Well, we're already nearly at the end of January - can't believe it! It's been quite a busy time, what with working, and then helping out (for all those vets out there, I just know you're going to raise your eyebrows at the next bit!) at Outpatients! Now for those of you who didn't have to work at Outpatients during your final clinic year, let me exam. Outpatients is like hell on earth when you're a student - it's like the clinic that students are most afraid of, because you're unleashed on the general public, having been cossetted away with your books and your practicals for the last 5 years, and now, all of a sudden, you are expected to actually deal with clients and their animals (which, more often than not, are trying to bite you/scratch you/peck you), do full clinical exams and, most terrify of all, make an actual DIAGNOSIS and dispense treatment!! So basically, it's like a real vet. But it's scary when you're a student! And to make sure that the students make roughly the correct diagnosis and dispense the RIGHT medication (most specifically, the dose of said medication!), there is a clinician in charge, in this case, me! To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why clients come to Outpatients because a consult will usually take about an hour with students, since they need to check out the patient, do various things like bloodsmears and stuff, discuss with the clinician about the case, go back and ask the client the questions that the clinician asked that they didn't know the answers to... etc etc. Then the clinician needs to check the animal and then discuss treatment options with the student... you see what i mean??!!! Ok, I think that you get the gist!
I was on Outpatients a few weeks ago when another clinician phoned to warn me that some friends of hers were on their way with a chicken (!) and this was not just any chicken, this was a chicken that they had raised from an egg! Ok, so the fact that the chicken was one day old seemed beside the point! They had raised it from an egg!!! What she was trying to impress upon me, was the fact (apart from the fact that they had raised it from an egg... did I mention that?!) that these people did not have children. (which is vet lingo for - these people think of their animals as their children, and as such, may be very adverse to you doing ANYTHING to the aforementioned pet that may involve any perceived discomfort, such as taking the temperature or giving it an injection for instance. And is also vet lingo for - this animal is probably very insecure because it doesn't realise it's a dog, it thinks it's a person and as such, WILL try and bite you if you so much as look at it askance, let along try and actaully examine it!) And the woman had dropped the chicken (never a good thing) and now all its guts were hanging out (also, never a good thing!). Oh, and the owner was now hysterical. Well, forewarned is forearmed, but i wasn't expecting quite that level of hysteria!!! They rushed in, clutching a small box containing, I presumed, the chicken, thrust it at me shouting, 'you must do something!!!! DO SOMETHING!!!!' Ah. So I carefully raised the lid of the box, confirmed what i had already been told, adjusted my face into its most sincere and apologetic visage, and started with,'I'm so sorry, but ' and the woman completely cut me off and said that I had to do something, anything!!!! She said I hadn't even examined it properly! (Lady, all your chicken's guts are hanging on the outside of it's body, and it'a a chicken and it's only 1 day old... I have examined it properly!) I tried to explain just how bad it was to have your insides on the outside, infection, blah blah blah, but she wasn't having ANY of it! Then the husband started telling me about never giving up and how he had rescued a dog that was on the brink of death, and had cared for it and looked after it for months while it recovered. etc etc. So eventually, completely bemusedly, I found myself agreeing to anaethetise the chicken and have a proper look. And yes, the students did all laugh when i told them we were going to anaethetise the chicken!!! Which we did, and saw that there really was nothing that we could do. By the time I went back out to the owner, she had calmed down somewhat and I managed to convince them that putting the little chicken to sleep was really the kindest thing to be done.
Then there was another case of a dog that had been hit by a car - so the students and I examined it and decided to take an x-ray. So we work out the exposure factors, get an x-ray cassette out, position the animal; don protective gear, take the x-ray and I asked the students if they would be ok to develop the x-ray, which they assured me they were. So off they went to the dark room, and the x-ray came out fine. Now, while in the dark room, you have to reload the cassette with a new film, which the students had done and we decided to take another x-ray. Same procedure and students, pottered off back to the dark room. After about a minute, I hear this odd beep, which the automatic developer makes when it's not happy. Then silence, then this beep again. Then the students muttering to eachother, then another beep. So, unable to contain my curiosity anymore, I ask them if everything is ok? So there is a short silence, and one of the students says that the developer won't take the x-ray?!! Now, this is the first time that this has happened, so I think that i check this out for my self, so I asked them to reload the x-ray in the cassette, then i can go into the dark room and can see what's happening. So there is a lot of shuffling, another short, poignant silence and then one of the students says hang on, they've figured out the problem and they both emerge from the dark room. Turns out that when they replaced the x-ray film after the first x-ray, they replaced it with the cardboard that is the box of films to provide support!!! So we had x-rayed a piece of cardboard, which was why the developer wanted none of it!!!!
And finally, I was studying for my horse lectures the other day (pregnancy and birth in the mare) and I came across the word "funisitis". Now isn't that one of the oddest types of infection you've ever heard of?? Turns out it's infection of the umbilical cord. There you go, random fact for the day - try and squeeze that into a conversation or a game of scrabble!!!
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