Day 7: Lots of Patient Check-ups and Small Issues

              Today was an extremely slow day.  For the first six hours that I was there, we only had a few patients, and they were all there for basic checkup appointments, blood work, and nail clippings.  I held animals for the Veterinarians and assisted them whenever they needed help with these appointments, but because we didn’t have very many patients, I spent a lot of time keeping myself busy by cleaning cages and feeding the animals. Some of the patients that we had go home today were Reagan (the bulldog who had the twisted stomach), Mr. Knightly (the cocker spaniel who had anemia), and JoJo (the beagle whose body went into shock).  All of them were healing and doing nicely, so they were able to go home today.  Monstarr (the dog with parvovirus) wasn’t much better since yesterday, though that’s expected since it can take a dog up to four weeks to start recovering from the virus.  She was receiving fluids and antibiotics, and for the most part she seemed fine; by fine, I mean she wasn’t throwing up or having diarrhea like she did a couple of times yesterday, so that of course was good news.

JoJo, feeling much better and much more entergetic.

                Once mid-afternoon (2:00ish) came around, though, we had a rush of patients for about 1/1.5 hours.  There was a dog named Jenny that came in who had a red lump in the armpit area of her front left leg that was filled with a mysterious fluid.  Dr. Karen poked the lump with a needle and drew out some of the fluid for testing, and then Tracey squeezed the lump to get the rest of the fluid out.  It was thick, like clotting blood.  This had Tracey and Dr. Karen baffled, and after testing it they said it seemed like just a harmless mass cell, but it was a strange sight for me to see because of its coloring and placing.  But since it appears to be harmless, that is a of course a good sign.  Dr. Karen also showed me that Jenny had a growth in her mouth (and she’s had it for a while).  From what they told me that seemed to be just a harmless mass cell also, but they weren’t able to remove it when they discovered it because of its placing on the roof of her mouth.  The growth started growing again recently, and it was growing up into her sinuses and giving her trouble breathing.  She sounded like she was having a difficult time breathing through her nose, but because the placing of the growth prevented them from removing it when they discovered it, the outcome is to be determined. 

Jenny, the dog who had the unusual growths in her mouth and armpit.

Dr. Karen trying to get a sample of the lump's fluids.

The lump after Dr. Karen and Tracey squeezed the majority of the unusual fluids out.

The growth inside Jenny's mouth.

After Jenny, an extremely sweet cocker spaniel named Lilly came in who had hurt her bottom, and she was hurting it even worse because she kept scooting around on rough surfaces.  Dr. Lou gave her owner some medication and ointment to help her bottom stop hurting.  After Lilly, we had a malamute mix getting bandages removed, a cocker spaniel-mix puppy named Gracie who had gnats by her eyes, and a stray shih tzu-mix who had some sort of reaction (probably scratches that got infected) on her eyes.  The malamute-mix had gotten her tail slammed in a door a couple of weeks ago, and was getting the bandages removed today.  She didn’t fuss a bit when the bandage and tape came off, and her tail was healing fine; though it wasn’t healed enough for the bandages to remain off, so Dr. Mark took some new bandages and rewrapped it for her.  We of course felt bad for the poor girl since she lost most of her tail due to the door slamming, but her tail looks funny since she has lots of fur where her tail starts, and then it turns into a thin vertebrae (since it had to be shaved down for her surgery).   But anyway she is healing just fine, so she was re-bandaged and able to go home.  Gracie just needed to have the mats cut out of the fur around her eyes, so she was able to go back home pretty quickly as well. The shih tzu stray had extremely red and blotchy eyes, and she tried to bite anyone to even got close to touching her head and/or eyes.  Dr. Mark said the best thing to do would be to give her prescription  eye drops three times a day,  but she was being so aggressive he wasn’t sure how that was going to work.  Stephanie placed her back in her cage while Dr. Mark thought over what the best solution would be.  I’m going to have to see what that decision was and how she is doing tomorrow.

The sweet cocker spaniel, Lilly.

The malamute mix, still wearing her cone (to prevent her from fussing with her tail), and her bandages. 

The tail of the malamute mix.

Gracie. The mats can't be seen as clearly in this picture as I thought they could be, but she has a few hair clumps around her eyes, which are the mats of hair).

The stray shih tzu.  As the picture shows, her eyes are extremely red and blotchy and they look like they are in a lot of pain.  Hopefully either she will allow us to give her the eyedrops, or we find another solution so her eyes can feel better.

Two more so uncommon cases we had today were we received an iguana and a box of kittens.  The owner of the iguana was moving to a new apartment and wasn’t allowed to have any pets.  She tried to find someone to take the iguana, but unfortunately no one would so she brought him to have him euthanized.  About an hour before I left for the evening, a police officer brought in a box of four stray kittens she had found (two boys and two girls).  The kittens were only a few weeks old, and were starving.  We weighed them and took their temperature before feeding them to make sure they were healthy enough to have food (if they aren’t warm enough [around 98^oF], their stomachs can act up and cause them to get sick).  Three of them were fine, and so we began to bottle-feed them with warm kitten formula right after checking them.  One of the boys wasn’t warm enough, however, so we gave him some warm fluids, wrapped him in a blanket, and placed him on a heating pad for about ten minutes and then he was able to have some food, too.  After feeding kittens, they have to be stimulated to go to the backroom, meaning that their bottoms and undersides have to be gently rubbed with a warm cloth or piece of gauze. After we stimulated them and they went to the bathroom, we placed them in a cage with a heating pad and lots of blankets so they could get some rest.

                                          The iguana right before he was euthanized.

                                     Three of the kittens that were found and brought in.