Vet Nurse Tails

Stories, photos, anecdotes and information from an Australian vet nurse! Feel free to send in photos of your pets x

[vetnursetails]

Haven't we all Red Dog, haven't we all. Good thing he was in here to be castrated!

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When you're trying to discharge a patient to an owner who won't look up from their phone 🙄

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This little teeny tiny was dumped at our clinic so flat I thought that she had already passed while they were trying to shove her over the counter to me. She was very hypothermic, hypoglycemic, hypotensive and dehydrated. In addition to all of this - she only weighs 280 grams!

I managed to get a catheter in that tiny leg- you can see that her hind leg is smaller than my finger! And I have small hands! It definitely was one of those things that boosts up your self esteem, especially as no one else was able to get a vein on her.

So I happily owned it and was proud of myself for a few minutes! Especially considering how cold, dehydrated and hypotensive she was. I always advise my trainees to be proud of their skills, progression and small little victories like this! We are a skilled profession and it's good to take pride in what we do and how we've helped an animal.

Sometimes it's the little things like this that can give you a 10 minute boost when you're having a shitty day in clinic!

[vetnursetails]

Shoulder accessory 😍

[vet-trek]

She won’t forget that in a hurry: Elephant rubs her eye in disbelief after cataract op to restore her sight

It was a truly mammoth undertaking, but Duchess the blind elephant will finally be able to see again after receiving what was quite possibly the world’s largest ever cataract operation. The first ever elephant cataract operation in the UK: Duchess was treated for her for a cataract, in the hopes of regaining sight in one eye

Follow for more Vet-Trek: The Fauna Frontier

[vetnursetails]

I would absolutely love to do wildlife vet med one day! Blows my mind 😍

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When one of your vets is in the pharmacy hiding something in her jacket and looking very suspicious... so you corner her and ask what's in the jacket

[vet-trek]

When Scientists Get Accidentally Artsy

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History lies right at the intersection of art and science, showcasing the inherent beauty of skeletons — that is, fish skeletons.

[soontobedvm]

[vetnursetails]

Found this little gem! I remember how frustrated I was learning to do smears; but practice makes perfect! The biggest problems I see is people going slow and shaky or too fast - it's always worth getting some slides to take home with some blood in an EDTA tube so you can practice, wash off and practice again! And don't beat yourself up if it takes a while to achieve a perfect smear, literally everyone who does them well has started off practicing and throwing out/rinsing many slides over and over. Hope everyone is starting to feel the shift back to normal after the crazy Easter!

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Spent Easter down at a family friends farm whelping a litter of ELEVEN puppies! 6 boys and all of them difficult; 3 breech and 3 that got stuck. The last stuck puppy I really struggled with and thought we would be heading into caesarean. But I finally managed to get him out and poor mumma was so relieved after such a long labour. So after a night of no sleep and with mum and all pups and healthy and settled I managed to get a ride in before crashing. Been months since I've ridden properly and it felt so good to take him out on the big track and have a good gallop!

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My last public holiday - we had an EMERGENCY hot spot. Hoping the Easter public holidays are not a repeat of the sort of calls we had all day!

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Oh hey hi wanna get me out of the cage and give me attention or..? Okay okay that's cool I'll hang out like this until you do

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Yeah she's a little cute I guess. Teeny tiny girl recovering after we had to resect a section of necrotic bowel due to an intussuseption; a lovely emergency 5am ex lap to start the day off!

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Was looking back through my photos and found the most difficult case for me last year - my own horse hospitalised for impaction colic!

This is Samson, my paddock pet due to an injury that only left him paddock sound. He is a 10 y/o standardbred gelding. Before I worked in small animals I used to be an equine nurse; of course my horses have only ever needed hospitalisation once I moved to smallies!

We have had a pretty rough drought here in Aus, so our paddocks are very bare these days. We also live on the coast so our soil is quite sandy. Due to this I always take my boys out to feed on rubber to avoid sand ingestion; unfortunately unbeknownst to me a well meaning older lady in the next paddock was throwing scraps of hay over the gate and right in to the sand - which Sam was eating.

The first photo is the evening I found him with first colic signs. We had a long night of mild colic - pulled him into a yard and stayed there through the night to monitor him. I found sand in his poo upon rectal exam and my heart just sank 😔 After some oil drenching, flunixin and buscopan he was much brighter and improved eating eating and passing poop. Unfortunately in the morning he started to deteriorate again so vet came out, repeated my above treatments and we waited. Had the same scenario where he improved, then went downhill again in the afternoon. I knew at that point we needed imaging and hospitalisation so was ringing around for a truck to get him to the referral equine hospital. Finally got one who came at 10pm - by this point Sam was laying down in the rain refusing to get up 😔 finally got him up and on the truck - and off we went.

Got there at midnight and ultrasound confirmed my fears - sand impaction. He was tubed again and put on fluids and more medications and we waited to see if he would respond to treatment.

We had days of back and forth - just when he looked like he would be able to get ready to come home we would take 10 steps back and be thrashing around on the ground. We almost had to make the call between surgery or euthanasia, but luckily he managed to pull through thanks to the incredible team at Newcastle Equine.

After a week, $7000, plenty of tears,and sleeplessness he finally came home! Now a bit skinny but otherwise back to himself.

It was very difficult for me being on the other side - I'm so used to being part of the team. Taking the tests, discussing the plan, doing the treatment. Having to hand all of that over and be the client was very hard to do but luckily he had a great team who I trusted and who were amazing. It was a good reminder to me how clients feel when I am taking care of my patients - the helplessness they feel as they wait for strangers to fix their precious baby. Nothing to do but trust these people to do everything and hopefully save their life. It is good to have a perspective reminder now and then!

[vetnursetails]

Interesting cat spey yesterday: young adult stray, history unknown. Not only the pyometra (an infection in the uterus, which we don't see as commonly in cats compared to dogs) but this little lady only had one uterine horn and ovary! Seemed clinically well but no pre-GA bloodwork due to her being a trap and release stray.

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When the vets keep stealing your pens right out of your nurse pouch so you've got to send a stronger message

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Milky face!