Accomplishment…

A year and three months have passed since my transition to this profession.

What a transition!

At times, it is difficult to allow myself to feel proud of accomplishments gained along the way. Doubt is a hurdle to overcome and confidence gets the job done.
Such as placing my first catheter!!

Although, the catheter was inserted at ‘the other place’, the head tech at the clinic was instrumental in igniting my confidence to do this in the first place.

During a fill-in day prior to a dental surgery, the head tech shared her experience with me in placing catheters and shared a valuable trick, which has to do with a thumb and a vein. She demonstrated her technique by placing a catheter on lamb and I made two attempts on the animal for the procedure and almost got it on the first try but doubt and apprehension took over.

But…

I carried the lesson learnt and when the opportunity came, I was successful.

Anyway, onto the pics and a major discovery…

LAMB IS NOT A LAMB BUT A LLAMA-(my bad)

Kitty Burrito

Syringes and infusion sets I work with

Dental

Shit fit Monday or declawing woes…

The vet techs are on the verge of a nervous breakdown!!!

No.

The vet techs are feeling quite discombobulated.

Duties
Coverage
What’s fair and what’s not
Who is actually in charge here?
I swept today so I’m not doing it for the rest of the month,
I refuse to walk up and down the stairs
I am going to take a three hour lunch break
Or…
Let’s leave the newbie unattended in the exam room with a fractious cat waking up from anesthesia

The joys of working with others, where ‘Team’ has no ‘I’-NOT!

It’s just not like that.

Amongst the vet techs, there are those who work hard and I mean hard. There are those who care about the welfare of all animals who pass through the front door even to the nasty pit bull who has to wear a muzzle just for an exam.

And then, there are the others…

I refuse to gripe today.

I swept and bagged endless amounts of fall leaves in the yard

Endless leaves-ready for sweeping and bagging!!!

where the borders relieve themselves and I was angry.  ‘I’m not enrolled in a vet tech program in order to sweep leaves’, I thought to myself as I stuffed endless piles of wet, brown leaves into clear plastic bags.

It passed as I prayed and asked HIM for guidance. The tech, who I consider the head tech, came into the yard and assisted with the task even though I wanted to suffer through the task alone. She was there and she said, “This is team work”.

She made me feel better and I thank her for that act of kindness, which made such a big difference in how I felt.

And…

I reconciled with myself that not all aspects of the job are spent in surgery learning and observing. I enjoy my job and the feeling of helping animals far outweighs the mundane tasks I am expected to do at times.

 

Pix from a Monday at the clinic:

Working with Dr H on a feline declawing after a spay-#12 blade with anesthetic block injection-feline is under anesthesia

Continuation of procedure

 

Extracted claws

 

No more A’s or I’ll settle for a B and even a C…

The winter session of two courses at San Juan College have ended, with one left to complete which, ends with a final in two weeks.

The three degrees I hold which are located in a thick envelope between my mattress instead of framed and dangling from a wall, were gained with hard studying, paper writing and researching in pursuit of the final grades of straight A’s.

Alas, my bloodhound drive for the A’s in academia has diminished. My grades are not the grades I have strived for in the past.

And that’s more than ok.

My goals are different and I am working in the field of my degree. The coursework correlates with the work experience and it is exciting, challenging and allows for numerous ‘wows’ and ‘Aha’ moments. Prednosolone is no longer an alien word and I know where to locate it in the pharmacy cabinet.

There is a month off before the spring semester begins and my course load will be two classes:
Veterinary Business Procedures  (not sure about this one…)
Small Animal Disease and Medical Care II

I still fill in on surgery days for a staff out, due to hip surgery and recuperation. The surgeries are routine, dental, spay and neuter with the occasion growth/tumour removal. An amputation of a feline’s front leg (cancer in the shoulder joint) is scheduled for Monday and hopefully I will be able to assist in the procedure.

Surgical procedures are not as intimidating as it was at first.

I am able to restrain an animal for induction meds, hold the animal’s head for intubation, set up for surgery, check and filled the anesthesia machine, monitor the animal during the procedure, clean ears, express glands, trim nails, remove the intubation tube, hook up the animal to monitoring devices, box a cat down, shave a cat for spaying…this can go on but it stops here. Oh, one more thing. I can also administer injections-pain meds, antibiotics, rabies and leukemia, run CBC’s PCV-Hematicrits, fecal floats (exciting) and gram staining. Ok…this truly stops here.

Now on to the pix’s.

Mean kitty-scratch

Tara-Habby-mean kitty scratch at home

Dr. S-draining and removal of feline abscess in the jaw. Flushing and insertion of drainage tubing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning procedure with Dr Q to remove tumour from K9 Labrador Retriever

Continuation of procedure-I enjoy working with Dr Q-meticulous

 

Extraction of tumour which was difficult as it was attached to nerve endings

Tumour extracted and sent to lab-Results:
Adenocarcinoma cancer that develops in the glandular tissues of the body

   Large pit bull coming out from anesthesia after eye growth removal and anal sac expression (my first one!)

Earl Grey-resident feline-has inoperable cancer and living la vida loca at the clinic!