As the day went on, there were many simpler checkups and appointments going on, such as nail trimmings, staple removal, and shavings (for gnats and/or in preparation for other procedures). These checkups required quite a bit of arm strength, for dogs and cats are quite strong and stealthy; they would see the clippers, feel something tugging their skin, or hear the razor and know something they didn’t like would be coming. Both the dogs and cats would squirm and try to alligator-roll or run away, but the cats were especially feisty and tricky because they were quick, and would also try to claw and bite. The hardest part was when the Vet or Vet Technician would try to either draw blood or get a needle into an animal’s vein; that really hurt them, along with if we clipped their nails down too far. The Veterinarians and Technicians taught me many of the different ways to hold the dogs and cats, as well as which hold was best based on the severity of the situation/the trickiness and feistiness of the animal. Along with these procedures I also assisted with euthanizing three cats. One was a stray whom had just been at the hospital too long, and the other two were brought in by an owner (the Vet Technician and I who did these procedures didn’t know the specific reason why the owner wanted the cats to be euthanized, but since the owner told the hospital to euthanize them, we had to). Carrying out these procedures was a bit saddening, but I know you can’t save every pet, no matter how much you’d like to.
Another informative procedure I observed today was lab work. There was a cat that was brought in who had a bladder infection; in addition, she also had to be shaved for gnats. The cat was having difficulty passing urine, so the vets kept her for a while and we fed her fluids by placing the needle pretty much right under the skin (even though it’s not a direct insertion of fluid into the body, inserting the fluids right under the skin forms a fluid bubble, which disperses throughout the body in a slower but more uniform and even manner), and also gave her some fluids to drink. After a couple hours the vets were able to collect enough urine from the bladder to take lab results. After spinning the urine in a centrifuge, a small sphere of cells was gathered at the bottom. We checked the sample under the microscope but didn’t really find anything that was specifically harmful or enough of anything (like red blood cells) that would be harmful, so the vets sent the sample off to the lab to get it reviewed and checked. In about five days we should get results back.
Two interesting afternoon procedures that I was able to be present for were an x-ray and a cardiac ultrasound. The x-ray was for a dog (not sure what breed, he was an interesting mix of a few different breeds) who had two fungal infections, Histoplasmosis and Blastomycosis, in his lungs. He had been in a few days ago and was placed on antibiotics, but unfortunately didn’t seem to be getting any better. Dr. Lou, the veterinarian who had him as a patient, took me inside the x-ray room and I helped hold him as the x-rays were taken, and she then showed me the x-rays and where the infections were. She described how the black area with white fuzzy spots was the lung area, and how that space should be clear and not dark or foggy, and the heart should be able to be seen clearly. Compared to the previous x-rays taken from a couple days ago, the infections didn’t seem any better. Since it had only been a few days, Dr. Lou decided to keep him on the same antibiotic (just increase the number of days he’d be taking it) and see how he was in a couple more days. Even though the infections didn’t seem to have improved, Dr. Lou said the dog was more energetic than he had been a few days ago, which was definitely a good sign.
The ultrasound was especially interesting because even though I’ve seen ultrasounds before, I’ve never really understood them because I’ve never been able to see the object or organ that they were showing within the picture. A 17-year old beagle named Frank was getting a cardiac ultrasound because he has a heart murmur, and they wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. During the ultrasound, the specialist described everything that was the screen to me, pointing out the left and right ventricles, the left and right atriums, the aortic and pulmonary valves, aorta, etc. She also showed me the how to measure the velocity of the heartbeat, as well as how to know if it was healthy or not (~2.5-3 m/s is the typical range). The specialist added color to the ultrasound towards the end of the ultrasound to see the blood flow: the color red was blood leaving the heart, the color blue was blood entering the heart, and any blue-green areas mean that there is a bit of disruption in the flow. However, with Frank, there wasn’t nearly enough green for it to be anything serious, so he was fine and his slight heart murmur luckily doesn't seem to be an issue for him.
