Pardon the barrage of questions, but I have an OC who's studying to become a vet, and I'm prettyf pumped that this blog exists. Anyway, on to business: I know that vets run the risk of getting bitten by their patients while at work, but how often does that actually happen in practice? Have you (or maybe a colleage) ever been bitten badly enough that you required medical attention? Do most offices have a policy in place in case that happens?
Most clinics have a general policy that goes a bit like this:
Make sure nobody else can be injured
Seek immediate medical attention
Fill out insurance forms later
Meanwhile, someone else deals with the animal. Depending on circumstance may refuse to see it conscious ever again.
I haven’t been bitten, but I have had lacerations from nails and second degree friction burns on both hands thanks to a horse, which is the reason I don’t see horses anymore. A colleague got trampled by a cow and concussed. Sometimes we die.
I’ve been ‘nipped’ by dogs on two occasions, not the patient’s fault in either case, and no blood drawn. For one dog I was examining their teeth, the dog sneezed, and smacked my hand with its canine teeth. For the other, it was being anesthetized and was a little too awake when I tried to place the endotracheal tube, and the jaw twitched strongly.
My boss and a nurse was badly bitten last year. A canine patient was waking up from anaesthesia, and still had an endotracheal tube in because it was brachycephalic and we needed to keep it alive. It woke up far too quickly, promptly went through an excitement phase and chomped down on the nurse’s hand as she removed the ET tube.
Boss came in to help nurse, dog is still freaking out and chomped down on his hand when he pried its jaws open. Boss then proceeds to sort of bear hug dog while it’s clamped on until it’s fully conscious and lets go.
(Dog apparently has no memory of this and since comes into the clinic sweet as pie)
Boss then stupidly scrubs into an orthopedic surgery he was scheduled to do (wouldn’t listen to me! Justified it by double gloving over the bandages and everything inside the glove was sterile anyway) and complains that the puncture wounds in his palm make it harder to do the surgery.
He sent the nurse straight to hospital, but fully intended to complete his working day before going. We rescheduled all his evening appointments and kicked him out straight after surgery anyway, but he intended to make a martyr of himself.
Now if you have an OC who’s studying to be a vet, I bet you’ll be thrilled to know there’s a whole vetblr tag on tumblr, filled with vet students. Despite the holiday season, many of them are probably still studying. You could consider following them to know what their lives are like in vet school.
