July 11th, 2006

Tuesday. Had one of those days you have when everything goes well until the last client. Ruins your whole outlook for the night ahead.

Today’s mood destroyer walked in with a black cloud over her head. And when she opened her mouth it was like a black hole, opening wide to suck you in with her hyper-vacuous b---s---.

In the waiting room: I don’t need to fill out all that...

Monday. Olive is a very small, two year old Boston terrier with a very big problem. Her lymph nodes are enlarged and firm—not a good symptom. Lymph nodes are multiple structures dispersed all over the body that serve as a sort of clearinghouse for white blood cells.

Lymph nodes will usually get bigger when the body is actively trying to deal with an infection. They will also swell under some...

July 9th, 2006

Sunday. A beautiful day of swimming and resting. It took me all day today to get over yesterday. Yesterday was a crappy Saturday.  Like most, there was at least one euthanasia to perform. And this one was extra-special.

The circumstances were grave: Oscar would have done his Sesame Street namesake proud. This dog was poorly cared for. His skin was suffering from a severe lack of...

July 1st, 2006

Saturday. I always work on Saturdays. All my friends go biking, running, or boating on Saturdays. I wake up by seven, hit the Starbucks, buy breakfast for the crew, and work solidly until at least noon.

Most vets seem to work on Saturdays. Keep this in mind if you’re in the market for a career change. Veterinary work is retail work. You may spend eight to twelve hours a day...

June 26th, 2006

Monday. All week long I’ve been taking care of this sad-looking kitty-cat with severe diarrhea and a demonstrated willingness to maim and kill, if possible, should anyone try to open his cage.

Now, it seems, he’s switching strategies: Instead of a full-frontal attack he waits until you enter his cage and medicate him. He’ll attack once you’ve fed him and finally decide he’s...

June 24th, 2006

Saturday. A day of boredom in the extreme (routine well-pet visits) interspersed with heavy-duty end-of-life issues (euthanasia). In other words: a typical Saturday.

I hate typical Saturdays. It makes sense that Saturdays are days when working people plan routine care for their pets. And so it also stands to reason that this is a good day to organize a family trip to the vet to...

June 20th, 2006

Tuesday. Another stressful day, albeit a half-day. It was my intention to be off for the entire day but the particular circumstances surrounding my caseload made this an impossibility.

I currently have far too many cases in the hospital for any R & R. In fact, I spent the weekend shuttling back and forth from home to work to check on everybody, clean their messes, change out...

Try to work in a fast-paced environment (phones ringing, dogs barking, cats that look like they want to rip your heart out with their teeth, clients complaining about prices or demanding to be seen by the doctor immediately) without losing your mind every once in awhile. It’s enough to bring on a Calgon moment every 15 minutes or so....

June 16th, 2006

Friday. Miss Brown’s leg has been pronounced intact by her orthopedist. Dr. Wosar found that her [previously injured and surgically repaired] leg was indeed very painful due to a new trauma of unknown origin. Thankfully, the site of surgical repair appears to be perfectly unharmed.

Because Miss Brown still seems nauseous and gastrically unhappy, I will keep her in the hospital a...

June 15th, 2006

Thursday. Horror of horrors: Miss Brown is back. Although she’s been renamed Rose, we just can’t get used to it (not that Miss Brown is such a fabulous name for her, either).

If you’ll recall, Miss Brown was the beautiful stray puppy whose leg was repaired by the illustrious doctors at Miami Veterinary Specialists—at almost no charge! She had been abandoned with us at the end of...