Day 16: Pericardial Tap, Put Your Pet's Needs Ahead of Your Own, and Reflections

                Today was another slow day.  There were a few spays and neuters that Dr. Todd performed early this morning, but other than that there were no surgeries.   There were also a couple of dentals and some animals who were being housed from surgeries that had been done during this past weekend.  While Dr. Todd was performing the spays and neuters this morning, Dr. Amanda was tapping the heart of a German Shepard mix (a.k.a a pericardial tap).  A Pericardial tap is done when fluid builds up around the heart, and if it’s not treated properly it can lead to a slow and painful death.  Dr. Amanda was performing an ultrasound (to see the heart) while she was trying to take the fluid with a syringe.  However, there were so many blood clots that she wasn’t able to get the needle through the clots in order to obtain the fluid.  After a while of trying, the only solution she could think of was performing surgery to remove the fluid, and if the owner decided they didn’t want surgery she would suggest euthanasia so that the dog wouldn’t have to have such a slow and painful death.  The owner, however, decided he didn’t want the dog to have surgery (even though money wasn’t an issue), and also decided he didn’t want to euthanize the dog; he just wanted to keep his dog at home.  This really angered me, as well as angering the Veterinarians and techs.  Dr. Amanda explained to him how this would be a very slow and unpleasant death for the dog, but he just kept repeating that he didn’t care; he wanted his dog to be home.  As I said, we were all pretty angered by this because if the dog is home, there’s nothing we can do for it.  Yes, I understand that he doesn’t want to let go of his pet.  But right now, the pet is what’s important and he needs to put his pet’s best interest ahead of his own emotional feelings.  This poor dog is going to be suffering for a while before finally passing away on its own, and that is not right or fair to the dog. If a person is going to have a pet, they need to make the commitment to take care of them and put their pet’s best interest at heart.  No pet should have to suffer because of the insensitiveness of their owner.

The German Shepard mix who was receiving the Pericardial Tap.

Dr. Amanda performing a ultrasound on the heart (so she could see it) while trying to draw the fluid out of the area around the heart.

                Anyway, as I walked around looking at the new housed patients, I saw we had a Mastiff mix named Lulu who had pyometra, a Westie named Casey who had diabetic ketoacidosis, a stray terrier named Spike who has vomiting and diarrhea, a black cat named Diamond who had a skin pocket gone wrong, and a Chihuahua named Lilly who had constipation.  Lulu had surgery for the pyometra over the weekend, and she was still recovering from it.  Pyometra is where the uterus fills with pus, and it can only be treated by completely removing the uterus and other reproductive organs; so essentially, the dog has to be spayed. Pyometra can be deadly if not treated quickly, and the symptoms are extremely difficult to detect.  Luckily, Lulu’s owners noticed she wasn’t acting quite like herself, so they brought her in and the doctors were able to catch it and perform the surgery.  Casey had been in over the weekend receiving fluids, antibiotics, and insulin, and she was able to go home today.  Spike had been having vomiting and diarrhea today, so Dr. Christy tested him to see if he had Parvovirus (a disease extremely contagious to other dogs that causes vomiting and diarrhea.  It’s passed through fecal matter).  When the results came back, he luckily didn’t have Parvo, so Dr. Christy gave him some sub-q fluids and Cerenia to help the stop the diarrhea and vomiting.  Diamond was recieving vaccines, and while Dr. Christy was giving them to her, she found a large bump on Diamond's back.  She felt it and automatically knew it was solely filled with oil and pus (it was like a giant pimple), so she inserted a syringe and drew out all of the fluid.   It wasn't anything harmless, but I've never seen anything like it before and thought it was interesting.  Lilly’s owner brought her in because she hadn’t been eating, so Dr. Kris took some x-rays and saw that she was highly constipated.  Her stomach was extremely filled with food (which is why she wasn’t eating), and her colon was backed up.  Dr. Kris worked at taking some of the stool out, and Lilly then started to go to the bathroom on her own.  That, of course, was good, and Lily seemed to be feeling better right after that.

Lulu, the Mastiff mix with pyometra.

Casey, the Westie with DKA.

Spike, the stray who was very ill.

These three syringes are filled with the oil-pus fluid found in the sebaceous cyst on Diamond's back.

This is after Dr. Christy drew all the fluid out, but it can still sort of be seen how large the cyst was.

Lilly, the constipated Chihuahua.

An X-ray of Lilly.  As it can be seen, her stomach and colon are extremely full.

                After working here for three weeks, I have started to have a feeling for what I enjoy about working in a large Veterinary hospital and what I dislike about it, though the enjoyments definitely outweigh the dislikes.  One of the major things that I noticed and didn’t really realize before is the amount of pet owners who don’t take care of their pet.  Whether the culprit is money issues, or the ignorance, laziness, selfishness, etc. of the owner, the pet’s needs and best interests aren’t being met.  We have more patients (than I would have originally thought) come in who are way overdue for vaccines, have been sick for a week or more (and getting progressively worse each day) before the owner decided to bring him/her in, animals who need treatment (or who should be euthanized) and the owner refuses to, etc.  As I mentioned earlier when talking about the German Shepard mix, this absolutely drives me insane.  Pet owners need to be able to take care of their pets and place the best interest of the pet ahead of their own, because it is unrighteous and unfair for the pet to suffer because of the owner.

                The two main procedures that I really dislike doing are nail trimmings and euthanasias.  While I haven’t done an actual nail trim on an adult dog or cat myself (I’m still practicing nail trimmings on euthanized adult dogs/cats and adult dogs/cats that are under anesthesia), I hold the dogs and cats for the tech who is doing the trimmings.  I am not a fan of anticipation; anticipation kills me more than the actual task that I’m anticipating.  With nail trimmings, I never know when the dog or cat is going to jerk, try to bite, or start trying to get away.  Because of that, I’m very stiff and hold strongly while the trimming is going on in case the animal starts to act up.  Like I said, it’s this anticipation that kills me because since I’m the holder, I was to make sure that the dog or cat isn’t able to hurt me, him/herself, or the trimmer.  Since I don’t know when the animal is going to start acting up, I get nervous because I don’t want any one of us to get hurt.  Euthanasias, of course, are upsetting because we are inducing the animal’s passing.  I definitely know that the majority of euthanasias are done because it’s more humane than letting a pet or stray suffer, and suffering of the animal is something we definitely don’t want.   The euthanasias that I don’t like are the ones where the owner gives a terrible excuse for a perfectly healthy and happy pet to be euthanized; those are the ones that are heartbreaking because there is no reason for that animal to be euthanized, but the owner decides that they don’t want the pet anymore so they choose to euthanize rather than give their pet to a shelter or a better owner.  But even if they have a terrible or no excuse, we have to euthanize the animal because a) the owner could choose to give the animal over to someone else, but in order to do that they would have to give up their ownership, which hardly anyone wants to do (why, I don’t know; I think that’s ridiculous.  If their animal could have a better life, why wouldn’t they choose that over killing them?), and b) if we don’t euthanize the animal, there is a possibility that the owner could use their own method to try to kill the animal, or the animal will just sit in their home and suffer until finally dying.  We want the animal to pass away painlessly, so we would prefer to euthanize the animal rather than take the chance of the animal suffering in any way.  Even so, the cases like that are still sad.  Because of things like this, I am on the border with how I feel about pet owners.  Some of the owners I have dealt with are like this; meaning, they are ignorant, lazy, selfish, rude to us, etc., but then there are other pet owners who are very kind and who really care about their pets.  I love meeting the nice owners because they tend to be very sincere people, and we can sense that because of how much they care about their pets.  However, the ignorant and rude owners are the ones that I absolutely can’t stand dealing with, because most of them act like they know more than the Veterinarian and it’s never pleasant when dealing with rude people who are like that.

                However, even with the good and bad, the happiness and fulfillment that I get from working in a Veterinary hospital definitely make everything worthwhile.  I’ve been learning and experiencing so much each day that I go in to work; the Veterinarians and Veterinary technicians there are wonderful, and they are very explanatory with what they’re doing when I’m watching and helping them.   They are also allowing me to help more and more each week, in addition to entrusting me with more tasks and more detailed tasks each week, which I’m extremely grateful for.  I’m learning a lot by watching the doctors and technicians, and I’m also learning a lot from the hands-on tasks that they’ve been teaching me to do.  As all of my blog posts have shown, I’ve been participating in a lot of hands-on activities in addition to observing the surgeries and procedures.  Even though I’ve only been working for three weeks, I love knowing the fact that everything we do is helping the animals, I love working with the Veterinarians and technicians, I love the amount that I’ve been able to learn and experience, and I love the feeling I get when I wake up and go to bed each day. It’s a very rewarding feeling, and I feel like I’m helping to do something that is extremely worthwhile while I’m still learning about this kind of job; the amount of joy I’ve felt seeing an animal regain its health is wonderful.   Again, even though I’m only three weeks into the internship, I feel that it’s really helped ensure me that I’ve chosen the right career path for myself.