Brave dogs, bad news, no money.
Yesterday was an insane day. Definitely my most memorable so far at work. I ache and hurt all over today, and my mind's eye keeps seeing that sweet dog trying so hard...
The day started out with surgery. We had a spay and a dental. Once the puppy for the spay was asleep we needed to get some blood, as a blood test is free in the puppy program that she's in. Well, last week I got word that the doctor's given me the go-ahead to start learning how to do blood draws, but there just weren't many last week that I was around for. But this seemed the perfect opportunity! Especially since Dr. Dillon (the Tuesday doctor) has said that Tuesdays can be Education Tuesdays, heh. So she and Aleisha told me how to do it (bevel of the needle facing upward, find the vein with the sensitive fingers of the non-dominant hand, make sure you can pull up on the syringe one-handed because that's all you're gonna get), and I totally hit the vein and got enough blood from the hind leg vein for the test. GO FLIPPIN' ME, DUDE. They were both like, "Yay, Gina!" since it was my first time and all. Woohoo, woohoo....
So we got the spay done, and Aleisha did the dental, and the doctor and I did the other appointments that came trickling in (such as the bandage change for the sweet dog we did a lumpectomy on last week; the incision has opened pretty much all the way up now but it's healing great and she's got a lot more mobility now, good for her), and then it was lunch time. While Mary and Aleisha were on lunch I got a phone call from a young woman whose dog was having puppies and she wanted to know how much it would cost her for us to help the dog deliver them... she'd had two puppies successfully, but a third was trying to come out and failing. There wasn't a price for anything like that in the computer and everyone was gone but me, so I told her we'd call her back.
After lunch I didn't get a chance to pass that on to anyone else, because our afternoon appointments came and the doctor was with them. Finally, almost two hours after the girl had called I was able to give that to the doctor, who called her and told her to go to the store and buy some KY lube and try and get that puppy out. After that we had a man come in with his dog who was a caution, and he was so great. He was the perfect example of a pet owner who KNOWS their pet is difficult in certain situations and does everything possible to make it easier for the people who have to deal with said pet. His dog had some kind of wound on her but was a fear biter and even though he'd given her THREE doses of sedative before they came over, she was still giving us the hairy eyeball. Dad let us know that she did best away from him, that she hated the muzzle, and that she'd done okay with an e-collar before, so we took her back, put the collar on her, and braced her against the wall on a short lead. The doctor was able to look at the wound and I was able to hold her head so that she couldn't bite, and it went very smoothly and the wound only needed to be flushed and given antibiotics. It was great, compared with the thrashing dog and its owners from Monday... this guy was up-front, didn't hold anything back, and was entirely honest, and because of that we were able to manage the dog in a way that was much less stressful for everyone involved, including the pet. Yay for good owners. :)
At 4 the girl with the dog in labor called back... that puppy was NOT coming out, and she was bringing the dog in. At 4:35 or so they arrived... the girl was my age and frazzled, and hadn't even remembered a leash and collar for her dog because they'd left in such a hurry. I grabbed a slip lead for her and she ran out and brought the dog in, along with one of the puppies (the other was left at home with the girl's boyfriend), and the girl's mother.
The dog was the smallest little pit bull I'd ever seen. Usually they run about 50-60 pounds, but this little girl was shorter than all the other pits I'd seen and only 38 pounds or so. She was brindle with a flattish little face like a saucer. She didn't mind when I scooped her up and set her on the examining table with a blanket under her, and all through everything we tried for her, she remained calm, sweet, friendly, and so incredibly patient.
Dr. Dillon snapped on her gloves, grabbed the lube, and immediately set about trying to explore the inside of this dog to see what the problem was. She feathered her fingers against the dog's pelvis to stimulate contractions, and was able to touch the puppy at some points, but the dog, Raven, was getting tired. She'd been laboring since the middle of the night and her contractions would push the puppy out enough for Dr. Dillon to touch its feet, but when she stopped pushing the puppy would get sucked back in. The puppy was certainly dead by this point, as it was no longer inside the placenta. The important thing was to get it out of poor mama dog so that it couldn't harm her. The girl, Rachel, who owned the dog, said that her boyfriend had been trying to grab the puppy and came away with a toe... not surprising, said Dr. Dillon, because the puppy was already starting to be broken down by mama's body.
Dr. Dillon had Aleisha run and grab something to use as a makeshift step-stool for Raven, so that her front end would be elevated and gravity might help a little bit. We stood her up on a trash can on its side, and I helped keep her there with my arms around her, rubbing her ears and petting her head and watching her calm face. Dr. Dillon kept trying to reach the puppy, but it just couldn't make it through. Her guess was that its legs were splayed and so its hips were too wide to pass through, or else it was two puppies, tangled up in each other. She decided to have Raven go outside and walk around a bit in hopes that she would squat.
I lifted her down from the table and got lube and vaginal secretions all over my shirt sleeve (*not* my scrub top, as I was wearing a long-sleeved undershirt), and once down Raven promptly threw up a huge mess of bile and placentas. "Ohh, you were eating placentas, girlfriend! I caught you! Silly girl, you don't have to do that!" Dr. Dillon laughed. (Dr. Dillon = teh awesome, if you haven't figured that out already.) I grabbed some extra gloves and we headed outside, but every time she squatted it was only to pee. At one point Dr. Dillon got her hands back up in there and I lifted Raven's front end up again, balancing her on my knee as I bent over her. Still nothing. When Dr. Dillon came back out Raven pooped then, and there was green diarrhea all over her bottom, poor girl.
We got back inside and I cleaned her up a little, and Dr. Dillon decided to try getting her up on the exam table and giving her a stepstool again. This time we fashioned one out of a foam trough, the trashcan, and a blanket, and set her up on that (getting diarrhea all over my arm when I picked her up). I held her up again. The doctor also decided to try giving her a little anesthesia so that she would be relaxed, so that the doctor could try forceps. We gave that to her and hiked her up on the step and I held her as she got sleepy so that she wouldn't fall off the little ledge, and her owners petted her and told her how good she was doing. It broke my heart; they obviously loved her so much. Unfortunately, they'd confided in the doctor that they only had $75 total to spend trying to help their dog. It was apparent that if they had the money they would gladly spend whatever it took to help Raven. But they just didn't have it. I was just hoping that we would be able to get that damn puppy out and we wouldn't have to do a c-section, as was everyone.... The girl said to the dog, "Raven-mamas, if you make it through this I will buy you the biggest doggy cake ever," and Dr. Dillon said, "If she makes it through this you're getting her spayed!" and the girl nodded fervently. "I know, I know, I know -- we're definitely doing that!"
The forceps and anesthesia weren't working and we had another appointment. We decided to inject some sugar into her and give her some food in hopes that it would build her energy up a little bit, and we let her rest while the doctor took care of the appointment. Aleisha and I had a puppy come in for a blood draw and she was squirmy and crazy but I kept her still long enough for Aleisha to get the blood she needed, and she complimented me on my restraint, which made me feel good as that was something that for a while I felt like I wasn't super great with. But I managed to hold a puppy (and they are the worst), so that was good. :)
Back to Raven. Doctor tried again, and again, and again to grab hold of that puppy and stimulate contractions. I held her up with my back aching and arms shaking and heart breaking. She was such a good, sweet dog... what kind of dog lets you mess around in their vagina for an HOUR without even batting an eye??? She was so calm and gentle, and such a trooper... but she was worn out, and her contractions weren't very strong. The most Dr. Dillon was able to do... well, there was a little -snap!- at one point and her face was like "Oh crap!" and quickly she hid something away in a little rag... it was the dead puppy's paw that had broken off. But that was the most that was coming out. There was nothing left to try. It was half an hour after closing and Raven needed an emergency caesarean section which would cost somewhere between $500 and $800.
And the owners had $75.
Well, Dr. Dillon had no problem with going ahead and doing the surgery right then even though it was after hours... but our clinic is so small that we cannot do things like surgery without getting paid for it. We've got a mere 6 staff members and one doctor. We don't take checks because they bounce and we don't do payment plans because people make one payment and we never see any more money. Veterinary medicine is still viewed by the world as a business... not as a calling. Vets go to school for four years and make only $55,000 a year for their trouble, even though they have to know *more* than doctors because they have to be dentists and surgeons in addition to being general practitioners for completely different species. And then owners can't or won't pay for the best care for their pets, and so compromises have to be made. Sometimes what's best for the pet simply can't be done because there's unfortunately a bottom line and if you hand out surgeries for free to everyone who needs them... then you'll go under yourself and be unable to help *anyone.*
I wasn't the closing assistant and it was already past close, so Aleisha sent me home. When I left they were calling Dove Lewis (who said they wouldn't be able to do the surgery without at least half the payment) and a different emergency hospital in hopes that someone would be able to do the surgery with payment plans, because we weren't able to do it. CareCredit wasn't an option as their credit wasn't good enough, and the girl's boyfriend was being an asshole to her on the phone ("What do you mean they want to do surgery? Bullshit, we aren't paying for that"), and the girl and her mother were near tears. I got changed into clean clothes and went back to the treatment room. The girl and the doctor were both on the phone but I waved goodbye to the mother and to the dog, and the mom smiled softly and said, "Thank you so much," and I said, "I just hope she makes it through. She's a wonderful dog." And then I left.
I don't go into work until tomorrow. I hope that when I do, there'll be a miracle to hear about.
I hope.
The day started out with surgery. We had a spay and a dental. Once the puppy for the spay was asleep we needed to get some blood, as a blood test is free in the puppy program that she's in. Well, last week I got word that the doctor's given me the go-ahead to start learning how to do blood draws, but there just weren't many last week that I was around for. But this seemed the perfect opportunity! Especially since Dr. Dillon (the Tuesday doctor) has said that Tuesdays can be Education Tuesdays, heh. So she and Aleisha told me how to do it (bevel of the needle facing upward, find the vein with the sensitive fingers of the non-dominant hand, make sure you can pull up on the syringe one-handed because that's all you're gonna get), and I totally hit the vein and got enough blood from the hind leg vein for the test. GO FLIPPIN' ME, DUDE. They were both like, "Yay, Gina!" since it was my first time and all. Woohoo, woohoo....
So we got the spay done, and Aleisha did the dental, and the doctor and I did the other appointments that came trickling in (such as the bandage change for the sweet dog we did a lumpectomy on last week; the incision has opened pretty much all the way up now but it's healing great and she's got a lot more mobility now, good for her), and then it was lunch time. While Mary and Aleisha were on lunch I got a phone call from a young woman whose dog was having puppies and she wanted to know how much it would cost her for us to help the dog deliver them... she'd had two puppies successfully, but a third was trying to come out and failing. There wasn't a price for anything like that in the computer and everyone was gone but me, so I told her we'd call her back.
After lunch I didn't get a chance to pass that on to anyone else, because our afternoon appointments came and the doctor was with them. Finally, almost two hours after the girl had called I was able to give that to the doctor, who called her and told her to go to the store and buy some KY lube and try and get that puppy out. After that we had a man come in with his dog who was a caution, and he was so great. He was the perfect example of a pet owner who KNOWS their pet is difficult in certain situations and does everything possible to make it easier for the people who have to deal with said pet. His dog had some kind of wound on her but was a fear biter and even though he'd given her THREE doses of sedative before they came over, she was still giving us the hairy eyeball. Dad let us know that she did best away from him, that she hated the muzzle, and that she'd done okay with an e-collar before, so we took her back, put the collar on her, and braced her against the wall on a short lead. The doctor was able to look at the wound and I was able to hold her head so that she couldn't bite, and it went very smoothly and the wound only needed to be flushed and given antibiotics. It was great, compared with the thrashing dog and its owners from Monday... this guy was up-front, didn't hold anything back, and was entirely honest, and because of that we were able to manage the dog in a way that was much less stressful for everyone involved, including the pet. Yay for good owners. :)
At 4 the girl with the dog in labor called back... that puppy was NOT coming out, and she was bringing the dog in. At 4:35 or so they arrived... the girl was my age and frazzled, and hadn't even remembered a leash and collar for her dog because they'd left in such a hurry. I grabbed a slip lead for her and she ran out and brought the dog in, along with one of the puppies (the other was left at home with the girl's boyfriend), and the girl's mother.
The dog was the smallest little pit bull I'd ever seen. Usually they run about 50-60 pounds, but this little girl was shorter than all the other pits I'd seen and only 38 pounds or so. She was brindle with a flattish little face like a saucer. She didn't mind when I scooped her up and set her on the examining table with a blanket under her, and all through everything we tried for her, she remained calm, sweet, friendly, and so incredibly patient.
Dr. Dillon snapped on her gloves, grabbed the lube, and immediately set about trying to explore the inside of this dog to see what the problem was. She feathered her fingers against the dog's pelvis to stimulate contractions, and was able to touch the puppy at some points, but the dog, Raven, was getting tired. She'd been laboring since the middle of the night and her contractions would push the puppy out enough for Dr. Dillon to touch its feet, but when she stopped pushing the puppy would get sucked back in. The puppy was certainly dead by this point, as it was no longer inside the placenta. The important thing was to get it out of poor mama dog so that it couldn't harm her. The girl, Rachel, who owned the dog, said that her boyfriend had been trying to grab the puppy and came away with a toe... not surprising, said Dr. Dillon, because the puppy was already starting to be broken down by mama's body.
Dr. Dillon had Aleisha run and grab something to use as a makeshift step-stool for Raven, so that her front end would be elevated and gravity might help a little bit. We stood her up on a trash can on its side, and I helped keep her there with my arms around her, rubbing her ears and petting her head and watching her calm face. Dr. Dillon kept trying to reach the puppy, but it just couldn't make it through. Her guess was that its legs were splayed and so its hips were too wide to pass through, or else it was two puppies, tangled up in each other. She decided to have Raven go outside and walk around a bit in hopes that she would squat.
I lifted her down from the table and got lube and vaginal secretions all over my shirt sleeve (*not* my scrub top, as I was wearing a long-sleeved undershirt), and once down Raven promptly threw up a huge mess of bile and placentas. "Ohh, you were eating placentas, girlfriend! I caught you! Silly girl, you don't have to do that!" Dr. Dillon laughed. (Dr. Dillon = teh awesome, if you haven't figured that out already.) I grabbed some extra gloves and we headed outside, but every time she squatted it was only to pee. At one point Dr. Dillon got her hands back up in there and I lifted Raven's front end up again, balancing her on my knee as I bent over her. Still nothing. When Dr. Dillon came back out Raven pooped then, and there was green diarrhea all over her bottom, poor girl.
We got back inside and I cleaned her up a little, and Dr. Dillon decided to try getting her up on the exam table and giving her a stepstool again. This time we fashioned one out of a foam trough, the trashcan, and a blanket, and set her up on that (getting diarrhea all over my arm when I picked her up). I held her up again. The doctor also decided to try giving her a little anesthesia so that she would be relaxed, so that the doctor could try forceps. We gave that to her and hiked her up on the step and I held her as she got sleepy so that she wouldn't fall off the little ledge, and her owners petted her and told her how good she was doing. It broke my heart; they obviously loved her so much. Unfortunately, they'd confided in the doctor that they only had $75 total to spend trying to help their dog. It was apparent that if they had the money they would gladly spend whatever it took to help Raven. But they just didn't have it. I was just hoping that we would be able to get that damn puppy out and we wouldn't have to do a c-section, as was everyone.... The girl said to the dog, "Raven-mamas, if you make it through this I will buy you the biggest doggy cake ever," and Dr. Dillon said, "If she makes it through this you're getting her spayed!" and the girl nodded fervently. "I know, I know, I know -- we're definitely doing that!"
The forceps and anesthesia weren't working and we had another appointment. We decided to inject some sugar into her and give her some food in hopes that it would build her energy up a little bit, and we let her rest while the doctor took care of the appointment. Aleisha and I had a puppy come in for a blood draw and she was squirmy and crazy but I kept her still long enough for Aleisha to get the blood she needed, and she complimented me on my restraint, which made me feel good as that was something that for a while I felt like I wasn't super great with. But I managed to hold a puppy (and they are the worst), so that was good. :)
Back to Raven. Doctor tried again, and again, and again to grab hold of that puppy and stimulate contractions. I held her up with my back aching and arms shaking and heart breaking. She was such a good, sweet dog... what kind of dog lets you mess around in their vagina for an HOUR without even batting an eye??? She was so calm and gentle, and such a trooper... but she was worn out, and her contractions weren't very strong. The most Dr. Dillon was able to do... well, there was a little -snap!- at one point and her face was like "Oh crap!" and quickly she hid something away in a little rag... it was the dead puppy's paw that had broken off. But that was the most that was coming out. There was nothing left to try. It was half an hour after closing and Raven needed an emergency caesarean section which would cost somewhere between $500 and $800.
And the owners had $75.
Well, Dr. Dillon had no problem with going ahead and doing the surgery right then even though it was after hours... but our clinic is so small that we cannot do things like surgery without getting paid for it. We've got a mere 6 staff members and one doctor. We don't take checks because they bounce and we don't do payment plans because people make one payment and we never see any more money. Veterinary medicine is still viewed by the world as a business... not as a calling. Vets go to school for four years and make only $55,000 a year for their trouble, even though they have to know *more* than doctors because they have to be dentists and surgeons in addition to being general practitioners for completely different species. And then owners can't or won't pay for the best care for their pets, and so compromises have to be made. Sometimes what's best for the pet simply can't be done because there's unfortunately a bottom line and if you hand out surgeries for free to everyone who needs them... then you'll go under yourself and be unable to help *anyone.*
I wasn't the closing assistant and it was already past close, so Aleisha sent me home. When I left they were calling Dove Lewis (who said they wouldn't be able to do the surgery without at least half the payment) and a different emergency hospital in hopes that someone would be able to do the surgery with payment plans, because we weren't able to do it. CareCredit wasn't an option as their credit wasn't good enough, and the girl's boyfriend was being an asshole to her on the phone ("What do you mean they want to do surgery? Bullshit, we aren't paying for that"), and the girl and her mother were near tears. I got changed into clean clothes and went back to the treatment room. The girl and the doctor were both on the phone but I waved goodbye to the mother and to the dog, and the mom smiled softly and said, "Thank you so much," and I said, "I just hope she makes it through. She's a wonderful dog." And then I left.
I don't go into work until tomorrow. I hope that when I do, there'll be a miracle to hear about.
I hope.