07/15/2025
Greetings from the Practice Manager!
A beautiful summer day here in southeastern Minnesota! Sure makes the staff working out back feel a lot better than when the temps are extreme. Speaking of out back, if you saw my previous "no phones" post, you know we have some horses out back. We are not a boarding facility but once a while we do have to hospitalize a horse. Right now we have FOUR horses hospitalized in the pens. One with barbed wire injuries to work on every day, one with some wounds on each foot, and one c**t with a very large hernia that Dr. John closed yesterday (and one mama to nurse that c**t). As much as I love having horses to pet everyday, it's hard to get cattle in to work when three pens are taken. Which is a good segue into our expansion.
We are hoping to start concrete work very soon for phase 1 of our expansion. This phase includes adding a larger small animal surgery suite and sound proof dog kennels to the immediate west of our main building. We will continue the new addition to the edge of our current building (far west end of current large animal space) to add more pen space in the back, a second tilt table work area, and an additional loading/unloading area on the west end of the new addition. The includes adding a driveway off of the county road which needs to be approved yet but fingers crossed we can use the existing approach and make it work. All of these things will improve our customer's experience and allow us to continue to grow.
My most important message of the day comes from the Minnesota Department of Health and Mower County which is a neighbor to Fillmore County. The latest rabies alert from MDH is at this link:
https://www.bah.state.mn.us/Mower-County-Farm-Cat-Tests-Positive-for-Rabies
To summarize, an unvaccinated cat was in contact with a family dog and two children. All receiving bites from the cat. The farmer then shot the cat (preserving the head area which is necessary for rabies testing!) and it was sent in to MDH by the local vet clinic. The cat tested positive for rabies. The dog, who was not up to date on a vaccination, was vaccinated and quarantined while the children started post-exposure treatment. They also chose to euthanize all of the cats on their farm to ensure no further incidents. This is a testament to how important it is to vaccinate all cats and dogs for rabies. While the prevalence may have been declining due to vaccinations increasing, that trend seems to be switching and some owners believe they don't need to vaccinate because its not a big deal anymore. Unfortunately, there are increasing cases of rabies in the United States. The chart below is from the Minnesota Department of Health and shows rabies cases over the last year. It shows that we cannot decrease our vigilance for rabies vaccination. For all cats and dogs. Please keep your pets current on vaccinations!
The Fillmore County Fair is next week (July 21-26). Good luck to all of the 4-Hers showing projects and animals. I'm looking forward to attending a few of the stock shows. See you all there!
