Ever wonder what a day is like for a veterinarian who is blessed with an abundance of cases? Here’s how our day went today:
7:40, Arrive and evaluate our hospitalized patient, Turbo, who, a few days ago, was presented with urinary tract obstruction, urinary tract infection, incontinence, urine scald, matted hair, maggots, loss of appetite and vomiting. He was in bad shape. Fortunately, today he has responded to treatment and is doing really nicely.
8:20, New kitty, Examination, pre-neuter surgery lab tests and begin vaccinations.
The remainder of our morning we performed dental prophylaxes on two canine patients, including little Misty, who was recently adopted from a regional shelter and whose teeth were so atrocious that the first one I touched to remove calculus literally fell out in her mouth! Amazingly, she had two premolars that were healthy as can be, so we left those and her two upper canines, but she has no other teeth left. She will be much healthier now with less disease in her mouth and no longer in pain from loose and infected teeth.
From Misty we went to Rascal, an uncomplicated dental prophy.
Sally Ann has been in acute pain for about a week and we anesthetized her to take radiographs (X-rays) of her neck and shoulders. She will likely be having cervical disk surgery on Thursday.
Meanwhile we had two dropoff patients to work into the rest of our afternoon.
One was a straining kitty, Jack, though we didn’t yet know whether he was straining to defecate or urinate. A quick radiograph determined that his colon was impacted with stool, so he was sedated, the colon cleaned out and he was monitored as he came out of his sedation.
Our other dropoff case was a young dog with bloody diarrhea. This poor puppy was in a lot of discomfort but we were able to find the cause of her problem and begin treatment to make her more comfortable.
12:34, break for some errands and grab some lunch.
2:10, Tiger was a routine kitty examination and vaccination visit
3:30, Checking on Turbo. Still not eating but passing plenty of urine and ready for all the head-scratches we have time to dispense!
3:50, Diva, a new puppy acquisition, came in for her first examination and to begin a series of puppy vaccinations and stool tests.
4:20, time for annual examination and vaccinations for Maddie, one of our employees’ pets. Maddie checked out nice and healthy.
4:50, Coco arrived with a complaint of dark urine last night and this morning. Possibly palpating a stone in the urinary bladder we took a radiograph, and no stones were seen! Good news! However, on her urinalysis we found a heavy load of bilirubin crystals, which concerns us because she may have a metabolic disease causing that. Coco also had a yeast infection in her ears. We started her on antibiotic therapy and submitted a urine sample to the laboratory for bacterial culture and sensitivity. We also submitted blood samples for the lab to test for metabolic disease.
6:45, Turbo’s and Jack’s owner came by for a visit with Turbo and to pick up Jack. We had hoped Turbo would eat for his owner, but he didn’t. As he’s feeling better his appetite should be picking up.
7:08, Go home, kiss my lovely wife, put my feet up and eat my oatmeal. I think I’ll go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow promises to be another big day.
See you then, Dr. Randolph.
