I'm having such a terrible day today

First I had a recently found female cat for a spay, couldn't find the uterus or ovaries, she didn't have any preexisting scars, no markings in ear, no tattoos, no microchips, nothing, so I sewed her up and now Idk what to tell the owner cause maybe I just suck at this after spending like 15 minutes digging in the cat for nothing

Then I had a phonecall from an owner of a 10 mo lilac (!) french bulldog who I suspected had atopic dermatitis but they didn't want to go through with the testing, and who I haven't seen in a while, asking how much for a cytopoint injection in my practice cause he reacted well to it when given by a different vet (meaning: we didn't think you were good enough for us but you work in the village so it must be cheaper here, coming from someone who paid a horrendous fortune for the dog)

Then I had a regular client come in with a diabetic dog for a rabies shot, who is always short for money and asking for discounts. However I just know money wasn't a problem when she went to one of the most expensive practices in the area to have the dog's teeth cleaned recently. She didn't even ask if I would do it, she just went somewhere else, and they don't even specialize in dentistry. Would I refer her to the other practice? Possibly. But it still hurts.

All that in front of my vet tech students who I already think don't think too highly of me for some reason. Or maybe it's just "popular kids don't like you" trauma from school

And I feel like such a failure. Like nothing I do is good enough and it doesn't seem like it ever will be for some

The art: The artist:

It also wouldn't be a week before the holidays if I didn't have at least one case of parvo 🙈

it's Holy Week in a country with 74% Catholics, let's see how many "easter cleaning" calls I'll have.

We're starting strong on a Monday, 20 minutes into work day: a phone call, 12 yo dog not eating for a week "can we put him down? i didn't come earlier cause i thought it would go away on its own"

I know this is not on par with the topic of this blog but if you could sign this petition to save the greatest tv show ever created, with a diverse BIPOC queer cast and crew, and a showrunner who cares about this project and his fans deeply, I'll be eternally thankful 🌺

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A 5 yo female intact outdoor cat brought in today with severe dyspnea since last afternoon. No history of trauma, temp normal, nothing interes in auscultation. I'm not great at pulmonary ultrasound but it just didn't look right, so I decided to puncture it. And I removed 135 ml of pus from her chest 🤡

Fucking... I just can't sometimes. We're 🤏 this close to a proper diagnosis...

My 2 yo patient died today, under my care, and I couldn't do anything about it.

She has an emergency C-section on Sunday, one puppy out of two lived, the other one was already dead in utero, she had lots of adhesions from the previous surgery, we had to resuscitatate her, but everything looked okay after she woke up. She was a bit under the weather yesterday, so I decided to keep her in today. I ran her blood, some of the parameters were a bit off but nothing we wouldn't be able to take care of. She seemed okay in the morning, but as the IV kept dripping, she seemed to be in and out of consciousness. On an ultrasound I saw some free fluid in her abdomen, I punctured it, the fluid was bloody. I decided to reopen her, but nothing was actively bleeding, all ligatures were in place. After closing her up, she started seizing, and never recovered.

I haven't cried like this in a while, and never in front of clients. But I couldn't stop myself today.

I will never not be baffled by people whose pet was hit by a car but instead of taking it to a vet immediately they call in and ask for a home visit at earliest convenience which in my case would be several hours later 🤡🤡

On the importance of trusting your intuition

I recently had a patient come in: a 5.5 yo intact female Bernese mountain dog. She came in because her owners noticed that she lost her appetite, and her stool was darker than usual. Heat was about 3 months earlier but owners didn't notice any vaginal discharge, no change in the amount of water she was drinking. She had a tick removed a couple of days prior to the visit and got a dewormer around the same time. Temp was 39.4 C, belly distended, but overall the dog was alert and responsive.

The first thing I did was an ultrasound expecting to find pyometra, but what I saw was a huge spleen and not much else. That was the first red flag that came up with this dog. I then took a blood sample, did biochem and CBC, but even if I always do an in-house blood smear I, for some reason, decided to not do it this time.

The results came in the next day and we're terrible. WBC, especially LYM, over 10 times the normal range, a percentage of abnormal cells, terrible anemia, elevated liver enzymes, low TP.

Even though I was then convinced that were dealing with some kind of blood cancer, I was advised by friends to do a test for tick-borne diseases, which came up positive for Anaplasma and +/- for Ehrlichia. This is when I regretted not doing the in-house smear the most. However, the clinical signs and blood work results fit this diagnosis as well, so we went ahead with an antibiotic.

I saw the dog after 1.5 weeks for a follow-up. The owners didn't notice almost any improvement, she was still inappetent, weak, panting, belly stil distended. Only the temp. dropped to the normal 38.5 C. I took another blood sample, only this time I didn't forget to do the smear.

The results came in even worse than earlier, with almost no difference in WBC count, anemia worsened significantly (HCT dropped by half and is now at 18%), the amount of atypical cells went up. I also asked the lab to write up a commentary for the results and, sadly, my first thought was confirmed - we're dealing with some form of blood cancer.

I know the owner won't decide to diagnose further due to the patient's age, poor prognosis either way, and the fact that no one in the area does IV chemo, so we're now working to keep the patient as comfortable as possible in the little time she has left.

I almost fell victim to the ✨ cat distribution system ✨

While I was driving to work i saw a cat scrunched over on the sidewalk, and i could tell it's been hit by a car just minutes before. I stopped and went over to him; from what I could assess he didn't have any broken leg bones, was alert and responsive, but his nose and mouth was bleeding so i was worried about potential internal hemorrhage and/or broken head bones. I scooped him up, put him in my car and drove to my office. But when I wanted to take him out, he got spooked, started scratching and kicking, got loose and ran to my late neighbor's garden. I tried lookig for him but he's nowhere to be found...

So now I'm worried about him but i believe he was a homeless cat anyway (he was intact) and those are more hardy than indoor cats; i hope he'll recover on his own.

What do you do with vet tech students on a slower day so that they're not bored? 🙈