This week has been a very interesting one. It was pretty hectic the first half but then it slowed down on thursday and friday. I think it got quiet because of the horrid rainy and windy weather. Lots of our clients either cancelled their appointments or simply rescheduled.
It has also been a week full of mixed emotions. I have had some big highs and some huge lows.
I started my first day at work at discovering I lost one of my sweetest patients Bella, a 9-year-old Cavalier, to a suspect bladder tumour. Her poor owners had just lost their other much-loved dog Scamp, another Cavalier, only 6 weeks earlier to heart failure. Bella had died overnight and they brought her in to organise cremation. It saddened me so much and put a damper on my Monday morning.
I then soon discovered that Katie, one of my ongoing cases, had already been admitted to hospital even though she was scheduled for surgery the next day. Poor girl had gone downhill over the weekend and required iv fluids. She looked bright and alert so that was comforting. ‘Travis’, the 5-year-old golden retriever, admitted four-day before looked great. He finally looked bright enough to be able to withstand his required bladder surgery (cystotomy) to remove his bladder stones & urethral stones. The rest of the monday went according to plan.
Tuesday was another very stressful day because I had to operate on Katie. She was in very poor body condition and posed a high anaesthetic risk. Thankfully her surgery went well but we were not too happy with our findings. We resected a section of her intestinal tract that had sinister lesions. We were quite concerned it may be cancer but could not rule out an inflammatory disease. We sent off Katie’s samples to the pathologist to get some answers and were waiting impatiently for them. They can take up to a week to give us histopathology results but hers were marked URGENT so we expected results earlier than that.
We were also concerned about Travis even though he was looking bright as a button.
He was leaking urine and had not attempted to urinate on his own yet which can be expected right after bladder surgery. I think we were just getting impatient and wanted speedy recoveries to engulf us with positive energy!
Wednesday came and the day looked much more promising. I received a phone call that boosted my morale enormously. I found out that the ewe I operated on a few months ago pro bono had given birth to a gorgeous black lamb. We had thought it would be impossible for her to ever lamb and had in fact recommended her owners not breed from her. The owners had decided to name the little lamb after me. I could not wait to see the pictures and the owner is in the process of emailing them to me.
Thursday, we saw Rusty and I did not recognise him at first. He was the adorable kelpie that we treated a few weeks ago for a chest infection (pyothorax). This handsome boy was on the brink of death when he first presented to Alana. He was so full of spring and happy to see us all and seeing him was like a breath of fresh air.
He reminded us of why we should never give up hope no matter how grave the prognosis may appear…
I also got to spend time with Scamp, one of my favourite JRT, as he was admitted for a dental. He smiled his heart out and even provided me with nervous smiles…
He obviously wasn’t too smiley when we first admitted him :-(.
And finally Friday was pretty cruisy…I got to examine lots of my regular patients that I adore. I reassessed their progress and enjoyed taking heaps of pictures of them and with them. From Lucy, my loving lab to Blossom, my soft and tender kitty cat. I ended my day on a very good note. I got involved with another re-home case. I took in Ro, a 15 month old lab cross, who we refused to put down based on his history. I left him at the clinic tonight because he is an escape artist but will be picking him up tomorrow to spend the weekend with me and then will start working on finding him a suitable new home.
I have never failed in finding a pet a new home and so this is my new challenge and it will really drive me…
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Dr Rayya's Online Veterinary Journal 
August 20, 2011 at 1:21 am
Good luck in rehoming your new guy. Hope he finds the people he is meant for soon.
August 20, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Thanks heaps…I’ll be posting his pictures soon…so handsome and he is going to make his new family so happy!
August 20, 2011 at 2:17 am
Best of luck with rehoming the dog. That must be so empowering to you!
August 20, 2011 at 12:39 pm
It sure is jodi!I can’t believe his owners were giving up on him…I sure aint…
August 20, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thanks for stopping by my blog. So sorry to hear about the bad start to your week – glad it got better and better…and I too wish you much luck in rehoming ‘Ro’ 😉
August 20, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Thanks heaps houdini…keep up the great blogging!
August 20, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Tough start to the week for you Rayya, but it improved towards the end. I hope you find a good home for Ro – in fact,I know you will!
August 20, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Hey barb. I am very glad i had some successes to balance the losses. I am sure Ro is going to find a perfect new home. His only vice is he wants to be with you 24/7.
August 20, 2011 at 6:06 pm
GOOOO TEAM VAN! what an awesome week! Good work Rayya, good luck for the next few weeks will be sending the good vibrations! (see I am commenting :P)
August 20, 2011 at 9:02 pm
lanny…great week to all of us. Ro is doing great. Sleeping next to poo poo right now…see you in a cuple of weeks. I welcome the good vibrations.
August 21, 2011 at 8:53 am
Good Luck on re-homing but for now it seems Ro is perfectly happy and well taken care of 🙂
August 22, 2011 at 7:14 am
Great post. You obviously care about your patients very much!
August 22, 2011 at 9:20 pm
i do care alot about my patients…happy to know it is translated into my blogging
August 25, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Being a vet must be such an emotionally difficult job. Big respect!
August 25, 2011 at 10:25 pm
thanks heaps for your very supportive comment. it is indeed a very emotional job but it is also very rewarding…
August 31, 2011 at 6:45 am
Rayya, can I intrude and ask a question hereabout cat behaviour?
I’ve just been speaking to a friend who has an elderly cat who has suddenly started to poo i different places about the house. She is not sure if it’s his age or if it could be stress – her father is ill and dying, and the cat keeps being left and looked after by other people.
Any suggestions?
August 31, 2011 at 8:52 am
stress could definitely be a contributing factor as cats are very routine creatures. Sorry about your friend’s father. The different people looking after kitty may be distressing it so I recommend feliway diifuser, should be able to get it from a vet clinic..it is a pheromone to help cat’s calm down…I would definitely also recommend the cat is examined to rule out any underlying medical conditions like arthritis, faecal incontinence and etc…hope this information helps
September 1, 2011 at 7:55 am
Thanks Rayya, I’ll pass that on. Feliway worked very well with Cat but doesn’t seem to do anything at all for Not Cat. I’ve heard it doesn’t work for some pedigrees and not Cat appears to be part Bengal.
September 1, 2011 at 8:52 am
Your absolutely correct..it doesn’t work for all cats because some don’t find it soothing to smell a calming pheromone that isn’t theirs…you just never know which cat will respond so it is always worth having a go!
Sent from my BlackBerry® from Optus
September 3, 2011 at 7:01 pm
If you have any other suggestions as alternatives to Feliway, they would be gratefully received.
I hope you have a great weekend with Ro. Whereabouts in Australia are you? If you are near Melbourne, I’ll send a link to a friend there who can spread the word.
September 3, 2011 at 9:42 pm
like i previously mentioned, kitty cat needs to be examined to rule out any underlying medical conditions…the vet may opt to put the cat on a behavioural medication to help settle its anxiety for this difficult period for the owner…hope this information helps
September 2, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Best of luck with rehoming Ro 🙂 I’ve had Nellie for two months now with only a couple of people showing interest. Things are pretty slow here!
September 3, 2011 at 10:33 am
Jo thank u so much for your good wishes…a peaceful loving outcome is always the best thing 🙂
September 3, 2011 at 10:38 am
It definitely takes patience and perseverance to successfully rehome a pet…goodluck with nellie…ro is still here due to the fact I haven’t advertised him much…the trick is spreading the word everywhere…keeping my fingers crossed
September 3, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Oops, I meant for Not Cat, who is in the rudest of rude health!
September 4, 2011 at 1:46 pm
so what is not cats’s big problem.why did you try feliway on him anyway? what is his medical history and our conerns? i really appreciate your kind offer and shall email you ro’s information to spread the word. we are in castlemaine in victoria…
September 4, 2011 at 2:39 am
wow. after reading this, i adore my veterinarian so much more than before (and i didn’t think additional adoration was possible, especially after gwendolyn lost her eye ~ the hospital took really took good care of gwendolyn), but now i more deeply realise the emotional tagalongs to your profession. and, after reading about your struggling clients, i will spend probably an extra three hours cuddling with my princess today. or, we might go swimming! she loves it, and it will give us another activity of mommy/puggle bonding! 🙂 very nice entry. xo from the united states! 🙂 ~ http://www.nicoleandgwendolyn.com
September 4, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Nicole I am so touched and pleased to know that my article has successfully given you insight into a vet’s emotional struggles with the job sometimes…sounds like you have a great rapport with your vet and that is essential….give your beautiful puggle a great hug from me too…every day spent with our beautiful and loyal pet is a gift and we must never take it for granted….
September 4, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Thanks Rayya. I’ll pass it on.
Not Cat’s problem, or at least my problem with Not Cat, is his yelling in the car! Feliway worked so well for Cat who would sometimes get travel sick. Actually I think with Not Cat that it is being confined to the caddy rather than being in the car he doesn’t like. I’d like him to be a bit more zen about it. And as Feliway doesn’t work, I am wondering what else I could try.
September 4, 2011 at 7:45 pm
You are most welcome…unfortunately there is nothing else except rescue remedy, a natural product that can reduce anxiety in pets…you can’t crate train a cat as I would recommend for a dog…goodluck. Hope you don’t have too many trips with your cat 🙂