So a thread von Main got me to thinking about some Fun times when I was in the Veterinary biz. A couple of Stories....
Gre B. the Vet called me "Rambo" because I was not afraid to go into an Cage with any Critter no matter how scared everyone else was. We had a variety of protective gear from Gloves to heavy jackets and a Pole Noose. Didn't like any of them-try holding a frenzied cat wearing heavy leather gloves and see how that works out-plus most of the animals I tried wearing them with bit right thru that anyway. Meh, let me feel what I'm gripping and let me get a grip-nose, throat, testicles...doesn't matter. Once I clamped on it was game over.
My arms and hands were, of course, covered in scars-some fresh.
The Clinc was a rectangular building. Walk in the double glass doors to the Lobby-Lobby was open, had some benches mounted to the wall, a cubby area with magazines and kids toys and a small wood platform that could serve as a bench or to set a kennel on.Directly Left of the entrance was a door to a hallway, past the door was the counter where the Receptionist greeted people, put them in, handed out Meds or flea collars and so forth. Past it was another door, on the left, that lead to a hallway.
Reception-in the back was an island between the hells, on the left hall was a bathroom and an area we stacked canned and dry critter food. Right hall was a Copier and some misc, Down the hall was a series of doors-Left side, left of hall was an Exam room, then Sirgery then a small closet with the Xray developing equipment then the Kennels for the dogs. [[originally dogs and cats but the vet had a kennel room built on to the back of Surgery and we kept the cats in there. Right hall, past the Xerox on the right-two Exam room then Solitary where we kept Feline Leikemia patients [[Feleuk is vert transmissible]] then the Vets office. Big plate glass window looking onto an alley, dumpster and the back of some "Art" gallery, No wonder he kep the blinds closed
End of the hall with openings on both sides was the tub room, a small table we used to clean out things to be run thru the Auoclave and a closet with washer and dryer.. Behind the receptonist area was the Lab-microscope, meds and so forth and past it was Xray-Xray table and autoclave.
The third Exam room on the right was rarely used except for Holidays when Clients would bring us boxes of cookies and cakes and treats. Our clinic was that loved-very busy, very successful and Clients with Cash.
So, one day I'm cleaning up in the tub room after a morning of bath and dips. I see a cat run past me from the Left hall, around behind me into the open door of the Vets office. Huh. So I follow the cat into the office where it is jumping against the plate glass window trying to get out-Thonk! Pause. Thonk! Pause... I did the simple thing. Closed the door then closed the Blinds. Cat just sat and looked at where the window used to be.
Reached down and patted it. Nice kitty. Picked it up and it purred, nice kitty. Walked back around to surgery where Pat, the young Fresh-outta-vet-school, Vet was doing a Spay [[IIRC]]. He looks up at me say "Hey, what you got?" Held up cat-figure it had to have gotten out of it's cage.
Yep, top cage on Left had the door standing open, name label and no Cat. I lifted Nice Kitty to put him in the cage and he became a ball of pissed-off fury, lunging back at me. I got my left arm up and he bit right into my forearm to the bone, trying desperately to disembowel me.
At the point I went Blank. So I will let Pat describe it.
Starting with a bit of awed chuckling "I heard the cat go crazy and looked over to see it jump at you and bite. You went dead white, never change expression and you moved faster than I've ever seen anyone move. You reached up, grabbed the cat around the neck, stepped to the side of the cage and began bashing the cat against the side of the cage-every muscle on your arms stood out-I didn't know you HAD muscles!" Laughs. He came over an gave the kitty a nighty-night shot while I hand it pinned against the cage with it's teeth in my forearm.
I won't tell you what became of the cat but will say it was Satisfactory.
We kept getting a ton of Heartowrm Positive dogs-not unusual in Texas but way unusual in Numbers. Mary, the Lab Tech, decided to run some Tests. In those days you drew blood, ran it thru a flat filter, rinsed it several times then looked under the Microscope looking for the worms-they looked like fine strands of hair.
One day I hear a "YEEHEE!" from the Lab. Go to check-Mary was kind-of cute so worth looking at any day of the week and "YEEHEE!" could mean a number of things. Turns out the tapwater we used to rinse the Heartworm draws had these fine hiarlike strands in them. We switched to bottled water and the Positives dropped tremendously.
mY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH "mEAN DOGS" HAD TO DO WITH AN ELDER gOLDEN rETRIEVER. bIG OLD BRUTE-WEIGHED MORE THAN ME. sOME DOGS I DID NOT RELISH PICKING UP SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE mASS rATIO OR ME VERSUS THEM. tHIS WAS ONE OF THEM.
iT NEEDED A BATH. gREAT...BROUGHT IT INTO THE TUB ROOM, BENT TO PICK IT UP AND IT SAT DOWN. sIGH. bENT TO PICK IT UP FROM EVEN lower AND IT LET IT'S FRONT DROP. wONDERFUL. nOW I HAVE TO PRACTICALLY MELD INTO THE FLOOR TO GET UNDER IT AND LIFT, SOON AS I DID THAT IT ROLLED ONTO IT'S [[Pardon-Did not realize I hit the Capslock]] Back to somewhat Normal typing here]] back, pulling me over onto it. Then it decided to eat my face-I managed to get an arm across it's neck but there was a definite hollow Clomping sounds and dog breath three or four inches away from my Beautiful Blues.
I did what any OJT Veterinary Assistant [[aka Cage Scraper at that point]] would do. "HAAAAALLLLLPPPP!!!! HAAALLLPPPP!!!!!"
I was supposed to yell "STAT! but I did not get the Memo beforehand. lol.
Had this little dog come in for minor surgery-spay maybe? Not a Fragile situation or anything. Everything went Normal. Did the Surg, overnighted to keep an eye on, cleaned it up the next morning and sprayed it with some Smell Good to await it's Parents. Midmorning it's mommy showed up so I greeted her then went back and got him/her out of the cage, quick brush, another shot of the Flower Fart spray people think smells nice and walked it up the hall.
Hindsite, I remember the dog looking up at every light as we passed them-Florescent Tube banks in the ceiling-maybe five of them. Did not register, thought it was sort of cute until-I get to the open door and the woman looks horrified "What's wrong with my dog?!?!?!"
"Huh? No-" that's when I see the dog has basically gone totally limp in my arms, head turned sideway, drooling. ohsht.
"GREEEEEG!!! GREEEEEG!" I turned and went into the first exam room and started CPR. Stroke, heart attack? We never knew but he was definitely dead. Bummer.
Worst dogs to Bathe? Shar-Pei. Bristly hairs, great waxy skin. Blehh. Only had one. It's one brought it in or came in several times a month-nice woman, built like a Hollywood Dream-long, muscular legs, tight all around, nice set up top-she always wore the skimpiest clothes she could find. As if someone took some Frederick's of Hollywood stuff, sanded it away until it was practically transparent, no undies...Yeah, she showed it off a lot and often decided to "Help" me keep her dog calm by squeezing into me from behind while Greg and I had it on the table.
Tow unfortunates there-one is I could not Date clients, second-her face would stop a truck. But hey, in the dark it all looks the same.
Had a Shepherd Mix-it could only eat if it stoof on it's rear legs. Otherwise it could not swallow. Turns out one of the cartilages in it's throat had grown improperly-would pinch off it's esophagus. Pat and I went in and snipped that away. Took for hours because, as I learned, the body cavity that holds ones organ in is a vaccuumm, so after the surgery we took turns using a large needle inserted into said cavity and strings as big around as a Firemans hose, to pull the air out. Dog dig fine, I adopted him for a bit then a new Cage scraper really wanted him so he got a good home.
My first day in the job I got to meet "Warlord" Big Muscular Tabby, sweet as can be except he hunted fights with other cats so, invariably, he would come in and have abcasses drained-his face was one large scar. That day, my first day, we drained about two pints of pus, blood and serum out of his face.
Good times.
Gre B. the Vet called me "Rambo" because I was not afraid to go into an Cage with any Critter no matter how scared everyone else was. We had a variety of protective gear from Gloves to heavy jackets and a Pole Noose. Didn't like any of them-try holding a frenzied cat wearing heavy leather gloves and see how that works out-plus most of the animals I tried wearing them with bit right thru that anyway. Meh, let me feel what I'm gripping and let me get a grip-nose, throat, testicles...doesn't matter. Once I clamped on it was game over.
My arms and hands were, of course, covered in scars-some fresh.
The Clinc was a rectangular building. Walk in the double glass doors to the Lobby-Lobby was open, had some benches mounted to the wall, a cubby area with magazines and kids toys and a small wood platform that could serve as a bench or to set a kennel on.Directly Left of the entrance was a door to a hallway, past the door was the counter where the Receptionist greeted people, put them in, handed out Meds or flea collars and so forth. Past it was another door, on the left, that lead to a hallway.
Reception-in the back was an island between the hells, on the left hall was a bathroom and an area we stacked canned and dry critter food. Right hall was a Copier and some misc, Down the hall was a series of doors-Left side, left of hall was an Exam room, then Sirgery then a small closet with the Xray developing equipment then the Kennels for the dogs. [[originally dogs and cats but the vet had a kennel room built on to the back of Surgery and we kept the cats in there. Right hall, past the Xerox on the right-two Exam room then Solitary where we kept Feline Leikemia patients [[Feleuk is vert transmissible]] then the Vets office. Big plate glass window looking onto an alley, dumpster and the back of some "Art" gallery, No wonder he kep the blinds closed
End of the hall with openings on both sides was the tub room, a small table we used to clean out things to be run thru the Auoclave and a closet with washer and dryer.. Behind the receptonist area was the Lab-microscope, meds and so forth and past it was Xray-Xray table and autoclave.
The third Exam room on the right was rarely used except for Holidays when Clients would bring us boxes of cookies and cakes and treats. Our clinic was that loved-very busy, very successful and Clients with Cash.
So, one day I'm cleaning up in the tub room after a morning of bath and dips. I see a cat run past me from the Left hall, around behind me into the open door of the Vets office. Huh. So I follow the cat into the office where it is jumping against the plate glass window trying to get out-Thonk! Pause. Thonk! Pause... I did the simple thing. Closed the door then closed the Blinds. Cat just sat and looked at where the window used to be.
Reached down and patted it. Nice kitty. Picked it up and it purred, nice kitty. Walked back around to surgery where Pat, the young Fresh-outta-vet-school, Vet was doing a Spay [[IIRC]]. He looks up at me say "Hey, what you got?" Held up cat-figure it had to have gotten out of it's cage.
Yep, top cage on Left had the door standing open, name label and no Cat. I lifted Nice Kitty to put him in the cage and he became a ball of pissed-off fury, lunging back at me. I got my left arm up and he bit right into my forearm to the bone, trying desperately to disembowel me.
At the point I went Blank. So I will let Pat describe it.
Starting with a bit of awed chuckling "I heard the cat go crazy and looked over to see it jump at you and bite. You went dead white, never change expression and you moved faster than I've ever seen anyone move. You reached up, grabbed the cat around the neck, stepped to the side of the cage and began bashing the cat against the side of the cage-every muscle on your arms stood out-I didn't know you HAD muscles!" Laughs. He came over an gave the kitty a nighty-night shot while I hand it pinned against the cage with it's teeth in my forearm.
I won't tell you what became of the cat but will say it was Satisfactory.
We kept getting a ton of Heartowrm Positive dogs-not unusual in Texas but way unusual in Numbers. Mary, the Lab Tech, decided to run some Tests. In those days you drew blood, ran it thru a flat filter, rinsed it several times then looked under the Microscope looking for the worms-they looked like fine strands of hair.
One day I hear a "YEEHEE!" from the Lab. Go to check-Mary was kind-of cute so worth looking at any day of the week and "YEEHEE!" could mean a number of things. Turns out the tapwater we used to rinse the Heartworm draws had these fine hiarlike strands in them. We switched to bottled water and the Positives dropped tremendously.
mY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH "mEAN DOGS" HAD TO DO WITH AN ELDER gOLDEN rETRIEVER. bIG OLD BRUTE-WEIGHED MORE THAN ME. sOME DOGS I DID NOT RELISH PICKING UP SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE mASS rATIO OR ME VERSUS THEM. tHIS WAS ONE OF THEM.
iT NEEDED A BATH. gREAT...BROUGHT IT INTO THE TUB ROOM, BENT TO PICK IT UP AND IT SAT DOWN. sIGH. bENT TO PICK IT UP FROM EVEN lower AND IT LET IT'S FRONT DROP. wONDERFUL. nOW I HAVE TO PRACTICALLY MELD INTO THE FLOOR TO GET UNDER IT AND LIFT, SOON AS I DID THAT IT ROLLED ONTO IT'S [[Pardon-Did not realize I hit the Capslock]] Back to somewhat Normal typing here]] back, pulling me over onto it. Then it decided to eat my face-I managed to get an arm across it's neck but there was a definite hollow Clomping sounds and dog breath three or four inches away from my Beautiful Blues.
I did what any OJT Veterinary Assistant [[aka Cage Scraper at that point]] would do. "HAAAAALLLLLPPPP!!!! HAAALLLPPPP!!!!!"
I was supposed to yell "STAT! but I did not get the Memo beforehand. lol.
Had this little dog come in for minor surgery-spay maybe? Not a Fragile situation or anything. Everything went Normal. Did the Surg, overnighted to keep an eye on, cleaned it up the next morning and sprayed it with some Smell Good to await it's Parents. Midmorning it's mommy showed up so I greeted her then went back and got him/her out of the cage, quick brush, another shot of the Flower Fart spray people think smells nice and walked it up the hall.
Hindsite, I remember the dog looking up at every light as we passed them-Florescent Tube banks in the ceiling-maybe five of them. Did not register, thought it was sort of cute until-I get to the open door and the woman looks horrified "What's wrong with my dog?!?!?!"
"Huh? No-" that's when I see the dog has basically gone totally limp in my arms, head turned sideway, drooling. ohsht.
"GREEEEEG!!! GREEEEEG!" I turned and went into the first exam room and started CPR. Stroke, heart attack? We never knew but he was definitely dead. Bummer.
Worst dogs to Bathe? Shar-Pei. Bristly hairs, great waxy skin. Blehh. Only had one. It's one brought it in or came in several times a month-nice woman, built like a Hollywood Dream-long, muscular legs, tight all around, nice set up top-she always wore the skimpiest clothes she could find. As if someone took some Frederick's of Hollywood stuff, sanded it away until it was practically transparent, no undies...Yeah, she showed it off a lot and often decided to "Help" me keep her dog calm by squeezing into me from behind while Greg and I had it on the table.
Tow unfortunates there-one is I could not Date clients, second-her face would stop a truck. But hey, in the dark it all looks the same.
Had a Shepherd Mix-it could only eat if it stoof on it's rear legs. Otherwise it could not swallow. Turns out one of the cartilages in it's throat had grown improperly-would pinch off it's esophagus. Pat and I went in and snipped that away. Took for hours because, as I learned, the body cavity that holds ones organ in is a vaccuumm, so after the surgery we took turns using a large needle inserted into said cavity and strings as big around as a Firemans hose, to pull the air out. Dog dig fine, I adopted him for a bit then a new Cage scraper really wanted him so he got a good home.
My first day in the job I got to meet "Warlord" Big Muscular Tabby, sweet as can be except he hunted fights with other cats so, invariably, he would come in and have abcasses drained-his face was one large scar. That day, my first day, we drained about two pints of pus, blood and serum out of his face.
Good times.
