Daily Vet Eccentric Clients, Redux

It’s my first day back since the Memorial Day festivities and I’m having an extremely busy time of it. All my sick little patients have come back to see me for rechecks and in one case, "Just to say hello."

Who brings their cat to the vet just to say hello? All well and good...but these people...

May 31st, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Still Vacating...Let the Nurses Do Their Job

In my mind I’m still on vacation. And, although I’m back in town sleeping in my own bed, I’ll not be back to work until tomorrow. So, technically, I’m still vacating. Especially since my eight-year-old is still with his grandparents in Disney World for the next few days. Forget Key Largo, life...

May 30th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet On Vacation (No Mention of Pets Here)

Today we made our way [slowly] back from Key Largo. The water was so beautiful we stopped about twelve times to stare down through it. The seas were so calm we could see straight through twenty feet of blue to the reefs below. Just so you know: that never happens.

We went snorkeling for an hour...

May 29th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Life Is Good

Vacation. Nothing to do but snorkel in pristine water with near-perfect visibility. Not a cloud in the sky. Explored vast beds of coral smothered in fish. Too many barracuda but, save that, nary a complaint was lodged. Boated back to our borrowed Key Largo bedroom and dined on fresh-caught...

May 28th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Getting the Hell Out of Dodge..And Some Turtle Porn

Got up early. Checked on my patients. Everybody’s doing okay. Time to get out of here.

Loaded up the boat and set off for Key Largo in smooth seas and cloudy skies.

Despite the weather, everything worked out perfectly. We even got to see some turtle porn: two sea turtles (Ridleys?) mating in the...

May 27th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet I Need a Vacation. Does This Make Me a Bad Person?

Today was supposed to be my day off. I was supposed to be cooking and packing and preparing for a three-day sojourn by boat to Key Largo. Unexpectedly, however, it turned into a nightmare day of talking clients down from their various ledges. I swear, some of these people could drown in a glass...

May 26th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet From Cancer Survival to Public Euthanasia: Life's a Trip

Thursday. It finally had to be done. One of my favorite patients had to be euthanized today. She was a cancer survivor. She had lived for eleven months with a tumor attached to her heart. She’d done amazingly well in spite of it. She’d had surgery once to remove the external lining of the heart...

May 25th, 2006 2 Comments

Daily Vet Old, Feeble and In Need of Fire-Fighting Care

Wednesday. Mushu is doing well. She needed antibiotics, pain relievers, a couple of stitches, and a whole lot of nursing care for the skin infection she’d been fighting for some time now.

In the past week I’ve seen three cases like Mushu's: all old, all feeble, all in need of fire-fighting for...

May 24th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet I'm the Dolittler. I Know Because Mushu Told Me.

Tuesday. Midway through morning appointments someone yells, Emergency! I have an emergency! Please somebody help me!

Okay perhaps I’m exaggerating—but only a tad, really.

I run to the waiting room to triage the patient and there she is: a big, fat, elderly Shar-pei dog with a swollen face...

May 23rd, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Lean On Me: The Dynamic Duo in Action

Monday. An orthopedically challenged, elderly gentleman brings in a very large, stumbling red Doberman. They clearly have a special bond between them. No—really. Foxy loves his master—no doubt about it. And the master, for his part, is nearly in tears over the condition he and his pup find...

May 22nd, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet No Stomach for Suffering

Saturday. And someone brought in the foulest smelling [live] cat on the planet. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is one of the most annoying, poorly-paying clients we’ve ever had. This is a difficult distinction to have earned where I work, I must assure you.

And now, this Someone wants us to provide...

May 20th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Poor Rex: Not Just a Little Limp

Friday. Poor Rex. Rex is a huge Shiloh Shepherd with a skulking, wolf-like walk and an equally nervous disposition when around strangers.

Rex came in yesterday for a routine set of X-rays. He had started limping over the weekend and it had progressed over the course of the week. His knee seemed...

May 19th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Poor Polar: Life Sucks Sometimes

A very rainy Tuesday. Miami’s hurricane-ravaged roofs (and their tell-tale blue tarps) are finding their way onto tile floors across the county. Life sucks sometimes.

Today I saw one of my longest-standing patients, Polar, with his new mom. Polar was in need of a new one after the original...

May 16th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Baby-Sitting Sickies

It’s not very busy for a Monday. I’m baby-sitting a lot of relatively healthy patients: a recovering ear-mite infectee with an ear hematoma (a kitty-cat named Boots), a vomiting puppy who already feels much better and is keeping down solid foods since yesterday (should have gone home yesterday...

May 15th, 2006 No Comments

Daily Vet Mayday!

May Day. Mayday. So close and yet…not quite. Imagine an easy flight on a beautiful Spring morning and…next thing you know you’re in the drink trying to figure out how you got there. Today was such a day. Things started off so well yet ended up so savagely.

We took X-ray pictures of a sweet,...

May 1st, 2006 No Comments