Stuff to share
mcwdvm
Posts: 54 Member
Anybody just want to post about their day- at work, at home and in between. The good, the bad, and the ugly- anything that's on your mind? Maybe we can get more veterinarians involved in this group 
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So it seems I am the only one left :sad: I was really hoping to connect with others sharing similar struggles. If any new or old members care to start posting here again I will be around for a while.0
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work related or diet/exercise related?0
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Whatever you feel like sharing- good, bad or indifferent.
I was back at work today after 5 days off for a road trip with my husband and kids. Ate way too much while away and paid for it during my noon time run.
Put too many pets down today- unwanted, too aggressive, too old. A lot of tears- I wish they outlived us.0 -
It is so hard to eat well when your boss buys a dozen huge breakfast burritos or clients are bringing in cookies and other junk. Work can be good because it keeps me too busy for tons of snacking but can for sure be a test of will power.0
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Same at our office. Tuesdays are bull semen testing days so the donuts are brought in for the ranchers who just never seem to eat most of them. Then there is the baking- hate to tell someone I won't try what they brought! Lately, though, I have been worse when I get home- tired and craving sweets. Almost stopped and bought a chocolate bar on the way home on friday- stopped myself but made up for it with cookies when I got home. I am really frustrated.0
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Same thing with us. And then there are the reps. Ugh!0
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Today I made a police officer cry. Twice. And stole a dog by coercion. It needed to be done, but I still feel bad that I did it. I also had to swallow my feelings while talking to a woman who claimed to do the best thing for her dogs while explaining how the one I was seeing might be breaking with parvo because his mom was just getting over it and his dad had it a few years back but none of them have been vaccinated. For another client, I had to draw a diagram explaining why a $37 blood test for one thing was a worse value than a $72 blood test for approximately fifty-seven things. I've gotten so I give the lecture about the difference between a flea allergy and a flea infestation in my sleep. And I think I might have nightmares tonight about the chronic diarrhea puppy whose mom is not smart enough to keep her away from other dogs with diarrhea but is happy to bring her in to the clinic every 10 days and call twice in between. How was your day?0
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Emotional rollercoaster day... Went to surgery with that dog I stole yesterday. Found four problems and only kinda sorta fixed two of them. Woke him up and thought he was going to die. While I was waiting to see which way he was gonna decide on that, found masses in the lungs of another dog I had just done a dental cleaning on. Halfway through that drama, a dog I saw yesterday for diarrhea reappeared with a very recalcitrant mom, worse vomiting, and new neuro signs. Now the dying stolen dog seems to be feeling well, but I still give it a 40% chance we find him dead in the morning. Oh, and I worked straight through lunch. For free. Gaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!
And oh, yeah... that police officer I made cry yesterday brought half his buddies in this morning to say bye to his dog. I'm so glad I missed that. Men crying is bad enough, but a quarter of the police force getting choked up... I wouldn't have ever STOPPED crying.
And now I'm talking to myself. Which fits since I stopped making sense to my staff around 11am. Seeing as how it's just after 7pm now, I feel like that progression isn't too bad.0 -
How is the "stolen" dog?
I have told my receptionists not to schedule me any more cat dentals because the last one I did took almost 2 hours and I could not for the life of me get several of the roots out. We have scaler, polisher, elevators and extractors and that is the extent of our dental equipment (no burrs etc). I am going to SWVS and taking a course on feline dentals to see if I can learn any tricks. Oh and in the last 2 years I have broken two dogs jaws while performing extractions. I hate dentals.0 -
You have to be able to split the multi-rooted teeth to pull them- makes life a lot easier. Taking canines out is much easier when you can burr away the bony attachment to the jaw. On that note, I hate dentals too. I get my boss to do big dog canine extractions- they scare the heck out of me.
The SPCA brought in a pit bull last week that was deemed worth saving because of a great personality. Half of his head and his right ear were rotting due to some sort of trauma that the owners choose to ignore. We debrided for a week- which he let us do without sedation so long as he was getting his belly rubbed. Picked up by a pit bull rescue society on friday looking a whole lot better and almost 5 pounds heavier. Praying he gets a second chance at a loving home.0 -
I removed (or attempted to remove) my first big, bleeding, nasty elbow hygroma today. It has been seen by one of the part timers that is ready to retire and doesn't do surgery. I get done with the tedious, bloody surgery and find the estimate for the actual surgery to be $75!!! I would have charged at least 150 if it was my estimate. And 45 minutes of anesthesia where it took me almost twice that long. Do I have to honor his estimate? Lesson learned to check them before surgery! Now lets all pray this actually heals...0
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The stolen dog died. I stole him because his owner was living in Hawaii (we are in Tennessee) and the friend taking care of him here wasn't doing such a hot job. Due to the communication issues between us & the owner, the owner & the friend, and the friend & us, the dog has been living with a partial GI obstruction for over a month and had dropped from 65lb to 37lb. I took him to surgery the day after stealing him and did the best I could but he went septic the next day. I should have done an anastamosis but couldn't justify that much time in surgery on a dog that didn't have a great prognosis in general and that I wasn't being paid for. Several of us cried over him for a good hour when I made the call to euthanize. Oh, and he was the sweetest 11 month old GSP you've ever met.
That's great about the pit bull!
Right on about the dentals - our drill broke a few weeks back and I was about to cancel my dentals for the next week when they got it repaired. Seems like I'm doing carnassial extractions for slab fractures on every other dental I do these days. I've learned that the healthy roots are actually the easy ones. The last one I did was so chronically diseased that I removed the tooth in about a dozen pieces.
Had a fun case yesterday... Appointment is for "having trouble with fleas" so it's usually a pretty straightforward thing, right? 12yo indoor/outdoor cat where the O has been using Hartz for the last year. After explaining that she's lucky the cat isn't dead, I explained that the reason she's seeing fleas is because the cat isn't grooming. He's not grooming because he doesn't feel well. See how his skin is sort of yellow, like butter? Has he been acting any differently? Oh, yeah, he's not been eating for the last two weeks, has lost significant weight, isn't urinating or defecating much, and vomited yesterday. Oh, but we're worried about the fleas? Okay! And you don't have much money? Great! I had to send the labs out instead of getting answers right away because of the financial limitations. And today is my day off... so someone else is having to take over. I'm not sad.0
