A passing moment of strangeness on a long call night sticks with me, calling to mind familiar superstition and ritual, the little things we hold dear.
Apollo of the Melon
The Words We Do Not Know
[Dip the rat and I certainly speak very different languages, but the language of snuggles is universal!]
I love words and language. Have you ever thought about how strange it is that the animal kingdom speaks such different languages of their own, and how we may never come to learn them?
Stories
The most amazing part of veterinary medicine — and hands-down my favourite part — is the stories hiding everywhere I look.
Tsaxana
[One of my fellow technicians monitors a dog undergoing surgery while a second surgery is performed in the background at our gymnasium field hospital.]
The Tsaxana CAAT trip was a success with twenty-four animals sterilized/vaccinated/microchipped and fifteen animals examined and vaccinated! As always I had an incredible time working with an amazing team who came together and in less than 24 hours were working like we’d always known each other. I can’t wait for the next trip!
CAAT And The Countdown To Gold River
[The 350k route from Victoria to Gold River and our first spay/neuter trip of 2018! Not pictured: the longer routes for team members coming all the way from Ontario to lend their skills :)]
I’ve written about the Canadian Animal Assistance Team before and I know I certainly will again! It’s a charity that’s near and dear to my heart and I am so proud to have been a member for the past four years. Founded in 2005 in response to the desperate need for volunteer veterinary care in the US following Hurricane Katrina, CAAT now focuses on providing veterinary services to rural and under-served communities in Canada and abroad. There are many communities with little or no access to veterinary services and CAAT is able to provide them with temporary clinics which focus on spaying, neutering, and vaccination in order to improve both the health of the community’s animals but also the health of the community as a whole.
This year, our first trip is to the Tsaxana reserve in Gold River, Vancouver Island, BC. We will be convoying up from Victoria (picking up more team members in Nanaimo) on Friday, setting up our temporary clinic in the Wah-meesh Gymnasium, and generally preparing ourselves for the flurry of spays and neuters on Saturday and Sunday before we head home Monday morning.
I’ll be the designated blogger for this trip, so please follow the CAAT Blog and/or CAAT’s official Facebook page for updates, stories, profiles of our amazing volunteers, and of course, tons and tons of photos! And please consider supporting CAAT in your own life, whether through donation, volunteering, or simply spreading the word! Their official website is http://www.caat-canada.org and membership is just $50CAD annually!
And of course, in the immortal words of Bob Barker, please…spay and neuter your pets!
Saturday Snapshots
My previous clinic was open Saturdays with a single tech and vet working together. Sometimes, when things really hit the fan, another tech would be called in to offer their assistance. Memories from a long-ago Saturday.
Dear Clients: I’m Not In This For The Money
[One of my favourite most accurate memes ever.]
“You’re just in it for the money!” A sentence I’ve heard more than a few times in my career. The fact of the matter is that while there may be a very few people who are, the vast majority of veterinary professionals (especially vet techs because let’s face it: absolutely no one is getting rich off our salary) are in it for your pet…and it hurts when clients can’t or won’t see that.
Take A Deep Breath
[Left: Domino rocking her body cast. Top right: before (top) and after xrays of her sternum. Bottom right: during surgery, using a pen to show the depth of the defect where her sternum was growing ‘in’ rather than ‘out’.]
Domino was a kitten I fostered who had a severe case of pectus exavatum, a condition where the sternum doesn’t grow correctly and instead damages the lungs. She stayed with me for months during her recovery and I became extremely fond of her.
Onwards and Upwards (And Sort Of Downwards)
[Veterinary medicine is always expanding its knowledge of animal health, which is part of what drew me to the field.]
Veterinary medicine, like any medical field, is constantly changing, evolving, and improving. Sometimes it feels like sitting on a roller coaster of information: by the time we’ve learned something well, something new has become available or new information has been found. But far from finding it frustrating or discouraging I choose to embrace it; change is the only way to continue moving forwards.
You Can’t Save Them All
[My beloved Rupert, a big cat in a small world, patiently squishing himself into his scratching post bed. He got cold very easily and loved his assortment of sweaters and coats in the harsh Northern winter.]
You can’t save them all. How many times have we as veterinary professionals or even we as clients heard that phrase? It becomes a mantra at work during the bad days, a way to compartmentalize away the deaths and euthanasias that happen on your watch, the terminal diagnoses, the weeping owners, the pets who don’t know they live under a death sentence. My record of saves is good, maybe a little above average, but every now and then a pet comes along that reminds me — I can’t save them all, no matter how hard I try.