice.

And not to leave this post with too much worry or "Eeew....I can't look at sick eye pictures!", here's a fun little bit:

After a program today, I dropped off the birds and a small white thing caught my eye.

Explanation: When a bird is preparing for release at RAPTOR, a "live-prey test" is performed. A bird is placed in a flight cage that is encased in steel around the bottom few feet near the ground, so nothing can get out. A handful of live mice are put in the cage. The next day, someone goes in and counts the mice. If some of the mice are gone, we know they are in the bird and the bird is ready to leave. Wellllll.....the cage either has a hole somewhere (that happens) or this is the cleverest, most determined mouse in the world.
I thought briefly about catching her, but after the ordeal she muse have gone through to escape, I think she deserves to be out.
Of course, she won't last long....with that new family of red-shouldered hawks that are hunting in the woods around RAPTOR. Enjoy that freedom as long as it lasts, little one!