Kira Galbraith Week 2: Forest Park Animal Hospital

Week two of my Pinhead internship in Panama City Florida and I already feel like I have learned so much. I have many mentors throughout the building. The head vet tech/manager, Rhonda, has been working at the practice for 28 years. She introduced me to the staff and teaches me what the vet tech responsibilities are at the practice. Dr. Baker is the vet that does all surgeries and half of the office calls at the practice. She verbally explains what she is doing and why, to help me learn. The other people help me understand and teach me their process for their individual jobs. Fun fact there are two cats that live at the office: Forest, the sweet old man that’s been there forever, and Smudge, a rebellious young cat that likes to sleep in odd places and hide in the cabinets.

Monday I saw my first ear mite! There were multiple on the microscope slide. They squirm around while you can see their transparent bodies attaching themselves to earwax to shield them from the light. The dog had its ears cleaned and scrubbed down to a point where they bled due to the irritation caused by the mites.

Tuesday a small poodle came in for a dental. To the right is a picture of the left side of the mouth. Towards the back on both top an bottom the back three teeth are discolored, a brown marble color. Those “brown teeth” are covered in tartar and were extracted. A total of 13 teeth were removed because the lack of care given to the animal.

Wednesday a procedure called an exploratory was performed. The surgery is used to search a large area from the bottom of the diaphragm down to past the bladder. The doctor is looking for an unusual object that cannot be identified. The surgery can last 30 min or as long as 3 hours depending on what the doctor finds. In this case the large odd object was surprisingly the dogs inflamed folded colon that caused diarrhea.

To the right is a picture of what looks like the end of a rattlesnake tale, this is called a Demodex Mite. This particular type of mite is very rare. The vet told me “I’ve never seen one but they’re hard to come by. You’ll maybe seen one every 15 years”. It was amazing to see all the employees so interested.

Finally Friday! Friday was rough. A small chihuahua mix came in for a mass removal because the owner noticed a large lump outside the mouth. The doctor didn’t know the severity of the cancer because the dog wouldn’t let anyone, including the owner, near it. The owner dropped the dog off knowing we were gonna put him under anesthesia and do a biopsy. When the dog was under we all saw the cancer, it had spread to the entire jaw. A simple biopsy turned into a phone call the doctor had to make. After receiving the owners permission the dog was euthanized. This was one of the saddest moments I have experienced in the office so far because the dog was so young(6 years old) and the owner didn’t know they were going to loose their pet that day.

Week two was better than the last. This practice is showing me the reality of being a vet. It is not all puppies and kittens; it’s money management, people skills, death of young and old animals, and it’s ALWAYS being on your feet.