Today I euthanized a 4 month old kitten who had FIP, like my foster kitty Reggie did.
I'm sorry little guy.
I'm sorry that your life was cut short by a horrible fatal illness which can neither be predicted nor stopped.
I'm sorry that you didn't get to spend more time with your people who loved you to pieces.
I'm sorry that you never got a chance to grow into a grumpy old man cat along with your adopted kitten sister.
I hope you know that all our hearts are breaking a little from losing you.
I hope you enjoy running around with all the other kitty angels and eating all of the chicken and steak and cheese that you want.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Growing
My hospital just hired a new RVT and they are in the process of hiring a new part-time doctor. This is in order to offer evening hours on additional days and to have a 2nd doctor with me on some evenings. It's not (at least I'm not led to believe it is) due to me being inefficient, rather the business has grown to the point where we could support additional appointment slots. Crazy!
Of course good old skeptical/paranoid me is wondering how things will be during the dead of winter when most clinics slow WAY down. I guess we'll see!
Of course good old skeptical/paranoid me is wondering how things will be during the dead of winter when most clinics slow WAY down. I guess we'll see!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Grump
Yesterday I went into work an hour early with the intention of catching up on phone calls. I had a lot of lab results and surgical estimates to discuss with clients.
OF COURSE then the phone rings - new client, dog got into a fight and sustained bite wounds, could we see them? Receptionist asks Dr. Bosses (one in surgery and one in appointments) and they say that we can probably have one of us work them in - perhaps me.
My heart sank. I told the receptionist that I could see the dog if no one else could but that I would really prefer to catch up on everything that I was behind on. You see, I don't have access to our computer system from home and so all my callbacks and records writing has to happen at work. I didn't want to stay late to do it or call people at 8:30 pm, so stupid me thought it would be a good idea to come in early.
Guess who saw the emergency. Guess who became 30 full minutes behind as a result and ended up apologizing to people the rest of the day for being behind.
To make things even morefun challenging, we had:
- A fully booked appointment schedule
- 2 dentals and 3 surgeries (dentals take up 2 techs and surgeries take 1, thus tying up about 50% of our techs all day)
- 2 other urgent care appointments earlier in the morning
- 2 ultrasounds (those took up the remaining 50% of the techs)
- 1 tech out with a sick kid
Net result: I had NO help with my first few appointments after that emergency.
I ended up being fairly grouchy and having to mentally check myself from biting people's heads off. I failed one time unfortunately and then felt horrible because that is how I felt and acted ALL THE TIME at the corporate practice.
There are certainly some efficiency things I can work on, such as completing more of the records in the exam room and maybe calling people back at night if necessary. However, I also think we had far too many procedures booked for the number of techs we had. When Dr. Boss is cleaning exam rooms and restraining animals we are definitely short on support staff.*
One of the challenges that I face with completing the records in the exam room is that the main tech I work with is slooooow on the computer and regularly makes errors, so I've lost trust in her being able to do any of my records or charges. How do you help coach someone to get better when you don't have the time to do so? Other techs are really good about entering charges and entering history and treatment plan into my records so I only have to complete the physical exam and assessment portions. With this other tech the history becomes a verbatim transcript of what the client said in run-on-sentence form (so it's unreadable) and it's a rare time when either a charge or a prescription direction or both are incorrect.
*Note: I am absolutely NOT saying that doctors are above doing tech work. It's just that when a doctor does tech work you are spending more money to get the same job done - AND you are taking away from time that could be spent making diagnoses and coming up with treatment plans.
OF COURSE then the phone rings - new client, dog got into a fight and sustained bite wounds, could we see them? Receptionist asks Dr. Bosses (one in surgery and one in appointments) and they say that we can probably have one of us work them in - perhaps me.
My heart sank. I told the receptionist that I could see the dog if no one else could but that I would really prefer to catch up on everything that I was behind on. You see, I don't have access to our computer system from home and so all my callbacks and records writing has to happen at work. I didn't want to stay late to do it or call people at 8:30 pm, so stupid me thought it would be a good idea to come in early.
Guess who saw the emergency. Guess who became 30 full minutes behind as a result and ended up apologizing to people the rest of the day for being behind.
To make things even more
- A fully booked appointment schedule
- 2 dentals and 3 surgeries (dentals take up 2 techs and surgeries take 1, thus tying up about 50% of our techs all day)
- 2 other urgent care appointments earlier in the morning
- 2 ultrasounds (those took up the remaining 50% of the techs)
- 1 tech out with a sick kid
Net result: I had NO help with my first few appointments after that emergency.
I ended up being fairly grouchy and having to mentally check myself from biting people's heads off. I failed one time unfortunately and then felt horrible because that is how I felt and acted ALL THE TIME at the corporate practice.
There are certainly some efficiency things I can work on, such as completing more of the records in the exam room and maybe calling people back at night if necessary. However, I also think we had far too many procedures booked for the number of techs we had. When Dr. Boss is cleaning exam rooms and restraining animals we are definitely short on support staff.*
One of the challenges that I face with completing the records in the exam room is that the main tech I work with is slooooow on the computer and regularly makes errors, so I've lost trust in her being able to do any of my records or charges. How do you help coach someone to get better when you don't have the time to do so? Other techs are really good about entering charges and entering history and treatment plan into my records so I only have to complete the physical exam and assessment portions. With this other tech the history becomes a verbatim transcript of what the client said in run-on-sentence form (so it's unreadable) and it's a rare time when either a charge or a prescription direction or both are incorrect.
*Note: I am absolutely NOT saying that doctors are above doing tech work. It's just that when a doctor does tech work you are spending more money to get the same job done - AND you are taking away from time that could be spent making diagnoses and coming up with treatment plans.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Good surgery day
I performed my first cryptorchid (testicle(s) not in the scrotum) surgery on a kitten today! I'd done one before on a dog but:
a. Dog testicles are WAY bigger than kitten testicles
b. The dog at least had one testicle where it should be so I only had to locate the other one (the kitten did not have either testicle in the scrotum)
Fortunately I have an awesome mentor at the shelter who talked me through an approach that worked like a charm!
All in all I performed 7 surgeries in 2 1/2 hours. That's not impressive if you're a shelter vet, but for me it's pretty darned good.
a. Dog testicles are WAY bigger than kitten testicles
b. The dog at least had one testicle where it should be so I only had to locate the other one (the kitten did not have either testicle in the scrotum)
Fortunately I have an awesome mentor at the shelter who talked me through an approach that worked like a charm!
All in all I performed 7 surgeries in 2 1/2 hours. That's not impressive if you're a shelter vet, but for me it's pretty darned good.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Exotics
My clinic has been heavily publicizing the fact that I also see small exotic mammals (rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, chinchillas, and the like). As a result, I have been getting a lot more appointments booked for those animals. It's interesting and I like working with most of them* but it is also stressful. Unlike with cat and dog appointments I don't have a mentor readily available to help when I get stuck on a case. If it is anything other than hair loss, wounds, or respiratory infections then it is probably a brand-new problem to me and I have to look things up. Finally, I don't yet have a ll of the drugs and equipment I would like - admittedly a more minor issue.
I'm just doing the best that I can, asking old classmates for help when needed, and trying to not obsess over whether my way of treating something is "the right way" of doing it. The fact of the matter is, as long as I have sound reasoning behind my treatment plan then I should be helping the patient at least a little. It may not be THE optimal plan from the get-go, but I always schedule rechecks that help me make course corrections if needed. It's just taxing, that's all.
This week we are headed to Phoenix for D's grandmother's 95th birthday. I've never met her so that should be nice. I also finally was able to do pistols (1-legged squats) today!
*I'm not such a fan of undersocialized exotics who like to bite me (usually mice and hamsters)
I'm just doing the best that I can, asking old classmates for help when needed, and trying to not obsess over whether my way of treating something is "the right way" of doing it. The fact of the matter is, as long as I have sound reasoning behind my treatment plan then I should be helping the patient at least a little. It may not be THE optimal plan from the get-go, but I always schedule rechecks that help me make course corrections if needed. It's just taxing, that's all.
This week we are headed to Phoenix for D's grandmother's 95th birthday. I've never met her so that should be nice. I also finally was able to do pistols (1-legged squats) today!
*I'm not such a fan of undersocialized exotics who like to bite me (usually mice and hamsters)
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