forever and a day

The clinic has slowed down a lot....they've cut the technicians hours b/c it's so slow...the tech's asked if the doctor's hours got cut and i laughed a lot, explaining that if i worked out the number of hours i actually worked with my salary, i make the same as them. cut our hours, ha! i wish.

I travel so much (madison or green bay) and my hours are NEVER consistent (from overnightst to days to afternoons to middle of the night 6 hour stints to godonlyknowswhat next schedule...)that I don't have time to volunteer at shelters (although I do try and volunteer at the wildlife center--see above picture of me and opossum:) or do any other extracurriculars (i'd LOVE to act again, or take more sign language classes, or mechanics classes...) which doesn't help my overall mood. BUT i was in madison a few weekends ago when a friend (who i graduated with) called to see if i wanted to help out with a rescue. >130 rabbits (plus cats, dogs, etc) were confiscated from a house based on animal cruelty charges--holy wow. I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I spent one of my precious days off driving 1.5 hours one way to the site and examined >70 rabbits (took over 6 hours-wow!) i wanted to stay and help with all 137 of them, but i had to drive back to chicago that night and there are only so many hours in a day...here is the news story...

http://www.channel3000.com/news/21611571/detail.html?ref=jsonline

It was a great experience and I was glad to be needed.

The only other new news is that I got some rats:) I've been trying to wait for rats to be relinquished at the clinic, but none have and i've been here for almost 6 months. So one day i said "i want to get some rats" and i went out and got some rats from a local shelter:)

The shelter had some young boys. I've never had young rats so I got two of them! After many weeks of debating, i have decided on:

Rube Murderface (it's from a tv series)

And William Goldberg

While I was there, I saw a 1.5 year old male (lifespan is 2-4 years, so he's already old!) named Brutus:) I felt bad that he might be spending his last months in a shelter so took him too:)

He's a sweet heart and actually likes to be pet--and miraculously- they ALL GET ALONG!!! so yippee for one HUGE RAT TUBE-TASTIC PLAYLAND OF AWESOMENESS!

other than that, not much new..jeremy is doing well (but far away in madison:( )...i really dislike my job but don't really have another choice so we'll see how long until i hit my limit....but in the meantime, if you can see it, here is the smallest patient i've treated so far--4 grams! a pygmy chameleon!!

more cases

(me spaying a bunny:)
Sorry it's been so long since a post. Here are some more cases:

Here is a chameleon. Many male reptiles have reproductive organs completely separate from the urinary system--two structures (phallus) called hemipenes. These hemipenes can prolapse, or come out abnormally (and the animal can't retract them back in).


Here, the chameleon's tail is to the right and he is being held upside down. His hemipenes are prolapsed (two red structures).

Initial treatment is to push them back in and suture the openings closed. If they reprolapse when you take the sutures out, they might have to have them amputated--which we can do b/c they don't contain any part of the urinary system. So, we need to figure out what caused them to prolapse in the first place and correct it or they will prolapse again (parasites, husbandry, hormonal causes, etc)

This bird has an abnormal beak (obviously...)

several things can cause this such as congenital deformity (genetics--had since birth) or liver disease, and can be caused simply from an all seed diet (seed to birds is like junk food--they need a balanced diet consisting of veggies and commercial pellets).


And of course i couldn't end a blog w/o showing a picture of pus (you've been warned)

here is a turtle who has an abscess in his ear (hard to see, but it's the swelling on the right side of his head). Turtles often get these because they lack vitamin A (b/c owners don't feed them properly--a lot of exotic health problems are because we don't properly care for them, if you haven't figured that out yet:)\

here is the doctor squeezing the pus out of the ear...

and here is the pus when it was out:) don't you wish you had my job?

what are YOU looking at??

state fair!

work is no fun! But i did go to the state fair with mom and gma vv on friday:)


The fair was complete with...

CHICKENS!!

adorable black frizzle cochin!
(this guy has nuclear sclerosis in his eye--the white spot in his pupil! an old age change that happens to the lens...i thought it was pretty cool....but then again, i'm a nerd:)


street performers....


the largest kohlrabi i've ever seen....



deep fried EVERYTHING (gag!)



and of course, CREAM PUFFS!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!YAY!!!!!!!!!


throw in an elvis impersonator, beer and a bazillion vendors (*coughmombought$150mattresspadcough*) and there you have it--the state fair!!!

so nostalgic and wonderful:)

i am a salesman first, a veterinarian second

I am finally realizing this and completely sick of it already.

I have to "sell" the idea that the client's pet needs (yes needs, i never push testing or treatment that an animal doesn't need) treatment and then convince them to let me do it.

my boss calls it "educating" the owners. And while, yes, there is an enormous amount of educating going on, and the idea sounds great--just educate the owners, explain the logic behind why their pet needs this, and they will agree--you can't just explain it because the owner might not believe you (i look too young, i must not know what the hell i'm talking about) or chooses to ignore you or simply would rather spend the money on a pradda bag than their pet. (i don't even know if i spelled that right) (disclaimer: for those who actually can't afford it--i empathize and we always figure out what will fit their budget, i understand, i am poverty if you consider my debt)

So i need to "Educate" in a persuasive manner which involves all aspects of sales. And then if we make the sale, we are expected to be PERFECT (which is humanly impossible, right? so i'm not sure how that works--but that's a whole other post...)

All i wanted to do was help animals. *sigh*


I can't imagine how pediatricians feel.

thanks for letting me vent.

cases and pictures:)

We had a veterinary student from France visiting for several weeks; she took pictures of practically everything and I copied all her pics before she left *evil laugh* so here are just a few cases:)


Rabbits gastrointestinal tract is complex (just like a horse, in fact...actually, they are kind of little horses...hopefully no zoo DVMs read this or they will hunt me down...) and pretty much any illness or stress can cause their gastrointestinal tract to slow or shut down= emergency situation. If it's serious, we hospitalize, place IV catheters for fluids, start medications, syringe feeding etc. until they are eating on their own and producing normal stools.




Check out this little Chinese Water Dragon. His owner lets him free-roam the house, which is great for enrichment (this guy never gets bored!) but very bad for safety. Last week he ate an earing (and passed it). This time, however, his dietary indiscretion (aka eating everything and anything) got him into trouble. Check out the xray below:
yup, he ate a sewing needle and thread. he needed abdominal surgery to remove.


Here is the little guy after surgery, on fluids (since his veins are so tiny, he has to have a catheter in a bone in his leg)




that's all for now:) take care!

finally feeling stupid....

Throughout fourth year all my classmates would complain that they felt stupid--they didn't know anything, were constantly corrected by doctors, etc etc. My view on fourth year was that I wasn't supposed to know everything--in fact, it's expected that I knew barely anything. That's what fourth year is about--learning--if I knew everything I wouldn't still be in school. So I went though fourth year happy when i remembered something, and shrugged it off when i didn't.

When i started my job here, I had the same mindset because we didn't learn very much exotic animal medicine in school. And even though I've only been working a few months, I still feel like i should know more and it frustrates me. My boss asked me one day, "You look frustrated?" and i replied, "I get frustrated when I don't know everything, so I'll probably be frustrated for the next few years." She laughed and I realized the statement was completely true. Oh well. It will come.

But along the way will come the crazy clients. Exotic medicine is definitely full of a higher percentage of "special" clients (takes one to know one, right?) which is fine--I can handle the client who tells me I'm unhealthy being a vegetarian (don't even ask me how we got on that line of conversation--and then she wouldn't authorize treatment, oi) or the chinchilla owner who explains in a loud, fast 5 minute monologue that he doesn't believe in paying hospital bills so he doesn't (then move to canada...i didn't say it out loud) but he pays all of his vet bills, but i cannot handle the belligerent client....had my first one last week. In retrospect I probably should have walked out of the room earlier after being yelled at, told i was speaking disrespectfully (i think i had said two sentences before he started ranting) etc. In the end, he yelled at every employee in the clinic and was fired . Yes, we fire clients...apparently, economics says we should fire 10% of our clients to increase our productivity (we don't).

Later that week, another client was screaming at my boss over the phone that she was going to picket our clinic because we killed her rabbit (we didn't).

It comes in cycles...maybe every third full moon?....soon, hopefully, the cycle will end and I can get back to learning medicine instead of trying to predict and head-off unstable people.

They let me be the vet!

I officially have my Illinois license and they cut me loose! Well not really--I still consult the senior vets on practically every single case and they read all my records before they get filed, but I'm no longer following them around; I see my own cases, talk to clients and develop treatment plans. And I have to say--being the vet is way better than in "fourth year mode" (following the primary vet around). It's amazing how my mindset immediately changed, and how much more fun/interesting/etc it is because it's me who's invested in the case.

But along with the fun of developing treatment plans and the joy of helping pets get better, comes the horrible part of breaking bad news. I had to do that the other night and man did it suck. It was even harder because the treatment, which we had to do--didn't have a choice, is what was causing this animal to suffer and die. The poor owners and animal had been through so much and done everything we wanted them to do--and the ailment was somewhat minor on the surface:(

But that's the way it goes. If it was all happy/joyous news then everyone would be a vet.

In brighter news, I took a tour of the local wildlife center, and will probably start volunteering there in a few weeks to a month...once the paperwork goes through.

Nothing else new here.

I'll have to take some pics randomly so i have some to post next time. :)

i rode the train!

Chicago, being the 3rd largest city in the US i'm told, has a decent public transportation system. Which is good because apparently "cheap" parking downtown is $25/day on the weekend....eek! So there's the train (the L-line..."el" for elevated train...although it turns into a subway when it gets to the city....strange name then ) the metra (bus...i think) and the pace( also a bus i think....) i didn't venture the buses yet...maybe another day.

This weekend was taste of Chicago (above pic) so i ventured out of my safe-shell-apt and took the train (pic below) (2 mi from my house) into chicago, and it dropped me 4 blocks from taste....super convenient and only $4.50 round trip!

and here is a cute picture of my cat....dad made a scratching post for her and i put the sisal rope on....pretty sweet....now just need to get her to use it...

Other than that not much new...job is going well...it's a job...better than a cat/dog practice though...I do start volunteering at the local wildlife center though so i'm super excited for that!!

my new apt

it's so hot today, i sweat even when not moving....so i thought i'd finally post pics of my apt

Above is the street i live on...it's pretty quiet with lots of families and small children.


Both sides of my building...I live upstairs, the owner and his wife live in the 1st floor





Here is the start to my veggie garden:) I'm starting it late, but should make it in before the frost...



1/2 of my kitchen...the back door is there too...sorry for the mess in ALL the pics...i took them before i was unpacked (actually i'm not unpacked yet....for only working 45 hours a week, i seem to be busy all the time!)

the other half of my kitchen:)



the enormous pantry in my kitchen!


there's a spice rack BUILT INTO THE WALL!!!



my bedroom:) i put black curtains up so i can sleep during the day when i work night


my huge closet

the nice bathroom


a closet in the hallway with a window in it:)



two more closets in the hallway


2nd bedroom



Dining room which i'm turning into my "reading room"



other side of hte "reading room"

living room...previous tenants left the couch here...only a year and a half old! woo hoo!


faux fireplace in the living room


and this is my new cat, Molly. She is old (13-17 years old). Her owner, besides having dementia, broke her hip and had to go to a nursing home that doesn't take cats:( so i suckered myself into taking her (if she would go to a shelter, she would be euthanized b/c of her age)

She is cranky. and when stressed (like she is now living in a new home) vomits. She also likes to shoot her pee over the side of the litter box....just as i got her high sided litter boxes, she decided to pee on my papasan. She is cute though. so we have a love hate relationship and she gets locked into rooms with minimal furniture at night. hopefully she grows out of this phase hahahahaha

first day on the job....

I'll post later when i have pictures of my new apt, about the move, where i live...etc....but for now...

THE FIRST DAY OF MY NEW JOB!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

and it was an overnight...i haven't worked an overnight in years....i hope they get easier.....oi

BUT, and i forget because i was so tired, my FIRST patient was a young hedgehog who came in DYING. her heart stopped even. and i (and the other doctor) BROUGHT HER BACK TO LIFE!!! *Evil laugh*

no really, it happened. cool, huh?

here's a picture of what she looked liked...cutest thing ever...