Check-up

Writers: Kaysea, Patrick
Date Posted: 31st July 2007

Characters: Saria, Taia
Description: Saria takes Scout for a check up.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 28 of Turn 4

Saria hawled the tiny canine into the Weyrs Beast Hall. The little dog refused to enter the crafthall easily.

"Why can't you be a dragon? I could just tempt you in here with sweet thoughts and gestures." The Hears All Dragons grumbled at her pet. Finally at the end of her wit Saria grabbed the small canine around the middle and carried him into the room.

"You seem to be having fun there." Taia smiled, as she rose from her chair. "Is there something I can help you with?" She asked raising an eyebrow in query.

"Oh its a blast." Saria said through gritted teeth as she dealt with the squirming canine. "We're here for a check up." She explained as she held the crazed beast at arms length. "Only I think I'm the only one who actually wants to be here."

With a laugh, Taia walked around to assist the young woman with her canine. "It's not unusual for any beast, big or small, to act this way around the beastcraft cavern. The scent of the place is a put off to begin with, and I think they sense death here as well." her face creased in discomfort for a moment, "We don't sense it, but they do."

She held out her hand and allowed the canine to sniff her, before taking him from the woman's arms. "Come with me..." she walked from the office to a small cubicle, and stood the now shivering canine on the bench. "What's his name?" she asked.

"Scout." Saria supplied glad to have the squirming beast out of her arms.

"Hello Scout." Taia said, reaching into her coat pocket and bring out some small dried pieces of wherrymeat she kept for the smaller animals she saw. It was always handy to carry some around with her, she found, to soothe and bribe the canines, felines and even some of the firelizards appreciated the odd nibble.

The canine snuffled into Taia's hand, wolfing down the tidbit, and lapping greedily at her hand. "So," she said, looking up at the other woman, "just an overall check-up? Nothing in particular you need me to look for?"

"Not really. This is his first check-up since we moved to the weyr." the baker explained. "He has been scratching his ears a lot lately though if you could look at that too."

With a nod, Taia bent turned to the canine, and holding his head gently in both hands, she checked his eyes first. Clear and lively, and inquisitive she looked back into her eyes. Liquid klah. She smiled and pulled back sharply as his tongue flicked out at her nose.

"He's happy enough." she said to the young woman. She released the canines head and walked further along the bench and made a note a clean hide. "Oh - your name?"
she asked, filling in Scout's name under 'patient'.

She was surprised to find someone who didn't know her name. "I'm Saria." She said.

"Oh!" Taia glanced up, her eyes widening in recognition, then realising how rude she must appear, she flushed and hastily wrote down Saria's name under 'owner'. "Sorry, I ..I didn't mean to be so obvious.
I've..I've heard of you, of course.."

"Oh please don't go all 'I'm sorry great one' on me.
We were having such a nice conversation." Saria said exasperatly. "Seriously, just because I can hear voices in my head everyone thinks I deserve special treatment. I just want to be like everyone else."
Saria realized she was ranting and took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head. "I'm sorry I get out of hand sometimes. Its just annoying."

"I wasn't going to make a fuss, you just caught me off-guard." Taia smiled, "I had heard of you, it's a novelty when someone who doesn't have a dragon, can hear them." She returned her attention to Scout, "Now you said this little fellow had an ear problem? He's been shaking and scratching at his ears?"

"Yeah, quite a bit. He found a friend the other day that I was sure had mites and I'm afraid he might have them now too." Saria said worriedly, yet still glad the woman wasn't going to go all "proper" on her.

"Okay young Scout, hold still for me and we'll check your ears." she said warmly, trying to engender trust and comfort in her tone, as she gently flipped the canines ears open. She could feel Scout trying to pull away.

"Could you hold him still for me?" she asked Saria.
"His ears are very sensitive and I don't want him pulling away just as I get a good look inside." she said evenly, aware the canine could sense anxiety or concern.

Saria grabbed the little beasts head and held him still, murmuring reassurances to him.

Pulling one of his ears back gently, and murmuring words of encouragement, Taia bent to look first in one ear, then the other. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw how inflamed both ears were. "He's been whining some. I guess?" she asked Saria, glancing up for a moment.

"Some yes." Saria confirmed. "Why?"

"Well, you were right, he has mites, more than one in both ears." Taia opened up the canines ear again and indicated for Saria to take a look inside. "See, red and inflamed; but, do you also notice those little brownish-black granules down inside the ear that look like crushed klah?"

Saria nodded as she looked in Scout's ears. "It does look like klah." She murmured.

"Well its not," Taia replied, "that's actually dried blood from the mite. But don't worry," she reassured the other girl, "we can cure this." She stood upright again and finished the examination of the canine from nose to tail.

Nothing else seemed to be wrong with him, he was in good condition apart from the ticks, which meant they had caught him early enough before the ticks had affected his system too much. "I'll give you some cream that you will need to rub on three times a day.
It will kill the ticks, but you'll need to keep this up for almost the whole month, a minimum of at least three sevenday." she cautioned. "I'll clean his ear canals out before you go, so we can judge how quickly the cream is doing it's work."

Saria nodded, patting her canine. "Poor little puppy, I'm so sorry." She murmured to him, rubbing his side and giving him a one armed squeeze. "Will this cream come with instructions, I work best when theres a paper that tells me what to do."

"I can write them down, but really, it's just three times a day. And there's no need to feel guilty."
Taia assured Saria, "it could have happened at any time. Canine's can have ticks, it's a fact of their lives. We just have to keep on top of things."

Saria nodded as she absently stroked Scout's course fur.

Pouring some water into a bowl, Taia added redwort, and collected some soft pads to help clean out Scout's ears. She walked back to the bench and once more, indicated for Saria to take hold of the canine's head.
Crooning softly to Scout, she bent to the task as cleaned out both of his ears. "I'll put this first lot of cream on, and then you can do some more tonight."

"Alright." Saria said as she held the canine, watching how Taia applied the cream. Scout squirmed as the cold cream reached his ear, letting out a small whine of protest. "Shh sweetie its ok." Saria soothed.

"Well," said Taia, standing straight again, "I think for now, he'll be okay. Just keep applying this to his ears, and once you've run out, come back and I'll give you more, to last over the three sevendays or so.
Bring him with you and we'll clean his ears each time, too."

"Gotcha. Thank you very much." Now that the cleaning was finished Scout stood by himself and proceeded to lick Taia's face. "Scout thanks you too." Saria smiled at her canine.

"You're welcome, Scout." Taia ruffled the canine's fur, before lifting him and placing him down on the floor. "He should be fine now, if you have any problems, feel free to come back and see me, but I don't think you will."

"Gotcha." Saria replied with a sharp nod.

Last updated on the August 2nd 2007

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Check-up