Otonabee Animal Hospital
“Going the distance for you and your pet!”
(705) 743-4936
October 2016 Newsletter
What is a Vet Tech?(PART 2)
As you may remember, we left our techs having lunch in September’s newsletter. It was delicious & wholesome ;) This month we will continue with our day, moving on to some common scenarios for the afternoon. Although all these may not normally happen in the same day, we have included as much as possible in order to encompass all of their skills – both technical & physical – any of which may be called upon at any time during a day at work. No two days are the same & what we expect to be doing can and often does change at a moment’s notice!
1:30pmLori & Krista return from their lunch break to begin the afternoon. Krista checks on Marcia & Solomon and then continues with the clean up while Lori starts the 1:30 appointment for Dr. Rorke. The first appointment of the afternoon is Cornelius; an elderly cat who hasn’t had a bowel movement in a number of days & is not eating or drinking well. After Lori has performed her preliminary examination & discussed symptoms and details with his owner she reports to Dr. Rorke. Once he has had a full physical examination from Lori,and Dr. Rorke has discussed her own findings & recommendations with his owner, she brings him to the treatment room.
Cornelius is first going to need x-rays of his abdomen to look for the possible cause/extent of his problem. He’s quiet & doesn’t mind being handled, so he won’t be needing sedation. Krista enters his patient & owner details into the computer in the x-ray room while Lori lays a lead gown, thyroid protector, gloves & exposure monitor badge out for Krista and puts on her own. Since we use digital x-rays, the computer is also set up with the area & positions of the x-rays, so that they will be correctly labelled on screen, as well as recording the exposures used.
Once the x-rays have been taken & have been ‘developed’ so that they are visible on screen, Dr. Rorke takes a look at them – Cornelius is severely constipated & will require an enema as well as intra-venous fluids and a short stay in hospital, all of which his owner approves.
Lori & Krista set up a kennel for him & get him hooked up to his fluids & perform his enema before settling him in. He also requires some oral medication which Krista administers while Lori writes up a hospital in-patient sheet for him. They will both continue to monitor him throughout the rest of the afternoon; periodically checking his level of comfort, alertness, heart rate & other vitals as well as whether he has passed any stool, or has been straining – he may need a second enema and/or other medications. They will also try & entice him to eat a little something & offer him water. Everything will be recorded on his hospital sheet.
2:30pmDr. Rorke has continued appointments while Cornelius has been having his treatments, but now Lori is available to go into the next one. This time we have a white 3 year old neutered male cat named Mintywho has been having some urinary issues. Lori again performs her examination & conversation with the owner and then reports her findings to Dr. Rorke. After Dr. Rorke has performed her own, more detailed exam, she brings Minty back to the treatment room. He will need a urine sample tested to see if there is any infection or perhaps crystals causing his symptoms. Lori holds him while Krista performs a cystocentesis – a simple procedure where a needle is passed through the wall of the abdomen into the bladder to collect a urine sample. (To reassure you, although this sounds scary & painful, cats do not seem to think so.)
3:00pmWhile Lori continues with appointments, Krista runs Minty’s urine sample; checking the concentration & various other aspects of it (which are measured on a reagent stick), as well as looking at it microscopically. She gives the results to Dr. Rorke who sees that Minty has a urinary tract infection; treatable with oral antibiotics. Krista starts him off by giving him his first dose as his owner wanted to be shown how best to pill a cat. He also had some crystals in his urine, and although he wasn’t blocked (unable to urinate) today, this is a very real (& dangerous) possibility – he will require a prescribeddiet to prevent the formation of these crystals from now on.
3:30pmRoutine appointments continue – this time a first appointment for a new puppy. The new owners have wisely brought along a stool sample to be sent out to the laboratory and checked microscopically for parasites. Krista packs this in the appropriate solution & container while Lori starts the appointment for Aster and her new family – there will be lots to cover & lots of information to exchange.
Meanwhile, Marcia’s owners have arrived to take her home after her spay this morning (see September’s newsletter), and Krista is available now to do her discharge. She meets with them & goes over all her post-operative care at home, including monitoring her incision, medications, activity restrictions etc. as well as answering any questions or concerns they might have. Finally she takes one last look at Marcia’s incision, removes the small bandage from the I/V site on her leg and brings her out to her family.
Lori & Krista now trim the nails of a Labrador named Pete who has a 4pm appointment for this.
4:00pmKrista goes into the next appointment – a Shih Tzu (Dylan) with a sore eye. Meanwhile, Solomon’s owner has arrived to collect him from his dentistry this morning – Lori goes over his discharge, post-anesthetic and extraction care before checking him one last time & removing the pressure bandage on his leg & taking him out to his waiting owner.
Once Lori & Krista are both free again, it is time for Cornelius to have a second enema as he has so far not passed anything. He hasn’t wanted anything to eat or drink so far when tempted, but that is not unexpected. He receives his second enema and during the process manages to pass a small hard lump of feces – hopefully the rest will follow shortly!
4:30pmLori is now scheduled to give a talk & demonstration to help a client learn how to monitor & treat their older cat for diabetes. Taking this on can be a nerve-wracking experience for owners – learning to inject insulin & checking glucose levels on a daily basis, feeding accordingly and so on is a very daunting prospect for most people – especially when performing it on their own pet. Lori takes all this into consideration and is extremely thorough & encouraging in her explanations and most people leave feeling more confident than when they arrived.
Krista has been back in with Dylan, to help Dr. Rorke with her examination (he is quite wiggly!). She has shown his owner’s how to apply the topical eye medications he will be going home with and now her work day is done. With everything under control she heads out for the day.
5:00pmThe last appointment of the day is here & Dr. Rorke goes straight in. Cornelius has had a full-sized bowel movement & his owner’s will be back for him very soon. Before Krista left, she helped Lori remove his I/V catheter ready for him to go home. When they get here, Lori passes on the instructions for his continuing care & medication at home, along with the meds themselves and a special diet to help him maintain healthy bowel movements long term.
5:30pmOnly some final cleaning & closing down procedures remain, including medicating & feeding Dunford, the clinic cat.
6:00pm Closing time. It will be a few more minutes until everyone is finished and heading for home, but not too many -it has been a fairly straightforward day. We hope you have enjoyed sharing it with us