Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13
Today was my last day at location b. It was sad, much like Monday. Unfortunately, we only had one surgery today and it was another dental prophy. I didn't do the prophy this time, instead I kept up with Dr. S during the day and got to accompany Dr. L into one of her rooms. Today was neither busy nor slow. Various appointments came in - a couple of spaniels, one with various health problems, a dog being treated for heartworms, a cat to be put down...he'd actually come into location a on Monday and wasn't doing any better overnight, a cute boxer puppy that I saw the first time I shadowed at location b...he was back in for a skin recheck and the last of his puppy boosters, and a few others. There was nothing terribly exciting, but I got to draw blood for an advanced panel we did on an older, overweight Golden Retriever who we suspected to be suffering from arthritis. The owner brought her in because her activity level changed suddenly. A urinanalysis showed nothing of significance but I'm not sure what the blood results said. I also gave a few vxn injections and asked a lot of questions. I saw that Dr. C had posted a packet about ordering a test kit for the MDR1 gene [SIDENOTE] so I did some research and found out what that was. I will definitely be posting about that in the next couple of days. Since I'm done shadowing Dr. S, I'm thinking of moving to a new blog but I haven't decided for certain just yet. I'll update once I've made up my mind.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday, January 12
Today was my last day at location a. It was pretty sad when I walked out of the front doors...being the chatterbox I am, I got to know each of the techs and the vets on a personal level. I knew little things about their families, their aspirations, and the oddities about their pets as well as how they came to acquire them. It's hard for me to break little bonds like that. I'm sure I'll be back though, as that will probably become my vet of choice from now on.
Well, Aphrodite (I'm not sure if I mentioned her in a previous post? I believe I did...she was a sick dog from last week) went home and was still doing very poorly. Her owners made the decision to euthanize so she came in today for euthanasia. The clinic was actually quite crazy with appointments today...some people came late and others came early and most were for Dr. S which made things quite hectic! We saw a couple of very sick animals - one very sick (and very old) cat and one very sick, relatively old dog. Both were treated and will be watched by the owners for any improvement in their condition which would indicate they still have some quality of life left in them yet. We also saw a cute little Shih Tzu puppy who came in for her last boosters I believe. She had a very attentive owner, which--while a bit time consuming--is quite refreshing for me to see. I love to see owners concerned about taking proper care of their pets. Another lady came in with two Devon Rexes, one white and one black. Those are pretty nifty cats so that was neat. All in all, there weren't many out-of-the-ordinary cases today (aside from the "quality of life" patients) but it was a good day.
Well, Aphrodite (I'm not sure if I mentioned her in a previous post? I believe I did...she was a sick dog from last week) went home and was still doing very poorly. Her owners made the decision to euthanize so she came in today for euthanasia. The clinic was actually quite crazy with appointments today...some people came late and others came early and most were for Dr. S which made things quite hectic! We saw a couple of very sick animals - one very sick (and very old) cat and one very sick, relatively old dog. Both were treated and will be watched by the owners for any improvement in their condition which would indicate they still have some quality of life left in them yet. We also saw a cute little Shih Tzu puppy who came in for her last boosters I believe. She had a very attentive owner, which--while a bit time consuming--is quite refreshing for me to see. I love to see owners concerned about taking proper care of their pets. Another lady came in with two Devon Rexes, one white and one black. Those are pretty nifty cats so that was neat. All in all, there weren't many out-of-the-ordinary cases today (aside from the "quality of life" patients) but it was a good day.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 6 / Friday, January 9
Tuesday, January 6
Alright. The details from this past week are hazy. I will list a couple of things I did on Tuesday.
Wow...this is pathetic. I need to update right after I get home...otherwise I end up in this predicament. I will update as more events from the day come to me.
Friday, January 9
Today is one of my last days at the Vet. It was a good day. I had lots of questions for the Vet which she happily answered. She also asked me more questions and I was able to formulate more intelligent responses for her than I have in the past...so that was nice! I also drew blood successfully at the end of the day from the saphenous vein of a dog so that was a nice way to close things out.
Alright. The details from this past week are hazy. I will list a couple of things I did on Tuesday.
- Gave some injections
- Did a dental prophy on a Daschund - a dental prophy is a simple preventative procedure where the teeth are cleaned and polished. It was fun!
Wow...this is pathetic. I need to update right after I get home...otherwise I end up in this predicament. I will update as more events from the day come to me.
Friday, January 9
Today is one of my last days at the Vet. It was a good day. I had lots of questions for the Vet which she happily answered. She also asked me more questions and I was able to formulate more intelligent responses for her than I have in the past...so that was nice! I also drew blood successfully at the end of the day from the saphenous vein of a dog so that was a nice way to close things out.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Monday, January 5
Today, first thing I asked Dr. D about Ashley. It turns out she had to be euthanized. Her bloodwork showed that she was in kidney failure. Her autopsy showed that her liver also had some cells of unknown origin. Dr. D supposed they were macrophages but he said his cytology wasn't very good. He was interested in sending them off to have their identity clarified but the owners didn't want to do anything further than relieving poor Ashley of her misery.
Now this is quite sad but I slacked on my blogging and now I can't remember exactly what I did on monday! I will try to remember and update later! Sorry. :(
Now this is quite sad but I slacked on my blogging and now I can't remember exactly what I did on monday! I will try to remember and update later! Sorry. :(
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2
Happy New Year!
Today was an interesting day at the Vet. Dr. S has been on vacation so today I followed Dr. D and Dr. J (mostly Dr. D) around. I got to watch a cat neuter which I've never seen before so that was great! While neuters in general are pretty simple and quick procedures, cat neuters seemed to be simpler and quicker (it's a product of the anatomy of cats vs. dogs, according to Dr. D and the Vet student there with us) than dog neuters. We also had a spay on a cockapoo. Spays are much more intricate processes but they're very neat to watch up close...especially because I recently took a course on Reproductive Physiology in Animals (last spring), so I knew what I was looking at and I knew what Dr. D was referring to as he walked us through the procedure.
Ashley came back today. It seems that the ADC found that her platelet count was EXTREMELY low. (Don't quote me on these numbers, but I believe Dr. D told me that she went from a 150,000 count to a 35,000 count the next day) It was suspected that maybe the foreign substance she'd gotten into was rat poison. I don't remember the specifics of how they treated her at the ADC but if she'd gotten into rat poison, the treatment there should have cleared it up. However, she came back to us today because now she wasn't keeping any water or food down. It was quite sad. We drew a bit of blood from her to measure her platelet count again. Dr. D had a private conversation with the owner...so I'm not sure what they discussed or what the next step will be for poor Ashley.
A couple of weeks ago we had some feeder mice come in from a pet store. They'd been beat up by another mouse on a rampage in the cage. We checked them out and treated them with antibiotics. Today, one of the mice (the one that had the worst scab) returned. Dr. D thought there were ways we could handle the ugly wound but the pet store didn't want to invest that much money into him so we had to euthanize him.
We also had a puppy come in...this case was quite sad. She was a Christmas puppy for a kid. She was a cute little tan and white mix of some sort. In any case, she was suffering from distemper. The family said they'd taken her to the Vet when she had a cough and that the Vet diagnosed her as having kennel cough. However, a couple of days later, the puppy began have tremors and convulsions and was throwing up so the owners brought her to our Vet. Within an hours time at our place, she was having seizures. It was determined that she was most likely suffering from distemper and that it was progressing so fast that the little treatment we can do for distemper (supportive care) probably would not have saved her life. (Sidenote: I will update with information about distemper at a later date.) I'm not sure what happened later on in the day but I'm fairly certain that the puppy had to be euthanized.
Today was an interesting day at the Vet. Dr. S has been on vacation so today I followed Dr. D and Dr. J (mostly Dr. D) around. I got to watch a cat neuter which I've never seen before so that was great! While neuters in general are pretty simple and quick procedures, cat neuters seemed to be simpler and quicker (it's a product of the anatomy of cats vs. dogs, according to Dr. D and the Vet student there with us) than dog neuters. We also had a spay on a cockapoo. Spays are much more intricate processes but they're very neat to watch up close...especially because I recently took a course on Reproductive Physiology in Animals (last spring), so I knew what I was looking at and I knew what Dr. D was referring to as he walked us through the procedure.
Ashley came back today. It seems that the ADC found that her platelet count was EXTREMELY low. (Don't quote me on these numbers, but I believe Dr. D told me that she went from a 150,000 count to a 35,000 count the next day) It was suspected that maybe the foreign substance she'd gotten into was rat poison. I don't remember the specifics of how they treated her at the ADC but if she'd gotten into rat poison, the treatment there should have cleared it up. However, she came back to us today because now she wasn't keeping any water or food down. It was quite sad. We drew a bit of blood from her to measure her platelet count again. Dr. D had a private conversation with the owner...so I'm not sure what they discussed or what the next step will be for poor Ashley.
A couple of weeks ago we had some feeder mice come in from a pet store. They'd been beat up by another mouse on a rampage in the cage. We checked them out and treated them with antibiotics. Today, one of the mice (the one that had the worst scab) returned. Dr. D thought there were ways we could handle the ugly wound but the pet store didn't want to invest that much money into him so we had to euthanize him.
We also had a puppy come in...this case was quite sad. She was a Christmas puppy for a kid. She was a cute little tan and white mix of some sort. In any case, she was suffering from distemper. The family said they'd taken her to the Vet when she had a cough and that the Vet diagnosed her as having kennel cough. However, a couple of days later, the puppy began have tremors and convulsions and was throwing up so the owners brought her to our Vet. Within an hours time at our place, she was having seizures. It was determined that she was most likely suffering from distemper and that it was progressing so fast that the little treatment we can do for distemper (supportive care) probably would not have saved her life. (Sidenote: I will update with information about distemper at a later date.) I'm not sure what happened later on in the day but I'm fairly certain that the puppy had to be euthanized.
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