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. :)