Veterinary Medicine

Originally, I was going to have this blog be about cutting DAs and my eternal quest to avoid doing such. Then it was going to be about how I felt unprepared to do pretty much everything and that veterinary medicine was a lot of just making stuff up. I do plan on touching on both of these subjects, but something even more fascinating happened when I had a really, really bad day on Friday morning.

Friday morning, I woke up a little early because overnight, it had snowed some and there was a chance that the roads would be bad. I was going to work large animal in the morning and then go do small animal at Holly Pike. I had one call on the book for some coggins and vaccines with a new client. My first problem was that the number on the book and the phone number on the computer were different by one number on the area code. Eventually, I got through to the people and told them I was on my way. I set out and right off the bat, started going the wrong way. I easily get north and south confused for whatever reason around here. Very quickly, I figured out my mistake and was on the way. On my way there, I had to dodge and accident on one of the back roads. I found the driveway for the house rather easily. It was long and somewhat hilly. One side had trees and woods and the other was just a field. I put the truck (Dr. Farrell’s) in four-wheel drive and was doing fine. At one point the driveway split into two smaller driveways and I saw the house at the top of a big hill. Up the hill I charged only to find out once I was up there that in fact it was not the house I wanted. So I turned around and as I backed up and tried to go forward while turning down the hill, I slid sideways! And kept sliding! I tried going forward, tried going backwards hoping that I would catch on some snow or gravel and be okay. There was no such luck and I ended up with one front tire in the ditch only inches (maybe a foot) from a tree. I threw it in reverse and tried to get out. The back end of the truck kept sliding. I got out and kicked snow and ice under the tires hoping to get some purchase but it didn’t help. I placed the floor mat under the front tire that was in the ditch and still no luck. At this point, I was convinced I was stuck and was in a hysterical fit. I called Dr. Hasco sobbing. Well, not really but super close and maybe a little bit. He promised to come help once he was done with his herd check and I told him I would keep trying to get unstuck. I did finally manage to go flying backwards out of the ditch. At this point, I had noticed that if I could go up further up the driveway, there was a roundabout to turn in. However, no matter what I seemed to do, I kept sliding back down the hill. Even in drive, I kept sliding down the hill. And getting dangerously close to a telephone pole. I finally gave up on turning around and backed down the long icy hill. Successfully, I might add. So then I went on to my horse call. At which, they asked if I wanted to start with the good horse or the bad horse. I started with the bad horse, a Norwegian Fjord named Scotty. He was rather spooky when I approached but I let him smell my hand and eventually he calmed down enough to let me pet him and do a quick physical. And then I tried drawing blood on him. It didn’t happen. So we moved to the stall from the small pen and tried again. I managed to get a cc or so before realizing that it probably wasn’t going to happen. I also realized that having the owners hold Scotty was just impeding me so I took him and did manage to get all four vaccines into his neck and then one up his nose! The one up the nose, I’m the most proud of since horses aren’t known for liking that one. The other horse was super good for the whole thing and then I tried to get some more blood on Scotty without any luck. From there, I had another farm call-a heifer with mastitis. However, getting there wouldn’t be so easy. I managed to pass the road; it was unmarked. I was all the way down in Shippensburg when I called the farmer and asked where the road was. I found it and got to the farm. I didn’t find much wrong with the cow other than she had some severe mastitis. She wasn’t systemically sick. I gave her an IV to help get her eating and suggested some intramammary treatment. I was getting ready to leave when the farmer came out to the truck and asked if I would look at another cow. I did even though it was twenty to twelve. After that, I hurried back to the clinic and then up to Holly Pike. The remainder of my day went well enough and I didn’t get any calls that night while on call.

So regarding DAs. I’ve been getting better at doing them even though they still take me way too long. I still get stressed about them. More recently though-say the past month-my boss has been assigning me to do a lot more of them for practice. Since then, I have become incredibly superstitious about them. If I have a dream about veterinary medicine-any form, any topic-I’m certain that I will have to cut one that day. Joe hates me being so superstitious but I can’t help it. Its who I am. I try to dodge doing them but unsuccessfully. The last two that I did were really rough because its been particularly cold. The farm that I did both at has an open barn to do them in which isn’t bad in the summer but miserable in the winter as I found out. The first one, the cow wasn’t even twisted and I didn’t really want to cut her but the farmer insisted as the cow had been on and off her milk for a couple of weeks. The day before she was twisted. This DA actually went really well…or would have if I could have felt my fingers when I got to the suturing part. It was windy that day and about 23 degrees. The foam on my bucket froze! The next week, I went out in the afternoon to cut another one. It wasn’t as windy but the temperature was about the same. This cow was twisted and full of gas. Dr. Farrell told me as soon as I got on the farm that this one wasn’t going to be easy. Minus having a hard time getting the gas out without getting my arm smashed against her rumen and spine, it wasn’t that difficult. Of course, by the end, I couldn’t feel my hands or feet. I keep saying that I’m going to buy a pair of heavy boots but still haven’t. Its  hard to find a pair up to all of my specifications-insulated but not too warm, waterproof and most importantly, in my size. Men’s generally aren’t small enough and women’s…well, not many options.

Anyway, I don’t feel like vet school prepared me for some of the things I face. It certainly didn’t prepare me for driving a vet truck in the snow. The first day I did it, I realized that because its so heavy on the back end that stopping and curves will send you fishtailing regardless of speed. It also didn’t prepare me for cutting DAs in barns, much less the cold. Not to mention how I have to cut them. I didn’t know much about Lyme disease before I got here. Sometimes I think about what I’m going to do, make sure I can in a book and then get going. Like my dog bite from the other night. Veterinary medicine is all about making things up and looking good doing it.

Oh, meanwhile, last week, I had my first parvo puppy. He wasn’t too bad off and I implemented some top notch treatments. The puppy did really well and was howling for food by the third day. Yea!