Monday, December 22

It's my third day at this particular location and things are going pretty well. I've met most of the staff and I feel pretty comfortable with them. I'm really enjoying this shadowing experience, and I'm considering applying for it again for the summer session. I met Dr. J today so now I know three of the four Vets that work at location A (I'll call this location that I've been at so far "location A"). Today is not a surgery day so I spent most of my time bustling in and out of appointments with Dr. S. What was pretty awesome was that I got to see a liver Dalmatian in person...I knew they existed and have seen pictures, but never saw and interacted with one! The dog had an awesome temperment (although he apparently had a distaste for Portugese Water Spaniels) and seemed to be a great dog. What was sad was that he was having some health issues - he had a cardiomyopathy. [SIDENOTE: I will update and explain what cardiomyopathy is after I do a bit more research on it. What I do know, however, is that there is a pretty high death rate if your dog suffers from cardiomyopathy.] Anywho, that was a highlight for my day.

We also had two euthanasias that day. One was a bird that had gout. [SIDENOTE: Again, I will update when I do a little more research on gout. What I remember from what Dr. S told me is that gout cannot be cured/treated and so pets must be euthanized when diagnosed with gout...I hope I remembered that right] The other was a hamster that came in for a surgery. The hamster was a patient of Dr. D's so I'm not sure what was wrong with him when he came in, I just know that he hadn't had any food or water for a few days. Dr. D and the tech tried to give the hamster some fluids before he went under for surgery but he was just too far gone and went into shock. He was bleeding internally and vomited a bit of blood I think so Dr. D called the family and let them know that it would be better to euthanize.

We also had a pretty neat gray Great Dane come in. She was an older dog but quite pretty and very well mannered. She'd split her toe open so I got to watch Dr. S suture it back up. That was neat, but I'd been standing for so long that I began to get light headed so I had to squat on the floor and rest my head between my knees for a few moment to get the blood circulating to my brain again...haha.