Adventures in Vet Techin'

I'm a licensed veterinary technician in a tiny mixed practice in rural USA. I hope you can learn something here and have fun doing it. ((Warning: there may be graphic medical images or stories, including needles, blood/gore, and animal death))

[aquariumpacific]

Happy World Otter Day!

Behind every healthy sea otter is a dedicated team making it happen. Millie gets world-class care right here at the Aquarium thanks to our incredible staff in the Molina Animal Care Center. 🦦

[iheartvmt]

Guess whose cat decided to door-dash and chomp on a lily leaf? 🤦

Fortunately the xylazine was effective, and he vomited the leaf bit, so now it's just IV fluids and monitoring for the next couple days.

Lilies are extremely toxic to cats (even licking the pollen off their fur can be fatal!) so if your cat is exposed, it's a true medical emergency, and they need to get vet care immediately. If you wait until signs of poisoning develop, it's too late.

[iheartvmt]

Bloodwork was pretty good, just a mild elevation in his SDMA (an early kidney value) and glucose (common in stressed cats, and he was very stressed this morning). Treatment guidelines recommend 48 hours of IV fluids even when emesis is successful, so he'll be spending tonight at the clinic. Tomorrow we'll recheck labs to see if he needs fluids longer or if we can stop at the 48 hour mark.

Have to say I don't like having to leave him overnight, but he seemed less concerned about me leaving than getting his dinner from his kong 😛

[iheartvmt]

My problem child is now back home, safe and sound 💚

[iheartvmt]

It's the one year anniversary of Duo trying to off himself via lily ingestion! Alas, he did not learn his lesson, and still tries to dash out the back door to eat random 🤦‍♀️

[talesfromtreatment]

re: cat weights-

A lot of the vets I've worked with have not brought up cat weights until they are very much obese because a lot of owners are like "my cat isn't fat he's big boned!" so they don't bother much beyond "Please don't let him/her gain more weight than this"

I did say "average" which is not the same as "all". These weights are from 10 years at a cat only hospital and nearly 10 years at a shelter.

Yes, being overweight is actually quite bad for cats resulting in early arthritis and significantly increasing their risks of diabetes.

13 pounds as a healthy weight is quite a large cat. 17 pounds, 90% chance the domestic cat is overweight. Outliers are not part of the average. Your cat is size georg adn will not be counted.

[talesfromtreatment]

And to show that an overweight cat can be overweight without being a full on sphere

Mallorn, before I put him on a diet. How many people would honestly be able to say this cat was actually overweight and needed to lose 4 pounds? Not many.

And to show how hard weight gain and loss can be to determine on a long haired cat

13 pounds Tumbleweed

~ 11 pound tumbleweed.

His initial weight gain was 30% of his ideal (10#). 11 pounds is a 15% total loss from 13 pounds, and 20% of his ideal weight.

Those are significant amounts. Imagine gaining 30% of your current body weight. Imagine losing 15% of your current body weight.

You can't tell just by looking.

There should be a waist when the hair is smoothed down. You should be able to feel ribs with barely any pressure with your hands flat against the sides.

[talesfromtreatment]

That... is NOT how you use an inhaler with an animal. The aerosol chambers are 100% necessary because an animal will not inhale and then hold their breath on command.

[0nlyfiends]

[talesfromtreatment]

My coworkers are all cackling because, yeah. This would have been equally as effective.

[soulpups]

Legit just saw someone say that their dog is in pain but it was "normal and to be expected with her age" so they aren't doing any pain management. So this your reminder that age is not a disease. Pets deserve comfort in their last years too.

[talesfromtreatment]

Cant send you the xray for soon to be obvious reasons but, one time i got a limping dog and, long story short, i was sure the leg itself was fine but at least one toe was broken, but there's no xray machine at my clinic so i sent them off to an xray lab to get one, and i asked them to get me an xray of the toes and while they were at it get as much of the leg as they could to double check (owners couldnt afford multiple xrays and dog was too large for the whole leg to fit in one)

So they come back and show me a beautiful xray of an intact leg... and the foot on the very corner of it, where the dog's identifying information was covering the toes.

I was able to call the lab and get a copy without any text on it (dog had one(1) broken toe) but for a moment all i could think about as i squinted at the letters trying to spot a fracture through them was Mike Wazowzki yelling about being on the cover of a magazine

*wheeze-laughing*

[podcastwizard]

you don’t realize how important lunch is until you’re wandering around thinking about how unloveable and untalented and uniquely cursed you are and then it’s 4pm and you finally eat lunch and you go Oh. oh right.

[partywithponies]

One of the most annoying genres of people on the internet are people who act like they believe science is one single monolithic thing. Like, you'll see an article saying something like "scientists studying the movement of tectonic plates", and then in the comments there'll be several smug people saying "smh why are scientists doing this instead of finding a cure for cancer", like. Why would a geologist be doing that.

[josephdelage]

What do you think about bears?

I think they are one of the more adorable things that could kill a man without trying.

[plantnerderyallday]

Annual deer post:

If you see a fawn laying down on the ground all alone, leave it alone. It is not lost, it does not need your help, do not pick it up, do not move it.

This behavior evolved to keep deer young safe. The baby is very small, very quiet, and hard for most predators to see. A young fawn cannot keep up with a fleeing mother deer, which is their primary problem-solving strategy. So while the mother goes elsewhere to graze, the fawn stays safe and hidden. The mom will be back.

Leave the fawn alone.

[sea-salted-wolverine]

This is always good to pass around this time of year, but I would like to add something for the few of us who might be encountering the moose kind of deer.

Moose are deer, but moose have the opposite strategy. They stay close to their babies, and their primary response for anything getting close to their babies is immediate violent murder. If you do see a baby moose by itself, leave. Leave the baby alone and leave the area, preferably quickly. Momma is at most 30 yards away and has already kicked on the kill bill sirens.

[goddamnshinyrock]

It’s FLEDGLING BIRD SEASON here in North America…

…which means it’s time for an annual reminder not to kidnap baby birds. Fact: most species of birds have almost no sense of smell. Someone probably told you that if you touch a baby bird, the mother will smell you on it and reject her baby. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. If you’ve found a baby bird and you touched it, all is not lost, you can still return it to mom and dad!

Pictured: a young Mourning Dove, after being rescued from the tender mercies of my dog, circa spring 2005. It’s a fledgling! Note how it has most of its feathers, but still looks a bit awkward and scruffy, and, being unable to properly fly, can be caught by an elderly husky or a child. 

Help, I found a baby bird on the ground, what do I do???

Hatchlings/Nestlings: IF it is naked or covered in fluffy down and/or pinfeathers and cannot flutter successfully, it’s a hatchling or nestling, and has fallen from its nest prematurely. Look for the nest- if you find it and can reach it, return baby and then leave and let the parents return. If you can’t find the nest, or if you find it in pieces on the ground, use a small box/yogurt container lined with dried grass and attach as close as possible to where you found the bird or where you think the nest was. If it’s cold, warm it in your hands for a few minutes before putting it back. RETURN BABY!!!! 

Fledglings: If you spot a young bird covered with feathers (may have a few patches of fluff) on the ground, it’s a fledgling (bird tween) who is currently working on flying 101 homework, which is normal and fine. Hanging out on the ground is part of the learning to fly process! If it looks like it’s in immediate danger (i.e. of being run over, stepped on, or eaten by a cat or dog), the best thing you can do for it is to gently scoop it up and place it in the low branches of a nearby tree or shrub, and then LEAVE. The parents are likely nearby watching, and will return once the coast is clear. If it flutter-hops away from you and you can’t catch it, then don’t worry! It just successfully avoided a predator (you), and therefore can probably continue to do so. LEAVE BABY ALONE!!!

DO NOT: Try to feed it, bring it into your house or car, or take it to your local domestic animal vet or shelter. 

IF it IS actually for-real injured (bleeding, broken limb, attacked by cat, struck window), you can catch it, put it in a dark cardboard box (with NO food or water, young birds can aspirate easily) and contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation professional, but keep in mind that they get a LOT of fledgling birds, and those birds have a pretty high mortality rate. They may tell you that there is nothing you or they can do but allow nature to take its course, and that’s hard, but important to hear and respect.

[goddamnshinyrock]

it’s that time again! all the birding subreddits are filled with people who kidnapped baby birds and I want to believe you can be better than that, tumblr.

[bobbole]

Thanassis Stavrakis, A man carrying a sheep on a motorcycle during a wildfire in Patras, western Greece, August 2025

[catcrumb]

[mini-wrants]

The thing that’s always missing from the “women didn’t fight for the right to work they were already working they fought to get paid” is that many women also very much wanted to work.

Women wanted to be lawyers and engineers and chemists. They wanted to use their brains in challenging and interesting ways. They wanted to get the satisfaction from solving problems and inventing new shit and getting attention for it.

I know not everyone is born with intellectual curiosity or drive or determination but some people are and many of those people are women.

[sioltach]

Your quality of life will increase ten-fold when you learn to appreciate the sight of a little bird

[morscion]

Pope Leo moth… 🥺

[batsandboba]

“scientists don’t want you know” is a phrase that always cracks me up because if you actually meet a scientist they will be shaking and crying like an overstimulated chihuahua with the need to let you know