Category — Pets

Occasionally at work I have to service a number of branch clinics, each about an hour away from home  base. It’s not a bad (but long) drive and it takes all day to see the three clinics, so it’s usually not too bad. The first two are supposed to be quieter, allowing some time for lunch, but not on my day.

I arrived at the second clinic 30 minutes early so I could have lunch, but the lady with the keys hadn’t arrived and the carpark was already filling up with people and pets.

So I started seeing patients in the carpark while I waited for the clinic to open. The work was steady and I ended up running overtime trying to see everyone. The next clinic (which I arrived late to) was no better- as busy as all the others had been.

So it was approaching 4:30, after an unusually busy day, in which I hadn’t had any food since 7:30 this morning, when I went to the housecall that I had promised to do.

Let me explain something to you: Housecalls Suck. They seriously suck, which is a big reason why most vets don’t do them anymore. You can’t control the environment, you usually don’t have all the equipment you’d want for every eventuality and you don’t have trained nurses to handle the animals with you. Not only that, but you’re in somebody else’s house and they always have great expectations. Everything just makes it harder to be a medical professional.

Not only that, but the sort of people who insist on housecalls and refuse to come to the clinic tend to be a little crazy.

[Read more →]

Lilly (c) Jiva @ www.flickr.com

I’m a Queen of Death at the moment.

I’m euthanising a lot of animals, and more than a few people are springing surprise euthanasias on me. It makes the week hard when you feel like all you’re doing is killing, not medicine.

I should first clarify what I mean by a ’surprise euthanasia’. Most people, as their pet approaches the end of its life, talk to the vet about their options. We’re told that “Fido isn’t doing very well,” or “I’m worried about Miffy’s heart condition” or you will have diagnosed a malignant cancer weeks ago, or will have been treating a dog’s arthritis for yonks and watched it slowly get worse. The “surprise euthanasias” are those that appear out of the blue- I walk into a consult to see a ’sick cat’ and fine myself looking at a dehydrated, emaciated creature who I’m told “just hasn’t been herself lately. Not all there, you know?” and I get that sinking feeling. The owners say words like “suffering” or “quality of life” or “I want what’s best for her” and I know that they don’t want diagnostics, just some closure and some peace.

I realise it’s part of the job, but there’s an entirely different mindset involved when it comes to euthanising an animal compared to treating it. When I walk into a consult room, reasonably happy at the start of the day, it becomes a very abrupt change of face. Compare it to other owners that either drop into the clinic for a fifteen minute chat, or make a half hour phone call, to discuss options and gradually get their mind around the idea that euthanasia is a valid choice at this point in their pet’s disease. [Read more →]

There are not many worse ways to start the morning than being abruptly pulled out of a consultation with a nice couple and their old dog to by an anxious nurse,

“That revisit patient coming to see you. He died in the car.”

“Is the owner here?”

“Yes. There’s a kid too.”

I was expecting the patient to put him to sleep that morning, and as sad as it always is to lose a pet it is much worse for most people to either find them dead or watch them die in their arms. It can be downright traumatic to see a pet die, especially with no vet guiding you as to what to expect or if you think the pet is suffering. [Read more →]