Your warm fuzzies

[sunshinevet]

I thought I'd start a thread where we can share our most memorable cases, and the things that have kept us going in the hard times. I'm sure we all have those cases that will stick with us forever, and have helped shape us as veterinary professionals, and such things are nice to share!

So I'll start.

Last night I stayed up all night monitoring a hypoglycaemic cat. Checks every half an hour, BG's every hour, syringe feeding, you get the picture. At about 3:30am, I started wondering if it would really be so bad to go to bed. I was lying on my bed, when my two cats came in the room - a middleaged, super affectionate DSH and a young, exuberant kitten. They both jumped up on my bed and after much cuddles and kisses, fell asleep. And then I realised that once, someone else had been me, and my cats had been that cat. And I knew that no matter what, I had to stay up for this cat - how could I look at myself in the mirror if I had gone to bed, potentially compromising that cats life, just so I could be less tired in the morning? In a year, I won't remember being so tired today - but I sure will remember if that cat had died on me! (He lived, and I was able to go to bed at 7:15am when the first day nurse arrived! Yay!).

So thats my first one. It may not sound that great, but I work at several vet clinics and one is very money driven, and it kind of grinds away at you after a while. So I was very greatful for this refreshment of emotion.

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[HopefulAg]

My most memorable isn't exactly 'warm fuzzies' lol. So I'll stick in my second most. From the other thread we had on this, it's by no means unique, but bringing a kitten/puppy to 'life' from a C-section is freaking awesome. I, armed with nothing but gravity and a towel (always bring a towel!), have enough maternal energy about me to jump start an anesthetized kitten to full-life.

 

[racccjlm]

When I was doing wildlife rehabilitation, we had a family bring in an injured female raccoon that had recently been pregnant. We could tell she was absolutely miserable, but she required surgery so we couldn't let her go right away. Two days later the same family came back, but this time they had three very scared raccoon kits that they had discovered in the area she was found. We put two and two together and figured that they might be her kids - so we brought them into the same room in a closed incubator with holes in it (of course this is after they had been checked out, etc.), and literally 10 seconds later, the mother raccoon (who abandoned her fears of us) was glued to its side, making the most heart wrenching sobbing noises. The babies were equally desperate to get to her. We opened the top and she immediately crawled in, chattering and cooing. --- I'm sure I'm anthropomorphizing a bit - but she just looked so relieved to be back with her kids. I sure didn't have dry eyes

disclaimer: I am in no way advocating that you try to capture an injured adult raccoon, or take babies that you *think* are abandoned to a rehab clinic. This just happened to turn into a happy ending

 

[marycatherine]

I can't think of my best one yet, but this past weekend one of my coworkers and I went to an outdoor dog carnival. We'd been walking around for a few hours (with his dog) and as we were getting ready to leave we were tackled from behind by a dog. We turned around and it was one of our favorite, recently adopted, dogs from our shelter. We were nearly in tears, hugging her and talking to the family-- who said they'd never seen her jump up on someone like that! Even though the family didn't recognize us at first, Sassy knew it was us, and it was so nice to see her so happy with such a good home.

Oh! One other shelter-story: I often get stopped by pet-owners when I wear my shelter shirt around town. One lady stopped me and told me how she recently adopted her two cats from the shelter and asked to show me pictures. She couldn't remember their shelter-names, but as soon as she opened the photos on her phone I saw Tigger and Boo. They were two cats I'd spent weeks bringing out of their shell in the shelter and I'd been so disappointed when I'd been on vacation when they'd been adopted out. I got into a huge conversation with the woman and I felt so much relief and happiness when she described how they played with her and cuddled under the covers. She told me she was already making them a scrapbook and I was so happy to see such a happy ending for two of my favorite cats.

 

[katryn]

Pinning down my favorite warm fuzzy is hard...especially since several of them are those odd euthanasias that are still warm and fuzzy.


Definitely seeing my first foster kitten come in all grown up now. He's an absolute pistol at the office, but he still has the very first "baby" we gave him and wont go to bed without it.

 

[168135]

Last summer, I was with my friend she had to make the decision to put her cocker spaniel to sleep, and that was really an eye-opening experience. Our family has only owned one cat, who is still around and I have my gerbils so I have yet to experience the death of an animal.

Her dog was having breathing problems and I tried my best to convince her to take her dog to the vet. She was hesitant. A few years prior, her other dog was sick. The family made her decide to put him to sleep. Her dog had hepatitis. He had really good days and really bad days. She felt that the vet didn't educate her enough about his disease. She made the decision to put him to sleep but regretted it. She was scared that her dog still would have had many good days ahead.

We took the dog camping with us and he was wheezing quite a bit sometimes. We were both quite worried. I offered to talk my vet the next day. My friend agreed.

I never got to call my vet. He was fine when we dropped him off home. An hour later, her sister came home and he was gasping for breath. She rushed him to the vet, then called my friend and started screaming at her for "doing this to MY dog". I suddently remembered the time I saw a cat in heart failure. He was wheezing. I got scared because it if was heart failure, there was nothing that could be done.

The vet thought it was asthma but he still had some tests to run. We got a bite to eat and then headed back to the vet later that night. Her dog was in heart failure. She met up with her family... everyone was crying but me... I was close though... I was in shock because I haven't delt with this before.

The vet was awesome... he showed us the x-rays of his enlarged heart. My friend was in hysterics because she thought that taking him camping is what caused his heart to fail. He explained to her why it was nobody's fault. They had two options: put the dog to sleep or treat and wait and see what happens. The vet described a recent heart-failure case and what ended up happening to the dog... he talked about what he would do if this was his dog... which would be considering putting him to sleep... and he explained what could happen if they chose the other option. He ensured them that he would give her dog the best care no matter what her and her family chose.

They decided to put him to sleep. There was a good chance that her dog would pass away overnight and she didn't want him to die alone. As we were leaving, the vet gave everyone, including me, a hug and he thanked me for being there for my friend and ensured the two of us that we did a great thing for her dog by taking him camping with us the night before.

He was a great source of comfort for her. She appreciated his honesty and how he handled the situation. It hit me that I would have to deal with this one day. It scared me a little... but hopefully I'll be able to handle these things as well as he did.

 

[Nephromaniac]

One of my favorite "warm fuzzies" was also a euthanasia situation. I was still somewhat new, & it was one of my first few months on emergency, & we had an after hours EM call w/ a new client who's senior Golden had collapsed. Long story short, he ended up choosing to euthanize. While I was taking care of the total with him, he tried to tip me. I of course declined, but he insisted, and spent like 10 minutes talking to me & thanking me for making the situation as wonderful as it could be under the circumstances, how comfortable I made him feel with his decision, & how much I helped making his pup's last few moments calm & peaceful. It was one of the most touching moments I've had, & it's what always gets me through when we have those rough days w/ way too many PTS's & ungrateful owners. (On a side note, I still declined the tip, & we compromised & he donated it to our fund that goes toward charity / surrender / good sam cases instead).

 

[VeganSoprano]

I'm lucky to have a lot of amazing memories for when things get rough. Recently we had an amazing case of a 2-year-old dog who (long story short) had a GDV, spent the next day progressively declining, coded in the middle of afternoon rounds right when everyone was in front of his cage (!), was clinically dead for about 2 minutes, went into DIC, and ultimately walked out of the hospital with his family just four days after he initially presented. Pretty much a medical miracle.
Another favorite case was a 10-week-old puppy in anuric renal failure and liver failure (probably leptospirosis, though titers were inconclusive). I spent pretty much my entire workday for two weeks caring for him, including a week of every-2-hour peritoneal dialysis. He still comes back for primary care and seeing him as a thriving adult is just incredible.

 

[rileydog]

Would have to say that the first emergency C-section I assisted in was pretty awesome. Four puppies and they all lived!

Today was really cool too. Have been volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic and got to go on a release. Helped the vet catch and do checks on pelicans. We removed sutures on one, and checked the status on four others and they were determined ok to release. Followed the wildlife ambulance to the beach and helped to release 5 pelicans and a royal tern. Watching them fly away was so great. Wonderful to see the end result as volunteering in the hospital, I usually only see the animals when they first come in injured or sick and while they are being treated.

 

[hrtracy]

I've had a lot of warm fuzzy moments, from delivering 5 labbies C-section or finally seeing a doberman run again after her 2nd ACL repair (which I got to drill for!) and watching a 6 year old kid come visit his dog that got hit by a car...but the things I remember the most and the things that keep me going are those cases that frustrate me or just plain out piss me off. You know you've all had them...bad breeders that bring a yorkie pup in with it's back feet chewed off because they "didn't notice the mom was chewing" or the lady that decided to give her brand new chihuahua a bath...in boiling water...to 'kill all the fleas', then there was Dixie, the standard poodle with pancreatitis with no apparent cause...

But there are 1 case in particular that hit me hard (likely b/c he was my pet) Niglet was a sweet, DSH that love everything, especially laying on the screened in front porch in the sun cuddling with his brother Booger. (yes-great names, I know) One day I noticed that Niglet was looking a bit thinner than normal (which was not a bad thing, he was a lazy bum) but I weighed him and within 2 weeks he had dropped 6 lbs, was sustaining a fever, had diarrhea and didnt want to eat. Blood tests were normal during, radiographs all looked normal, his abdomen was not tender. FeLV and FIV tests = NEG, ...NOTHING was wrong with this cat except he didnt want to eat and had the runs. Then on week 3 his PCV dropped to 8! Essentially he should have been DEAD...but was still functioning at a pissed off version of normal (we were poking and prodding daily almost...who wouldn't be mad?). The doctor I was working for started him on immunosuppressants and within a few weeks my cat was back to being clinically normal. Over the next 3 years we fought with the relapses off and on, which at this point became painful for him, until the day he couldn't lift his head to say good morning and I knew that was it.

Call me strange, but it is the stress and the confusion and the challenge of veterinary medicine that keeps me coming back for more. I can get cute and fuzzy any day...I have a attention-seeking lab and a cat that acts like a monkey/dog/pig/raccoon...so cute, warm and fuzzy are all at my fingertips. However I live for the puzzles, the riddles and all of the frustration that comes along with it keeps me going.

 

[MidnightMoon]

I havent been doing this long, but the warmest fuzzy Ive had so far came from this little Pomeranian. It came in one week with a broken leg because the owner had let their four year old throw it off a bunk bed. We treated it and put a cast on it, told the owner to come back to get them changed. They never did, but maybe two weeks later it came back in with its other front leg broken. We at the clinic were all really upset as you could imagine, but our company policy is not to call the ASPCA. So we fixed that leg, told the owner she needed to come back have both bandages changed and to keep her calm and all the other stuff that goes with broken legs. We dont see the pet for the longest time, but when it comes back in both bandages are soaked in urnine and disgusting. The owner is arguing about the 48 dollar charge for changing them plus the possiblility of sedatives cause the bandages were stuck into scabs on the poor dog. The smell was horrible. She said she wanted the dog back without the bandage change.

Everyone was soo pissed, even though it was agaisnt company policy we threatened to call the ASPCA. We refused to give the dog back. We told her she had three option: she can take the dog back and we call the ASPCA, she could surrender the dog to us, or she could have it put to sleep. We all actually thought she would have it put down to spite us. And we would have even perfered that over her taking the dog back. In the end though she surrendered it. I was soo happy I almost cried. Shes been living with various people I work with to decide who gets her (the dog). Shes now happy and healthy and running on those two casts whenever she can!

 

[Minnerbelle]

Everyone was soo pissed, even though it was agaisnt company policy we threatened to call the ASPCA. We refused to give the dog back. We told her she had three option: she can take the dog back and we call the ASPCA, she could surrender the dog to us, or she could have it put to sleep. We all actually thought she would have it put down to spite us. And we would have even perfered that over her taking the dog back. In the end though she surrendered it. I was soo happy I almost cried. Shes been living with various people I work with to decide who gets her (the dog). Shes now happy and healthy and running on those two casts whenever she can!

That is horrible ! and I'm really glad you all ended up doing the right thing, but what kind of clinic do you work for? Is it common for a clinic to have a policy where no one is allowed to report abuse/neglect to authorities? I can understand if there was a policy where people weren't obligated to report it since there are many gray areas... but NOT being allowed to call when there's an obvious case of cruelty/neglect kind of worries me.

 

[MidnightMoon]

That is horrible ! and I'm really glad you all ended up doing the right thing, but what kind of clinic do you work for? Is it common for a clinic to have a policy where no one is allowed to report abuse/neglect to authorities? I can understand if there was a policy where people weren't obligated to report it since there are many gray areas... but NOT being allowed to call when there's an obvious case of cruelty/neglect kind of worries me.

I volunteer for Banfields, the pet hospital in Petsmarts. It seems really stupid to all my co-workers too. I dunno if its a Petsmart thing or not, but you really would think it was the other way around.

 

[aspiringDVM]

This didn't happen in a clinic, but I have a good one from today
We had torrential rains for the past 36 hours. I drove into campus for class this morning, got my pack out of the back of my car, and noticed these strange, birdlike noises. I figured it was just a ticked off mockingbird or something and began to walk across the parking lot, but the noises continued. I put my backpack back in the car and started following the noises, eventually to a hollow tree (the type where the top of the tree is cut off and the remaining verticle stump, in this case about 5.5 feet tall, is hollowed out) in the backyard of a derilect house. By this point I realized that the sounds were not coming from a bird, so I rushed back to my car, pulled a flashlight out of the glovebox, returned to the hollow tree, dragged over a garbage can to stand on so I could see down, and discovered an absoluted soaked, very angry ~3 week old kitten. Of course I fished the kitten out of the tree (I could hardly reach him even with my whole arm stuck in there), and then realized that I had class and a quiz in ten minutes. I naturally rushed up to the biology floor of the science building and begged my favorite professor to babysit, which she willingly agreed to. After explaining to the professor of my class, I retrieved the kitten and brought him back to class with me, where he gobbled up bits of salmon from the professor's lunch and thoroughly disrupted everything. The professor didn't seem to mind, and kept talking to him in Spanish. A lady in the admissions office eventually agreed to adopt him

 

[cowgirla]

This didn't happen in a clinic, but I have a good one from today
We had torrential rains for the past 36 hours. I drove into campus for class this morning, got my pack out of the back of my car, and noticed these strange, birdlike noises. I figured it was just a ticked off mockingbird or something and began to walk across the parking lot, but the noises continued. I put my backpack back in the car and started following the noises, eventually to a hollow tree (the type where the top of the tree is cut off and the remaining verticle stump, in this case about 5.5 feet tall, is hollowed out) in the backyard of a derilect house. By this point I realized that the sounds were not coming from a bird, so I rushed back to my car, pulled a flashlight out of the glovebox, returned to the hollow tree, dragged over a garbage can to stand on so I could see down, and discovered an absoluted soaked, very angry ~3 week old kitten. Of course I fished the kitten out of the tree (I could hardly reach him even with my whole arm stuck in there), and then realized that I had class and a quiz in ten minutes. I naturally rushed up to the biology floor of the science building and begged my favorite professor to babysit, which she willingly agreed to. After explaining to the professor of my class, I retrieved the kitten and brought him back to class with me, where he gobbled up bits of salmon from the professor's lunch and thoroughly disrupted everything. The professor didn't seem to mind, and kept talking to him in Spanish. A lady in the admissions office eventually agreed to adopt him

Am I total wierdo for saying there is nothing cuter than an angry little kitten? Providing I dont have to wrestle with them for a drop of their blood or anything like that

Congrats on saving a life!

 

[hrtracy]

Am I total wierdo for saying there is nothing cuter than an angry little kitten? Providing I dont have to wrestle with them for a drop of their blood or anything like that

Congrats on saving a life!

LOL NO! Cutest thing my cat ever did was when she was ~6wks old. Took her to the vet for her initial exam (she was a street kitty before that). The tech gave her treats, realized that she had given her too many and attempted to take some away. My kitten wrinkled her nose, growled (not hissed like a normal cat would) and swatted the tech, then continued to eat and growl.

Addition: Everyone at the clinic still remembers her as the angry little kitten.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Angry kitten love! My favorite are hissing neonates. They're blind, pretty much deaf, have no teeth, and can barely crawl, but they'll still hiss to show what ferocious beasts they are if you dare to offend them! Hilarious.