Kitten Pushing

It's Spring Break!! That means no driving to school for a week- very exciting. I have limited myself to shadowing just once this week, which I will be doing tomorrow, out with the equine vet. My girls need their vaccines, and I figure I might as well spend the day on the road too! I have a ton of homework, papers to write, problems to catch up with and exams to study for, as well as housework.

Last night I shadowed at the ER, which was a complete mess. When I walked in, there was only one person in the back, and it was someone I had never met. I knew they had just hired a new tech, and so I went up and introduced myself and asked if that is who she was. Unfortunately, I was completely off, and she was one of the board members! Well, I think that may have put us on the wrong foot (you know what they say about assuming...), as she acted a little annoyed by me the rest of the night, but was still pretty helpful and friendly overall. One of the vets on staff got really, really sick (she has some medical issues to begin with and these somehow got exasperated). As a result, the shelter manager called in all the help she could get- including board members; one of whom was Doc (my equine vet), one of whom was the neurosurgeon that we visited a couple of weeks ago with the club, and some others who stepped in. The other steady ER vet was in at 7 and managed to take things over, but it was crazy hectic for awhile. Very few of the vets there knew how to use the computer system, or where anything was, so the techs ended up doing a lot more teaching and fixing than being able to do their normal jobs, and the vets ended up doing teching duties!

It was certainly crazy, but I also got to help out a lot more than usual with drawing stuff up, running and fetching, and cleaning (I must have cleaned at least 10 kennels last night!). I also got to see some suturing of a nasty leg wound, and some ultrasounds on a pregnant mother cat and a dog with liver problems. I learned how to run all the phlebotomy equipment, and just felt a lot more useful than usual! Unfortunately I came down with a migraine about half an hour into being there, and though I fought it tremendously, by 10 I was having waves of nausea and light sensitivity, so I headed home a little earlier than usual.

The most touching case was a "shop cat" who came in. She was pregnant, and was brought in by a building tenant who did not own the cat, as she had only had one kitten and that was over 24 hours ago. The worst part? The cat's owner had seen the cat giving birth and when the second kitten was coming out, he decided for some unknown reason to push the kitten back inside. SERIOUSLY? The very sweet and concerned tenant had absolutely zero money, not even an exam fee, and the owner had told her to tell the hospital it was a stray and not his, as he wasn't going to pay for it. The vet on staff couldn't just let this cat walk out the door- she gave her a very brief exam, and stuck an ultrasound probe on her belly. Defying all expectations, the kitten first in row (the only on we could find) was still alive! The vet suggested she take her home and give her privacy and a dark room, and hopefully she would go into labor again and have the rest of her litter. It would have been a bugger if this cat hadn't been one of the nicest and chillest cats I have ever met, but she was. I was also impressed by the vet's compassionate actions, especially when she knew the board members were there and would know that she had donated her free services. On top of a variety of other interesting cases, the night was very educational and a great start to break!

~Melissa