Dog bite wound, after hours treatment.

Our Dog fight dog went home today finally after 8 days at the vet surgery. It was a very happy moment, as there was many days that I thought the dog may not make it. He still has a large wound, but I am confidant that it will heal. This dog I thought was very special, a happy little sheltie that was a very good patient. All the staff had become attached to this little dog over the week, but we where all very pleased to see him going home. Sending home a recovered dog is a great joy in being a vet.

Again it was a very busy day with non stop consultations, followed by 7 surgeries, then non stop consults. Finally everything was ready to go home and I was about to walk out the door when in walked a lady with a cat in her arms, saying can we please treat the cat. We explained that we were closed and there would be an after hours fee. Then she started to cry and told us she had just been in a car accident and her fiancee had died, and now this cat was all she had, she only had $50 dollars cash. So we compromised and examined the cat. It had a very swollen paw most likely from a cat fight. The cat was a 2 year old entire male cat, never vaccinnated, never been to a vet before.
I gave it a shot of antibiotics and told her to come back tommorrow with more money and to get some more tablets. She was most grateful. but I had mixed feeling now I was late home to my family yet again and I think why do the clients with no money, turn up at the wrong times with very sick animals in desperate needs, compared to the good clients that make appointments, always have the money and bring their animals down when ever the treatment is needed. These are the people that really deserve our attention. I think it takes discipline to balance your life and sometimes say no to people.

Dog bite wound

A owner walked into the surgery this late this afternoon, saying that thier dog had been biten by another dog. The dog was a Sheltie with very long thick hair, I had a quick look and I could see some abdominal fat hanging out, I knew it would need surgery straight away but thought it would be simple stich up. We admited him to hospital and got ready for surgery. After placing the dog on i/v fluids and anesthetizing the dog, we started to clip the hair back to find the spleen was showing through the skin and the wounds where quite intensive. I thought the surgery would be out of my depth, so I spoke to the owner and recomended he go the after hours emergency clinic, but he could not afford that option, Would I please attempt the surgery. So we opened up the dog to find extensive damage to the abdominal muscle and several broken ribs if was very difficult to piece it all back together, I placed two drains into the wounds and gave extensive antibiotics and pain relief. I spoke to Emergency center and they told me cases like this have a poor survival rate, that is 30% will die. After waiting for the dog to wake, we left the surgery at about 8.30pm. Another long 12 hour day in the life of a Vet.