Clinic tidbits

[cjsmith]

It's been a while since I wrote one of these. I have learned:

- How to hold a guinea pig so he can get his nails trimmed.
- Alaskan Malamutes are NOT just slightly different from huskies. They are HUGE HUGE DOGS. I mean it. HUGE.
- Bengal cats WILL escape their cage. When you and your six extra arms manage to get them back in, they will decide they don't know each other any more, and they'll get into a nasty fight. After they've been separated, they will also knock over all food and water bowls within minutes of their placement.
- It is possible for a one-year-old Golden Retriever to snooze all day. Yes, a Golden! Just send him through anaphylactic shock & quick treatment with steroids. Nap time.
- Jack Russell dogs are insane.
- Jack Russell dogs trying to eat while wearing an Elizabethan collar are hilariously funny. Successful, but hilariously funny.
- I am therefore a mean and terrible person.
- A thick-coated dog who for medical reasons has had a penectomy (men, don't google this) is thenceforth prone to chafing and infections in the surrounding skin, and when you shave him, he really gets... um... pissed off.
- Some dogs who have truly enormous bladder capacity will demonstrate it when pissed off. (Why do these appointments have to occur in the morning? I wouldn't have minded having clean scrubs well into the afternoon. Really, I wouldn't have minded.)
- The stethoscope I think I want is a Littmann Master Classic II. I can hear way better with those than with others I've tried.

Comments

[iridium.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yay clinic stories!

Which stethoscopes have you tried? I haven't bought one yet, and am still trying to figure out which I want.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Several Littmanns: a pediatric, a Cardiology III, and a Classic II. I can imagine the pediatric being very good for working on animals, but I can't hear SQUAT through it. Maybe there was something wrong with that particular one. I've seen only one of that model. But the two Master Classics I've tried have both had excellent acoustics, which I attribute to the particular "Master" shape of the head.

If you wanted to drop by the clinic and try several, on the humans for example, I'm sure people would let you. We don't have any of the really expensive ones, though -- the digital or the Master Cardiology -- nor do we seem to have anything but Littmanns.

[iridium.livejournal.com]

Randomly coming back to this, since I still had the link in my inbox: I borrowed my housemate's for several months (Classic II, I think) and liked it ok; I found a reasonable deal on a Cardio III and bought that. Seems to work well enough, though learning to hear subtle breath sounds and abnormal heart sounds is going to take awhile.
(Exam tomorrow, procrastinating madly. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! Glad you found one you like. I am still postponing buying one for myself. I don't know whether I subconsciously believe the Tooth Fairy will bring me one or whether I'm just wisely waiting until I really need it. :-)