Author: adriennes789

The last day was an interesting one! There were far more patients than yesterday. We got to watch a surgery to remove a toe of a dog. This picture is the surgical nurses doing prep before the surgery. The dog had to get his toe removed because he had a previous surgery there and the other surgeons hadn’t operated as precisely as possible. There was a lot of blood in this surgery, but even the 10 year old girl who was shadowing today could handle it! I’m going to miss all the people and the hospital so much. They were incredibly nice and offered to have us back any time.

Today was super slow. Almost no patients came in and there were almost no patients already there. We spent most of the day talking to technicians about their experiences with Vet medicine, and also discussing the hardest parts of the practice. We spoke a lot about the pharmaceuticals they use, and the explained how things like anesthetics worked. They use this machine pictured below that puts the animals quickly and painlessly to sleep in their post-ops. Sad it’s almost over 🙁  

Today’s surgery was on a 2 year old boxer, that had a mysterious foreign body lodged in it’s colon. The Vet techs said they could tell it was a round object from the ultrasound, but wouldn’t know what it was until they opened the dog up. After searching each part of the colon, Dr. Eward finally found the item, and opened up the colon to find it was a squeaker from a chew toy. It had all the vets laughing and had obviously been through it. The boxer was then stitched up and everything went smoothly. Other then that the day at the hospital was a slow one. In my awesome selfie below is a different dog, Hank the golden retriever or as the vets called him “Handsome Hank”.

Today was another interesting surgery day. We got to see one surgeon cut the femoral head of a little scruffy dog’s femur. After a lot of shaving off the matted fur of little Cookie, who had clearly never been groomed in his 11 months of life, we headed into the OR. With the surgeon scrubbed in and the technician by his side, the scalpel cut through the leg to open up to bone. The surgeon was kind enough to let us peak in to see where the head of the femoral bone (which is supposed to be clean and rounded), was clearly flat like a pancake. He told us that this would be causing the 11 month old a tremendous amount of pain, so the easiest solution is to just cut of that part of the bone. The dog would still be able to walk  and function normally and live a happy and healthy life. However, the drill he brought out next scared both Aesha and myself! After already seeing many surgeries in my short time shadowing, I can safely say this was the only one to make me feel a bit woozy. Having to listen to the drill cut through the bone was tough to get through, but luckily the knowledgeable staff had no trouble, and Cookie was already awake and happy before the day was over!

Today was a sad day at the Vet clinic. It was eye opening to see what a vet’s life is really like, the good and the bad. Today a dog had to be euthanized. (Not the dog pictured below!) The dog was brought in after the owners noticed she had trouble going to the bathroom, and the vet technicians read from her ultrasound that she had a tumor blocking her bladder. The vets told us that her owners would be given options as to what to do but putting her down would be the most humane option. Aesha and I were not in the room, but we did get to comfort the dog while she was waiting for her owners to bring her her favorite food. Although incredibly sad, it was important for us to see that these are the hard moments in vets life, and it’s not just cuddles and kisses from dogs. We did however, get plenty of that from Kit (the dog pictured below)!

Today, we headed over to Triangle Vet Hospital. The most interesting part of the day was a surgery Aesha and I got to sit in on. Standing out of the way, we watched as the vet technician prepped the dog with an anesthetic, shaving the fur off her abdomen and cleaning the area with alcohol. We then put on our caps and masks and entered the small OR, both bracing ourselves as to what was to come. Much like the beloved show Grey’s Anatomy, the surgeons scrubbed in, and prepped all the tools on a table to the side of the patient. They began the procedure, (stop reading if squeamish!) cutting open the abdomen and pulling out the intestines, stomach, spleen, and some blood to come with it. They let us peak in to see there was a mass growing in the intestine, so they cut a good sized portion of the intestine out and stitched the remaining ends together. Closing the patient up, Aesha and I turned to each other, surprised to see that neither of us had passed out but rather both of us were smiling. It was a great experience getting so upclose and personal and really understanding what it means to be a surgical veterinarian. Can’t wait to see more! 

Today’s dog training style was very different than yesterday. Aesha and I met up with the group in a parking lot at Waverly Place. Each trainer had a dog with them, one that was technically owned by another individual, but was allowing the dog to live with the trainer for 3 weeks to make progress in the dogs “manners”. One trainer explained to Aesha and I, as we were taking a break from walking the dogs around Waverly, that manners for dogs should be much like manners for humans. They should respect personal space, learn to interact peacefully, and learn when to sit and relax. We would break when the dogs got too hot, but for the most part walk, making sure the dogs knew who was in charge. When the trainers thought the dogs had solidly demonstrated their manners and were all tuckered out, we said our goodbyes! Another very informative day. 

My work experience is off to an absolutely amazing start. Today, Aesha and I got to shadow some dog trainers at Teamworks Dog Training and Board, and we both learned so much. We got to sit in on training sessions with dogs, in which they specialize in positive reinforcement and clicker training. Aesha and I even got to practice working with several dogs, big and small, learning to only reward when they follow direct commands, and to turn our backs to them when they become overexcited or jump on you. We worked with therapy dogs who were already skillful and learning more advanced maneuvers and with dogs who were still working on the basics. We also spent time just playing with dogs and giving them attention, as Teamworks boards many dogs and has to constantly rotate play time. It was an amazing first day and I can’t wait to learn and see more.

 

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I’m so excited to get started on my internship with both dog trainers and Triangle Vet Hospital!