Long day, so I'm going to do it bullet style!
-As I said, long, busy, but good day. The end of my 'week' there always seems to be a long day.
-Helped more with hooking up patients and recovery today, as apposed to being helped along and watching.
-There was a poodle spay that went well, until she tried waking up. One moment she was out, the next she was awake, and almost fully so. She came out very fast, and we had to extubate her really quickly. Poor girl, not the way I'd like to wake up.
-Angry pitbull named Phoebe in who did not like other animals, but was very nice to people. She, and one of the employee's dogs that was there for a dental (little bulldog) did not get along well and had to be pulled away from each other multiple times (such as trying to eat each other through the cage walls). Made for an interesting day, for sure. There has sure been a rash of angry dogs this week!
-Max is still there, maybe diagnosed with pyelonephritis (which would be the third case in a week, weird). Doing about the same.
-One of the receptionists does fostering for the Central Vermont Humane Society and she has a litter of kittens! They are about 8 weeks and very cute. They came in today for a check up.
-Very full house! Two stray dogs came in, lethargic, very low blood cell count, and smelled kind of funny, like a sickly sweet decaying hay smell. One male, one female.
-I'm learning to read the inpatient/treatment board better and to tell who needs what medication and prep for what surgery.
-Professor Stalnaker came for a visit today! Sorry I wasn't able to talk long, Professor!
On a side note, I did a blood glucose curve for a black spaniel a while ago. She wasn't too happy about it, but it sure helped in my blood gathering skills!
Friday, July 20, 2007
6/06/07
First day as surgery/kennel. I got there about 7 am and another tech and the head receptionist to let me in about 10 minutes later. I let out the dogs for their morning constitutionals and fiddled with Max's catheter for a better part of 10 minutes. I got to play with his catheter a lot that day, as he was on massive fluids and had to go out quite a bit.
An interesting case was a hermaphrodite pug that came in with bladder stones to be removed. The poor dog also had some fairly extensive hot spots, so she had shaved patches all over, including one on her head. Poor dog! She was very nice, though.
Kobie, the tech who I was shadowing, went over how to hook up animals to all the monitors, such as where to attach the heart monitoring probes, the co2 tongue clip, the o2 machine and how to watch and deal with the gas and check the ace levels. How to clip and set up an animal in the proper arrangement, scrub properly, and things like that. She also went over the medications and the criteria for giving them. We give a cocktail to dogs to sort of take the edge off, since it's rather stressful to sit in a loud and busy kennel (it's abbreviated BAG, but there are three components of it), but only if they don't have a history of seizures or anything like that (the A stands for acepromazine). We give dogs rimadyl, and cats metacam, and will only do post op antibiotics if it was for something that might have introduced a lot of bacteria, like a dental or something slightly 'dirty', such as a cat neuter. Patients also go home with some sort of pain management, again rimadyl for dogs and metacam for cats. Usually about 3-4 days worth, depending.
Notes!
-Max is still there, and I am becoming very familar with catheter techniques through his constant adjusting, hooking up and disconnecting. He's looking a bit more spry, but still a very mellow and good patient. Apparently a cat killer, though.
-Had a very high strung and a bit people agressive german shepard come in for a lump removal. His disposition was made better by a bit of sedation and was very agreeable when he woke up (but kept howling in the kennels, yeesh).
-Washed a bunch of instruments and make a few packs, which is good practice.
An interesting case was a hermaphrodite pug that came in with bladder stones to be removed. The poor dog also had some fairly extensive hot spots, so she had shaved patches all over, including one on her head. Poor dog! She was very nice, though.
Kobie, the tech who I was shadowing, went over how to hook up animals to all the monitors, such as where to attach the heart monitoring probes, the co2 tongue clip, the o2 machine and how to watch and deal with the gas and check the ace levels. How to clip and set up an animal in the proper arrangement, scrub properly, and things like that. She also went over the medications and the criteria for giving them. We give a cocktail to dogs to sort of take the edge off, since it's rather stressful to sit in a loud and busy kennel (it's abbreviated BAG, but there are three components of it), but only if they don't have a history of seizures or anything like that (the A stands for acepromazine). We give dogs rimadyl, and cats metacam, and will only do post op antibiotics if it was for something that might have introduced a lot of bacteria, like a dental or something slightly 'dirty', such as a cat neuter. Patients also go home with some sort of pain management, again rimadyl for dogs and metacam for cats. Usually about 3-4 days worth, depending.
Notes!
-Max is still there, and I am becoming very familar with catheter techniques through his constant adjusting, hooking up and disconnecting. He's looking a bit more spry, but still a very mellow and good patient. Apparently a cat killer, though.
-Had a very high strung and a bit people agressive german shepard come in for a lump removal. His disposition was made better by a bit of sedation and was very agreeable when he woke up (but kept howling in the kennels, yeesh).
-Washed a bunch of instruments and make a few packs, which is good practice.
6/05/07
First day in surgery! I followed one of the surgery techs around primarily, and she showed me the way to admit someone (I'd done it before, but it was nice to do it again), but things got busy and it took people a few minutes to remember that I was in surgery that day and not up front (but it was still nice to be asked things). Overall, a slow day, but very fun and full of things to do and learn. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Notes!
-Bella died. She wasn't improving, and her owners elected euthanasia.
-A giant malamute named Max was admitted with lethargy, weight loss. He's very skinny, but even so he weighed in at around 97 pounds. Thank goodness he's a sweet dog, otherwise we'd be in deep trouble, having to poke and prod him!
Notes!
-Bella died. She wasn't improving, and her owners elected euthanasia.
-A giant malamute named Max was admitted with lethargy, weight loss. He's very skinny, but even so he weighed in at around 97 pounds. Thank goodness he's a sweet dog, otherwise we'd be in deep trouble, having to poke and prod him!
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