Quick! My dog is falling apart!

I heard a funny story today from a coworker, and couldn't help but share. Apparently Debbie's neighbor came over to her house late last night - when she opened the door, he said "Quick! You've got to come see what's going on - I need you to help me - my dog is falling apart!!" So, Debbie headed over there not quite knowing what she might find. When they arrived, her neighbor said that the dog's insides were falling out and he didn't know how to get them back in. Take a guess.... can you figure out what Debbie saw?

Debbie saw a female dog giving birth to a puppy. Yep - just a normal, happy, healthy birth - and a freaked out man who'd never seen anything of the sort. Three puppies later Debbie was ready to go home. And hopefully, now that her neighbor realizes that his intact male and his unspayed female CAN and WILL mate, he will get at least one of them fixed!!

Wed morning funny

A friend sent this to me today... and its too funny not to share!

blatent lies

Does it ever amaze you how comfortable people are with lying? I mean, lying with the knowledge that they will be caught in their lie. It happens so often. I'm sure veterinary medicine isn't the only field where people do this... but unfortunately, it IS a field where people can get away with it on a fairly regular basis. People are afraid they'll 'look bad' if they tell the truth... don't they realize they look even worse when they are caught in their lies?

Example #1 - a typical scenario... Rex comes in with vomiting & diarrhea of 3 days duration. Has Rex had any unusual food? Gotten into the cat food? Eaten scraps out of the trash? Been fed any people food? "No. Absolutely not. We don't give Rex ANY table food." Any toxin, chemical, poison exposure? "Nope. None of that in our house, and he hasn't been anywhere else." Ok... well, lets start talking about other causes. Wait - it appears Rex is going to give us a fresh stool sample for analysis. Aaannndd... yes, he's going to demonstrate the vomiting as well. Hhhmm.... is that pork bones, green beans, and partially digested bologna? "Yes, he wasn't feeling well and he wouldn't eat his dogfood, so I gave him what we had for supper - plus a little bologna because he just LOVES bologna. Its so cute how he will sit and beg for bologna!" Hhhmmm... I thought he NEVER gets any people food? "Well, nothing that WE wouldn't eat, doc." *sigh* I'm fighting a losing battle here... Maybe I can't convince Rex's family that their feeding table food has directly contributed to his nausea / diarrhea. Maybe there is no point in trying... but my line of thought? If you're going to feed it, you'd better be willing to own up to it!

Example #2 - a family comes into the clinic, knowing that payment is due upon receipt of services... they approve an estimate, sign a form saying that they will pay in full, or that they will pay 1/3 down and make payments on the rest... they are given chances to ask questions... to clarify any misunderstandings they may have... and yet, when the time comes to pay, they 'forgot' their checkbook, or 'didn't know' that their credit card was maxed out... they say "I have $200 to pay today" and then 'realize' they only brought $50 with them. I understand that they have good intentions... they want the best for their pet. They want to do everything, but don't have the money to pay for it. But do people go into the grocery store and try to get $200 of groceries for $50? Do they think they can go to the bank and request a loan, simply on the good-faith-promise that "I'm good for it - I swear - I'll pay it off the Friday after the first Monday of December, because thats when I get my disability check, and my car will be paid off by then, and...."

*sigh* When did people drop all sense of honesty, trustworthiness, and responsibility?

Is NOTHING inappropriate anymore?

So.... remember my post about Molly & the clients who cut the Ecollar down and then wondered why it didn't work? Well, apparently that they're at it again... only this time, its not Mrs. Clueless doing silly things and wanting services for free... its Mr. Clueless being completely inappropriate!

Yesterday, I worked at our small clinic again - with the same doc as last week. Molly came in for a recheck... turns out she's doing alright, didn't have the surgery, but did need her ear drained - again. So, my colleague and one of our technicians went into the room to examine Molly. They told Mr. & Mrs. Clueless that they'd take Molly in back, drain the ear, and return shortly. It was then that they were caught completely off-guard as Mr. Clueless said "Do you mind if I come with you? I'd love to hold both of you while you hold Molly and tend to her ear." Seriously?!? This man is in his 70's, his wife is sitting right next to him, and he is not at all joking. *sigh* Apparently nothing is off limits.

how sweet is TOO sweet?

A very sweet woman came into our office today, bringing her very sweet, very large dog for vaccines. As usual, our clinic assistant met Mrs. Sweet in the lobby and escorted her to the exam room. On the way, they stopped to weigh Hugo on the floor scale - 124lb of happy, energetic dog! Then Mrs. Sweet said "Can I use your scale to weigh myself?" Uuuuummmmm, sure, I guess. "I'd better take these shoes off - they weigh at least 2 lbs!" (oh, my - there goes the quick step-on-step-off I was hoping for) "Now, honey, don't look at that number! But what do you think I can subtract for all of these other clothes? The jacket and jeans have to weigh a few extra pounds right?"
Finally, our assistant got Mrs. Sweet and Hugo back to the exam room - before I walked in, the above story was relayed to me... and it put a smile on my face as I entered the room. Then, as I was performing my exam, and Mrs. Sweet was chit-chatting my ear off... she stopped mid-sentence and said "Honey, you're just SO pretty!" while reaching over to toussle my hair. I must say, thats a first! Quite an invasion of personal space, incredibly odd, and yet, I knew she meant nothing by it. Still, I was happy to finish the exam and send Mrs. Sweet up to our cashier. I suppose it is possible to have too much sweetness in one place!

Really, you're suprised?

So I'm working at one of our smaller vet clinics today - myself and one other Doc. This morning, I noticed that she had a patient with an ear hematoma - basically, the pet's ear infection was bad, the dog was shaking her head constantly & broke blood vessels in the ear flap so the space between the skin and the cartilage filled with blood. Its a common thing in dogs, and looks rather funny - as if someone blew the dog's ear up like a balloon! So, if the hematoma is small, we can drain it, give meds for the ear, and it will likely resolve. But, if the blood fills the whole ear flap, it often needs a surgical repair... So Molly's owner had dealt with this once in the past - years ago. The issue was small then, and draining the ear worked - today, however, the entire ear was involved. Despite my colleague's advice (and warning that there was a 95-100% chance the hematoma would not resolve, given its size), Molly's owner decided to take her chances... so, the hematoma was drained, the ear was wrapped securely to the head with a bandage, and an Ecollar ("lampshade") was applied to keep Molly from tearing the bandage off.

Fastforward a few hours... the woman calls back, saying the ear is all filled up with blood again. By this time the other doctor had gone home for the day... so it became my problem. I'm thinking to myself 'HOW did that dog get the Ecollar AND the bandage off?!?' Should've known. Stupidity at work again... Molly's owner says "Well, she couldn't stick her head past the end of that thing, and she hated it - so I trimmed it off to make it quite a bit shorter. That way she could see and it didn't bother her. She still had it on when she got the bandage off. I just don't think those things work well at ALL. Is there something else we can do?"

Really?!? I don't know if I'm surprised more by her comment / action, or by the fact that it surprises me. I really shouldn't be surprised anymore. Common sense is CERTAINLY not common...

So, we scheduled a recheck appointment for tomorrow, to replace the bandage and get a new Ecollar - and told her now we'll need to do surgery next week. Ok she says... "But do I have to pay for the new Ecollar? And can we just take all the money I spent today and deduct it from the cost of the surgery?" Uuummmmm..... NO. We recommended surgery in the first place. YOU decided not to take our advice. YOU cut up the first Ecollar. *sigh* I'm glad the day is almost over.

Veterinarian or Psychologist?

I think they should offer psych classes in veterinary school. Or maybe they should require them! Many, many times I feel that I'm treating the person rather than the animal... The elderly gentleman who comes in 3-4 times a month to pick up meds for his animal when he could get them all in one trip - instead, he says "Well, I don't have anything else to do, so I'll get them one at a time and I can visit with you as well." The woman who thinks she has bugs crawling on her skin, but her MD says she's fine - still she brings all her pets to us to check for the elusive "bugs." And today, the elderly woman who lives a very sad, paranoid life. Her dog is totally normal, but she feels he's being poisoned by relatives & the "meth-heads" down the street. Poor woman is convinced she has been threatened, poisoned, followed, and even had people steal the 'evidence of the poisonings' from her lockbox at the bank. I do my best to visit when I have time, to convince them their pets are bug free, and to appease them that we're looking into the allegations of abuse / poisoning... And yes, its all part of the job that I had been warned about, that I knew to expect... yet I often feel underqualified.
Today, we called the division of aging services... I hope the elderly woman finds the help she needs.