Weekends on call have to be the toughest part of the job, especially in a mixed practice. So far I've had about 3 hours sleep since I started work on Friday morning.
Last night was hard work - just me and various sick animals. I'd have killed for a nurse to be there to give me hand! Dogs having seizures filled the majority of my evening after a busy day consulting and the night was spent monitoring them at work. In the end I gave up coming home between visits and just bedded down at work.
This morning I planned to come home for a shower and breakfast...which didn't happen until 1. Only 21 more hours to go.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Monday, 17 January 2011
Quick Change
I love this job because of the variety we see on a daily basis.
Today I was visiting a farm for some sick cattle, we had the usual chat about housing, the weather, the job and everything else whilst trying to examine some mad yearling beef cattle. Just when I thought we were done for the day, liberally coated in various bodily fluids, the farmer pops the question that always comes up:
"While you're here, can you just look at....."
This is why all calls take twice as long as they should. Examining cow to cat in the matter of minutes. Love it.
This isn't the cow I was examining. But hey, close enough.
Today I was visiting a farm for some sick cattle, we had the usual chat about housing, the weather, the job and everything else whilst trying to examine some mad yearling beef cattle. Just when I thought we were done for the day, liberally coated in various bodily fluids, the farmer pops the question that always comes up:
"While you're here, can you just look at....."
This is why all calls take twice as long as they should. Examining cow to cat in the matter of minutes. Love it.
This isn't the cow I was examining. But hey, close enough.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Sometimes I forget...
...that I'm actually qualified and a real person now. People keep asking for opinions on clinical matters, but even more worrying I seem to have the answers at least some of the time.
The past 2 weeks have been manic with busy consultations and various emergencies. In the space of 48 hours we had 5 RTAs! One day I started to X-ray a cat at 9am calculating sedation drugs and then met the first of many RTA dogs. On the plus side most of them survived with only one casualty. It was so manic we even had students keeping an eye on some of the inpatients.
Farm work isn't going as well though. There isn't a lot of it going around and the usual farm vets take most of it. This leaves me with the emergency work which would be great if only I had the experience to deal with it. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to be more proactive and grab some more farm work to get me up to speed.
Equine work, as ever, is evil.
The past 2 weeks have been manic with busy consultations and various emergencies. In the space of 48 hours we had 5 RTAs! One day I started to X-ray a cat at 9am calculating sedation drugs and then met the first of many RTA dogs. On the plus side most of them survived with only one casualty. It was so manic we even had students keeping an eye on some of the inpatients.
Farm work isn't going as well though. There isn't a lot of it going around and the usual farm vets take most of it. This leaves me with the emergency work which would be great if only I had the experience to deal with it. Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to be more proactive and grab some more farm work to get me up to speed.
Equine work, as ever, is evil.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Happy New Year!
It's New Year! Woo! I've been coughing up a lung for the past couple of days, and I'm on call. Not a great start to the year, but these things happen. Not too many patients in and hopefully people will realise it's Sunday and we are still closed. Tomorrow morning may be a different matter.
I may try to blog a night on call at some point, but it depends on if I can be bothered to turn the computer on at 3am. Unlikely.
I may try to blog a night on call at some point, but it depends on if I can be bothered to turn the computer on at 3am. Unlikely.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Still Learning
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!
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!
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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