I received these photos yesterday evening from Jen K., the 4th-year vet student at WSU's veterinary teaching hospital who is blind Callie's day-to-day case manager while she's there. Jen has been with Callie from when I first brought her, and kindly calls me with daily updates. In a word, Callie is doing great! She is getting her radiation dose every day and will for a full three weeks.
In the photos Jen sent, you see radiation vet techs Betsy W. and Rob H. They're the ones who actually administer the radiation. Jen says the entire process takes only about 10 to 15 minutes, and the radiation itself happens in less than 5 minutes.
Here is Betsy "masking" Callie with the anesthesia:
In this shot they're putting in her "bite block," which helps hold her head in the right position:
Next up, Betsy and Rob are positioning Callie under the linear accelerator, which is the machine that produces the radiation:
(Please, no comments on the rather broad posterior in that photo above. I'm sure it was just the camera angle!)
Here's the straight-on view with the bite block (the writing on it says "Callie Smith, 4/14/09," which is the date she started her radiation):
Another view of Callie under the linear accelerator:
And finally, Betsy is holding Callie while she recovers from the anesthesia:
They're using a very light anesthesia, Jen says, and by the time they have Callie back to her cage down the hall, she is awake and alert and ready to eat!
Jen told me this past weekend that Callie had been pretty quiet the first week but that on Saturday, she started howling from her cage. Jen thought that meant Callie really needed to go potty in a hurry, so she scooped her up and rushed her outside to the lawn … where Callie promptly turned herself upside down and rolled around in the grass on her back. No, she didn't need to pee, she just wanted a good roll in the grass. I told Jen, "Well, she's got you trained now!"
In her email last night with the photos, Jen wrote, "Also, Callie is doing fantastic today. Currently, she is howling up a storm because she 'urgently' needs to go outside for a roll in the grass!"
On a more serious note, the radiation oncologist at WSU, Dr. Janean Fidel, had told me last week that without the radiation therapy, Callie would only have had months to live. So THANK YOU again to everyone who made a gift for Callie's treatment!
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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.
Enter
"Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana,
and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. We won
$1,000 in this online contest last year because of your help and would
like to win it again this year. Thank you!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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