Queasy

[shred4life]

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Today, out of curiosity I watched a video on a routine spay surgery on a dog. I have to admit, it made my stomach twist a little to see the vet just jam his fingers right into the incision to located the uterine horn! I am totally comfortable around blood, it takes a lot to gross me out, and I've never had any trouble dissecting things but I am afraid if I was operating on a living breathing animal I might get a little queasy! Does this feeling go away with practice and familiarization or is it a bad sign that I will faint the first time an dog is cut open if (god willing) I ever get into vet school.

 

[twelvetigers]

Shadow a vet! Observe surgeries. The only way to get past being queasy is to get used to it. 🙂

 

[RatherBEventing]

wow! Im glad someone else has this problem too! Nothing grosses me out and I really want to go into surgery, but its just odd things that trigger my nausea..like during a ovarectomy, blood was leaking out and dripping onto the floor and it made me really queasy. (it was kind of embarrassing because I had to leave and lay down on the floor at my externship and a tech found me like that lol)
so im just planning on observing many more surgeries and getting over it, hopefully

 

[bruinvetman]

Surgeries don't bother me except neuters. I can't help but cringe when the doctor tears the testicular ligaments.

 

[firelily]

I just had to reply to this post because I've been having the same kind of experiences as you guys - most things don't bother me at all, but then certain things just seem to hit my "ick" buttons. I can watch most surgeries all day long. Hell, I do surgeries on mice and it doesn't bother me. Things I've seen that were okay: horses being castrated in the field, a cat being spayed while she was pregnant (I got to hold the little fetuses and it was the grossest and coolest thing), I saw a horse's inner ear bones being operated on, and all the other routine neuters and whatnot.

But then I had to watch a kitten who's knee/leg was all shattered have it's leg set and when I was watching the vet wiggle that broken bone around to try to make it stay in line with the other bone, I started feeling like my legs were gonna give out. Then once when I was watching a tooth extraction of all things, I swear I almost passed out. The vet really had to dig in there and was jamming that extractor tool (no idea what it's called) around like she was trying to dig to China and there were crunching sounds and I just couldn't deal with it.

Maybe I just really don't like anything bone related?? 🙂

I've talked to so many vets and vet students who all say that they all have their squick buttons too. So we're not alone!

 

[Minnerbelle]

I've talked to so many vets and vet students who all say that they all have their squick buttons too. So we're not alone!

Yes, I'm totally fine with most animal things (human trauma grosses me out... fingers and toes especially)

BUT! One day I looked into the back of the animal control vehicle and saw a black rug and wondered why. Well I got curious and went closer, and then I saw that the 1st 1/3 of the rug was more of a golden color. That's when I realized that that was a very very flattened out yorkie with a full long coat! Like no joke, so flat the whole thing was only an inch off the ground. I almost vomited big time

 

[twelvetigers]

Everyone is probably gonna have something specific that bothers them a lot... I haven't found mine, unless you count the overwhelming smell of dead things. (Personally, I think it would get to most people, lol.)

Well, there was a nail trim where the dog's nails were just bleeding and bleeding - a tiny little yorkie - and I had to pass him off and go sit down because the smell of the blood was getting to me for some reason.

It happens!

 

[rachroo]

I agree with the idea: the more you shadow, (hopefully) the better it will get.

I don't get grossed out too easily except for eyeballs. Ohh...well, and people blood, but since I'm in vet school, hopefully I won't have to be dealing with that too much.

 

[Sophie10]

Maybe I just really don't like anything bone related?? 🙂!

I have to agree with this sentiment. I am fine with pretty much anything, but I saw a vet do an FHO and the chipping of the bone was enough to make my skin crawl.

I haven't seen another FHO, but I think at this point I would find it more interesting than gross because my kitty has a broken femoral head (he's fine.. just walks with a bit of a waggle in the hips🙂).

 

[PrimalMU]

My first surgery was a spay on a young pregnant cat. I admit that I got queasy. However, the next surgery was better, the next one even better, and now I find myself eager to watch the more "disgusting" (read: interesting) surgeries.

 

[snapcall]

Yes, I'm totally fine with most animal things (human trauma grosses me out... fingers and toes especially)

Me too! There are so many things that I can handle with ease when it comes to animals, but those same things in humans completely gross me out. I wouldn't last a month in a human hospital (heck, maybe not even a week ).

 

[sumstorm]

One of the vets I worked with couldn't stand to see an amputated limb after it was removed. It has to be immediatly removed from the room and disposed of so that she won't 'stumble' on it later in the day. My stomach turns watching eye surgery (including my own!) And I know another vet who says the heat she feels from the animal she is performing surgery on gets to her at times (the heat makes it real...ie not a cadaver.)

 

[DVMDream]

I have to agree with most people here animal stuff does not bother me but I wouldn't last a day with humans

I am fine when it comes to surgeries; they have never bothered me. What gets to me sometimes is when the vet is cleaning out an open wound and they are running a scalpel blade over the wound to clear out the dead tissue. The sound of the blade against the skin making that ripping sound gets to me. I have started to get over this. I do not get anywhere near as queasy and if I start feeling queasy I go sit down take a drink and then go back. Watching it over and over again is the best way to get over it. I am to the point where it really does not bother me that much anymore.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I have to agree with most people here animal stuff does not bother me but I wouldn't last a day with humans

I am fine when it comes to surgeries; they have never bothered me. What gets to me sometimes is when the vet is cleaning out an open wound and they are running a scalpel blade over the wound to clear out the dead tissue. The sound of the blade against the skin making that ripping sound gets to me. I have started to get over this. I do not get anywhere near as queasy and if I start feeling queasy I go sit down take a drink and then go back. Watching it over and over again is the best way to get over it. I am to the point where it really does not bother me that much anymore.

You know what I realized was just super sick??? I get really hungry every time I'm cauterizing after a ear tip. It's like mmmMmmmm bbq. (btw, I'm mostly vegetarian)

 

[cowgirla]

You know what I realized was just super sick??? I get really hungry every time I'm cauterizing after a ear tip. It's like mmmMmmmm bbq. (btw, I'm mostly vegetarian)

Okay, so that comment totally made my night.

Maggots freak me out, and make me all itchy crawly, but nothing really makes me queasy on a regular basis...

Although, was in surgery about a year ago, and thought for sure I would pass out--I have a STRONG stomach, but this was just rancid.
Bitch came in, owner said she was two weeks past her due date for having puppies. Lethargic, running a fever, the works. Ultrasound shows three pups, so of course we have to get them out...
UGH. It was nasty once we got her abdomen open. The pups were big, black and mushy in a not-normal way, and they just slid right out in a mass of greenish black liquid. The smell made me want to hurl, and the clean up afterwards was just as bad... Looked like our sx room was a war zone.

 

[DVMDream]

You know what I realized was just super sick??? I get really hungry every time I'm cauterizing after a ear tip. It's like mmmMmmmm bbq. (btw, I'm mostly vegetarian)

LOL!! I will often times be talking about what we are going to get for lunch during the middle of surgery at 9AM. 🙂

 

[cowgirla]

LOL!! I will often times be talking about what we are going to get for lunch during the middle of surgery at 9AM. 🙂

I've ORDERED my lunch from surgery. And dinner, occasionally, on those longggg days.

 

[DVMDream]

Okay, so that comment totally made my night.

Maggots freak me out, and make me all itchy crawly, but nothing really makes me queasy on a regular basis...

Although, was in surgery about a year ago, and thought for sure I would pass out--I have a STRONG stomach, but this was just rancid.
Bitch came in, owner said she was two weeks past her due date for having puppies. Lethargic, running a fever, the works. Ultrasound shows three pups, so of course we have to get them out...
UGH. It was nasty once we got her abdomen open. The pups were big, black and mushy in a not-normal way, and they just slid right out in a mass of greenish black liquid. The smell made me want to hurl, and the clean up afterwards was just as bad... Looked like our sx room was a war zone.

Maggots give me the hibbie jebbies too. We had a similar thing happen the client walked in with her 10 year old female dog and told the receptionist that her dog had been lethargic for over a week. The receptionist said it will be a while that she would have to wait, then she told the receptionist that she was bleeding from her rear. So, I went up to make sure she didn’t look too bad (we were thinking pyometra). The smell just from her leaking out the infection was terrible. Her gums weren’t super pale and she was breathing fine so we told her that it would be five more minutes. Once we got the dog into an exam room the owner then tells me that she found a dead puppy in the house 10 days ago, but she just thinks that her dog found it outside and brought it in.😱 Then, once the vet went in she told him that they pulled the puppy out of her and thought that she would be ok. We took x-rays and sure enough there were about 5-6 more puppies in there that you could barely make out because the infection had made her uterus so big you could barely see anything. The owner decided to have her put to sleep. This client made me so mad. She didn’t even care…she acted like this was no big deal. GRRR!! By the end of all of it this is what I wanted to do to her:

 

[DVMDream]

I've ORDERED my lunch from surgery. And dinner, occasionally, on those longggg days.

Our clinic is super small. No separate surgery suite. The surgery table is located right next to the treatment area and doubles as a lunch table. If surgery is going on during lunch time the x-ray table (located in front of the sx table) became the lunch table and we would sit there and eat lunch while watching the sx.

 

[PigsRock]

Well, I don't think I've ever gotten queasy from it, but it freaks me out to watch an exploratory surgery where they have all the guts out of the dog then you see the dog wake up and wow! This dog is licking my hand and earlier today all the intestines were hanging out? That's so weird to me.

 

[radio2020]

I have strange gag reflex to dog poop that doesn't belong to my own dogs and that smell of anal glands being expressed! I mean a BAD gag reflex! Luckily I want to do large animal. But I made quite a scene volunteering at the Humane Society. 😳 Blood, uteruses, neuters, cow poop, anything else bring it on. Oh, except human ear wax. Gag reflex.

 

[eventualeventer]

I have not spent much time around dogs and cats, which I think tend to be stinkier when sick that horses, so maybe I've yet to meet my true match. Pus draining out of abscesses = awesome! Abdominal surgery - can't get enough. Bloody diarrhea = bearable, if reminiscent of the smell of death. Reflux with decomposing feed material = A-OK. Wounds gushing blood - pass me my sandwich, please, I'm a bit peckish seeing all that red meat.

What gets me, and this will crack you all up . . . blood in buckets. I'm fine if the horse is bleeding like a stuck, um, horse and has a pool of blood underneath it and splatters on the wall. I'm not OK with blood actually in a bucket. It makes me feel lightheaded. I first found this when I was helping with a study involving many, many blood samples taken from a catheter, where there were empty buckets outside the stalls to dispose of the "waste" blood taken before the actual sample. When I looked into the bucket for the first time, I had to sit down. This was confirmed years later when the vet I was working with was extracting a molar from a horse. We had hung a bucket on the head stand so that the majority of the blood ran out of the horse's mouth and into the bucket (and did not splash on the clinic floor and our shoes), and it was starting to fill with blood and saliva. I had to excuse myself for the only time in my tenure with that vet or since.

Oh, and cleaning up my cat's puke gets to me sometimes. I guess it smells too much like human puke. Horse bodily fluids are fine.

 

[twelvetigers]

I knew a girl that would gag if you licked your finger and acted like you were going to touch her face with it! Lol.

Smells can randomly make me gag (poop, dead stuff) but it's not backed up by nausea - it's just a gag. However, if I brush my tongue after brushing my teeth and accidentally go too far back, THAT makes me gag, and has actually made me feel so nauseated that I had to throw up. Random!

 

[Minnerbelle]

However, if I brush my tongue after brushing my teeth and accidentally go too far back, THAT makes me gag, and has actually made me feel so nauseated that I had to throw up. Random!

YES, me too!!! But not brushing my tongue really bothers me so I do it anyway. Everyday, it's like*brush, gag, brush, gaaag, ok enough*

 

[Armymutt25A]

Oddly enough, for me, it's worse reading about a surgery than actually seeing it. I've seen loads of neuters and not had a problem - even flung testicles around the office (worked with a cool vet), but reading post #4 made me cringe. I'm kind of iffy on trauma. I'm usually ok until it's over - been that way for a while. I've seen some pretty bad cases in the past few years. I've been ok until a few hours later. My imagination is pretty good, so my translation of text into images is a bit more powerful than really seeing it. Very odd.

 

[Martee527]

I have never gotten used to guillotine-style de-claw. That "crunch" sound is so icky!!

 

[smm482]

I was really nervous on my first day of training as a vet tech at a spay/neuter clinic and had to avert my eyes when I walked into the OR and the vet was in the middle of spaying a dog. For me, I've learned to recognize that feeling and just look away rather than forcing myself to watch. I just gradually watch more closely as I get more comfortable. Needless to say, at a spay/neuter clinic the opportunity to get used to watching surgery is ample and I got over it by the end of the day. I recently picked up a second job at a private practice and I'm now in the process of getting used to watching dental extractions. There's something about the force behind using the extractor that gives me the heebiejeebies.

 

[RatherBEventing]

What gets me, and this will crack you all up . . . blood in buckets. I'm fine if the horse is bleeding like a stuck, um, horse and has a pool of blood underneath it and splatters on the wall

Lol, Im not sure about blood in buckets, but mine must be blood running down some object, and blood splattering.

Well, I don't think I've ever gotten queasy from it, but it freaks me out to watch an exploratory surgery where they have all the guts out of the dog then you see the dog wake up and wow! This dog is licking my hand and earlier today all the intestines were hanging out? That's so weird to me.

haha you should try watching colic surgeries if you haven't yet. very interesting! I love how they take all the intestines out and then just shove it all back in.

Bitch came in, owner said she was two weeks past her due date for having puppies. Lethargic, running a fever, the works. Ultrasound shows three pups, so of course we have to get them out...
UGH. It was nasty once we got her abdomen open. The pups were big, black and mushy in a not-normal way, and they just slid right out in a mass of greenish black liquid. The smell made me want to hurl, and the clean up afterwards was just as bad... Looked like our sx room was a war zone.

whats that caused by? does the infection just eat at the puppies inside, or do they just not form or...? sorry, I have no clue about dog repro and I havent heard of this yet with equine

 

[Caninerepro]

The puppies died inutero and were decaying in the bitch. Pyo of any kind is nasty smelling. Think of a uterus filled with decaying puss. 😱 Seriously, pyo makes my skin crawl.

 

[cmog]

It's so interesting to see what makes everyone gag and what they can handle no problem, so I thought I'd add my two cents.
At my internship this summer (my first real substantial vet experience), I got to see and sometimes do so many cool things that would probably normally be categorized as disgusting. I cut into a pyo uterus (after it was removed) and saw the nasty brown pus ooze out. It stunk up the entire treatment area and everyone was covering their faces, but it didn't bother me. I also saw/participated in a necropsy on puppies that were 2 days old, smelled countless anals, saw aggressive ortho surgeries, saw a few abdominal exploratories, held a kitten while a grub was pulled out of its neck- none of which phased me. The one thing that made me gag big time was changing newspaper on the floor of a kennel that had a little spot of bloody diarrhea. I don't even know why, but it really grossed me out.
To the original poster-the best way to overcome queasiness is exposure. At first, I had to sit down during a tiny little growth removal. But afer a while you really do get used to it.

 

[nyanko]

The puppies died inutero and were decaying in the bitch. Pyo of any kind is nasty smelling. Think of a uterus filled with decaying puss. 😱 Seriously, pyo makes my skin crawl.

The grossest surgery I've ever been witness to was a pyo surgery where the dog also had a bunch of wounds and there were maggots everywhere, making the skin look like it was crawling and moving. We called the big masses of pus we removed "pus puppies" haha.

Unfortunately the dog died on the table.

 

[FelineTech]

One of the main things I’ve had to work on desensitizing myself to is broken bones. The crunchy feeling and sight of limbs stuck at odd angles can get to me sometimes. The worst one was a cat with both hind legs shattered from being trapped in a car engine. Super nice cat, luckily very easy to handle. Whenever I had to move her to a new cage or do hydrotherapy I would cringe a little. On one of them the metatarsals were all wiggly, and I tried so hard not to touch that foot or brush it against anything and see it bend. I haven’t handled too many yet, but I think it does get easier with time.

 

[MysteryCat]

Yes, I'm totally fine with most animal things (human trauma grosses me out... fingers and toes especially)

I cut my left index finger off with an axe when I was 13. No joke. It was reattached, but I've got almost no use of it. I do worry about how it will affect my surgical skills, but I manage pretty well without it in all other aspects of life, so I imagine that adapting won't be too hard. (I hope...)