It's amazing how much I've learned over the past three days. Learning in class is one thing, but it sticks so much better when you actually get to use that knowledge in real life situations.
I worked at the vet clinic Monday and Tuesday and had such an amazing experience. In just a few short days I learned and did so many interesting things and also got a really good feel on how to talk to clients about touchy subjects such as weight, teeth, and euthanasia.
Monday I observed a few standard surgeries, a spay and a declaw. Later in the evening a golden came in with acute collapse, labored breathing, and a heart rate of about 250. He was 15 and likely had a ruptured spleen. I helped by administering fluids and monitoring his heart rate, but ultimately the owners decided euthanasia was the best option.
Tuesday was pretty interesting as well. I observed a patellar repair on a five pound chihuahua. He had a congenital defect where his trochlear groove was "lopsided" due to one crest being normal and the other essentially non-existent. This caused his patella to constantly slide out of place, and was leading to hip dysplasia. The doc "regrooved" the trochlea by using a scalpel blade to carve it deeper and make it more symmetrical, and then took the sartorius muscle and sutured it across the leg to hold the patella in place. I could not believe that would even be possible without effecting the mobility of the leg, but it is! So incredible. Another case that I found particularly interesting was a dog with spastic paralysis (allowed me to brush up on my nervous system knowledge!).
Aside from all of that I learned so many things that will help me out for second and third year - the ins and outs of anesthesia and how to use the machine, evaluating an ear cytology, skin scraping, blood smear, lab results (not just what the numbers should be but what they mean as well)...I could list forever but you get the picture :)
Today I worked at animal control in Lakeland. I was a little skeptical of whether or not I would enjoy it but I really loved everything I did today. Vets for animal control of course do the standard spays and neuters, euthanasia (certain breeds can not be adopted out and some animals are just too sick to ever recover or are too aggressive), and perform more complex surgeries when necessary. They also evaluate animals that were either neglected or abused (or often both) and collect all of the evidence possible, and then they are able to appear in court to help put the person responsible in jail. For instance, a german shepherd came in that was clearly very ill with full body mange and appeared to be in a pain while walking. They ended up euthanizing him. He was emaciated and was found to have demodex (mites present causing the mange), was infested with fleas and intestinal parasites, and was heart worm positive. It is so awful what some people allow to happen to their animals and I really hope they are convicted for the pain and suffering they put that dog through. Another animal came in with a collar severely embedded in his neck and that poor dog looked so scared...his entire butt was tucked and if anything came near his face he would lower his head and shut his eyes. SO AWFUL! I mean really, HOW can people allow that sort of thing to happen? You have to be a really sick person to not care. Despite the fact that is sad to see animals that have suffered so badly, I really enjoyed being there. I would really love to occasionally work at for animal control or the SPCA just to help with abused and neglected animals.
Needless to say I had an awesome three days and am planning on going back once more on Friday. Next week is my last week of vacation and I still have a ton of things I want to do before I head back to Kansas!
