Work Experience: Vet Practice

Unfortunately Wednesday's are always incredibly quiet at the vet's. Therefore I only had the chance to see three consults and help the nurse clean up. 

The first consult was a post-op check of a Doberman cross. She'd been neutered two days before and the vet just needed to check that everything was healing properly and no infections had set in. The owner said that she hadn't seen the dog licking or scratching the wound, however, she had seen a small amount of discharge. The vet, Suzanne, informed the owner that this is normal. However, if the volume or frequency increases the owner would have to contact the vet’s. Suzanne wasn't entirely happy with the slight redness and tightening of the skin around the wound, so she booked to see the dog on Friday.

The second was a Labrador being discharged from today’s surgery. She had been spayed in the morning and had two lumps removed, one from her neck and one from the base of her spine. She was a relatively old dog so she had been given fluids during the procedure and also given a morphine based pain killer afterwards. The fluids were to assist the functions of the liver and the kidneys. The morphine based pain killer caused the Labrador to mumble (or as Suzanne put it "sing") which is a side effect of the morphine. It’s completely normal but Suzanne could tell that the owner was a bit concerned because the Labrador isn't usually a vocal dog.

The last consult was for an elderly dog. He had recently become incontinent and had lost the use of his sphincter. This may have been due to a lump that had been found and removed previously. The lump may have caused the muscle to stop working properly. Suzanne told the owner that there is little than can be done to assist with incontinence, especially with males. She suggested washing him and keeping him as clean as possible, to prevent urine burns on his skin. Suzanne also suggested trying to make a sort of nappy, out of a t-shirt and absorbency pads. However, with a homemade nappy, you'd have to be careful that the dog didn't trip on it. 

Hopefully I'm going to start going to the vet's on a Monday from now on. This is because I may be able to see more consults, as they tend to be busier at the beginning of the week.