Day 5

Good day today, did the regular opening stuff (some of it, like start up x-ray), but most of it was done by the time I got there. I was sort of extraneous in the beginning, we were down a tech for a bit and most of the first hour was surgery admits. I had never done one, so today I got to follow along, learn what to say and do, and then I got to check a little rat terrier in for a neuter. It wasn't very complicated, just going over the estimate, showing the optional things, like blood work, and explaining each point and what getting the bloodwork, or not, would mean. The guy was very nice, and his little terrier was too, for the most part.

The terrier was good until I got him in the back and drew up his BAG injection (I forget what that stands for, I need to write things down, but it's a mild muscle relaxant and anesthetic) which every inpatient gets unless they have an allergy or some other reaction to it. I got to do my first needlework on this little terrier today, and of course, he's got to be a screamer. The minute I touch him with the little pinprick he howls like I beat him with a mallet. Even when they went to put in the ace and such, he carried on like they were pulling his toenails off. Oh, speaking of screaming things, I got to assist on a cystocentesis last Thursday...on an incredibly unhappy cat. What is it with cystos and unhappy cats? I got to help later with a very nice, if really fat, dog, so that was a bit better.

It was a busy day, so I'm going to make a quick bulleted list of the things that stand out:

-Learned how to do admits. Yay!
-More labwork and I got to work a bit more with the vet machines, doing electrolytes and bloodchem screens.
-Today was the day of angry animals. Had a nasty little schiperkee (sp?), shar pei, and a cat that tried to eat my hand off. Of all the animals that have taken a swipe/nibble at me, a little one pound kitten was the one that freaked out and gave me some battle wounds. Cats.
-Forgot my lunch today. I almost ate the fax machine, thank heavens there's a creamee stand about 1/4th of a mile away.
-Apparently, while doing recalls (checking in with patients, seeing how post-op patients are doing, etc), I found another kitty that had the exact same circumstances and wound as abcess kitty. Weird! I had to ask someone to make sure I had the right file.

The thing that sticks out for today, along with this just one rabid-acting cat, was that I was involved in my first euthanasia. I held the kitty while the other tech administered the dose and I am not afraid to admit that I had to count to ten a few times to keep myself from crying. I didn't think it would be that hard to just hold the vein on a little emaciated kitty, but it was. Poor cat, rest in peace, honey.

Now I'm going to go and rest, long day tomorrow.