abigail414's diaryland diary
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Some Veterinary Tales
Eddie was just like the �Incredible Journey� cat, bred to lie on a luxurious pillow but instead left his country club life and ran off 20 miles away to a funeral home in Palm Springs. After a week, his owners found him at an animal shelter in profound kidney failure. They said he liked cars, so may have hitched a ride with someone (hard to imagine him with his paw out). He spent 7 days with us in intensive care, and for a moment seemed to rally before becoming increasingly anemic and not responding to treatment. His owner took him home for hospice care, but he came back a day later on a homemade blanket and died peacefully with his grumpy little face. Later in the day, a 6 year old bottle of French Bordeaux and a photo of Eddie showed up � with a note that it would keep for 20 years (Eddie only made it to 13). I may open it before that and will definitely toast in his honor. He was a good guy who I suspect just wanted to make it easy for his people and went off to die (what better place than a funeral home?).
I also saw Josh, part of a Josh and Jack pair of Golden Retrievers - a lot of pets here are surrogate children and these were no exception. They moved here from northern California last spring and their owners sought out a vet upon arrival. They�ve been great clients and I've seen them a few times. In late September, Josh lost his zeal for eating, but a food change helped bring him back. I didn�t hear from them until they returned from a Tahiti trip and found him lethargic. They called in a panic, and came in immediately. He was 10 lbs lighter, dehydrated, and I felt a huge mass in his belly (confirmed on x-ray and ultrasound). The surgeons here recommended a 24 hour specialty clinic in Orange county to have it removed � turns out it was an inoperable grapefruit-sized cancer and he died a couple days later. The owners are replaying what they could have done differently, as have I, but we were all very vigilant and perhaps sometimes bad things happen to good dogs.
Then there was Skylar, a Siamese cat with an anal gland abscess a couple months ago that cleared up with antibiotics. Although bloodwork was fairly normal, I asked that they come in for a butt recheck after treatment, since this is an unusual problem with a cat. The owners assured me he was fine, and I didn't hear from them until yesterday when he was found lying around with uneven sunken eyeballs. He seemed to be dying, and in fact breathed his last breath in the exam room. Why? I lifted his tail and sure enough a big ruptured tumor had returned back there, perhaps having metastasized to his brain. Wow.
Success stories from last week include a very bad skin Cocker Spaniel who is miraculously doing better after $500 of treatment. A Chihuahua with bladder stones who is now happy on pain meds and special food (and ought to have surgery, but the owner is waiting for now - he is grumpy and demanding and the first client I've dressed down). A vomiting cat that is doing well on a special diet, with a bipolar owner who likes that I�m an Aries because I�ll be honest with her. An upper respiratory cat that is no longer sneezing. A kidney failure/diabetic cat that is rallying with at-home care. Two dogs that ate a bottle of antihistamines (tasty versions for canine bladder control) and got high blood pressure and are now fine. A puppy who had a bad case of parasites and is now bouncing like a ball on the floor when he sees me. The Abyssinian that sounds like a cat from hell but doesn�t have claws and only mouths and doesn�t bite (and was losing weight on all the special food but now seems to like basic kibble). Or the Cushings disease dogs on a new drug that is working well for them (two were initially close to death). But for some reason these don�t stick with me like the deaths do, especially the ones that we tried to fight and didn't win.
I think it is because I love them all, and so carry some of the grief of their loss with me. As long as they are still alive, I can keep on loving them in absentia. No wonder I have no energy to have fun outside of work - I gave at the office.
7:20 p.m. - 2006-11-22
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