Stupid things I've done:

[Dsmoody23]

As some kind of reverse motivation exercise, I think it would be valuable to post some horrible experiences, embarrassing mistakes and stupid things we've done as we all learned in this profession.

So much of what we post makes us all seem a bunch of failure-proof savants, but i doubt we all started off that way.

So, here's some of mine:

- For the first month I was working at a clinic, I couldn't place a catheter to save my own life. I probably wasted about 500 dollars worth of supplies as I tried and failed, over and over again.

- Once, I was daydreaming during a long, boring exam and the dog I was holding pissed all over my doc's chest. It was a good 10 second stream, and I didn't notice until it was almost over.

- I gave 100 cc's of activated charcoal to the wrong dog.

- I got through about 3 minutes of a recheck call, running my stupid mouth non-stop, before I realized that the owner was sobbing on the other end. The dog was dead, and nobody had noted it in the file.


Let's hear yours.

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[Minnerbelle]

On multiple occasions, I shaved and prepped the entire abdomen xyphoid down on male kittens at the spay/neuter clinic. I'd be so proud of my beautiful prep job, until someone would say "you forgot the balls..."

 

[HelloNello]

.

 

[jmo1012]

at the job i recently started working at, i had to feed patients the first night (i work 12a-8a). there is a LARGE WHITE REFRIGERATOR in the treatment area, but somehow my brain failed to put 2 and 2 together so I opened new cans of food, and then put them in the human fridge on the other side of the building. with my initials on them. i felt like a total idiot when i realized my mistake (i'd even been in the freezer part that night for ice packs!)

when i think of others, i'll add them!

 

[nuevaburra]

1. Forgot to get a weight on a cat before an exam. Tried to cover saying he seemed like he didn't want to get out of the carrier and I was worried about upsetting him (had a cat earlier that week who didn't want to get out of the carrier, and when we made her, she nearly killed three of us and we still didn't get the blood draw). Well of course the new cat was a completely docile, sweet, elderly gentleman, who would have sat on the scale and not lifted a paw all day. Oops.

2. Looking at a chart in the lab, asked "what does this vertical line mean?" . Turns out it was a 1.

 

[EllieGirl89]

Great idea for a thread!

-One of my first shadowing experiences, I was a sophomore in high school and I went out with a large animal vet to a dairy farm. Some of the cows were getting injections, and he asked me if I was comfortable doing them. I'd done penicillin injections on my horse when she stepped on a nail, so I felt like I could do it. The first cow I stuck, I went to insert the needle but failed to appreciate how much tougher cowhide is than horsehide. The needle went about halfway in and snapped off in the cow's butt. Luckily there was enough needle sticking out that we were able to extract it, but I got my injection-giving privileges revoked on the spot.

-At my old job as a kennel tech I was faced with a cage that had two nearly identical dogs in it. One was on heart meds. I identified the one that needed the meds (she was standing on the right) and proceeded to get her meds out of the bag on top of her run. Well, in that brief time when I was getting the meds, the dogs switched places, I didn't double-check their paper ID collars, and gave the heart meds to the wrong dog. I immediately panicked, went to tell on myself, and promptly was written up. The dog got to the hospital, though, and was monitored for the rest of the day. Ended up being fine. I used this particular incident on my Ohio State supplemental to answer the question of a time I had integrity.

-Just yesterday I was helping at the clinic that puts up with me hanging out there all summer. We had just done 8 cat spays and there was one left to do. I looked in its cage and it wasn't moving, so I checked its blink reflex and it didn't blink. I figured it was okay to put on the table. I got it up there and proceeded to try and straighten out its back legs so I could tie them out of the way. They wouldn't straighten. I sat there like a dork pushing the legs down and watching them curl back up until the tech finally walked in and was like "she hasn't had her second shot yet." Oops.

 

[MadMagnolia]

omg this thread is great. sometimes I seriously feel like I'm the only one who's not a natural at this... like I'm bluffing my way along.

When I was new at shadowing I was giving my first subq injection on a Greyhound or some kind of dog with REALLY THIN SKIN- so I stuck the needle in and injected, producing a lovely stream of now useless vaccination running straight through the dog's skin.

I can't remember what it was but I definitely broke some thing right after being told that it was expensive hahaha...... oh I can laugh now......

and soooooo many more.

 

[scb44f]

On multiple occasions, I shaved and prepped the entire abdomen xyphoid down on male kittens at the spay/neuter clinic. I'd be so proud of my beautiful prep job, until someone would say "you forgot the balls..."

I definitely tried to shave the first male cat I prepped. I figured it out when I was just about done.

 

[muddjumper]

- I got through about 3 minutes of a recheck call, running my stupid mouth non-stop, before I realized that the owner was sobbing on the other end. The dog was dead, and nobody had noted it in the file.

Definitely done this before! Me: "Hi, I'm calling from _____ to see how Charlie is doing after your visit a couple days ago!" Owner: "...Charlie's dead."

But my worst ever was sending a spay home with her IV catheter still in. The owners panicked and couldn't get in contact with the Doctor, so they took the dog to an emergency hospital to get the catheter removed.

 

[jmo1012]

But my worst ever was sending a spay home with her IV catheter still in. The owners panicked and couldn't get in contact with the Doctor, so they took the dog to an emergency hospital to get the catheter removed.

as someone who has been in emergency vet med for 3 years, i can just imagine what the techs at the ER had to say to each other all jokes aside though, has anyone ever seen what happens when a bandage doesnt get removed for 1+ week? lets just say it makes for a good anatomy lecture

 

[breenie]

Oh gosh. There is so much, but I'm having a hard time remembering it all. Blocking out the bad memories.

- I too have ruined all things needle and cow related. I've bent needles in cows. I managed to bend the huuuuge 16 gauge needle in one of the multiple injection guns, and spray everyone with Lutalyse when I pulled the trigger not noticing I actually hadn't punctured a cow. No pregnancies here!

- I wasn't paying attention to what was being asked of me and pulled the top off a vacutainer before handing it to a doctor. WTF?

- I let a cow out of a pen and run into an office because we had to go through like 4 gates and I closed all but the crucial one.

- I put stethoscopes on backwards EVERY TIME.

- I forgot to put the cover on the small centrifuge for PCV/TP tubes. We had a really old cat that was impossible to draw blood from, and the one thing the Dr. really really wanted was PCV/TP... well what happened? Since the lid wasn't on, the tube immediately shattered and sprayed blood and glass all over the centrifuge the second it started. Oops.

 

[lareinesoleil]

I don't recall anything questionable any more, because I've had that happen one too many times and then I feel awkward for making them sad again.

The other day at the emergency hospital where I work, someone called to get an update on their pet. We had 2 pets with the same name, or really similar names (obviously I'm still confused). I went back to get an update from the doctor, gave the owner a detailed update, and didn't think any more about it...until the phone rang 5 minutes later with a very confused owner. Turns out I asked about the wrong pet. Luckily neither pet was critical so I didn't panic anyone too much...oops.

 

[deleted387118]

Stupid and embarrassing: I can not handle heat well. As in I lived in PA and the 80's make me run and hide. Well one day I was out riding with one of the large animal vets. That day happened to be one of two 90 degree plus days that summer. It was noon and we were about to head in but we got a last minute LDA call in the area. This farm had been having issues with feed so this was like their third DA in two weeks. We arrived and they had everything set up with the cow wedged in the alleyway of the parlor. I shaved and scrubbed the cow. Then the vet, who is kinda shy and was in his first year out of vet school at the time, and I scrubbed up. Made the incision, fine. He felt around, I felt around: No problem. He let me pull the DA back in place: Just fine. I watched him stitch it in and start stitching her up. No problem. Then my hearing went - until I heard a scream. Turns out it was my scream and I had passed out on top of this young cute shy veterinarian and was now laying in a puddle of iodine and blood at his feet. Turns out I had been resting on his shoulder for a good ten seconds before he asked me not to lean so close (and when I didn't move he turned and I fell). The only good thing was we happened to be on the milking level of the parlor in front of the steel steps down onto the concrete floor where the milkers stand and I managed not to fall down there.

Lesson learned: Always pack a snack in the farm truck.

 

[Packen]

Great thread

During my first week working at a vet clinic I was asked to spin some PCV tubes. I put them in the new centrifuge turned it on and walked away. I forgot to put the internal lid on though and the tubes flew into the machine and broke into a million little pieces. I can't believe the vets didn't fire me on the spot or at least garnish my wages for the new machine. It was in pretty bad shape after that, and I vaguely recall them repeatedly mentioning how expensive it was to fix.

 

[vkajko]

For some weird reason the mistake I seem to always make the first couple of days I am at a new place is to hold off for an injection in the completely wrong way. I find it funny I keep doing this because I will practice on my dog and remind myself how to do it the right way before I touch the animal, but I just seem to keep doing it

I love this thread!

 

[twelvetigers]

So who has forgotten that they were running the autoclave? Haha. Thank goodness the iPhone timer put a stop to that.

Hmm... I got in trouble for some things, but I must have blocked them from memory or something. Haha. Mostly forgetting to do silly stuff, nothing too terrible I don't think.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Just so you all know we DVMs do silly things too:

First year of residency:

Mixed up entering two reports, so a dog had laminitis and a horse had caval syndrome from heartworm disease. Talk about case reports!

Forgot to check myself too well in the bathroom after necropsy - there were a few spots of blood on my face, and I didn't notice until I got home - AFTER going grocery shopping. I wondered why I got weird looks.

Described an abscessed, oozing lesion as "p***y". Take a guess what i was trying to say. It looked interesting on the report to say the least.

Felt quite awkward taking my dog in to have blood drawn by some techs.
"Um, aren't you a resident?"
"Yeah....I , er, I can't hit jugulars....."
"*nonplussed look from techs*"
"I'm in pathology." "Oooohhhh..."

Was completely not thinking one day. Asked a student if they had checked gallbladder patency before removing the Gi tract from the liver. On a horse.

 

[squirrelsrule]

Love this thread. I am still new to being a vet tech so I'll probably have lots to say before too long.

One thing that happened to me that should have been embarrassing but wasn't so much for me was this, which happened just a couple weeks ago:

I am a wildlife rehabber as most everyone knows and I currently have 4 baby skunks. The skunks are outside (made sure they were big enough to be outside in a carrier with heat before taking them in since I am a home based rehabber) and I always feed the outside guys last as I rush out the door to work. Saves time and trips outside. So, one night I was running later than usual so I was in a hurry even more so than usual. I ran up behind the cage and flung open the big door on the back to the skunk cage and exchanged the food bowls real quick and set the empty one down to take in after work. I could smell that they had sprayed, but not til after I closed the door. I was like ha ha suckers enjoy the smelliness, I am out of here. So, I head off to work and couldn't smell anymore skunk smell. Get to work, clock in and head out to the treatment area and everyone is like did your skunks spray you. Dummy me doesn't even catch on then and I'm like they sprayed but I don't think they got me. The vet informed me that they most certainly did and I had to go home shower, change, and come back . Bet no one else in the world has ever gone to work smelling like a skunk and not known it. I was just like whoops didn't realize . Still haven't heard the end of that one yet and probably never will. Oh well.

 

[Willowhand]

A few years back, I shadowed a large animal vet who was great about explaining how things were done and involving me in procedures when possible. One day we were on a dairy farm and he was teaching me how to place an orogastric tube in a cow. "You can tell when it's in the right place," he said, "because the fermentation processes in the rumen give a very distinct odor." He held the end of the tube to my face to smell, at the same moment that a geyser of ruminal fluid came spewing out --right into my face

 

[JSpitz]

Felt quite awkward taking my dog in to have blood drawn by some techs.
"Um, aren't you a resident?"
"Yeah....I , er, I can't hit jugulars....."
"*nonplussed look from techs*"
"I'm in pathology." "Oooohhhh..."

I am fearful of being judged for my crappy IVC and blood draw skills one day. One thing that bothers techs I know are doctors who can't do IVC or draws. I have no excuse!!!

 

[Niri]

-I'm not too short, but one time the vet asked me to do an epidural on a heifer. Turns out I could barely see the hub of the needle, so he had to come do it anyway.

- One time I was restraining a sick goat for tubing by the vet. The goat then proceeded to flip out and resulted in his horns ripping up the vet's coveralls.

- One time I took a clean bag of laundry back to the laundry room, because another person I was working with had already taken the clean label off.

 

[libster06]

I forgot to flush the air out of an IV line before giving fluids. Almost killed the dog, had to resuscitate it with epinephrine. Good news is you only make that mistake once..

 

[racccjlm]

I am fearful of being judged for my crappy IVC and blood draw skills one day. One thing that bothers techs I know are doctors who can't do IVC or draws. I have no excuse!!!

Ditto. I need to take some tech classes so I can actually learn to do this stuff!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I am fearful of being judged for my crappy IVC and blood draw skills one day. One thing that bothers techs I know are doctors who can't do IVC or draws. I have no excuse!!!

Everyone has their own weaknesses and strengths. I could get a catheter in ANY leg. I mean ANY leg. Severely dehydrated dachshund with low blood pressure? Gimme that sucker, I'll hit it.

But I couldn't hit a simple jug on a dog for the life of me Weird how we all differ.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Ditto. I need to take some tech classes so I can actually learn to do this stuff!

lol yeah, me three. i went to the acvim conference in denver a couple of weeks ago, and when i was looking at the schedule... i couldn't help but notice all the really cool tech CE they had. i really wished they'd open those up to vet students or have similar ones specifically for vet students. like, advanced catheterization skills labs!? i soooooo wanted in.

 

[Cautionary Tail]

Yeah, my tech skills are pretty lacking... I'm kind of nervous about that aspect of vet school. I've never even had the opportunity to TRY half the stuff mentioned in here!

 

[HawkeyeVet]

Yeah, my tech skills are pretty lacking... I'm kind of nervous about that aspect of vet school. I've never even had the opportunity to TRY half the stuff mentioned in here!

I'm the same way!! I didn't really think I was that far behind but I guess I'm wrong

 

[Whyevernot55]

Just remember that there's a reason we have awesome vet techs - so someone can set a cath!

I have lost track of and completely deny knowledge of the LONG list of stupid things I've done - 3 years in equine and 4 years in a SA clinic have given me oh so many opportunities. So many.

One gem: Early on, when I was working my college's equestrian center, I was restraining a horse while our new vet (who was also a very attractive young guy) was teaching one of our girls to do jug sticks. This is back in the "I don't want to go to no stinkin' grad school!" days, before I wanted to go to vet school, but of course I'm watching because I'm a horse girl. And there is blood all over the place. I have no idea. I moved to the other side of the horse's face, then I told Andrea I was going to go sit down in the office, and then suddenly I woke up on the wash stall floor going "who is this? Whose lap am I in?" while Andrea bent over me going "Ali?! Are you ok!?"

Oh yes. Passed out. Woke up with my head in our cute, young vet's LAP. 7 years later, he still hasn't ever let me forget about it. Fortunately he is also a very good friend!

Another one I've done is forget to change settings on the x-ray for kv and time when changing from a lateral to a v/d. Managed to measure and figure out the settings, just forgot to change them! So much less useful that way...

 

[breenie]

Packen and I had the same story. Glad to know I'm not alone!

 

[Packen]

Packen and I had the same story. Glad to know I'm not alone!

Totally missed that when reading through!! It is good to know I am not the only one

 

[squibby]

Everyone has their own weaknesses and strengths. I could get a catheter in ANY leg. I mean ANY leg. Severely dehydrated dachshund with low blood pressure? Gimme that sucker, I'll hit it.

I was a pro at placing catheters at the first vet clinic I worked at. Then, when I moved and began working at a different clinic where they used a different brand of catheters I couldn't place one to save the life of me! It was so frustrating, and I was like "I swear I'm really good at this, I wasn't lying when I applied for this job!"

 

[lostbunny]

I had seen one of our clients at a horse-related ball/fancy party the weekend before, and so assumed that she was who I thought she was.

me: "Oh Mrs. Buggerton, how's the polo farm going?"

client: "Excuse me?"

me: "Buggerton Polo, thats you, isn't it?"

client: "My EX-husbands polo farm, yes."

me: "Erm... have a nice day!"

Super awkward as I later found out that this stud had X number of ex-wives, and in some juicy story, he was now with another woman (who I later met though other means!) about 30 years younger. Mrs. 'Buggerton' kept his name, and I found out that day at that moment, that she was not in fact Mrs. Polo-Buggerton, but was still very involved with the horse community. I don't even want to know how many Mrs.Buggertons are in that area now....

Next time I'll keep it to:
"What a sweet dog you have! See you next time!"

 

[shortnsweet]

I am fearful of being judged for my crappy IVC and blood draw skills one day. One thing that bothers techs I know are doctors who can't do IVC or draws. I have no excuse!!!

You all just made me feel so much better about life. Here I thought I was the only vet student who sucks at blood draws and IVCs. I walked out of the shelter just the other day feeling like a complete idiot because I couldn't hit the cephalic on this poor old dog, even though just a few months ago I was hitting them left and right in another clinic. Though jugs for me are ALL pure luck. Thank goodness for patient techs.

 

[Dsmoody23]

You all just made me feel so much better about life. Here I thought I was the only vet student who sucks at blood draws and IVCs. I walked out of the shelter just the other day feeling like a complete idiot because I couldn't hit the cephalic on this poor old dog, even though just a few months ago I was hitting them left and right in another clinic. Though jugs for me are ALL pure luck. Thank goodness for patient techs.

I am convinced it's almost 90% mental. Which sounds so stupid for a technical, executable skill, but I'll stand by it. If you're nervous, or you're tentative, you'll either miss the vein, go straight through it, or hang the catheter up on the vessel wall. Which results in more nervousness and a more tentative approach. Ad infinitum.

Find a tech where you work that you're really comfortable with and who doesn't give a **** if you get it or not. Don't practice on euthanasia patients or emergency cases. I got comfortable on a parade of big dogs and calm cats for spays and neuters on slow days. Then, when you're nice and calm, and nobody who matters is watching... do it. Visualize the path of the vein and poke fairly hard. For a long time, I wasn't applying enough pressure and just shoved the veins around on the needle, without getting in.

Once you get one, you'll be mentally set to do another.

 

[sawbone]

I worked at a small animal emergency and critical care hospital. Because we were always working at a frantic pace on critical patients, there were plenty of opportunities to mess up.

The DVM ordered a fentanyl CRI on a beagle that had been hit by a car. I set up a syringe, IV line and pump very quickly while another tech placed a catheter. It was only after the dog had passed due to massive internal injuries that we realized I had set up the CRI such that the pump was drawing FROM the patient's vein and pushing INTO the syringe of fentanyl. I felt so bad - because of my mistake, the beagle didn't get his pain meds.

We had an elderly pug with diabetic ketoacidosis complicated by Cushing's that had been hospitalized overnight. Her owners had made contact with us early in the day to communicate that they planned to transfer her to their regular vet. I disconnected her IV fluids and wrapped her in a soft blanket. Just before I walked through the swinging door to the front of the clinic, I thought to look down at my patient. Her pupils were fixed and dilated, and she had stopped breathing. I was seconds away from putting a dead dog into her unsuspecting owner's arms. While it was difficult to explain to them that she had passed, it was nothing compared to that horrific scenario!

A particularly mean little terrier mix had gotten attacked by a larger dog, and as a consequence had numerous wounds on his hindquarters. The vet placed 4 penrose drains at various spots around the base of the dog's tail. He was skilled at removing his elizabethan collar, and when he was ready to go home, it was not on. We were very busy, so I didn't think to replace it before I brought him out. The next day, he was brought back in by his very angry owner. The dog had bothered his wounds all night, and there were no longer ANY penrose drains in place. On a whim, we shot an x-ray, and there they were, all four, in the dog's stomach. LUCKILY, he vomited them all up after administration of some apomorphine. Thank goodness we didn't have to do an exploratory laparotomy or pull them out with an endoscope!

But it's not just techs that can make mistakes!

One vet at our practice declawed all four feet on a client's cat...when they had only wanted the front feet declawed. Uh, oops!

At the end of a long, very busy day, we were doing an upper endoscopy with biopsies on a miniature schnauzer. I had gotten almost everything set up for the induction and intubation. ALMOST everything. Couldn't find the laryngoscope to save my life. The vet, feeling froggy after a long day, said 'just forget it!' and we proceeded. I gave the dog its propofol and he intubated. Or at least, he thought he did. Turned out he had placed the tube down the dog's esophagus. Quite suboptimal when using inhaled anesthetic, and doubly so when you can't pass your endoscope down the esophagus. After minute or so, we realized the dog was not properly anesthetized. We found the laryngoscope, laughed about it and promised each other we would never do that again!

 

[Breezyte]

At the end of the night very recently I had to go get a cat and send it home with its owners after surgery. Of course they had no carrier (dumb) so she used one of our cardboard ones that I put together. Of course I didn't realize, until the client ran in to tell us the cat had escaped, that there is a cardboard piece that goes in the bottom. Luckily the very I work for managed to get him into the barn, but I felt like a total failure!

Never again unfortunately there will be all kinds of new ways to mess up in very school! I love love love this thread!

 

[jmo1012]

The DVM ordered a fentanyl CRI on a beagle that had been hit by a car. I set up a syringe, IV line and pump very quickly while another tech placed a catheter. It was only after the dog had passed due to massive internal injuries that we realized I had set up the CRI such that the pump was drawing FROM the patient's vein and pushing INTO the syringe of fentanyl. I felt so bad - because of my mistake, the beagle didn't get his pain meds.

i've seen this happen the other way around where the animal gets way too much of the CRI really fast because of a pump typo

 

[sunshinevet]

At the end of a long, very busy day, we were doing an upper endoscopy with biopsies on a miniature schnauzer. I had gotten almost everything set up for the induction and intubation. ALMOST everything. Couldn't find the laryngoscope to save my life. The vet, feeling froggy after a long day, said 'just forget it!' and we proceeded. I gave the dog its propofol and he intubated. Or at least, he thought he did. Turned out he had placed the tube down the dog's esophagus. Quite suboptimal when using inhaled anesthetic, and doubly so when you can't pass your endoscope down the esophagus. After minute or so, we realized the dog was not properly anesthetized. We found the laryngoscope, laughed about it and promised each other we would never do that again!

Haha, oddly enough I have only ever seen a vet intubate using a laryngoscope once (in 6 years!). And I must have seemed like a massive ****** at the time. I was working at a vet clinic where the principle vet lived above the clinic (with his wife, who was also a vet but working for the government). We had a patient in a bad way and an older vet who didnt really know what to do, so I paged the principle to come downstairs, but he was out. I managed to convince his wife to come down to help me (she's not very nice and was pretty unkeen) and I set everything up incase he crashed - more fluids, O2, ET tube etc. And she goes, wheres the laryngoscope? And I'm like "the what???" and she goes, "you know, the thing they use when intubating". Me: blank stare...
Pretty sure she then felt i was not only a pain in the ass, but completely incompetent, lol.

Oh, and everyone else who's smashed the PCV tubes in the machine... haven't personally done it, but I sure have helped someone vaccuum out the machine afterward!

 

[shortnsweet]

I am convinced it's almost 90% mental. Which sounds so stupid for a technical, executable skill, but I'll stand by it. If you're nervous, or you're tentative, you'll either miss the vein, go straight through it, or hang the catheter up on the vessel wall. Which results in more nervousness and a more tentative approach. Ad infinitum.

Find a tech where you work that you're really comfortable with and who doesn't give a **** if you get it or not. Don't practice on euthanasia patients or emergency cases. I got comfortable on a parade of big dogs and calm cats for spays and neuters on slow days. Then, when you're nice and calm, and nobody who matters is watching... do it. Visualize the path of the vein and poke fairly hard. For a long time, I wasn't applying enough pressure and just shoved the veins around on the needle, without getting in.

Once you get one, you'll be mentally set to do another.

Thanks! That's good advice. You're right...it is a mental game. Practice is key. When I was doing it for 3 weeks day after day, I was hitting most of them and feeling comfortable. Take a few months off, and the tentativeness comes back. It also makes it tricky when you learned on horses, who have straight up garden hoses....Not on crazy squirming cats and little tiny dogs

 

[jmo1012]

Oh, and everyone else who's smashed the PCV tubes in the machine... haven't personally done it, but I sure have helped someone vaccuum out the machine afterward!

Advice: dont break PCV tube glass under your thumbnail, it hurts!!

 

[Bacci]

1. I had spent the day helping an equine vet float a bunch of horses. While she works, she keeps all of her tools in a stainless steel bucket with some water in it. We were finally cleaning up and I carefully wiped off all the tools, put them back in the case, and dumped the water in the bushes. Or at least I thought I got all of the tools. I got a call 2 days later with her angrily, but calmly asking what I did with her diamond file. I had no idea what she was talking about, was certain I hadn't misplaced it, but told her where I had dumped the bucket just in case. Yeah. I dumped the file in the bushes with the water. I got a stern lecture the next time I saw her. Whoops. At least she got it back, right? Sigh.

2. I placed an IV line in a pump going the wrong direction and connected it to a greyhound. Came back 20 minutes later and the whole line, etc was filled with blood. The kicker? The greyhound was in the hospital for anemia! Oh hey greyhound, just going to make your situation worse and stuff, don't mind me...

3. I have always had indoor dogs and my parents have always been really careful about giving the dogs flea/tick preventative. Couple that with a northern climate and you don't really see parasites that often. So, I was working on rotating a golden retriever with a broken pelvis when I reached behind his ear and felt something big and round. I was like, hmm, that's a weird little wart, so I took a closer look. When I realized what it was I screamed "OH MY GOD IT'S A TICK!" Took a while to live that one down. Whatever though, ticks are mad gross. I stand by my reaction.

 

[Chinola]

Whatever though, ticks are mad gross. I stand by my reaction.

I used to be the same way. When I worked in NJ I'd only remove ticks with a hemostat so that I didn't have to touch them. Then I'd put them in a bottle of alcohol. When I first started teching in Miami at a shelter I freaked out whenever people touched the ticks with their hands. I'd go around trying to find a pair of hemostats because I was so disgusted. Now? I pull them off with my fingers and crush them with the back of my thumbnail. I prefer to do it with gloves on but if I don't have gloves I just do it barehanded. Habituation works!

 

[Bacci]

I used to be the same way. When I worked in NJ I'd only remove ticks with a hemostat so that I didn't have to touch them. Then I'd put them in a bottle of alcohol. When I first started teching in Miami at a shelter I freaked out whenever people touched the ticks with their hands. I'd go around trying to find a pair of hemostats because I was so disgusted. Now? I pull them off with my fingers and crush them with the back of my thumbnail. I prefer to do it with gloves on but if I don't have gloves I just do it barehanded. Habituation works!

I can pull it off with my fingers, but just imagining a person crushing it with their thumbnail made me throw up my hands and get all heeby-jeeby!

 

[LetItSnow]

Er. My curiosity got ahead of my brain once and I reached right out into the middle of a sterile field in surgery and poked something with my (unscrubbed and ungloved) finger because it was so cool and I just had to know what the texture felt like.

*hangs head in shame*

 

[EllieGirl89]

I did another stupid just yesterday! I was with the large animal vet and we were doing surgery on a proud cut horse. The piece of tissue that had been left by the vet who did the original castration was really tiny so it took quite a bit of time to find it. By the time the surgery was done the horse was getting close to waking up. The vet got his instruments out of the way and instructed me to untie the horse (he does castrations with the horse on its side with its leg tied to its halter). I undid the rope from the halter and when I went to undo the rope from around the horse's hind leg, I stupidly stood behind the horse when I did this. He wasn't trying to get up or anything, but the vet grabbed me and pulled me to the side and laid into me pretty hard about how I know better than to stand there and how I won't be an equine vet very long if I do "stupid ****" like that. I was really embarrassed for a second until I let go of my pride and realized that it was pretty stupid. I was really proud of myself because usually when I get yelled at I get really emotional and upset but I did a great job of not taking it personally and just making sure I didn't do it again. We had 3 more geldings to do that day so I redeemed myself later =) I think he felt bad about yelling though, because several times throughout the rest of the day he apologized that he got so upset but he didn't want to see me get hurt and told me a story about a guy he knew that almost got his leg shattered when he was standing where I had been standing and the horse kicked out.

 

[RadRadTerp]

This is the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to me in the clinic and it's not particularly funny, but:

One time while restraining a fat, old yellow lab for a nail trim, I managed to get bitten right in the cheek. I had worked at an animal shelter for two years before this and had successfully restrained the meanest of the mean dogs that ever walked through the front doors of that place, but I got caught by this fat old lab that just didn't want to get his nails trimmed. At the time I blamed a vet who was the one who told me to let up on the restraint because she thought the dog was vocalizing too much (he was barking/moaning because he didn't want to be in the treatment area), but truthfully I should have maintained some restraint while I put him back on the ground and then left him alone. Instead, I trusted him to be cool with me letting him go while still near my face, and that was a huge, BLOODY mistake.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Er. My curiosity got ahead of my brain once and I reached right out into the middle of a sterile field in surgery and poked something with my (unscrubbed and ungloved) finger because it was so cool and I just had to know what the texture felt like.

*hangs head in shame*

haaaaaaaaahahahha nice. That reminds me. When I was a young'un the vet told me to go and get him another hemostat or something, so I did. He reminded me that I had to open the bag without contaminating it. So I proceeded to focus very hard on splitting the bag open without touching the inside, but in order to do that, decided it would be best to stabilize my wrist on the surgical tray... oops...

The vet sighed and was like "you're waaaay too short for this." (This was said in a somewhat affectionate manner).The guy was like almost 7 feet tall, so even sitting on a stool, he had his tray at my shoulder height... You know, it IS awkward to open things aseptically with your arms held up high. That's when I vowed that when I become a vet, I'ma make everyone stoop to my level and see how they like it. heh heh heh

 

[sunshinevet]

That's when I vowed that when I become a vet, I'ma make everyone stoop to my level and see how they like it. heh heh heh

NooooooooOooo!!!! I have a hard enough time working with vets my own height! I'm terribly clumsy and so when i work with shorter vets in surgery, i almost always end up nearly breaking the surgical lights with my head. I have a hard enough time ducking and weaving around them when they're up high!

 

[that redhead]

Described an abscessed, oozing lesion as "p***y". Take a guess what i was trying to say. It looked interesting on the report to say the least.

HAHA, the other day another tech was saying how the work "pus/sy is so awkward" and she meant to say and I immediately said, "Yeah, because it's spelled like ...!" and she just stared at me and then realized what I meant and we were in hysterics.

My most recent one was forgetting to move the connection from the sevo to the iso. So we're standing their waiting for this dog to go down and she's taking forever and finally the doctor whips in and is like WTF? and then realizes the iso isn't hooked up.

Also, for some reason, I cannot hold cats for a jugular stick. CANNOT. I feel like an idiot every time and someone else has to hold. (Tips/tricks appreciated..)

 

[twelvetigers]

I use my shoulder against the top of the cat's head and the cat's nose goes between my index and middle finger, allowing me to hold the head at an angle and back a little bit. Also keeps the mouth closed. Some cats are impossible though.