Veterinary Assistant Externship: Day 4

Again with the skipped week, this time because I went and caught the flu from somebody. It's going around. Yay.

So I went in the week, determined to work hard, even if I was still a little tired from being sick. I was the second person in the office, J being the first, and I noticed that the trash had't been taken out the night before. Neither had many counters been wiped down, nor dishes washed. I went in the back, and found the three newest boarders - dropped off just before I arrived - hadn't really been settled in yet with water or food. So I got to work making them comfortable. Oddly enough, it was the three from the week I'd been there before: the excitable piddler dachshund, the loveable orange tabby, and the grumpy-ass pretty kitty. Also there was a bearded dragon (settled in on a heating pad), and two shy stray kittens.

I got the charts set up and cages stocked with litter boxes, water bowls, and fed everybody. T came in and turned on the heat lamp for the lizard, and informed me that the two strays were adoptable. We cleaned up as much as we could, doing a dang fine job if I may say so, and tried to ignore the small orange kitten as he started meowing. A lot. We ended up putting the kittens in isolation later because they werebeing super-noisey, but they were calmer as long as they were together. And well behaved, too. A little bit of comfort-petting and they purred readily.

The doctor, B, and D came in, returning from the early-morning rattlesnake vaccination clinic. Things got rolling. First patient was an exotic: a green-tree python. Beautiful snake with great big golden eyes and light emerald skin. One problem, though: his bowel had prolapsed. Not the best thing in the world. I reminded myself it probably felt worse than it looked, so I stayed sympathetic instead of being grossed out. We ended up anesthetizing him (I didn't know you could anesthetize a snake...) to surgically put things back in where they belonged. I got to "restrain" him for the procedure. I put "restrain" in quotation marks, because a sedated snake doesn't need much restraining. I just needed to keep him from slithering off the table. I tried to keep him warm, too.

After that, the aggressive chow-mix from two weeks prior came in for a recheck. He needed restraint. I was it. Awesomely enough, he offered very little resistance, and we did just fine. I felt like I passed a barrier, with confidence and skill.

A lot of cleaning was in order for the day, so when I wasn't holding animals, I was scrubbing equipment and wiping down exam tables. A hairless cat came in, apparently having flipped out and gone aggro on her owners to the point where he - a grown man - asked to not be in the same room when we opened up her box. It was double-taped shut, a thick filing box. The inside was dark, quiet, and ominous. I opened it up and...!

This little pink cat blinked squintily up at me. I pulled her out, she patiently held still, and let the doc prod and palpate with no trouble. We went to run a blood test, and the poor thing squeaked and twitched when we went to poke her. I ended up having to defer to T to hold her, since I wasn't keeping her still enough. I tried. *sigh*

She was very cuddly, though. And very sweet. We gave her back to the owners and assured them we'd get to the bottom of the behavioral issue.

Last part of the day, we had a dog with a foxtail in her ear. We ended up having to knock her out completely to get a good look. First time seeing an intubation. The doc was nice enough to let me observe, grabbing the tongue and hoisting it out of the way, shining the light down the dog's throat so I could see where things needed to go. At points I was a little worried, because the dog would stop breathing for longer than felt right, but D was there, monitoring everything, forcing air intake as correct. Turned out she just had a waxy blockage, not a foxtail, and I got to observe her coming out of anesthesia. I stayed with her for the requisite 10 minute observation period, to make sure she didn't get sick or collapse. She did freak out, so the doc had to give her some sedatives to keep her from failing and hurting herself, but she was fine by the time her owners came to get her.

End of the day and I cleaned up thoroughly, making sure everyone was fed, walked, bedded down, and everything was well stocked for Monday. The snake went home, all stitched up. It was quiet now, just the boarders and the two strays. It felt good to know I was leaving things better than I found them, and I spent a little extra time cuddling the two kittens. I told B that - if they weren't adopted by next Saturday - I'd be taking one home.

Lesson learned: success stories make it worthwhile. And kittens. But I knew that one already.