11 / 12
small
talk
11
H
owever, as I pull into the
car park there are two
cars parked up, one of
which belongs to my younger
colleague. Being naturally
inquisitive I poked my head
round the prep room door and
asked if I could help. The next
thing I know I have a puppy in
a towel thrust into my hands
for resuscitation having literally
just been delivered by
caesarean section. With quite a
healthy bit of encouragement
the puppy suddenly takes a
breath and begins to squeak.
Within minutes the new mum
is stitched up and ready for
recovery. With modern
anaesthetics I am constantly
amazed at how quick and calm
recovery is. Less than 10
minutes after her last stitch was
tied she is licking her puppies
(all 6 of them!) and ready to go
home with her brood another
30 minutes later.
So that wasn’t quite the start I
had in mind, but the paperwork
isn’t going anywhere!! The next
half an hour is spent with in
patients from yesterday’s list
and any patients admitted
overnight by my colleague. One
such patient is Sam, a lovely
little female Lhasa Apso who
had been passing blood in her
urine for several months. We
had done some special contrast
x-rays a week before and
ascertained that she had a
small mass in her bladder. I
operated to remove this under
anaesthetic yesterday but she
was a little distressed so stayed
in overnight for observation.
The good news is that she is
much happier and ready to go
home this morning.
After morning rounds we see
appointments every 10 minutes
until about 10.00am. This can
be a mixed bag; from routine
inoculations, to lameness with a
few skin and dental problems
thrown in. By 10.20am we are
just about finished and its time
for a well earned cup of tea
before joining my colleague
to work through the ops list.
Generally we have a few
routine procedures such as
spaying and castration (from
dogs and cats, to rabbits and
ferrets!). Inevitably we will have
diagnostic investigations,
including x-rays and ultrasound,
and usually some dental work
to do after these ‘clean’
operations. These procedures
are left until the end to
minimise contamination to
the surgical cases.
After ops are completed and
a very quick sandwich it’s back
to consultations for pretty
much the rest of the afternoon.
Hopefully without any late
emergencies it will be time to
go home around 7.00pm.
My typical (honestly there’s no such thing…) day starts when I arrive
at the practice at 8.00am. However, today I am going to be there
early to try to clear some of that growing pile of paperwork that has
accumulated on my desk.