The Veterinary Icebreaker Episode | The Veterinary Roundtable

Like it was a legitimate dog and we had to euthanize it. And it was the worst thing ever. Oh, that was, that's it. The end. Oh my God. That's your story. Yes. And the dog was white. I had a cleaner butt every single time she came in. She told me it had Demodex. Nice. Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Veterinary Roundtable, the podcast where we answer your veterinary related questions while having some fun along the way. If you enjoyed today's episode or a previous episode, be sure to leave us a review on your podcast provider of choice. And if you have any feedback to offer to improve the Veterinary Roundtable, let us know. We'd love that feedback. I feel like there are the, what was the reviews last week? Are they, are they just slowly climbing? Harrison, is it truly 408? You did not update it. It's probably best if we not know, because that means we have to make a decision and decisions were indecisive. And we just. Wow. Do you think we're going to make it? Do you think we'll make it to 200 on Apple before you'd make it to 500 on Spotify? No way. No, that's only 20 reviews. No way. Oh, that's not 20 reviews. That's 40 reviews. 414. 414 peeps. We climb historically higher or faster on Spotify. So I think that's. Well, yeah. Look at the numbers. Listen guys. I think in the next two weeks, we need to think about what we're doing when we hit 500, because I think once we know, and we tell people they're going to like be hitting review, review, review. I think if it's a really cool thing. Yeah. We could all go to a cold plunge in the lake. Oh, no. I hate ice baths. Why would I? That sounds horrible, but I would, I don't even like swimming lakes. Why would I do? So the lake just unfroze and have you guys seen all the dead fish? No, it's like a thing. She just said there's dead fish everywhere. So when every winter, the, when the top of the lake freezes, all the fish get stuck, like, cause like the whole lake obviously doesn't freeze. It doesn't really get cold enough for long enough. And so there's this tiny layer on the top of the lake that freezes and the fish gets stuck in it. And so then when it warms up and everything thaws out, there's like just dead fish everywhere, all over Morse. Do you guys know that? I did not know that. So we could save a lot of. Save the lives of the fish. So people are posting. We have a lot of saving to do. Sounds like we need the art clinic over there. People are posting all over the place being like, has everyone seen the dead fish? It happens every year. Oh, it's like a fish massacre. Fish massacre. Okay. Just a fun fact for you guys. I mean, I don't know if that's better than a milk mile, but both sounds dangerous. I don't, I would rather swim in cold water than vomit. Okay. I did, I did the, uh, polar plunge at the lake in Tennessee in March. And I was like, okay, this it's, it can't be that bad, right? You're just, you're miserable for a second, but you're getting back out. It's also really good for you. Well, so I jumped in, everybody jumped in, all of us, the kids, you know, everybody. So we jumped in and I literally could not move, which I was like, oh, this is the problem that people have. And then you drown? Yeah. I was like, my legs literally are not moving. Like make my legs move. Like I had to like think hard. I'm sure you go into shock so quickly. Yeah. And I was like, I'm moving my legs. It feels like I'm going nowhere. And I was literally like six feet away from the pier and I was like, I'm getting out. Sometimes you're really selling the cold plunge. Okay. Well, if you do a cold plunge. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to do a cold plunge. I was thinking she was talking about mores where you walk out on the sandy beach into the water. Yeah, we can do that. Or we can just jump straight in off the bridge. Oh my God. No, I'm not doing that. Okay. You two can do the cold plunge. Allie and I will. Just take a life jacket. Okay. All right. What I said was two weeks ago, your guys' babies will be like, what the hell? Okay. So in two weeks, we don't need to decide right now. We have two weeks. Well, it won't even be cold enough. I don't know. It sounds like we really need to start right now. We need to start thinking. We're going to be doing a lot of a cold plunge. A lot of brainstorming. Okay. If you have any ideas, leave it in a review. Okay. Check out our social medias. We have Instagram and TikTok. They're all at the veterinary round table. They've been popping. They have been popping. We also have a YouTube channel. If you would like to watch our video podcast, rather than just listen to us. And it is the veterinary round table on YouTube. And we also post our shorts on there. We don't wear shorts. We wear pants. I know. I caught myself, but I didn't catch myself enough to not say it. The veterinary round table has merch coming out and they're going to be shorts. I was modeling our shorts. My legs are very hairy right now. My legs are pale. I'm so pale. I was about to say paper. You don't have to put sunglasses on if I take my pants off. All right. I'm Dr. Emily King. I'm Courtney Allen. I'm Allie McQuarrie. I'm Dr. Ashlyn Duckwall. And you're listening to the veterinary round table. Welcome. This is a special episode. Isn't it ladies? Yes, it is. We're only going to answer these icebreaker questions, which were actually really hard. I had to actually sit and type out my answers. Yeah, I'm still, I'm still thinking about some of them because some of them, I still don't know the answer. They're intense questions. I know. I was not prepared. I had to write them down on my phone. I was like looking at them last night and I was like, I'm not going to remember this. Yeah. Plus I also feel like there's some that I'm not, that probably would be superior for my answer, but I just can't think of it. Yeah. It's not coming to me. We've all been in the field for a long time, so having to think that far back, some longer than others, the ones that stuck were really bad or something, or you block it out. We have a text message feature for our podcast. So you tap on the episode in your podcast provider of choice at the top. It'll say, send us an inquiry through a text message here. You can send us comments, questions, concerns. If you want a shout out on the podcast, you have to leave your name. Otherwise it comes through as anonymous. And we also take voices, voice message inquiries. So you can send those to the veterinary roundtable at gmail.com and we will play them on the podcast. Yep. We've gotten what, two? I think so. Well, that's okay. They're cool. So I guess the goal is for us to all answer each question, right? Sure. Okay. Okay, let's do it. I don't know how in depth we need to go. Some of them could be a story, but yeah. Okay. Number one starts off. Okay. Tell us about the patient you will never forget and why. All right. So when I first got out of school, I worked at Crider veterinary clinic and there was a working dog that was a golden retriever that was owned by a young lady, probably in her early twenties that used the dog as a support animal. And she legitimately used it. I mean, like the dog did things like open doors, you know, things like that. Like it was a legitimate dog and we had to euthanize it. And it was the worst thing ever. Oh, that was awesome. That's it. The end. Oh my God. That's your story. I was trying to be concise. I'm like, there's no in between. Okay. So that was the dog that you euthanized. Got it. I mean, you know, like, okay, that's the dog that was, I guess I just left out a few of the details. You think? Oh my gosh. What not to do. Okay. So, okay. So she, she had this dog and it eventually needed to be euthanized. And I think that it's a patient that I'll never forget because that was the first time I truly understood what a dog could mean to a person. And the human-animal bond. I didn't tell you the why. I'm sorry. Yeah. That was just, I was like, okay, it's just a patient I'll never forget, but I didn't tell you why. Okay. Wow. That makes sense. Okay. Yeah. I feel like all three of you can guess who I'm going to say. Oh, really? Could be a tiebreaker. Oh, I know. Harlow. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. I could have guessed that. Um, I've taught, I've probably, I've talked about Harlow probably multiple times on the podcast. Um, but she was a pit bull who came in and it was an abuse case. Um, and she lived at the, she was relinquished or I guess taken from the owners or whatever you want to say. Um, but she lived at the clinic for, I think like three months and I was one of her primary caregivers, I would say. I mean, everyone had a hand in her case, but I got very attached to her. Um, and at the time during my life, I could not adopt her, although I wish I could have and I would have if I could. Um, but she got adopted by a very nice gentleman. Um, but yeah, she just, I had a special bond with her. So yeah. And she was a fighter. She like, she blew my mind because she showed me how stoic animals are and how forgiving and just, yeah. The, and like, she just blew my mind because of how awesome she was. Yeah. My turn. Okay. So King's probably gonna remember this one, but the Shih Tzu and the Maltese pair, wonderful owners, but they brought the Shih Tzu in a stroller every time. And she pooped every single time. It was orange poop smeared all over her. Cause she cooked for them. Yes. And the dog was white. I had a cleaner, but every single time she came in and then their Maltese had Noel was her name. Yes. And then Angel, she had like a brain tumor or something. Again, the owners were wonderful CKD too. Is this that owner? And the little Maltese did not look like a Maltese. She looks like a Chinese Crescent because she lost all of her hair and she would just vocalize like randomly. I remember being a young tech and it literally scared me. I was like, yeah, she does that. And I'm like, Oh, okay. She like had dreads and just twit. It was, it was crazy, but I don't think I'll ever forget. It left. It left a, it left a memory. Was the memory, was the memory just because you can doesn't mean you should. Yeah, that was, that was crazy. Okay. Um, I put, let's see without your notes, open up this one was a hard one. Cause I feel like there's a lot of awesome patients, but yeah, one of the ones like that came to mind was a cat named nightmare. So he was a young cat. Yeah. He's also my diabetic. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I remember this was a very young diagnosed diabetic feline and he was not overweight. So it was just weird from the start. He was pretty lanky and skinny. He was like, felt like chief. Wasn't that like the, was that the first diabetic you ever had to treat? Uh, he was one of the first cats. Yeah. Cats. Okay. He was the first cat I think. I just remember it being, of course it wasn't a normal one. It was not normal. And it was a bizarre case in general. I called the internist. Like I was in contact with the owner all the time trying to figure out what's going on and he crashed out of nowhere. So it was a very memorable medical case, but this cat was also so sweet and we were able to honestly do all of the workup we did and do the curves in the clinic. And like, it was like kind of a, a good situation as far as the type of animal he was, but also I remember it because of the owner's persistent trust in us, even though it was so weird and wasn't going to plan. And I remember we did a, we did the insulin for the cat one day in the clinic and it was a beautiful curve and then Courtney would go over how to give insulin for this cat. And we did not, I don't know. I still don't know what happened. I don't understand why. So anyway, it was a really just sweet situation because of the bond with the animal. But the bond I created with the owner who we ended up becoming friends and we still see her dog. He boarded up the clinic multiple times and I would take care of him on the weekends. He was so sweet to everybody but Allie. I remember he bit Allie like three different times. He does not. I was like, he loved me. He loved you. Like, he was the sweetest cat except Allie. Every time he would help me, I would bite her. He was a, he's definitely in like my top 10 or 15 patients of my whole career. It was awesome. He was a good cat. And yeah, he would, when he would board, he would eat his meals like nobody's business. Like, he was awesome. He's like a dog. I think he was a dog trapped in a cat's body. Probably because of the type of diabetes he had. From then on, I was like, well, it's only up for me or a diabetic. Number two. What's the case that completely humbled you as a veterinarian? Do we answer this too? Sure. Even though we're not veterinarians. Sure. Yeah. For me, it was not too long after All-Star was opened. There was a dog. I don't remember its breed. I referred it to Dr. Lori Thompson, who's a board-certified dermatologist, and she told me it had Demodex. Nice. I was like, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot. That's awesome. And here's the sign of an amazing specialist. She did not make me feel bad. That's good. That's awesome. So yeah. Anyway, but I never missed another case of Demodex. There you go. So anyway. I would probably say it wasn't necessarily like a case, but something that taught me to have more grace with myself, I guess I would say. And it wasn't like, I mean, it was a few years into working at a vet clinic. I couldn't place a single IV catheter for like a week and a half straight. Like I couldn't hit, like I would hit the vein and then I would tape it and then they weren't patent. And so I practiced on one of my coworkers' dogs for like a week straight because I was doing something wrong and I was like, oh, you need to have grace with yourself and it's okay. But sometimes you just have bad weeks. Yeah. Skill wise. So. I would say, I won't get into the nitty gritty, but I made a mistake that was a really bad mistake and could have ended the pet's life. And I think it just, no matter how long you're in the field, like you can make mistakes and it's okay to make mistakes because you're human. But it reminded me that I need to stay alert and vigilant and don't stay stagnant just because it's something you do every day. Still be mindful. Still, still do all the things. It was, it was a big smack in the face for sure. I learned and now I'm extra, extra alert in this situation. Yeah, man. This one, honestly, I have left blank because I was really hard. Like, I feel like I'm humbled every day. Isn't that the truth? I miss that. You felt this bump. I didn't, I don't know. Or anytime I do a Sisto. But, uh, yes. I hate Sisto. I'm so bad at them. Um, but what came to mind is very early in my career, routine puppy visit. Um, it was like a older puppy though, that was adopted. And I like, I did my exam and I don't know how I got to the conclusion, but I was like, wait a minute. It was in the back, not in front of the owner. I was like, wait, there's like weird teeth in here. These there's extra deciduous teeth and I didn't call it out. One of my colleagues did, and it was one of those, like, how I like kind of dumb moments where I was like, how did I not look at this and think this is like abnormal and have a discussion with the owner? And it was like something just, like I said, as simple as like deciduous teeth there that shouldn't be there in a weird mouth, but like it's, it's one of those little things in a puppy visit that you think is all going to be fine and dandy and normal, but that puppy visits are probably more important than anything else at the start of the life. Cause you catch those things that could be wrong going down the road. So yeah, very, it was, I still remember that feeling. I'm like, Oh, I'm so stupid. Why wouldn't I say something? It was rectified all as well. All as well. That's right. All right. Number three, what's the strangest or most unexpected thing you've ever pulled out of an animal? Well, I've seen a lot of things be pulled out, but I think the sewing needle out of the dog's neck. That was mine. I would say that classifies for all of us. That's King's case. I heard about it. It was King's case. It was the shelty wasn't it? I have a picture of the x-ray of the needle going this way in her neck. Didn't it migrate through the mouth? Yes. And then, yeah. Yes. You cut it out of the neck. And then remember we had to put the little wrap on her neck because of the incision. And yeah, that was mine. It was wild. I'm so sorry. I have the picture. Mine also involved a needle, but it was actually, the cat had swallowed it. This was in my first place of business at Criteria Veterinary Clinic. My friend who was a veterinarian there had a cat who the needle migrated and was coming out the eye, the middle of the eye. Oh, did she take it out or did you get it off the bone? Yeah. He just pulled it out. Well, I mean, under anesthesia. I was like, I know, but I'm like, do you just, do you have to worry about rupturing the eye? Yeah. I don't remember. It'll pop like a little water balloon. I'm surprised it didn't. Oh my gosh. That's insane. Oh my gosh. I was, I didn't know what that noise was. Should've put the microphone down there. My son just loaded up a diapy very loudly. Mine was, wait, what was that noise? He smells it. He smells the poop. Mine was not something I pulled out necessarily, cause I don't do a lot of foreign body surgeries, but it was removing a necrotic part of a tongue. That was just weird. So I removed something, but it was a cat after a dental who was all numbed and chewed on the tongue. And so we had to, I had to cauterize it in the smell, the smell with the explosions, a lot of things don't get me, but her and I had to walk away multiple times, it was really bad. And it wasn't like a huge chunk either, but it was, it was, I mean, it was dead tissue plus burning flesh. And I was like, this feels wrong removing part of the tongue, but thankfully it wasn't like a huge thing. So. I think we talked about that on the podcast at some point too, that case. Yeah. That was weird. Okay. Number four, tell us about the moment you realized veterinary medicine was way harder than you expected. There's so many moments. Oh my gosh. Right. You want to go? Oh Lord. Um, I mean, I still think it's hard. Yeah. I was going to say every day. Every day. Yeah. I know. There's not like one moment that sticks out. I remember when I first got out of school and I was in the pharmacy area at cryo veterinary clinic and I opened the doors where all the drugs were and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know how to calculate the, the, like, you know, I'm like, it was cephalaxin or something. I was like, I don't remember anything. Like what am I, you know, we didn't have a wellness clinic. And so then we didn't learn anything about vaccines or did I even go to school? I know exactly. I was like, I can solve like serious problems. I cannot do anything that's like normal. Yeah. So I was like, this is harder than I thought. Mine was, um, a case. Gipper. One word. Oh, first year out. First couple cases of my life. I feel like it's this two year old Weimaraner who came in with a carry on. Pretty straightforward. I was like, oh, I remember this from a textbook. Uh, and of course at that time I'm like double crossing or double checking everything from my colleagues. And they agreed. I was like, great. Got it. Well, I started, um, it was a generic intracarnosol and I think looking back that it was an adverse reaction to the drug, but even with stopping it, things got crazy with the skin. I'm talking like, his pictures just came up in my memory. It was so weird because he brought so much distress in my life. Like it was macules and hair loss all over his body. And it kept going, like even with changing treatment. And I remember going through this with the owner and like biopsying it, sending, it turned purple at one point. Oh, it was horrible. We send pictures to, um, Texas A&M, Derm Path. And like, it was just, it was awful. And this owner, then I gave her my cell phone number. So I remember driving to church one morning. She's like, Gipper's having diarrhea. And I call her and try to like prove myself, make amends. I call my friend who, and colleague Kristen Pouls multiple times in tears. Cause I'm like, I'm a bad vet. I don't know how to do this. And the owner one time was like, is there someone more experienced to look at my dog? So King came in with me. It was like, it was awful. And then she went to another clinic in the end, which was just the cherry on top. And I was like, this is really hard. This is just skin and this is really hard and I don't know why. I challenge anybody else to find out what was wrong with that dog. That was, you should, I have pictures if anybody wants to see the pictures. That was not. Cause I still have all of them. That was, I was one toe out. Or I was going to say, I think veterinary career still. I was like, I was, I was a little scared you were going to quit. Yeah, that was, that was rough. So that made me realize I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know why I'm here. Yep. Um, I would say my. I don't like, it's just a case of sticks out to me that like it was like, I got really attached to a patient and then realized that you can't get, like you can get attached to a certain extent, but getting your hopes up is not the best all the time. It was a little white dog. I think his name was pudgy or something like that. Um, but he was like a little be Sean or something like that. And he come, it came in down in the back. And I don't remember like all the treatments we did or anything, but he was hospitalized at the clinic for an entire week. And we like the owners and the doctor who had the case set expectations that if he wasn't better by that Friday that they were going to euthanize him. And that Friday morning I came in, I took him out of his cage, like cleaned him up because he couldn't get up. So he would pee overnight and then lay in it and whatever. And I got him up and I took him outside and he moved one of his back legs. And I like pooped my pants and I was like, Oh my God, he's not going to die. Like he's okay. Like we're making progress and we still ended up euthanizing him because he clearly couldn't walk still. But like, it's just like, don't, I don't know how to explain it. It was just really hard. Yeah. Cause you saw a little glimpse of hope when maybe no one else did. And they're like, it's not enough. And I'm like, but he moved, he moved a little bit. That was better than the whole week. And yeah, so just hard. Yeah. I would say, I mean, every day is like hard and you learn something new, but I feel like as a new tech coming in and learning a new PIM system, they don't teach you about that in school. I was like, Oh, I'm learning a whole system. Also CRIs. Like you learn math. But the first CRI, I was like, that's not math. That's like witchcraft. I was like, how does this even work? And here's my shameless plug for vet pocket. If you have not experienced vet pocket, go get yourself some vet pocket, download the app and your CRIs will be done for you. Wow. I have since gotten better, but as a new tech, I was like, Oh, yeah, I hear that. Okay. Next one. What's the most chaotic appointment you've ever had from start to finish? I had a heart. Oh, I know mine actually. Go ahead. What is it? The cat that we've talked about multiple times to, um, the new client, older lady. That's what I had on my list. The one that died. Yes. Yeah. But okay. Re-explain the case. So we had a cat come in. Um, it, like I said, it was a new client, new patient appointment. Um, the owner was an older woman and the cat, I don't even remember why. It was just a small like abscess thing that we were cleaning. Are we talking about the same one? Yes. It was by its ear, not even like on the ear. Yeah. Okay. So he came in and so she ended up calling me. We took him to the back to like get the wound cleaned up and we went to our cat room. We went to mountain and I, we were doing whatever, like barely doing anything. And then he just went, his King was talking to us and you had the door half open. You were standing in the cat room with us or whatever. And all of a sudden he went agonal and like stopped breathing. And so then I grabbed the cat. I run to surgery. I have him on a surgery table cause we didn't have oxygen in that room at the time. I ran to the surgery table. We started doing CPR. We tried to intubate him and he just died. And then she had to go and talk to the owner and I went to my lead, the treatment lead. And I just bawled my eyes out cause I was like, I don't know. Like it happened so fast. And like my adrenaline rush and then I like had a crash and then Oh my God, like it was horrible. I probably said something really unhelpful. Like, man, I hate when cats do that. You probably did it wrong or something. Oh damn. That sucks. It was horrible. Like I've had that happen to me too. We had, we had no chance of recess. Like he was dead before I even got him on oxygen, but that's not like, Oh my conversation was, it was horrible and they don't know. It's from Adam. That's no, they don't. And they don't know the cat. Like the cats probably had maybe an elevated respiratory rate at rest at home. Like, you know, like they don't know. And it was just, it scarred me for like a month after every time a cat looked at me weird. I was like, Oh my God, it's like I, for a while. I made sure that I had oxygen somewhere near me or like, I didn't push it with any, we didn't even push it with this cat. But like going forward, I don't push it. Like I didn't stress. If they got a little stressed, I'm like, I'm done. There's a heart murmur or this is a 17 year old cat. Oh my God. Yeah. It was just literally chaos. I have, I wrote two down. I wrote the cat down as the first one, but then the other one was end of the day, five 30 annual. I was like, you know, in the bag annual, everything went fine for the exam. It's in the back getting vaccines. And I had a bagel passed out episode. And these are owners where the, the husband brought in the dog and was crying because they had euthanized their other dog recently. And he was upset about that. And it was really hard to be in the vet clinic. I kid you not. It was a conversation before this dog went back to get vaccines. And then I had to go in and be like, so your dog passed out. It's doing fine now. Then there was like a, I don't know if it was a comment or a review or something where it was like, they gave my dog vaccines and tried to kill it. And it was like, that's not what happened. They never came back. Yeah. They never came back. And it was just like, that was chaotic too. Cause I'm like, what in the world just happened? Yeah. It was just, yeah. I was, I remember cause we were drawing blood on him. We did a jug stick and then he just. Well, and now every time I even just have an annual, I'm like, if they seem really worked up, I'm like, take a lap before you go back to the room. Let's make sure they catch their breath. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And we wonder why our jobs are so stressful, right? I wonder why there's a high burnout rate. Yeah, sure. Uh, I would have to say the C-section that went AWOL. Oh. Oh my gosh. You guys are reminding me of all these cases. They must've been taken from my brain and put into it. I was going to say you blocked them out. I've told them they're in a vault somewhere. We've done so many C-sections for this owner. This was mine. First C-section as a tech. And the mom ended up dying on the table. We had four puppies. It was just the conversation to the owner because we haven't done this so many times for this owner. Everything was a shock. Then we were like, oh my gosh, we have four puppies. We have to feed. I helped with that. That was humbling. I was like, oh my God, feeding them every two hours, two to three hours. Oh my gosh. Two end up passing away. Two survived. It was a whole thing. It was a lot of tear shed that day and after. Taking care of the babies. Do we know why? Was there a necropsy or something done? No, I think what happened was, and this is why we changed the way we did them and why we ended up getting CO2 monitor. When she was laying on her back, being a retriever, the puppies are really big, so it compresses the vena cava and creates dead space. In the vena cava. And so, um, when you end up quickly taking the puppies out, you create some event, you create some event that occurs. And so, and we didn't know what was happening because the CO2 wasn't, we didn't have CO2, so then they didn't see what was happening. And so that's why now like they don't necessarily put them all the way on their back, like we'll keep them on their side and then take one side of the uterus out, let the vena cava fill up, take the other side out. Yeah. And her puppies were massive. Her puppies were huge. Yeah. All over a pound each, which is kind of wild. Wow. So we, I mean, that's what was surmised because nothing else. Right. I mean, it was no other. Your body gets used to having all of that and then things move around and then it's stuck like that for however long. And then when you take that off, the body's like, oh my God, what's like, what do I do? I kid you not, this makes me think of the C-section I just had with him because I was awake this time. Well, I was aware and it was elective. So I, yeah, anyway, when they took him out, I felt this entire pressure change and I literally like got a little lightheaded for a second and I told the, I told the anesthesiologist, I was like, oh, whoa, I can feel like my body, um, I can't explain it, but it was just like this complete pressure change in my body that it tightened my chest. I, yeah. So maybe that's what was happening too when they took him out. But yeah, that was a weird feeling. Yeah. That's I think cause we did like, um, uh, analysis, like a post-mortem kind of like we talked to an anesthesiologist, you know, like we went through the whole case and everything, trying to figure out what had happened. Yeah. Um, and that's what they told us was the most likely scenario. Wow. Fascinating. Chaos. We'll go to the next one. That could suffice as mine as well. Tell us about a client interaction you will remember for the rest of your career. I had a hard time thinking about this one. Oh, here I'll go. This one's good. I was a baby tech. I was doing this discharge. It was Forest Bay. The, the owners came into the room. I was like, okay, so I didn't bring the dog in yet. They're very giddy, very like competitive, which was kind of odd. They were like, oh, who's the dog going to go to first, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I don't know. And they're like asking me questions. And as a tech, I'm like, I don't care if she goes to first, I'm just going to bring your dog up. Well, the dog ended up going to the husband or boyfriend first. And the wife was so mad and was like, oh my gosh, she went to you first, all to come out to find out. He put peanut butter behind his ear. So the dog would go to him first. And she was so upset. She was like, oh my gosh, she's giving you kisses. And then she found out he had peanut butter behind his ear. And I was just deadpan in the room. Like, no freaking way. That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard in my life. And then they started arguing because he cheated and he put peanut butter behind his ears. No way. And I was just stuck in this room with this couple that, uh, that was like. Had to be some high stakes, uh, reward or something. I don't know, but. That is so weird. So weird. That's bizarre. It was a wild time. Um, mine is again, same thing in a room with an owner, two owners. And this was before marijuana was like, you know, the thing, like everybody doing it and not being, not being so like, you know, common. It was like, Oh, back then in the day, you know? So I was in a room and I was explaining to the owner that, listen, I think your dog got into marijuana, it's incontinent, you know, they all present the same, right. And the guy, they don't look at me. The guy looks at the girl and he says, I thought you told him to shut his door. And the lady goes, I did tell him to shut his door. He must've gotten it from where they're having this like a conversation, I can pour them out. You're like, hello. I'm still here. Yeah. I was like, okay, so we're going to take that as a yes. Confirmation that the dog got into marijuana. Like it was just so bizarre. Cause it wasn't like, yeah, it was just the strangest. So. I have, I have two, so maybe I'll just do them quick. But one was, uh, I knew I had to call an angry client who had already told someone else in the clinic that he was gonna, he's threatening to sue. And it's a long case. It was not a mistake in any ways. It's one of those things that like water in the bridge, whatever. But, uh, I had to call that owner, that, that gentleman knowing he was so heated and angry. And that was probably the hardest conversation, one of the harder conversations I've ever had to have because, um, you're going in knowing. That that person is angry and you have to explain the reasoning behind everything and how there really is no stance for them or whatever for them to stand on and, and that, yeah. So it was that one case with the, the focal, uh, pyometra. Yeah. That one was a hard case. That was like, I was amped up. I like didn't want to do it. You do it and you just move on. That's what you have to do. So angry client, I guess in general is a hard one. And then this other one was I was. Eight months pregnant with my first child end of the day on a Friday. Can't make this up. And it's like five 30 or something. And this dog, this setter non-spayed female comes in just seizing nonstop. And, um, I don't remember how long she'd been seizing, whatever. So we do our normal, like try to give her meds, get her to stop seizing. Her temperature is through the roof. So a situation where the dog really should be referred and, um, no background, whatever, other than like, I'm pretty sure this was a breeding dog and I don't think he kept up on prevention. And so I go in and I'm explaining like she's young epilepsy, you know, is common in English setters and he stops me right there. He's so blunt. He goes, you need to do your research on the breed. He's like, this is not that line of breed. Then he goes into lecturing me about the different. I don't fricking know if it was English versus like something else setters or, I don't know. And I'm standing there, I'm pissed. I'm so tired and pregnant. This dog is not doing well. And it ended up, they just took her home and we went the extra mile to call in meds, seizure meds at a pharmacy. They could be able to get, Oh yeah. I went that on a Friday and very ungrateful owner. And it was just like, yeah, yeah. That yeah. I will still remember that. I'm like, that's so rude. Yeah. So rude. I didn't know your dog was that line for you. Your dog's a setter. It's having seizures. Right. Exactly. Oh my gosh. I have two. Cause I have like an angry one and then kind of a funny one, but the angry client who, um, we still see in the clinic, but she has yelled at numerous people. Um, she came in for a tech appointment. Um, and so I tried to take the dog back to ultrasound to get assistive synthesis on her and the dog is known to be very bad for treatments. And so I started walking out of the lobby towards our ultrasound room and the owner would not stay up front. And I asked her numerous times to just sit and wait in the lobby until I was done. And she insisted on helping me with the dog and physically wouldn't stop following me. So she came all the way back to ultrasound with me. And then I explained why or I, we talked to her about doing like pre-meds for the visit and she didn't want to, cause she didn't think her dog was bad. And, um, so she persisted to ask, or she wanted to help hold the dog. And I explained why that we don't, we can't do that because we, she can't get injured, blah, blah, blah. She also doesn't know how to properly restrain. And so then she got on the ground and tried to like literally sit on her dog and then her dog ended up hurting her. And then I explained again why it wasn't going to work and I wasn't going to do anything with the dog that day. And then she yelled at me in front of half of the staff at the clinic, like screamed at my face. Interesting enough, that was brought up yesterday in a conversation about interactions. Yeah. So she screamed at me in front of everybody. With the owner? No, with a colleague. Cause this said person was actually in the clinic yesterday. So, yeah, she was. So that was fun. Um, my, the other one that's kind of more funny, and I don't know if you remember this one, it was a lady who brought her dog in for some kind of surgery procedure. I think it was probably a dental and it was an older lady and she refused to leave the clinic. She wouldn't drop her dog off. And so she sat in the lobby for like six hours that day from, cause the dog, obviously we anesthetized it. Then I had to wake up. We had other procedures that day, but like she kept inviting her friends. Like they were having coffee over in the little corner of our lobby and just all these older people, like it looked like a coffee shop because all these older people kept showing up and they were just having social hour all day long in the clinic. Oh my God. I love that. That's hilarious. We had to keep moving them and we kept having to bring up benches and chairs. And they wouldn't leave. I kind of remember hearing about that actually. Oh my God. That's amazing. All of the employees just kept walking by. I was like, Oh my gosh, it's like going girls up there. And it literally was, it was like a sitcom and people just kept coming. Oh, but she just didn't want to leave her dog. So all of her friends came and supported her. That's so cute. Like they meant no, no harm. They just wanted to hang out. So yeah, we sent them up like a little corner. Oh my goodness. One of, one of my favorite interactions that we've had written in from a listener was that one, there's something with the old ladies. There was an old lady who dropped her pants. Yeah, yeah. The dog was getting euthanized and the dog, and it took forever and the dog eventually got euthanized and the person that was doing the euthanasia, the tech or somebody came in and asked if they want, if, if the owner wanted to give anything to them to send, to be cremated, it's like a memorial thing. And she there, right then and there drops her panties. And the reason why she dropped her panties was because the dog liked licking them a lot. That is sick. Frickin nasty. Are you not here for that? That was a Tales from the Trench. I did not remember what episode that Tale from the Trench is, but if you're listening, I'm pretty sure it was like a 19 year old Yorkie. Like it was something that wasn't an emergency. And then the lady dropped her pants right in treatment. Oh my gosh. Not the panties. I thought it was just the pants. And I was like, okay, that's a little much. Not the unders. Oh, and the person writing in was like, I didn't know if I should call HR. Oh my heavens. I probably would have ran out of that room so fast. Like, I think you need some privacy. Oh my gosh. I just, yeah. Our industry. People continue to blow my mind every day. God bless us. We're amazing. Like the human mind. It is so wild. Veterinarian, veterinary world. Yes, yes, the veterinary world. I mean, really, honestly, like kudos to us for putting up with all the shenanigans and the bullshit, like really, you know, all we want to do is make your animals stay alive longer. And this is the crap that happened. I thought we just wanted money. Oh, that's right. How'd I forget? Those are good ones. Oh, what's the case that kept you up at night, but ended up teaching you something important? I have one. Early in career. A lot of things are memorable in the early days, right? A lot of things kept you up at night. I did go to the clinic a couple of times to check on diabetic patients at 3 a.m., 4 or 5 a.m., but that's not this. So this was a Vigila that was, I think a 10 year old male neutered Vigila and came in for diarrhea. Um, otherwise exam was boring. Um, did Metro, wasn't responsive. So we did blood work and had low albumin. So did a workup, um, and, uh, we did an ultrasound. I don't know how many days or timeline it's all hazy now, but I remember that Dudley did the ultrasound and was like, Hey, there's like scant amount of abdominal fluid. So we submitted that. And, um, I believe that was like going into a weekend if I remember correctly, because there was time lapse before I inevitably called the owner and the abdominal fluid had. I forget the details, but it basically came back as like cancer was one option, um, inflammation, significant inflammation, yada, yada, yada. And these were the days too, in the early days where I was like calling owners way too late because I was at the clinic way too late doing paperwork. And I can do not this phone call of like seven 30, seven 45 at night. And I called the gentleman who had been dealing with, and he let me go through the entire spiel of what I thought it was, what we can do next, whatever. And I was like, so how's he doing? And he just said he died. And I was like, I could not, I was the soul left my body. I was by myself. You did everything. And I was like, went through everything. Like, why are you just not, why didn't you stop me earlier? Yes. He literally was like, yeah, we went to check on him when he was laying down. I think it was over the weekend and he was unresponsive and I did not know what to say. I was like, holy crap. And so I hang up the phone. I just, I just was like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Like, this is what I think. Anyway, ended up calling Dudley, a colleague, and I was bawling. I was like, I don't know what I did wrong. I missed it. The dog's just dead. Cause he comes in for diarrhea and you think it's going to be fine. And so I learned from it though, because I ended up like talking to a colleague at a different clinic, like a friend and classmates and just kind of went through like, what could have happened? Right. So obviously low protein, you go through the list of, I don't know. We didn't know why. But like low blood pressure. Uh, I learned, I will never forget like, um, when you have low proteins or more hypercoagulable. So did he throw a clot or something? I, I really don't know, but I do remember that instance, that case and just like. Trying to be more aggressive with those cases. So I learned. Yeah. And I still wonder what happened. Yeah. That was a long time ago. I can't really think of like an actual case, but I think any old patient that has like a splenectomy or something. That's slower to wake up from anesthesia. I mean, leave them for the night. I'm always like, what are you going to walk into in the morning or just a patient that's had a foreign body? I guess I was going to say any foreign body I feel like is always keeps you up at night, like what is going to happen in the morning? Yeah, I don't. Yeah. I don't have like any specific one. I don't think either. It's just like the patients that you really, really worry about are like the patients that you transfer to ER, but then you don't ever get a follow-up on. Like I had a, um, GDV like two months ago and it was a new client because she came from a boarding facility and she, um, we ended up transferring her for the surgery and then I never heard back. So it's just like those that you're like, hmm, wonder what happened. Yeah. I was just like, you don't have any closure. I was wondering what happened to the, um, the case with the jerky treats. With the tubular. Oh, I know. Cause we were a second opinion. So I don't know what ended up happening. You tried to figure out, you tried to call them. I tried to follow like a couple of times. Do you have one King? No, I think I was just going to say any of the foreign bodies, I feel like, you know, they always keep you up at night. Yeah. Okay. Next one. What, yeah, that's okay. What's the moment in your career when you thought, okay, this is why I do this job. That's a big question. It is a big question. I think there's a lot of things, but I think like the dogs, like Harlow, when you're talking about like, she's so forgiving and like, or like us doing surgeries on these dogs, like foreign bodies and stuff, like dogs that could go either way, like temperamental wise, but are like so forgiving and so good and loving, like we just had a Doberman this week, so big, a big goofball was just 145 pounds to be exact, so freaking nice. I don't know. It just makes you fall in love with the job all over again. Like he felt like poo-poo, we took the thing out of his stomach and then just such a good patient. We'll sit, listens to commands. It's just like, this is why I'm here. If we're talking about rewarding patients, Lila Helmer. Yep. I had her on my list. She is a pity that Duckwell and I worked with for what, three and a half years. Yeah. She came in and she was to the point where we couldn't touch her. Like we couldn't, we had to fully like sedate her for every little thing. And now she comes in as technical appointments, recital point and I do them and she's fine. Yeah. That's cool. Like the trust you gain with patients is, I had a pit bull who I worked with for, I think almost two years. We did happy visits like every week. And I got to the point where I could unmuzzle her and like kind of touch her. And then she ended up being euthanized because she bit somebody at the owner's apartment complex, but that it's just reassuring and it's rewarding. Yeah. Earning an animal's trust, I think is so cool. I think anytime you are able to figure out like an exact cause and then implement the treatment plan and then see the result, those are all like affirmation that it's worth doing what you're doing. I agree. And then I also, every time I get a note from a client or a Christmas card or, yeah, the notes and the cards, like every time I have all of them, since I started on my desk, I'm like, this is why I do it. The client relationships you build and people that are truly grateful for you. And that voice that to you. Just yesterday, I have this client that her and I just click. We're just buds. Like truly, if we had more time in the world, we'd probably be best friends outside the clinic. If you want to know how they are, our room assistant literally said they sounded like hyenas in the exam room yesterday. That's what I was going to say. I was like, I always make sure I have an hour time for her because we always just chat it up. But yeah, I, I go in cause it's like middle of the day, you're tired. And then I go in and it just like there's sunshine. It fills your cup. Yeah. And then our, our room assistant was like, yeah, you guys sound like little hyena girls laughing. And we are, so it's great. Okay. What's a case that went completely off the rails, but somehow still worked out? I have no idea. I could not think of anything for that. I know there's cases out there. Oh, mine is mine's kind of recent. Sorry. Did you, I cut you off. No, mine was just Mabel, the dog that we just recently saw. She came in for coughing and her housemate had kennel cough. So we thought it was the same thing. Is that the golden retriever? No, no. It's a golden doodle. Golden doodle. Yeah. Okay. So we literally thought it was just like a shared case of kennel cough, but the owners were just so worried they wanted x-rays and we found pleural effusion. Did a chest tap that day and then ended up basically finding lymphoma and we caught it in the nick of time because we removed the fluid, got her treatment on CHOP and she's doing great. That's amazing. Yeah. She finished her treatments. What? Probably two months ago at this point. And she's still doing awesome. And she was breathing fine on presentation. She was the one that didn't sound like anything. We didn't, to be honest, we told the owners, we were like, we don't need to do x-rays today. There's no need to do x-rays today. And the owner's like, let's just get a baseline. Famous last words. I know, but like, that's how fine she was. Oh my gosh. And then the owner's like, let's just have a baseline because he's that kind of owner and he wants to do everything he possibly can. And then boom. Cancer. Yep. That was wicked. Yeah. I can't think of a specific case, but I mean, that's a good one, but. Yeah, I can't. Me neither. One that went off the rails. I don't really have. That still worked out. I'm like, there's a lot of off the rails. And then they stay off the rails. They don't get back on the rails. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Let's go to the last one. What's the most only in veterinary medicine moment you've experienced? The things we say, like, where's your butthole? Your balls are cute. Um, okay. I think our sayings are funny. Like that's like you, if you said certain things outside the clinic, people look at you like you're crazy. I truly thought anal glands was only in vet men. Apparently it's not. So I would say the times that we have removed underwear from a dog's intestinal track and then handed it back to the owner and then them not knowing whose underwear it is, yeah, those are like only in veterinary medicine or when you neuter a dog and you get the phone call. They still have two balls down there. What is it? Well, your dog can still get excited. Those are glands, not testicles. Yeah. That's always a fun conversation. Yeah. I just had to tell, I mean, this isn't just a vet med, I guess, but I just had to tell an owner he had to lube up his dog's penis, then make sure it was in the prepuce every time they expressed his bladder. That was, his face was like, oh, okay. I'd say that's only in veterinary medicine. Okay. Well, that was fun. I think we answered those pretty, I like those questions. Those were great. We need to do more episodes like this. Yeah, that was great. It's like a trip down memory lane. I was going to say that. It was like reminiscing. I was like, oh my gosh, I've forgotten about all these stories. I feel like if we asked, do the same episode again in like a couple months, even six months, we'd have different answers because everything's just crazy. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of The Veterinary Roundtable. Remember, send in those questions and leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode or a previous one. We'll see you next week for another episode of The Veterinary Roundtable. Bye-bye.