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1-Eating lunch too close to the fecal-screen counter (blech!)…

2-Taking the client at her word (“She doesn’t bite!”)…

3-Not wearing gloves while flushing out ears or examining a potential abscess (so much for a dinner date appetite)…

4-Investigating a possible ringworm lesion barehanded then getting distracted and suffering three circular lesions to your ankle (presumably after scratching the mange mite bumps on your leg)…

5-Agreeing to conduct a necropsy on a day-old specimen…

6-Forgetting to remind your receptionists you’ll be out the third Saturday of the month then getting the evil eye every day of the fourth week…

7-Rejecting vet tech assistance for a house call euthanasia on a 100-pound Rottie with a personality disorder…


Shall I go on? I’m working on a “best of 7 unhealthy habits for vets” so those of you in the biz (and others) please contribute your own…Thanks!

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Comments
Using the necropsy knife to cut into in a tray of brownies :)
# Posted By Megan | 4/10/08 9:23 AM
Megan- I'm thinking of buying my kitchen a necropsy knife all of its very own! They just so much better than the kitchen knives I've bought...

How about not washing/changing coats/scrubs/tops between patients, or worse yet, before going home!
# Posted By Lindabcs | 4/10/08 9:50 AM
Nasty!...brownies don't deserve that kind of cruel treatment!
# Posted By Dr. Patty Khuly | 4/10/08 10:48 AM
heh, I'm glad my vet ignored my "she doesn't bite" declaration and asked if she'd wear a muzzle. I still don't think she'd have bitten anyone (she's got major anxiety issues and some fear aggression), but ... it occurred to me later, what if she had? Hmm. Yeah, muzzles are Just Fine.
# Posted By donna | 4/10/08 12:55 PM
I *LOVE* these kind of blog posts.... and the "Dirty Jobs" post you did last week. Maybe that's because I have friends who are vets and techs and others in human health care and no topic of conversation is barred during meals?

Keep 'em coming as far as I'm concerned!

:-)
# Posted By Deanna | 4/10/08 1:29 PM
the unhealthiest habit of a veteran vet tech i know & love: using her mouth to clear the tubing of the fecal float solution bottle!!!!!! i'd shriek at her to use one of those bulbs you use on the mouths/noses of babies after c-sections...or anything else for that matter...but she insisted that "if it hasn't killled me by now"...gag.
# Posted By Sarah | 4/10/08 7:05 PM
Maybe it is exactly these habits that keep you healthy! Or it least "exposed" with good immune response----I think the "germ fanatics" are the ones in peril!
# Posted By Barbara A. Albright/New Hampshire | 4/10/08 7:37 PM
How about ignoring the client when they say s/he bites or should wear a muzzle. I've had that happen.
# Posted By Juli | 4/11/08 12:25 AM
Try filling the rabies syringe at the same time you fill the DHL syringe. The two syringes flipped out of my hand and landed in my chest.
# Posted By Betsy | 4/11/08 1:34 PM
Munching on a snack/lunch while gathered around the necropsy going "oh look at that"
Keeping your drinks/lunch in the fridge with the samples or your popsicles in the freezer with the "pupsicles"

I am sure there are SO many more.
# Posted By Erin | 4/11/08 11:53 PM
ohhhh god, the comments are almost worse than the blog! Betsy, the only thing i could picture was the critter people from I am Legend when i read your comment... shudder. and Erin... seriously? keeping the Chunky Munky in with the bodies? please say you're joking.

gosh, this makes me feel much better about my habit of snacking in the grooming salon between (and sometimes during) dogs!
# Posted By charity | 4/12/08 3:09 AM
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