Another good Saturday

[cjsmith]

No euthanasias today! Also, I honestly believe I did not get peed on or pooped on by ANYTHING today. Not one single creature.

Memorable:

- The seizing boxer. We doped him to the gills so he wouldn't do it again, and this left his body somewhat confused and uncoordinated. He was game to try walking, though. He didn't seem to notice or care whether he was walking on the tops or bottoms of his front feet, and if he stood still for more than a few seconds he'd list to the right and wind up sitting down suddenly, but boy did he like being outdoors, giving the whole walking thing a good old try and turning his face to the sun. That was the only time he ever shut up. Aside from the incessant barking, though, he was a good-natured dog, friendly with everyone. Or maybe all of that was the drugs. We gave him the good stuff, man.

- The kitty with a belly full of surgical staples and a big feeding tube sticking out of her neck, who was craving affection. She kept trying to scrape her head (and her whole side) against hands, faces, elbows, cage doors, etc, to the point that she needed to have her neck bandage protected from her enthusiasm. Her owners also reported they'd had to get her down from the top of the fridge to bring her in. I think somebody forgot to tell that cat she was supposed to be sick.

- The rabbit with half of her body coated in seriously foul-smelling slime. She was a sweet rabbit, relatively calm, with soft fur (on the front end) and a hankering for ear scritches. Boy did we spend some time on cleanup for that one. I have no idea what her medical trouble was, but I hope it clears up, because already the slime had started to give her skin some problems.

Even the angry cat whose owner came in bearing battle wounds didn't scratch me. I pried her out of her carrier, weighed her, stuck a thermometer where she didn't want it to go, and took her pulse and respiration rate, and she didn't attack even once. I don't know how I got so fortunate today, but I'm not complaining, not one tiny bit.

Comments

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

The animals know you are good people. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

On days like today they sure seem to know! Now if only I can make sure they remember that on all the other days, too. ;-)

[brooksmoses]

Yay! You all seemed pretty busy there today, from what I could tell -- I think we saw you briefly from afar.

(Our little kitty was very good, too, though she Really Did Not Like being held still for IV fluids.)

(Speaking of which, you might know: They told us that if the lump of fluid was not entirely absorbed by tomorrow, we should wait until the following day to give her more. As best as I could tell, it was all gone just a couple of hours later. Do you have any idea if that's plausible, or if I should I assume it's there and I'm not feeling it?)

[allanh.livejournal.com]

No euthanasias today! Also, I honestly believe I did not get peed on or pooped on by ANYTHING today. Not one single creature.

You realize it's a full moon tonight, right?

That means in another week, everything'll go back to poopin' on ya.

Enjoy the nonpoop while it lasts. :)

[nosrednayduj]

When I gave my cat IV fluids twice a week it was usual for it to all be absorbed in a few hours. I gave 100ml. (It was supposed to be 3x/week but I never managed to do it that often.)

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

No euthanasias today?

Wish I could say the same thing.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, you were there? I missed you entirely. You probably came in during one of the insane levels of busy. What's your kitty's name? I have a better chance of having seen her. :-)

The fluid lump disappearing in just a couple of hours is totally normal for the kitties I've done.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That must be it! :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aw man, yours must be pretty heavy to carry to the freezer.

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

Nah, the extra dismemberment stage takes carry of any heavy lifting. I'm not gonna be hurting my back on purpose. That's crazy talk!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I am now worried about the fact I'm laughing. Does the black humor of a medical (or veterinary) setting come on this quickly? I bet in about five years nobody but a nurse will have a beer with either one of us.

[brooksmoses]

Thanks! That's reassuring. :)

[brooksmoses]

Oh, good to know. Thanks!

Yup -- suzimoses came in about 10am to drop off our kitty, and then we came in at 3:30 to pick her up and get a demo of how to give the fluids. Her name is Eowyn, which it seems nobody there can pronounce very easily; she's a rather small calico.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember Eowyn! She's a sweetie.

I briefly saw somebody who reminded me of suzimoses, but I didn't think it was her, so I just gave her my general professional-face grin. Now I'm wondering whether I was confused and it was her. (I think she and I have met, um, twice?) The woman I saw was wearing a necklace with a large stone in silver wire-wrap; that may or may not disambiguate. :-)

How do you pronounce Eowyn's name? The senior tech that day pronounced it "A-O win", sort of like replacing "kay" with "win" in "A-OK". I figured she was probably closer than I was, so I took up her way of saying it.

[brooksmoses]

That does, indeed, clearly disambiguate; that was her. (The jewelry is from elisem.) She had a similar, "Ah, that was CJ!" moment when the tech mentioned that you were in, later.

Yeah, that's pretty much the pronunciation we use. I've not seen Tolkien's guides for pronouncing it, but I'm pretty sure that's how the movies did it, and I think they were pretty good about that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! Yeah, she looked familiar, but not quite familiar enough for me to break out with "HEY are YOU Suzi?" I occasionally do that kind of thing and I'm often wrong, ending up with a stranger looking bemused and me feeling a bit awkward.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

... or an animal breeder. ("You can tell the table full of cat breeders; they're talking at the top of their lungs about pus-filled uteruses while eating dinner.")

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I could see that. :-)

There's a part of me that can't wait until I get my first pyometra case. I totally will -- if no one's watching, and once it's out, of course -- I totally will squeeze that thing.