Considering a Future Career

For my future career, I am thinking about becoming a vet. I am not sure if I want to be one, but I am thinking about it. So I decided I would like to see what a day in the life of a vet is like, and my mother phoned the vet and arranged to spend a day with him.
I went last week Tuesday, and it was very nice and interesting. I was there at 8:00, and received a friendly greeting. When I arrived, the vet was reading in a textbook about an unusual operation for later on in the day. The vet had an assistant who helped him, but didn’t actually operate.
During the morning there were seven operations, which were very interesting. But there was only one problem: I ate breakfast shortly before leaving, and so I felt rather light-headed during the first two or three operations. The first two operations were two female cats being spayed. I will spare you the grisly details in this post, but if you want me to write about them, just let me know. Anyway, the operations were interesting, but I didn’t watch too closely because I was feeling weird. The assistant would give the animals a dose of sedative, so that less anaesthetic was used. Then he would give them the anaesthetic in their leg, sometimes shaving the fur away to get at the skin. After he had done that, he would empty the cats bladder (if it was a cat), and then shave the belly. Then the assistant would wash the skin well with a liquid soap, rinse it and then the vet would take it to the operating table, and operate. By the way, one of the cats’ names was Bibi. I will include all the names of all the animals as I go.
Next, there were two beagles, a male and a female, by the names of Piesang (Afrikaans for banana) and Papaya respectively. They were in for a spay and neuter. These I also did not watch too closely, but soon felt better. After these two adorable dogs, there was a fox terrier cross by the name of Smudge, who came in for several tumours on her belly. These were soon removed, and she was alright.
After her, there was a massive Neapolitan Mastiff, who had come in earlier in the day, who was called Khublakan. He was a big, heavy dog, who had a tumour on his foot. The vet’s assistant said the dog must have weighed around sixty kilograms, which is a little less than me, and his head alone at least fifteen kilos, and I found this when I had to hold the dog’s head up while the vet pushed a pipe down the mastiffs throat to help him breathe while under the anaesthetic. Khublakan was carried to the table, and his paw shaved around the tumour, and then washed. The vet then cut the tumour out on the sides, between the pads. The tumour must have been on average three quarters of the size of a golf ball! After cutting it out, he then sewed the paw pads together again.
But there was a tragic happening in store. Later on, sometime after the operation, the vat’s assistant came to check Khublakan, and found him not breathing. He got the stethoscope and listened to the big dog’s head, but heard nothing. Khublakan was dead! Sadly yes. We were not sure what had caused him to die, but the assistant took him to an outside room, and had a look at the dog’s heart, and found that the cancer had spread to his heart.
Next up was a dog called Blackie, and he was like his name: black. Anyway, his problem was that he had trouble with one of his salivary glands, which were seeping saliva into his neck, in pockets I think, because he had two large squishy lumps on his throat. And the cure was simple: remove the gland, and plush the area of saliva congregation.
Another interesting patient was a beautiful white cat, who (surprisingly enough) was a diabetic. If you have seen one of my previous posts about Tartufo, this cat looked similar, but whiter, in fact snow white, and with longer fur. Her name was Lady Poppet, and she was staying with the vet while her owner was in hospital.
There was also a Jack Russell Terrier, who was blind in one eye, and had had the other one removed some time before, and so she couldn’t see. But the sad thing was, she had a stroke not long ago, and as a result her head constantly tilted to one side. When she stood up, her head would pull to the side, and she would go in circles until she sat down. But she was also old, and the vet was trying to convince the owner, who wanted to keep the dog, that it was time to put the dog down.
It was a very nice day, and I like the idea of being a vet. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a camera with me, and so I have no photos. I hoped you enjoyed the story of my day.