Day 15: Eyeball Removal

The first surgery of the day was a cat declaw, and it was much simpler than I thought it would be--it only took about ten minutes! It's called a digital removal because Dr. Bart essentially amputates one whole digit (it's like removing your finger from the last knuckle up). It took him about one minute to cut off all the claws on one paw, then he would glue each of the holes back up. He did that for both paws, then vet wrapped each leg, and that was it!

The second surgery was a spay for a six-month-old boxer Lucy. It was a little longer, more complicated, and riskier than the neuters that I saw yesterday. First he made his incision, then stuck his finger down in it to break suspensory ligaments in order to get an ovary out! He did this for both ovaries, cut the ovaries and uterus out together, then stitched everything back up. It took about a half an hour all together. After that was another dog neuter; his owner brought us freshly baked s'more cookies when she came to pick him up!

The two ovaries are at the ends, and the uterus connects them.

Kato getting neutered 

The fourth surgery almost made me throw up several times (you'll see how nasty it was in the pictures!). It was an eyeball removal for a little pug who had a severely damaged eyeball from being attacked by another dog. The surgery began by stitching the eyelids shut, then cutting around the whole eyeball. He had to cut all the extra ocular muscles in order to remove it, which took a little time; it kept bleeding profusely out of a couple places, so he had to clamp and stitch those off. He removed the whole eye with the skin on top of it and stitched the socket back up. Just for experimental purposes, Dr. Bart and I cut open the eyeball. It squirted a clear, aqueous solution all over when he first cut into it--all over Dr. Bart's face and eye! Gross! We found the lens inside.

They eye before the surgery

Cuttig around the eyeball

Taking the eyeball out

All stitched up!

Today was mostly annual appointments, but there were a couple special cases. The first appointment we saw was a brown lab (Harley) who had an ear hematoma, which is a big fluid-filled pocket caused by an ear infection. The only way to get rid of it is with surgery, so he is coming back tomorrow morning to be put under anesthesia and get all of the fluid drained. Berlin was a boxer puppy that had a habit of eating his own feces, so I learned that putting spinach or pineapple in with the dog food makes the feces smell bad. I wouldn't think that dogs would be too inclined to eat pineapple, though. Maybe with dog food they wouldn't care! Bailey was a dog that came in who had a broken nail and kept trying to lick and chew at it, so Dr. Bart ripped it off and said it would just grow back. Sasha was a dog who had a cyst on her eye that is going to be removed in about a month. Buddy was a huge intact pit bull who had a bad skin infection and had skin flaking everywhere. Dr. Bart determined that it was allergy related, but he still doesn't know what is causing the reaction, so he instructed the owner to switch dog foods for two months to see if anything happens. He also did a skin scrape to determine if mites were the cause, but he found nothing under the microscope.

Now for a little goal reflection...the most prominent thing that I've noticed about the life of a vet is how busy it is and how little free time there is. Both of the vets that I've worked with have noted the fact that even though they have a two-hour lunch period, they are often there for most of that time making phone calls and catching up when clients aren't there. In addition, the clinic closes at six, but the vets and technicians often have to stay there for an extra hour cleaning, finishing things up, and getting things ready for the next day. The time during the day is very rushed, too; it is a struggle trying to stay on time while thoroughly attending to each and every client. I'm not even the vet, and I am still exhausted when I get home every night! I've also noticed that much of what a vet does is diagnosing problems--one after another--and it is very eye opening but also a little sad. As an animal lover, I'm not sure I want to be exposed to all of those problems every single day. Taking an animal's life is also not something that I take very lightly (nor do many people), and I don't think that is something that I would want to be doing on a daily basis. To be clear, this is definitely a fun experience, and I am enjoying it a lot, but as far as a future career, I don't think it's an option; it's good that I'm figuring that out now, though.