It's nearly Christmas time! I'm thankfully not on call for Christmas Day, but I am surrounding both Christmas and New Year. It's to be expected I think. Don't really mind as I'm not heading home anyway.
Work continues as usual. After the bad couple of weeks with many euthanasia consultations it seems to have calmed down for now. I did my 2nd bitch spay today. It seemed to go ok, no oozing from the stumps, happy with all my ligatures and closure. She should be back in a couple of days for a post-op check so we will see then.
We've got a great vet student with us this week - someone I know from uni. I'm quizzing her on various cases I've seen, and learning in the process. I have learned a lot over the past couple of months. It's very surprising to see gaps in her knowledge, and I have to wonder if I was like that last year. And now I'm a proper person...Scary stuff!
Tuesday 21 December 2010
Friday 10 December 2010
Christmas Cull
The cold weather is harsh on everyone. With a pet it can bring out illness that was previously undiagnosed. Worst case scenario these animals don't improve and the owners opt for euthanasia.
I've had quite a few PTS (put to sleep) cases recently, breaking the 3-a-day barrier on more than one occasion. In recent memory there have only been 2 days when I haven't had a euthanasia consultation, and on those days I actively avoided anything that looked liked it would die to the point of hiding in the server room for a few minutes until someone else took it.
In some cases it's people I've met before. For one Labrador I'd become the personal vet for the past few weeks. The owner respected my open-ness when I told him that his dog wouldn't survive beyond Christmas. That was a home visit, particularly tough. Technically it went fine, jab went in to vein, dog died. Reminded me of my own dog though quite a bit.
Other cases I have just picked up. The cat that possibly had antifreeze toxicity. Turned out to have a horrible heart problem that we picked up ultrasound scan. The cat was only with us for a day, but I stayed with it monitoring its condition all night as it had tried to die in the morning. Successful resuscitation only for a PTS 10 hours later.
There are times when I really hate my job. I know I wouldn't do anything else though.
I've had quite a few PTS (put to sleep) cases recently, breaking the 3-a-day barrier on more than one occasion. In recent memory there have only been 2 days when I haven't had a euthanasia consultation, and on those days I actively avoided anything that looked liked it would die to the point of hiding in the server room for a few minutes until someone else took it.
In some cases it's people I've met before. For one Labrador I'd become the personal vet for the past few weeks. The owner respected my open-ness when I told him that his dog wouldn't survive beyond Christmas. That was a home visit, particularly tough. Technically it went fine, jab went in to vein, dog died. Reminded me of my own dog though quite a bit.
Other cases I have just picked up. The cat that possibly had antifreeze toxicity. Turned out to have a horrible heart problem that we picked up ultrasound scan. The cat was only with us for a day, but I stayed with it monitoring its condition all night as it had tried to die in the morning. Successful resuscitation only for a PTS 10 hours later.
There are times when I really hate my job. I know I wouldn't do anything else though.
Sunday 5 December 2010
Snow!
As a kid snow was amazing fun, it meant time off school and general play until you were too cold having built a snowman and thrown snowballs. As a student not a lot changed! Snow days were still fun and spent playing and building snowmen.
As a mixed practice vet living close to the practice, snow is a pain in the bum. For a few days this week I had sole charge of the hospital with only a receptionist, a nurse and myself looking after the place. Scary stuff! It was good fun, though a little manic at times. I can't get my car to many of the farm clients so I'm just being a small animal vet for now.
So far I've only nearly died twice driving in the snow. Blizzards are not good fun when you can't see the road. And the emergency pager going off when I was driving nearly got me killed yesterday due to shock. Oh well!
As a mixed practice vet living close to the practice, snow is a pain in the bum. For a few days this week I had sole charge of the hospital with only a receptionist, a nurse and myself looking after the place. Scary stuff! It was good fun, though a little manic at times. I can't get my car to many of the farm clients so I'm just being a small animal vet for now.
So far I've only nearly died twice driving in the snow. Blizzards are not good fun when you can't see the road. And the emergency pager going off when I was driving nearly got me killed yesterday due to shock. Oh well!
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