I spent some time volunteering last year in rural Zimbabwe. At the old folks home were some virtually feral puppies that nobody was looking after, so ... we did. They were absolutely sweet and adorable, completely friendly, extremely playful, and really just full of awesome. We'd come over every day or so with scraps (there's barely any people food, kibble sure ain't going to show up), make sure they had water, and provide some basic medical care for them (we were also trying to get some dewormer and vaccinations for them, but in a country like Zimbabwe? Yeah, fat chance...)

While none of us had any veterinary training, two of of us had some fairly extensive first aid/emergency response training, and one more just had a lot of experience with the oddities of Zimbabwe. Like, say, putsy flies.

Putsy flies were something we all had to worry about. Luckily, our laundry was done for us, and everything from underwear to t-shirts to my favorite hat was steam ironed after it was (hand!) washed & hung to dry. (Sure enough, the one expensive safari shirt I brought had a hole ironed into the sleeve... oh well, better than the alternative.) The reason was putsy flies: They liked to lay eggs in wet clothes hanging on the line. Then when you put the clothes on, they'd burrow into your skin and happily grow there.

If this ever happens to me, I've informed my friends to just put me under, because I will be having the biggest hissy fit you've ever seen. They SOUND disgusting, and they look worse. How do I know? Because, of course, the puppies had putsy flies.

The way to get them out? Squeeze the skin around it until a BIG FREAKING WORM pops out. Then squish the worm, or it'll crawl off and try to find somewhere else to burrow into. Believe me, I feel for you on the maggot issue.

These puppies were 8-12 weeks old in the time I was there. The bumps on them ranged from pimple to gumball sized, with the corresponding worms in each. This? This is why when I buy a first aid kit, I modify it for my own uses. In this case, adding about a dozen extra pairs of latex gloves, and a second bottle of iodine.

The puppies put up with it surprisingly well, only crying when it was in a particularly bad spot, like on the tail. Me? Not so much. Blood & guts I can handle. Picking worms out of a hole on a puppy with my gloved hands then pinching it to squish it IN MY HANDS ... gaaaah.

Yeah, I don't think I have it in me to be a vet. :)

Donna April 4th, 2008 04:58:00 PM

What about vomit watching?? You know, give the dog something to help it throw up..and bombs away? Or cats with upper respiratory infections, that sneeze the gooey mess on your face when you're examining it?

ashleigh April 4th, 2008 05:57:00 PM

AHHHHHHHHH Donna you beat me to it- though they're bot fly larva here. YUCK. I'll never forget the first one I saw. It was in a kitten, and the hole it left was huge. Ugh. So gross.

Also, the stench of what comes out of a constipated cat when there is enema success. That's something special.

katie April 4th, 2008 06:03:00 PM

These things gross us all out, and yet we all love them in some sick way as well. There are lots of techs that LOVE a nasty dental--let's get those teeth clean! And abscesses?? So much fun to lance them and flush the purulent material out. My own favorite is the infected ears. You are right about that smell clinging to you for hours though. When we induce vomiting we clap and cheer when the dog gives us the results we want.

Robyn April 4th, 2008 06:39:00 PM

Just a FWIW--I loooove Dirty Jobs...and they HAVE done bovine herd health, equine stuff (including a BAL to recover "horse snot" That vet then went and dealt with a dental abscess in a llama), a dog groomer (who expressed anal glands) and a LOT of other animal caretaking stuff--pig farming, shearing alpacas, I can't recall what else off the top of my head.

My favorite DJ moment was when they did a beef cow-calf place and went to check on their bull. They needed a semen sample so they pull out an electroejaculator right before the commercial break. My non vet boyfriend looks to me and goes "What is THAT?"

You know, the gross is part of what I adore about my job. I love a good cat abscess. :)

DrSteggy April 4th, 2008 06:53:00 PM

The only thing that ever grossed me out back when I worked for a vet was a dog we had come in with a nasal tumor. He would stand there dripping blood and green pus from his nose looking pathetic. Maybe perhaps because it was so close to lunchtime but between the look, the stench and the sound the drops made as it hit the floor just got to me.

Marie April 4th, 2008 07:11:00 PM

This one is less obvious, but grosses me out every time- the crispy-crunchy feeling of crepitus from a fractured limb or wing. *shudder*

Megan April 4th, 2008 07:21:00 PM

Dr. Steggy: Dirty Jobs also did ostrich farming.

ashleigh April 4th, 2008 08:38:00 PM

Funny, I dreaded 'cow rectal' day so much and then when I actually did it, it was so rewarding by being able to feel all of the organs and the fetus that the gross factor totally didn't matter anymore.

However, I do find pyometras REALLY gross. As an assistant, it was always my job to hold the empty litter box for the 'drop' from the surgeon. UGH! Here it comes - a GIANT pus-filled uterus, and pounds of it, hope it doesn't bust!

Ingrid April 4th, 2008 09:00:00 PM

Maggots? Putsy Fly worms? Ticks!? I think I can actually smell this post over the internet.

Dear God, I'm afraid to go to sleep tonight. Forget it Dr. K., my web crush on you is officially o-v-e-r.

Larry April 4th, 2008 09:45:00 PM

Megan- I so agree with you about broken limbs! Forget nails on a chalkboard- The feeling of bones grinding under your fingers as you manipulate limbs into unnatural positions makes me want to vomit.

And I cannot handle maggots. Give me three-parvo-puppies-dancing-in-bloody-diarrhea-flinging-feces-and-vomit-in-my-face-on-a-Saturday-morning-when-I-have-a-hangover anyday, over maggots.

One time we had a stray cat that had been running around in the summer heat with a badly injured leg and open wounds for several days. He had a bad case of maggots by the time we got him. We cleaned him up (I handled that alright) and bandaged the leg so we could rehydrate him and stabilize before he had surgery. The afternoon of the surgery I was prepping and went to remove the bandage. MAGGOTS WERE CRAWLING THROUGH THE BANDAGE MATERIAL!!! The stench of rotting flesh, combined with the munching/slithering sound of the maggots had me retching pretty good- I had to get someone else to finish. Thats the only time I've come that close to vomiting at work (except for when I had morning sickness).

Meghan RAHT April 4th, 2008 10:38:00 PM

I'll agree that bot larvae (or cuterebra which I think are even bigger!!) top my Gross Out Meter.
But my personal most disgusting job as a tech was a simple and all too common one: handling animals loaded with fleas. I have a vivid memory of placing an IV catheter in the leg of a Basset Hound who was so anemic we had to stabilize him before we could think of de-fleaing him. I'm holding the dog's leg in one hand, threading the catheter with the other and watching in absolute horror as DOZENS AND DOZENS of fleas went leaping and crawling up my bare arms. *shudder*
Now I am itching like crazy!!

Barb April 4th, 2008 10:48:00 PM

ewwww. do many vets love to describe ickiness with food terms i.e. chocolate pudding diarrhea, rice-y tapeworms, spaghetti roundworms, and cottage cheese pus or are mine special? ;) (and all of the above are foods that i don't ever bring for lunch when i work in a vet clinic!)

it's a good thing that your patients are so cute cuz otherwise it wouldn't be worth it!

Sarah April 4th, 2008 10:56:00 PM

We also sometimes describe bloody, thick, diarrhea as raspberry jelly.

Cuterebras are BIG. We once pulled one out of a kitten's nose. No one knew if we should scream or laugh. Kitten felt a lot better after it was out but it's nostril was really distended!

I'm OK with maggots if they are on a limb or if they seem superficial. But when I see them coming out of eyes or ears...shudder.

Robyn April 5th, 2008 12:40:00 AM

I love this blog. I like to enjoy the new posts each morning while I eat my breakfast.
Today was a bad day to do that :S
lol

Julia April 5th, 2008 09:19:00 AM

I *heart* Mike Rowe. I'm not really sure why, it's just one of those unexplainable things.

I agree with your list Dr.Patty, but I do have a question. What is the proper name of the stuff that is expressed from anal glands? I've been known to call it "gunk" & "anal gland juice" but there must be technical term for it?

Stacy April 5th, 2008 09:48:00 AM

I remember growing up as a kid in Malaysia living on an Air Force base there. The local "kampungs" or villages used to always have an assortment of dogs and frequently these would make there way into our general area where my mum would sweep them into our household to join our menagerie of pets. They usually came full of ticks so one of the first jobs was to de-tick them - the dogs would respectully sit and let my mum pore over them with her tweezers as she spent an hour or two removing their ticks, some of which grew to impressive sizes in the tropical conditions. Mum used to store them in bottles of denatured alcohol (don't ask me why) or methylated spirits... I swear, 25 years later, she's still got one or two of these bottles floating around, full of Malaysian ticks.

Alex April 5th, 2008 09:58:00 AM

Stacy: Galndular material? I dunno. Dumb vet.

Dr. Patty Khuly April 5th, 2008 10:44:00 AM

Anal sac juice is produced by sebaceous glands, so I suppose a generic term would be sebum? A quick scan of my anatomy textbook just turned up the phrase "foul-smelling substance"...

Megan April 5th, 2008 10:57:00 AM

OK, I've tried this twice, and can't seem to get past the captcha!!

Shellie April 5th, 2008 11:40:00 AM

Dirty jobs is right! What amazes me is how many pet-owners freak out over some of the "jobs" they can do themselves! I especially like the Mom with the family pet and a couple of kids that is near hysteria over a couple of ticks on Fido & wants them OFF right away! Gosh, what do these Mom's do with their kids? You would think a tick or abscess is nothing after doing diapers and spit-up for years! How about when the kids come home with head lice??

And what happened to bring a piece of poop in a baggie?? Geesh, people can't manage that anymore for you??

Barbara A. Albright/New Hampshire April 5th, 2008 07:31:00 PM

Two words:

GAN
GRENE

H Houlahan April 6th, 2008 03:00:00 AM

What?? I once brought a dog home covered in ticks...so covered he was weak and could barely keep up with me, so I had to pick him up. Me and my mom removed all the ticks and after a day he was up and wagging his tail. Had him about 5 years before he went to live out in the country.

ashleigh April 6th, 2008 11:12:00 PM

Our pet term for it is 'butt grease'. ;o)

Stephanie Masonbrink April 7th, 2008 09:19:00 AM

*light-headed*

Numbers 1, 5 and 9 are just more than I can handle. 1 & 5 made me almost toss my lunch and #9 makes me want to go home immediately and take a Silkwood shower.

I LOVE Dirty Job and Deadliest Catch - those shows are excellent. Mike Rowe rules.

Creature of Habit April 7th, 2008 02:54:00 PM

Maybe I'm mean, but I literally LOLed when reading the comments to this post.
Well, time to go fetch supper...

Xslf April 9th, 2008 02:00:00 PM

I am so glad I came across this list, especially since there are pictures! I sent a link to everyone I know who has cared for gross stuff, either/and human and animal. I have said again and again at the shelter where I volunteer: "i swear, we need Mike Rowe here!!!"

Adding to what has already been written- getting bitten by a feral cat and having a tooth stuck in your hand when the cat lets go. Tipping ears. Feral cats in traps when the trapper never washes the traps- essences of skunk, tom cat spray, sardines as bait, and cat poop. Scraping your leg on a trap- hurts and it's an open wound. necropsy on a four day dead dog. Emptying the bladder of said dog. The vet told me after that one "you're a REALLY good friend!". Cats with bad teeth and a URI drooling and snotting at the same time. Sick cat coated with clumping litter. The one that really sticks in my mind is the pocket beagle with severe allergie who groomed out all her hair causing her to have hair stuck, rotting, in her already rotting teeth.

Fortunately that beagle got an appropiate diet, salmon oil, antibiotics, medicated bathes, medicated lotion, and a dental. And a great home with 3 other beagles- her new mom actually thinks howling beagles is music to her ears, the more beagles the merrier! I have one beagle and I am so glad she only howls occasionally.

Caranne Abrams April 16th, 2008 09:43:00 PM

I just found this website, and already love it! What a wealth of information to peruse as I prepare for a mid-life career change from Social Work into a D.V.M program!

Screw-worm fly maggot infestation is the worst. Vincent, our first dog rescue in Dharamsala, India, had ear and jaw wounds completely filled with thousands of maggots. Before we pulled him off the streets, the poor boy had actually scratched off his own ear due to their irritation. We could smell him from dozens of meters away, and the stench of decayed and rotting flesh filled our apartment for weeks.

(And to think, I used to be leery of picking ticks off of my pet!)

Anyway, learning that I could, indeed, suppress my yuck-that's-so-gross-I'm-gonna-puke factor in an effort to help an animal is what led me to finally decide to return to the United States to attend vet school. So, hooray for the dirty jobs that we do out of love!

Emma May 3rd, 2008 06:46:00 PM

Ah Patty, I'm so sorry I'm catching this post so late! I'm not about to insult you by saying you don't have one of the dirtiest jobs around --you absolutely do. But I also have to say, that I think that those of us that go in for this type of work take no small amount of satisfaction from it. I've read your blog for a while, you are no shrinking violet, you have what it takes to run with the big dogs and no amount of piss, or blood, maggots or anal gland secretion is going to stop you.

Tell me you don't feel a sense of accomplishment like nothing else when you've drained and irrigated that abcess and the abx are started. And the maggots? Yes, they are among the grimmest beasts on earth, but for debridement, there's nothing to rival them, and in my experience with human patients they eschew healthy flesh and merely feast on the necrotic parts of the wound. When it comes to necrotizing fascitis, while I haven't searched Medline, (so for god's sake don't quote me!) anecdotally, I don't wonder if there's more than a few former skin popping junkies over here on the Left coast that have maggots to thank for the fact that they still have both arms, or legs as the case may be. (As for the conditions that led YOUR poor patients to wind up with an infestation in the first place that may be a sadder story, but in a tropical region such as yours I imagine even a middle class dog in decent housing could have a run in with these nasties.

I have always taken some pride that I could remain standing, keep my lunch down and my eyeliner flawless and my genuinely compassionate expression intact behind my faceshield while those around me wretched and toppled like dominoes as I diligently and methodically continued with the job at hand-- getting our patient cleaned, debugged, drained, debrided, irrigated, quelled, shaved or what have you.

And since my work was with humans (often homeless and wounded gravely, days, even weeks before finally being brought to our university ICU for medical care) I resolved to do that with a spirit of respect, grace and dignity, despite my gagging, often innappropriate and sometimes cruel co-workers.

The first year residents I could forgive for sobbing and puking into garbage cans in various corners of the room. But nurses with 20 years experience? Unforgivable. That level of compassion fatigue means it's time to transfer to the OR or retire.

I have spent a few memorable night shifts with curved forceps, saline and lots of towels and chucks, making small talk with unmedicated paranoid schizophrenics who referred to the maggots as their pets as I removed them one by one from a deep wounds, while the patient waited for their OR slot to come up.

I have seen a geyer of fetid puss spout 18 inches into the air into my face shield no less, as I passed a washcloth over a pts back during a bed bath patient (at least a 60cc toomey full before I paged the doc). BTW it smelled like pseudomonas, 6 years in the ICU and it's crazy how many bacteria I can identify by smell now. Crazy gross I guess. Psuedomonas though, damn it stays up in youir sinus or something, you can smell it for days. Blech.

And sadly, as an ICU tech (a glorified Nurse's assistant really) I was often forced to work outside my scope of practice or see a patient go without care, despite what the doctor ordered.

Anyway, I'm rambling but your post made me reminisce in a good way, about the dirtiest job I ever loved. And I suspect you love yours too!
P.s. I do my dogs anal glands with vetinary training and oversight- my sheltie and pug are both rescues and have a hx of impacted glands. And for all my big talk my pugs musk is one of the nastier substances on earth, really. Gack.

bibliocephalus August 29th, 2008 02:13:00 PM

Ah Patty, I'm so sorry I'm catching this post so late! I'm not about to insult you by saying you don't have one of the dirtiest jobs around --you absolutely do. But I also have to say, that I think that those of us that go in for this type of work take no small amount of satisfaction from it. I've read your blog for a while, you are no shrinking violet, you have what it takes to run with the big dogs and no amount of piss, or blood, maggots or anal gland secretion is going to stop you.

Tell me you don't feel a sense of accomplishment like nothing else when you've drained and irrigated that abcess and the abx are started. And the maggots? Yes, they are among the grimmest beasts on earth, but for debridement, there's nothing to rival them, and in my experience with human patients they eschew healthy flesh and merely feast on the necrotic parts of the wound. When it comes to necrotizing fascitis, while I haven't searched Medline, (so for god's sake don't quote me!) anecdotally, I don't wonder if there's more than a few former skin popping junkies over here on the Left coast that have maggots to thank for the fact that they still have both arms, or legs as the case may be. (As for the conditions that led YOUR poor patients to wind up with an infestation in the first place that may be a sadder story, but in a tropical region such as yours I imagine even a middle class dog in decent housing could have a run in with these nasties.

I have always taken some pride that I could remain standing, keep my lunch down and my eyeliner flawless and my genuinely compassionate expression intact behind my faceshield while those around me wretched and toppled like dominoes as I diligently and methodically continued with the job at hand-- getting our patient cleaned, debugged, drained, debrided, irrigated, quelled, shaved or what have you.

And since my work was with humans (often homeless and wounded gravely, days, even weeks before finally being brought to our university ICU for medical care) I resolved to do that with a spirit of respect, grace and dignity, despite my gagging, often innappropriate and sometimes cruel co-workers.

The first year residents I could forgive for sobbing and puking into garbage cans in various corners of the room. But nurses with 20 years experience? Unforgivable. That level of compassion fatigue means it's time to transfer to the OR or retire.

I have spent a few memorable night shifts with curved forceps, saline and lots of towels and chucks, making small talk with unmedicated paranoid schizophrenics who referred to the maggots as their pets as I removed them one by one from a deep wounds, while the patient waited for their OR slot to come up.

I have seen a geyer of fetid puss spout 18 inches into the air into my face shield no less, as I passed a washcloth over a pts back during a bed bath patient (at least a 60cc toomey full before I paged the doc). BTW it smelled like pseudomonas, 6 years in the ICU and it's crazy how many bacteria I can identify by smell now. Crazy gross I guess. Psuedomonas though, damn it stays up in youir sinus or something, you can smell it for days. Blech.

And sadly, as an ICU tech (a glorified Nurse's assistant really) I was often forced to work outside my scope of practice or see a patient go without care, despite what the doctor ordered.

Anyway, I'm rambling but your post made me reminisce in a good way, about the dirtiest job I ever loved. And I suspect you love yours too!
P.s. I do my dogs anal glands with vetinary training and oversight- my sheltie and pug are both rescues and have a hx of impacted glands. And for all my big talk my pugs musk is one of the nastier substances on earth, really. Gack.

bibliocephalus August 29th, 2008 02:13:00 PM

AVI to DVD Converter

gtrte June 5th, 2009 02:59:02 AM

ugg salehttp://www.ugg-store.net fake ugghttp://www.ugg-store.net ugg discounthttp://www.ugg-store.net ugg store

ugg cardyhttp://www.megaugg.com ugg storehttp://www.megaugg.com ugg boots salehttp://www.megaugg.com ugg discount

 ugg classic cardyhttp://www.homeugg.com buy ugg bootshttp://www.homeugg.com cheap ugg bootshttp://www.homeugg.com discount ugg boots

 UGG bootshttp://www.landugg.com uggs boots onlinehttp://www.landugg.com discount ugg boots

ugg boots online November 10th, 2009 09:27:55 PM

However mean your life is, tiffany jewelry meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard discount tiffany jewelry unt tiffany jewelry It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.

tiffany jewelry November 12th, 2009 09:12:08 PM

However mean your life is, tiffany jewelry meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard discount tiffany jewelry unt tiffany jewelry It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.

tiffany jewelry November 12th, 2009 11:13:10 PM

http://www.faketiffany.orghttp://www.ourshoes.org/http://www.popularshoes.net/http://www.uggfeet.com

ugg discount November 18th, 2009 12:25:48 PM