1 week at Animal Eye Care
AEC is quite the interesting. Every person there is on first-name terms with each other. Doctors, students, techs, assistants all use the shorter version of their names if they have one... Like.. The doctors are Patty and Debbie, the head tech is Bev, her dog is Stuey, and the 4th year vet student is apparently Billy Bob (...Bill...) as of today. The mornings are super hectic, with 3 people running after the vet of the day while trying to put appointments into the computer, help with the check-ups, label and package meds, and going over discharge forms with the clients. Then you get surgeries in the afternoon, during which I havn't quite figured out what there is to do except watch or help with receptionist work. Then there's a big rush afterwards to get everything cleaned up, washed, and dried before the work day is over so you don't have to work overtime... but it's... quite fun.
A little 7-8 month old puppy came in for eye surgery yesterday. Poor little thing got bit by a bigger dog on sunday, tried to get it repaired, ripped the stiches out, and had to live with her eye almost hanging out for a couple days. So accidents do happen, even to adorable little Divas with the sweetest parents ever.
A huge lop rabbit came in for a recheck. It's the biggest rabbit I have ever seen. 14 pounds. Bigger in size than most cats I've seen. The body was maybe 2 feet long, 1.5 feet in width. It's head, without the ears was probably about a foot long too. His name was Whiskers and he was supposedly one of the best rabbit patients ever. When Phyllis took him out of the carrier, she wrapped him in a towel to make a rabbit roll. Apparently, this helps to keep rabbits in general from kicking out and either jumping off the table or breaking their backs, because they can break their own backs even when kicking air.
Found out today that doing dentals on Dr. Friedman's dog Zeus isn't the easiest thing to do. I should've figured that out when he started whining when Bill was trying to shave his leg to get a catheter in. Or when he kept trying to jump off the table if I tried to reposition myself. Or when he tried to run after Dr. Friedman after everything was set. But no. I still thought everything was going smoothly until he started whining and crying when the anaesthesia was being given. Then after he finally falls asleep, the dentist checks his heart rate and finds an arrythmia, so she sends someone to call Dr. Friedman. Then they give something (Ace promozine? something something...) to stabilize the heart... then during the teeth cleaning, Zeus decides he wants to wake up. So the dentist decides to finish up really fast. THEN when she's done and turns off the anaesthesia machine, he decides to go to sleep. No arrythmia, no skipped QRS complexes. Unfortunately, when the tubing in his throat is taken out, he decides he wants to kick all the fancy machinery off the table. So I grab for them and his back legs cuz the dentist is stil next to his head. Then I hear an "AH!!" and a THUNK... and the dog has flipped off the table and onto the floor, thankfully missing the desk that was 4 feet away. After what feels like forever of trying to figure out how to keep him from thrashing everywhere, a girl comes running out from the emergency room lobby and grabs Zeus's head... then Dr. Friedman comes running to see what happend... At least nothing really really bad happened.. and everyone came out unhurt. but omg that was really scary. Now I know what to do when a dog decides to flip off the table when coming out of anaesthesia. >.<
In 5 days, I've learned how to hold squirmy dogs still, keep cats from trying to run back to their carry cages, place a catheter in a rubber "vein" that's wrapped to a cardboard "leg," use parts of the DOS-based program on the computer, make friends with Jeda the puppy, operate the fax and copy machines, package most of the tools used in surgery, label medications, and keep up with the vet while she runs around during the 3-5 hour block that's set for appointments. That and the emergency care cat is friendly enough to arch against my hand when I try to pet it. Between routine check-ups, emergency cases, and surgeries it's been quite the week.
LA early tomorrow morning. or more like, starting the drive down within the next 8 hours, so Mel can move her stuff into her apartment. =)
A little 7-8 month old puppy came in for eye surgery yesterday. Poor little thing got bit by a bigger dog on sunday, tried to get it repaired, ripped the stiches out, and had to live with her eye almost hanging out for a couple days. So accidents do happen, even to adorable little Divas with the sweetest parents ever.
A huge lop rabbit came in for a recheck. It's the biggest rabbit I have ever seen. 14 pounds. Bigger in size than most cats I've seen. The body was maybe 2 feet long, 1.5 feet in width. It's head, without the ears was probably about a foot long too. His name was Whiskers and he was supposedly one of the best rabbit patients ever. When Phyllis took him out of the carrier, she wrapped him in a towel to make a rabbit roll. Apparently, this helps to keep rabbits in general from kicking out and either jumping off the table or breaking their backs, because they can break their own backs even when kicking air.
Found out today that doing dentals on Dr. Friedman's dog Zeus isn't the easiest thing to do. I should've figured that out when he started whining when Bill was trying to shave his leg to get a catheter in. Or when he kept trying to jump off the table if I tried to reposition myself. Or when he tried to run after Dr. Friedman after everything was set. But no. I still thought everything was going smoothly until he started whining and crying when the anaesthesia was being given. Then after he finally falls asleep, the dentist checks his heart rate and finds an arrythmia, so she sends someone to call Dr. Friedman. Then they give something (Ace promozine? something something...) to stabilize the heart... then during the teeth cleaning, Zeus decides he wants to wake up. So the dentist decides to finish up really fast. THEN when she's done and turns off the anaesthesia machine, he decides to go to sleep. No arrythmia, no skipped QRS complexes. Unfortunately, when the tubing in his throat is taken out, he decides he wants to kick all the fancy machinery off the table. So I grab for them and his back legs cuz the dentist is stil next to his head. Then I hear an "AH!!" and a THUNK... and the dog has flipped off the table and onto the floor, thankfully missing the desk that was 4 feet away. After what feels like forever of trying to figure out how to keep him from thrashing everywhere, a girl comes running out from the emergency room lobby and grabs Zeus's head... then Dr. Friedman comes running to see what happend... At least nothing really really bad happened.. and everyone came out unhurt. but omg that was really scary. Now I know what to do when a dog decides to flip off the table when coming out of anaesthesia. >.<
In 5 days, I've learned how to hold squirmy dogs still, keep cats from trying to run back to their carry cages, place a catheter in a rubber "vein" that's wrapped to a cardboard "leg," use parts of the DOS-based program on the computer, make friends with Jeda the puppy, operate the fax and copy machines, package most of the tools used in surgery, label medications, and keep up with the vet while she runs around during the 3-5 hour block that's set for appointments. That and the emergency care cat is friendly enough to arch against my hand when I try to pet it. Between routine check-ups, emergency cases, and surgeries it's been quite the week.
LA early tomorrow morning. or more like, starting the drive down within the next 8 hours, so Mel can move her stuff into her apartment. =)