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Asstro Van
Apr 15, 2007

Always check your blind spots before backing that thang up.

wtftastic posted:

yeah in your professional work as a vet there's no way you could ever contact an ACO or someone who runs animal control in your area.

Different vets have different levels of interaction with their ACO. At our clinic, we are besties with the ACO and humane society. We see the majority of their good sam cases, all of their voucher neuters, and all of their euthanasias. Based on how much we work together, I don't think they get around to the other clinics in town very much. It might be a little weird/awkward for someone at one of those clinics to call her up to shoot the poo poo and ask the kinds of questions that are easy to ask a stranger on the internet.

Our ACO is an awesome, super cool lady. Hilarious (to me) is that her first name is one soft letter off from a notorious BYB. Both of them are prone to calling up for emergency squeeze-in appointments. Every time the front desk pages that "S~~~~" is on her way, there is a great deal of suspense over whether we get fun visit time or twenty gross puppies for health certs.

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I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Have you had any experiences with humane traps for relocation, TNR, etc.? Or is that more a wildlife officer thing? (I stopped doing TNR in Florida after finding a pissed-off possum in a trap.)

Do you have any stories about working in tandem with other city depts?

Khelmar
Oct 12, 2003

Things fix me.
How did you pick which vet to go to? Did you have a list of folks that were "good" or had an arrangement with the city / county / whoever, or did you go to the closest one?

We used to see animal control 1-2x/month when I worked ER for a variety of different things.

misty mountaintop
Jun 2, 2015

by Hand Knit
Have you ever run into other illegal/criminal activities in the course of your investigation? Like have you ever gone into a property and found weed or a meth lab or something like that? If so, what do you do? Are you required to report evidence of criminal activity or is that outside your area of expertise?

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde
If Flavor Truck doesn't mind, I did AC for about 10 years so I can also answer questions. Did a thread in PI about it some years back which has fallen into archives.

EXTREME INSERTION
Jun 4, 2011

by LadyAmbien

SubponticatePoster posted:

If Flavor Truck doesn't mind, I did AC for about 10 years so I can also answer questions. Did a thread in PI about it some years back which has fallen into archives.

Did you see any pet sharks, wolf dogs, or tigers?

Flavor Truck
Nov 5, 2007

My Love for You is like a Truck

SubponticatePoster posted:

If Flavor Truck doesn't mind, I did AC for about 10 years so I can also answer questions. Did a thread in PI about it some years back which has fallen into archives.

Go hog wild! I'm taking a break from this thread for the holiday.

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde

EXTREME INSERTION posted:

Did you see any pet sharks, wolf dogs, or tigers?
Yes, yes, and yes. The shark was in a marine aquarium, so not very exciting. Both full wolves and hybrids which are illegal as gently caress in my jurisdiction. However there was no way to prove legally that the animal was a wolf or hybrid (most people claimed Husky or Malamute mix) so we'd just make sure it was licensed and vaccinated and call it a day. Tiger in a traveling circus, we had to do inspections of them before we'd give an operating permit. The zoo is under USDA so we didn't inspect it. None running loose, thank god. Though we would get calls on mountain lions from time to time because they'd wander into the city - we'd go out and ascertain that yes, it was a mountain lion and then have wildlife come do their thing.

Suspect Bucket
Jan 15, 2012

SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR
I am so happy this thread turned around. It's super interesting.

And yo, Supes! Just a heads up. We got the state EP called on us at work because our pigs live near a 'creek' on the property border, their housing is just a hair over the distance requirement so that our rescue hogs aren't literally making GBS threads up a 'protected waterway', which is really just a drainage ditch. You might want to check up on your state's rules for that.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

wtftastic posted:

yeah in your professional work as a vet there's no way you could ever contact an ACO or someone who runs animal control in your area. it would literally be impossible. they would never want to talk to you.

can't blame them.

I don't work in General Practice anymore, and I'm not associated with the local ACO because there's no reason for me to be. Where I used to work, we were the clinic that ACO used. We had one ACO for the city; he was overworked, underpaid, but he did his best. The cases he brought to us were almost always sad. We knew a lot of how things worked (and didn't) from him, but different places function differently.

Flavor Truck posted:

Go on ahead. Thanks to everyone who PM'ed me about this thread. I'm not discouraged by shitposting in light of those who have legitimate questions. There's very little information out there on the day-to-day for ACOs and my positive experiences greatly outweighed the negative. I still volunteer at a local shelter and have lots of input on things like budgeting, treatment of strays by shelter size, etc.

How did your area handle intake? Did you have a central holding area, and if so, was it sufficient to your needs? Was there a written (or unwritten) rule about amount of treatment on stray cases?

The Big Whoop
Oct 12, 2012

Learning Disabilities: Cat Edition
Is there a ton of burn out and compassion fatigue?

Are you versed in animal first aide?

How do you handle a case of suspected rabies for someone's beloved pet verses a stray or a wild animal?

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde
You get to developing a really thick skin, but stuff can still get to you. Burnout due more to heavy workload - like most AC departments we were understaffed and underfunded. I was fine while working but in the time after I quit I had a bit of mild, I dunno, PTSD about it. Like "goddamn, how did I deal with that all the time?"

We did get animal first aid taught to us and carried a small med kit in our trucks. Really basic, like how to stop bleeding and the like. Not much different from a basic human first aid course.

As far as rabies goes, if it was a suspected exposure then it depended on the animal's vaccination status. If current a 10-day quarantine at home, if not either strict 6 month quarantine at a vet's office or euthanasia for immediate testing. Wild animals like bats and raccoons usually got euthed and tested right away. Never encountered a domestic animal suspected of being actually rabid. The vaccines work great and it's why they're stressed so heavily. It's nothing to gently caress around with. Fun fact: I am vaccinated against rabies. They didn't give me a tag to wear though :(

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.
Are rabies shots for people as horrible as I've always been told it is (needles into the stomach?) or was that just a tall tale told to us kids to scare us into staying away from wild animals?

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde
Prophylaxis rabies shots are no different than any other kind of vaccine - got mine in the upper left arm. The poo poo is like syrup though and it feels like Mike Tyson punched you there for a couple of days. "Treatment" rabies shots consist of 1 immunoglobulin shot and then 4 followups over 2 weeks. I think the abdominal stuff is how they used to do it way back in the day.

Luckily people are fairly naturally resistant to rabies, it's just that it's 99.9% fatal if you do get it so nobody wants to gently caress around.

Other fun rabies facts: it's only transmitted by/to mammals. Birds and reptiles carry no risk. The further away from the brain you're bitten, the longer it takes to manifest symptoms. An animal can be carrying rabies but not be contagious yet if it hasn't gotten to the brain. The virus is transmitted through saliva. Blood is not a risk. Bats are most commonly associated with rabies, but skunks and raccoons are usually worse carriers and way more likely to bite you than a bat, which aren't really aggressive. Most human to bat exposures involve children or babies, either by them finding a sick bat and playing with it or a rabid bat ending up in a crib. The only recorded human-to-human rabies transmissions have occurred from organ transplants :gonk:

SapientCorvid
Jun 16, 2008

reading The Internet

SubponticatePoster posted:


Other fun rabies facts: it's only transmitted by/to mammals. Birds and reptiles carry no risk. The further away from the brain you're bitten, the longer it takes to manifest symptoms. An animal can be carrying rabies but not be contagious yet if it hasn't gotten to the brain. The virus is transmitted through saliva. Blood is not a risk. Bats are most commonly associated with rabies, but skunks and raccoons are usually worse carriers and way more likely to bite you than a bat, which aren't really aggressive. Most human to bat exposures involve children or babies, either by them finding a sick bat and playing with it or a rabid bat ending up in a crib. The only recorded human-to-human rabies transmissions have occurred from organ transplants :gonk:

I watched (listened to?) some crazy npr/pbs thing about rabies and how it's actually possible to survive through the actual rabies hitting the brain part (the first case of a survival happening somewhat recently)

It's an absolutely crazy disease and I wish I had held onto more of the stuff I learned about it in that documentary...

EXTREME INSERTION
Jun 4, 2011

by LadyAmbien

McStephenson posted:

I watched (listened to?) some crazy npr/pbs thing about rabies and how it's actually possible to survive through the actual rabies hitting the brain part (the first case of a survival happening somewhat recently)

It's an absolutely crazy disease and I wish I had held onto more of the stuff I learned about it in that documentary...

Milwaukee protocol...but idk if it actually works or if that was just some sort of weird fluke. Lyssavirus are crazy

Lareine
Jul 22, 2007

KIIIRRRYYYUUUUU CHAAAANNNNNN

EXTREME INSERTION posted:

Milwaukee protocol...but idk if it actually works or if that was just some sort of weird fluke. Lyssavirus are crazy

Both. It had to have done something considering nobody survived rabies before ever in the history of humanity but even after using the protocol, the survival rate is still dismal.

Fashionably Great
Jul 10, 2008

Aquatic Giraffe posted:

Are rabies shots for people as horrible as I've always been told it is (needles into the stomach?) or was that just a tall tale told to us kids to scare us into staying away from wild animals?

I got bit by a feral cat as a kid, and I had to get the shots. For me, the initial shots were one in my upper left arm, then shots directly into each bite wound (:gonk: oh god this was the woooorst part) and then two shots in my lower back/hips. The last shot was loving huge, which is why they had to split up the dose into two injection sites. Then, I had several followup shots over the course of a month or two. It's been years but I don't think it was all done in two weeks for me. It was incredibly painful and unpleasant.

SapientCorvid
Jun 16, 2008

reading The Internet
So many parts of rabies are super interesting: the mood shift into a violent state of wanting to spread the virus to just shutting down after that period to the extreme fear of water to the idea of it taking over areas of the brain...

Totally crazy stuff. I wish we knew more about it

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Yeah rabies is loving fascinating. I'm currently a vet tech student and my courses naturally involve a lot of research into various zoonotic diseases. When I wrote my paper on rabies I found all the information about the disease itself (the hydrophobia!), its strains, its attempted treatments, and its few and poorly understood successful survival cases I had legit trouble trimming it all down to the requested length.

Tamarillo
Aug 6, 2009
We don't have rabies in Aus/NZ and there were a bunch of people being all "OH customs you guys are a bag of dicks for not letting Johnny Depp keep his dogs that he smuggled into Australia without quarantine, SO MEAN"

Actually, we really just don't want loving rabies, which has been highlighted to me again by the above examples of symptoms and treatment!

SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde

Tamarillo posted:

We don't have rabies in Aus/NZ and there were a bunch of people being all "OH customs you guys are a bag of dicks for not letting Johnny Depp keep his dogs that he smuggled into Australia without quarantine, SO MEAN"

Actually, we really just don't want loving rabies, which has been highlighted to me again by the above examples of symptoms and treatment!
How long is your quarantine period? England finally got rid of the strict 6-month one they used to have; currently vaccinated animals are ok to come right in. Don't blame you guys for being cautious though, Imagine rabid kangaroos :derp:

Tamarillo
Aug 6, 2009

SubponticatePoster posted:

How long is your quarantine period? England finally got rid of the strict 6-month one they used to have; currently vaccinated animals are ok to come right in. Don't blame you guys for being cautious though, Imagine rabid kangaroos :derp:

Unsure about Australia but in NZ it depends on the country of origin - no quarantine required for Australian imports, the USA it's like 30 days but apparently for places like South Africa it's 120 days.

Rabid kiwis would be a menace drilling through people's ankles so it's important we protect our great nation from this threat.

Shithouse Dave
Aug 5, 2007

each post manufactured to the highest specifications


I infrequently do cruelty investigations as the first point of contact, meaning I have to go knock on the door after receiving a complaint and talk to the animal owners about the complaint. A lot of complaints are unfounded and most people are reasonable.

This thread reminded me of the time someone called in to complain that a truck from our organization was outside their house and they (the caller) were freaking the gently caress out and swearing and all kinds of poo poo. It was me, I was driving slowly to check house numbers while heading for a house down the street and I pulled over half a block up to write down the job number, date and time and stuff in my notebook before I pulled up and went to knock on the door. Suburban street, daytime, public property and I wasn't even looking at that side of the road. Some people just get really aggressively defensive super quick.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

How were your relations with the police?

I ask because an ACO I used to work with would tell us stories where it seemed like it had to be that the police held him in low regard or were just... dumb.

One that sticks out is the police picking up a dead dog on the side of the road and putting the body in his truck... in the summer and over the weekend (the ACO was off Sat/Sun).

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SubponticatePoster
Aug 9, 2004

Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.
Slippery Tilde
Mine were very good. Sometimes a couple of them would act put out to help us but for the most part they were excellent. In one jurisdiction we serviced a few of the officers would call me directly if they found an animal problem that was especially bad like dogfighting (because a couple of the people that worked for us were :downs: and they knew I would handle it competently) and I'd just radio dispatch that I needed a case to assist an officer and off I'd go. Also when I was a young pup I worked in a coffee place and it was in the bad part of town so the cops were there constantly and I got to know a lot of them so when I was working AC they'd drop everything to come help if I needed backup. It was like having very overprotective aunts/uncles coming to your aid :3:

The dog thing would never happen with us because we always had somebody working and if it was an important call they'd wake you up if you were on call. If it was just a DOA they'd let dispatch know who'd write up a call to be put into queue for the next normal shift, if it was when we had regular hours we'd go pick it up then.

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