Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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DVMDream said:
Might I ask...

What was the aura of the day????
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Just one that kept extending her 2.5 hour drive until it became a 5.5 hour drive, which meant she came in on emergency and I had the privilege of seeing the case. The calf survived the solar flares in October, so I'm also surprised we couldn't save it... he is growing into his knees though, so we are not allowed to open his joints in necropsy. But we are only going to necropsy if they'll do a cosmetic necropsy so she can come get him. Otherwise, he is to be disposed of by us. Makes sense, right?
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scb44f said:
Just one that kept extending her 2.5 hour drive until it became a 5.5 hour drive, which meant she came in on emergency and I had the privilege of seeing the case. The calf survived the solar flares in October, so I'm also surprised we couldn't save it... he is growing into his knees though, so we are not allowed to open his joints in necropsy. But we are only going to necropsy if they'll do a cosmetic necropsy so she can come get him. Otherwise, he is to be disposed of by us. Makes sense, right?
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:laugh:

Makes complete sense.
 
scb44f said:
Just one that kept extending her 2.5 hour drive until it became a 5.5 hour drive, which meant she came in on emergency and I had the privilege of seeing the case. The calf survived the solar flares in October, so I'm also surprised we couldn't save it... he is growing into his knees though, so we are not allowed to open his joints in necropsy. But we are only going to necropsy if they'll do a cosmetic necropsy so she can come get him. Otherwise, he is to be disposed of by us. Makes sense, right?
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Whoa, the owner had no idea the calf was dead? Can grief mess up a normal person's judgment that bad? Or did they always seem a little touched?

How many days do you think it had been dead?


Minnerbelle said:
I have way more Cushing's suspects for sure, but very few that are truly diagnosed. The pot bellied, skin, PU/pd dogs with an ALP >1000 with occasional UTIs. Those aren't uncommon. It costs a good $1000+ diagnose, and the cost of tx and monitoring just goes up and up from there. So when it comes to discussing plans, a lot of people at least in my experience will decide to just deal with the PU/PD which is really the only thing that bothers most owners (generally true in my hospital for other doctors as well).

The addisonian crisis dogs get a diagnosis because of the nature of their presentation, and most will treat. It's satisfying for the owners to manage Addison's. Cushing's is more an annoyance. So i bet the number of addisonians is probably fewer, but I sure have more patients being treated for this than I do for Cushing's.
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What is tx an abbreviation for? Is it a drug?
 
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Starry-chan said:
Whoa, the owner had no idea the calf was dead? Can grief mess up a normal person's judgment that bad? Or did they always seem a little touched?

How many days do you think it had been dead?
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I love to give people the benefit of the doubt but based on other parts of the conversation during the 2-hour DOA call, I am confident grief was not the main player.

I am guessing it was dead when it was put on the trailer yesterday afternoon, and was likely dead before that even. I forgot to mention, it had that distinct dead animal smell as well.
 
scb44f said:
I love to give people the benefit of the doubt but based on other parts of the conversation during the 2-hour DOA call, I am confident grief was not the main player.

I am guessing it was dead when it was put on the trailer yesterday afternoon, and was likely dead before that even. I forgot to mention, it had that distinct dead animal smell as well.
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But ya know, better than the DOAs that actually aren't dead though!
 
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Minnerbelle said:
But ya know, better than the DOAs that actually aren't dead though!
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Totally agree!

That reminds me. We had a guy bring 3 sheep to the diagnostic lab. He thought they'd be dead by the time he got here. Nope. (Our d lab calls us over for any animals that have to be euthanized, we show up, they hand us the syringe and that's it.) Well, this time, I showed up, euthed the one that everyone saw was still alive, only to find that the other two were still alive as well. I haven't had my gut wrenched like that since. Ugh. The day before that, we depopped a herd of 30-40 sheep for scrapie testing. That was not a good week.
 
scb44f said:
Totally agree!

That reminds me. We had a guy bring 3 sheep to the diagnostic lab. He thought they'd be dead by the time he got here. Nope. (Our d lab calls us over for any animals that have to be euthanized, we show up, they hand us the syringe and that's it.) Well, this time, I showed up, euthed the one that everyone saw was still alive, only to find that the other two were still alive as well. I haven't had my gut wrenched like that since. Ugh.
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I've had one where I was like... "You had this poor thing barely alive in a f@&$ing box in the garage overnight?"

Since then, any DOA, I drop everything I'm doing and run over to confirm death.
 
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Minnerbelle said:
I've had one where I was like... "You had this poor thing barely alive in a f@&$ing box in the garage overnight?"

Since then, any DOA, I drop everything I'm doing and run over to confirm death.
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100% legit.
 
scb44f said:
Totally agree!

That reminds me. We had a guy bring 3 sheep to the diagnostic lab. He thought they'd be dead by the time he got here. Nope. (Our d lab calls us over for any animals that have to be euthanized, we show up, they hand us the syringe and that's it.) Well, this time, I showed up, euthed the one that everyone saw was still alive, only to find that the other two were still alive as well. I haven't had my gut wrenched like that since. Ugh. The day before that, we depopped a herd of 30-40 sheep for scrapie testing. That was not a good week.
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Are you guys a mixed practice or are you strictly large animal?
 
Starry-chan said:
Are you guys a mixed practice or are you strictly large animal?
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I work at a teaching hospital in the food animal service. Aside from spays and neuters in farm dogs and cats, I see cattle/small ru/camelids/pigs only.
 
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scb44f said:
I work at a teaching hospital in the food animal service. Aside from spays and neuters in farm dogs and cats, I see cattle/small ru/camelids/pigs only.
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You get to work at a teaching hospital? Cool!!!

Were you the one who posted about scoring a food animal residency? Is this part of that?
 
Starry-chan said:
You get to work at a teaching hospital? Cool!!!

Were you the one who posted about scoring a food animal residency? Is this part of that?
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Yep, I'm sticking around for residency. I'm still an intern. My job title doesn't change for another 7 months :p

that redhead said:
If you said "small ru's" out loud I'd get excited and think you saw small kangaroos :laugh:
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Lol sometimes I do say it. Never thought of it like that!
 
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I have an M&M rounds presentation tomorrow, so naturally my apartment has never been cleaner! I guess after 20 years of student-ing, some things don't change.
 
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pooter said:
I have an M&M rounds presentation tomorrow, so naturally my apartment has never been cleaner! I guess after 20 years of student-ing, some things don't change.
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M&M rounds are far less fun than any other form of case presentation. Good luck!

Advantage is being taken of a few of us members of the food animal team at the moment, and I'm struggling not to take it too seriously. There is one team member who lacks any form of modern communication unless it is to his clientele. Which works, until he is out for a back injury, at which point he makes all sorts of appointments without our knowledge and without knowledge of what is currently on the books. And that is why I have anxiety about work every day and I haven't been able to fall asleep lately. The one person he occasionally talks to does not communicate with the rest of is either. Oh, and his previous records for farms (like vaccine records or anything that could indicate what we need to accomplish at the farm calls he sets up) are nowhere to be found so the rest of us look like we don't know what we're doing. F***.
 
scb44f said:
M&M rounds are far less fun than any other form of case presentation. Good luck!

Advantage is being taken of a few of us members of the food animal team at the moment, and I'm struggling not to take it too seriously. There is one team member who lacks any form of modern communication unless it is to his clientele. Which works, until he is out for a back injury, at which point he makes all sorts of appointments without our knowledge and without knowledge of what is currently on the books. And that is why I have anxiety about work every day and I haven't been able to fall asleep lately. The one person he occasionally talks to does not communicate with the rest of is either. Oh, and his previous records for farms (like vaccine records or anything that could indicate what we need to accomplish at the farm calls he sets up) are nowhere to be found so the rest of us look like we don't know what we're doing. F***.
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Thanks! And hang in there!

The presentation went okay. I think the worst part was getting to the end of it and realizing that we could talk until we were blue in the face but we couldn't change what was done or how it turned out. So, yeah, I guess I'm officially not student-ing anymore. :/
 
Does anyone have Orsini and Divers' Equine Emergencies? We're starting horse work in the new year and I'm thinking it might be a good addition to my farm call kit.
 
Sigh. Thanksgiving weekend, I worked all day T-Day, and I'm Fri/Sat/Sun overnight ....

.... and we're out of apomorphine until early next week.

Shoot me.
 
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LetItSnow said:
Sigh. Thanksgiving weekend, I worked all day T-Day, and I'm Fri/Sat/Sun overnight ....

.... and we're out of apomorphine until early next week.

Shoot me.
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Oh no!! Apo is a wonder drug!!
 
my associate vet told me she's never seen apo work before. Without other medications on board. I've always seen it work really well. Wondering what other people have as far as experience?
 
We use injectable stuff at my clinic and it's always worked great by itself. We have the tablets (I think?) but I haven't ever used them.
 
dyachei said:
my associate vet told me she's never seen apo work before. Without other medications on board. I've always seen it work really well. Wondering what other people have as far as experience?
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I miss having injectable apo. Very rarely was it unsuccessful. I now have the tablet you give in the conjunctiva and it's super irritating... And it works sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't.
 
I can think of maybe one time when it didn't work in a dog. Maybe the associate has seen silly things like trying to use it in cats?
 
dyachei said:
my associate vet told me she's never seen apo work before. Without other medications on board. I've always seen it work really well. Wondering what other people have as far as experience?
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We have the injectable form, and used that version when I teched. Works pretty darn well in my experience, but there were a couple (most recently a lab puppy) where they had that queasy sad look but just kind of stared forlornly at me like Why did you give me that? I think after 3 admins they finally vomited but definitely not the immediate barf-fest I'm used to.
 
dyachei said:
my associate vet told me she's never seen apo work before. Without other medications on board. I've always seen it work really well. Wondering what other people have as far as experience?
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I have literally never had the injectable fail. I have had rarely to give a second dose. And I've heard of people having it fail. But in general I think it is hands down the best way to make a dog vomit reliably.
 
dyachei said:
my associate vet told me she's never seen apo work before. Without other medications on board. I've always seen it work really well. Wondering what other people have as far as experience?
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The only time I have seen it fail was just recently when the hospital I am at didn't realize they were under dosing because the bottle was 1mg/ml but the pixis machine had it listed as 2 mg/ml. The docs were having to redose after the first admin but now that they have that sorted out we have given the appropriate dose and it has worked like a charm every time.
 
I lost a patient today and thoroughly kicking myself for it. Tech is telling me not to, that I did everything that any other vet would have done, but hindsight is 20/20. Owners are upset at loss of pet, but didn't seem angry at me, which somehow is making it worse.
 
Coquette22 said:
I lost a patient today and thoroughly kicking myself for it. Tech is telling me not to, that I did everything that any other vet would have done, but hindsight is 20/20. Owners are upset at loss of pet, but didn't seem angry at me, which somehow is making it worse.
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I'm sorry :( I know you are an awesome vet and I hope you're able to feel better about it soon.
 
Coquette22 said:
I lost a patient today and thoroughly kicking myself for it. Tech is telling me not to, that I did everything that any other vet would have done, but hindsight is 20/20. Owners are upset at loss of pet, but didn't seem angry at me, which somehow is making it worse.
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I'm sorry Croquette :(

I've lost a patient in a car on the way home from a wellness visit! And it was not a vaccine reaction. While it was not my fault, hindsight is 20/20, and if I had a crystal ball to tell me what was going to happen, I would have taken a different course of actions and the pet may very well have been saved. I was really worried about how the owners were going to react when I went into the room to tell them their pet had passed after the dog was rushed back to the treatment area. They were sad, but they actually felt worse for me and really went through extra trouble to let me know that they didn't blame me and that they felt compassion towards me for how shaken up I was about what happened.

I agree, somehow that almost made me feel worse, though I was very thankful that this already crappy situation wasn't spiraling out of control with irate clients.

I had a pleural effusion cat a different time that arrested and died just as I was about to tap his chest. I wish I'd taken the owner back to the O2 cage to see the cat before I admitted the kitty and sent her home. This owner hated my guts after that. I'd never had anyone look me in the eye with so much true hate and vitriol. She hated me for not giving her the chance to say goodbye, and she wished she had let the cat die "peacefully" at home instead. She didn't blame me for the cat's death, but all of her grief was pointed straight at me in the form of hate. That burned, and I shed quite some tears afterwards, but that was easier to get over than the situation above. Somehow it makes us feel better when we are externally punished for adverse outcomes. It's kind of messed up, but at least for me, it's true.

It will bug you for a while, and you'll probably remember it for the rest of your life, but you will move past it soon enough. We all have bone piles of adverse outcomes, many we couldn't be in control over, and some that are 100% our fault. The more patients you see and the longer you've been doing it, the bigger that pile becomes.
 
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Now I had to go look up what "coquette" means on the interwebs....

According to the interwebs it is a hummingbird that looks like this:
Tufted-Coquette.png




Or it means a "woman that flirts"
 
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Coquette22 said:
I lost a patient today and thoroughly kicking myself for it. Tech is telling me not to, that I did everything that any other vet would have done, but hindsight is 20/20. Owners are upset at loss of pet, but didn't seem angry at me, which somehow is making it worse.
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I hate how some patients stick with us and some don't. I lost a panc case early on after graduation that turned out to be necrotizing (or fulminant or pick your favorite term) on necropsy. Odds were nobody was saving that dog, regardless of experience. And the owners hugged me - not mad at me at all.

And I still feel like **** over that dog. I really wanted to save it. Tears me up thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I've lost other patients and don't think about them a single time after leaving work.

It's weird.

Hang in there, rock star vet.
 
Minnerbelle said:
I had a pleural effusion cat a different time that arrested and died just as I was about to tap his chest. I wish I'd taken the owner back to the O2 cage to see the cat before I admitted the kitty and sent her home.
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Respiratory cats suck. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
 
Coquette22 said:
It's my horse's name. And she is very much a "woman that flirts".

ETA: Now I'm wondering exactly how many of you thought my screenname was Croquette. And why none of you have ever questioned why I'd call myself PotatoDumpling22.
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I don't know what croquettes are and so never would have even thought of it! :) and for some reason, I knew it was your horse? Must have been mentioned before at some point!
 
heylodeb said:
I don't know what croquettes are and so never would have even thought of it! :) and for some reason, I knew it was your horse? Must have been mentioned before at some point!
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For awhile when I first joined, my avatar was my horse.

Anyway, today is the s***storm that keeps on giving. Called in at 9:30 on emergency. Vomiting, dyspneic dog. Has now stopped vomiting, but is acutely weak and still dyspneic. Mucous membranes pale, conjunctiva white, extremities cold, fluid wave in abdomen... Euthanized. Put on coat to leave around 11:00PM hoping that we're done and I can go home and go to bed. Phone rings. Dog was HBC this morning, can't walk, in pain, wants to euthanize now. Oh and it's gonna take an hour to get here. Great.... So now I'm sitting around the clinic twiddling my thumbs waiting for another euthanasia. Hoping to get to bed by 1AM if this goes reasonably well. I may have just called my mom and asked her to drive up here and shoot me. She declined.
 
Coquette22 said:
Dog was HBC this morning, can't walk, in pain, wants to euthanize now. Oh and it's gonna take an hour to get here.
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Uhh I hope you tacked on a "you are an dingus for making your dog suffer all freaking day, and for making my life miserable" charge of at least $500 that you can pocket and share with whomever poor staff member has to wait with you.

Edit: holy crap. A&@hole automatically converts to dingus now.

Ass
****
****er
Bitch
Bitches
Mother****er
dingus

Oh... I guess it's just a$&hole
 
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Minnerbelle said:
Uhh I hope you tacked on a "you are an dingus for making your dog suffer all freaking day, and for making my life miserable" charge of at least $500 that you can pocket and share with whomever poor staff member has to wait with you.
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I would, but the dingus is a little old man with Alzheimer's who didn't realize what was going on until his friend came to visit later this evening. It was the friend who actually called and was like, "Yeah, we need to do something about this."
 
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