essay

Appropriate pain control after this little kitten’s chest surgery meant a quick start on physical therapy and a fast return to health!

There’s a running joke in veterinary medicine that our job is harder than human medicine for two reasons, one: that we’re required to treat more than one species and two: that our patients can’t talk to us. While I have no interest in restarting the ‘who has it worse’ argument (especially with close family members who work in human medicine!) I do want to address one of the most difficult parts of veterinary medicine: the where does it hurt conundrum. How do you identify and treat pain in an animal which can’t tell you how much pain it’s in or even why?

Recall: they did not offer.

Recall: they did as they were asked
hoofbeats in the dust, dragging heavy burdens
the noiseless tread of swift paws, nosing among brush
for mines, the beat of wings below the clouds
passing messages where no one else could,
returning bloody and battered
or not at all–

Recall: they did as they were told
ran beneath the cannonfire, into the guns
to bring back the wounded or stand at their side
until help could be found, carried their riders without question,
bore loads too great for any others through mud, rain, snow,
until they too, had fallen–

Recall: they gave all they had
in body and soul, saved countless thousands
who in turn would save thousands more, recall
the love in a dog’s eyes and a gentle tongue when all else seemed lost,
the rusty purr, the softness of feathers,
the sweet scent of a horse’s breath–

Recall: they did not offer
but were asked, and told, and gave all in return
for us, a sacrifice that we might know peace,
recall: the animals of war, who gave and gave again,
who never questioned why.

Tag

Tell Me Where It Hurts

They Did Not Offer