I'm an intern

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

eek

yup, I started yesterday. I'm an intern at animal 911 which has to be the nicest clinic that I've ever seen. It was renovated only 3 or so years ago and it's all state of the art, and very environmentally friendly. Except the anesthetic machines, those are sooo old school, apparently the vet likes them though. Also, all the pets get CRI of pain meds regardless the procedure.

Today I was 30mins late on account of I ran out of freaking gas crying and my car just totally stalled in the middle of the busy street. I was close to tears and shaking when I finally arrived but was able to collect myself and stop shaking enough to drug two cats and succesfuly place a catheter and intubate the cat. Second catheter I couldn't get and cause a hematoma sad but other than that, it's going okay. One of the techs said I was good at restraint which most students aren't, so that made me feel pretty good.

The techs and even the vets are pretty nice at this clinic. While the clinic itself is huge (complete with daycare and gym) the staff is pretty small so it makes for a cozy lil environment. Two of the vets are newly graduated fairly young so that probably helps too, them being so young they're easy to talk to.  

[Elly_the_lost_penguin]

That's awesome! congratulations! Sounds like you really like it there. smile  

[Kipluck]

That is fantastic!!!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Yup, I'm starting to like my unpaid internship more than my paid "job". Thing is, the clinic I work at, I'm NOT a tech. After 5 months I still have to get everything checked. I'm only now starting to cut nails.

At the clinic I'm doing my internship at, they like...trust me. I've had so many great compliments, I'm overwhelmed by how nice they are.

Today, they left me alone to monitor this stray cat a client had brought in to spay and release. It ended up being a super long surgery cause the cat broke a canine, was sedated 3 times before the surgery, was pregnant, had to have a few teeth removed. I cleaned and polished the remaining teeth. By the time we took her off anesthetic she was sooo drugged, she took a good 45 mins to wake up. Now at school, when we have ferals, we wake up em up in their cages so when they start to swallow we pull the tube out and shut the door. This cat however, was hypothermic, so I was waking her up on the table with a heating pad, I has just pulled the tube out of her throat, had one hand on the cat, was grabbing the cage with the other when the cat just flew off the table.

It was one of those moments, it happened so fast, but my mind processed it like in slow motion, I was like, I'll be damned if this cat breaks ANOTHER canine cause of me. So despite the vet telling me to let go, I held on and just managed to grab her scruff as she was in midair.

The tech was like "good catch!"
And the vet was all "ya, good catch, but next time don't risk it!"
And the tech kind of still smirking said "but I like that your instinct was to not let go"
And the vet getting kind of annoyed said "ya, but fight it!"

Anyway, after today I thhiinnkkk I might get my rabies vaccine lol. I was lucky, and we don't deal with ferals much, but, never know.

Also got to medicate animals (no supervision) vaccinate a dog intranasal, ran blood work, did physio, shadowed on consults, restrained aggressive dogs. This stage has been a mega confidence booster. I dunno what's come over me, I feel like a super tech, the vet was scared of a dog and I just went in and grabbed it.

My teacher in charge of the internships told me the biggest complaints they get from our supervisors is that students are slow and suck at holding. I feel like everyone is impressed with my restraint so I'm not to worried about my meeting with her on Tuesday.  

[Vanilla eXee]

That's awesome! A`re they allowed to hire you after your stage?If so, I hope they do!  

[Kitten Rose73]

Sounds really cool! I hope that they will hire you to work there soon  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

I really don't know if they will hire me. A classmate worked there as a kennel, and she said they were not hiring techs. I think she ended up quitting cause she didn't feel like sticking around at a clinic that would not hire her once she graduated.

On the other hand though, they know I'm interested in rehab, and they do need a rehab tech. So we'll see. I'm doing my best to impress them so that if they can afford to hire a tech they would hopefully be interested.  

[Akari_32]

Sounds like a good clinic to be at!

Lucky catch LOL

What ever happens in the end is meant to happen 3nodding  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

It's really cool to have experience at more than one clinic. I'm noticing all the big differences. Some good and some bad. The clinic I'm doing my internship at has a huge advantage in that, they are brand new, so the building itself counts for so many pluses. Like there being so much glass everywhere that even when you are on lunch in the kitchen, you can see the hospitalized animals.

On the downside though, from 1am to 7am, there is NO ONE there. That freaks me the hell out. I understand they are not a 24hr clinic, I understand it's hard and expensive to pay ppl to do overnight shifts. BUT, after seeing a cat at the clinic I work at nearly choke to death on his own IV line. I'm so against it. At least having a kennel stay overnight like my clinic does. My GAWD. gonk

On the other hand, they are super super pro pain management. They have morphine drips for everything. Fentanyl patches for major stuff. They're phylosophy is simply that if people don't want to pay extra for pain management, go somewhere else.


In terms of lab. They have twice as many machines. So they can do a lot more in house. They do full wellness checks, always, they have no half a** options. (this is good and bad to me, maybe to someone that extra 20 bucks is the difference between agreeing to the test, and a 15 panel would still give you more information than nothing!). They ONLY do blood smears (look at blood under the microscope) if something comes back abnormal. This I'm not fond of. Yes it's very time consuming to do and look at blood smears. But I don't think they should rely sooo much on their machines like that.


Last night I had a familiar face come in as an emergency. One of the kittens born at my school, who I knew and helped raise. Had the tip of his tail torn off and 10cm of the tail was just bone. It was gross and cool at the same time lol. Anyway, I'm off to the clinic again, so I can't wait to see him. They will have amputated his tail by now.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Sounds really cool there. The only thing I worry about, is what if it's a procedure that doesn't normally cause pain/require pain meds? I mean if it's not needed, I wouldn't want to put meds in my cat, same as I won't just take an aspirin for a minor headache, y'know?  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Vanilla eXee

Sounds really cool there. The only thing I worry about, is what if it's a procedure that doesn't normally cause pain/require pain meds? I mean if it's not needed, I wouldn't want to put meds in my cat, same as I won't just take an aspirin for a minor headache, y'know?

I'm with you on that one. But every time they cut into the animal they get pain management. I guess the reason for that is, it's very difficult to asses pain on animals.

Every cat wakes up in the incubator, nice and warm and cozy.

One major difference is the clinic I work for has like a bagillion kennel staff, and a shortage of techs. So, the kennels will often enter the clients, and the clients often never even SEE the techs. But, having so many kennels constantly available means not giving body disposals to techs. Therefor, the clinic I work at is able to offer (at no extra charge) a clay pawprint of their animal. They can take it home, bake it, and keep it forever., This clinic, there is 1 kennel, and techs take care of bodies, they just started doing an ink pawprint on paper, but it's quick, they don't have time to make it nice even.

I know it's like, the simplest thing, but I can tell you, as a client, it made the world of difference to me. It's why I'm glad I switched vets with my first dog and euthanized him at the clinic I now work at. Because that keepsake means the world to me. And if ANYTHING god forbid, happened to my babies, I would want them euthanized at the clinic I work at for that very reason.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

I have exciting updates. So the internship is going super well. Everyone at the clinic is so nice to me. The Dr. who owns is is a bit quiet and doesn't talk to me much, but, sill, a nice guy.

Today alone I took blood from the jugular 3 times, got it each time! Then I ran the blood in the machine, made slides, stained them etc etc. I've been there a week and I have little to no supervision. Feels good to finally be independant.

So my teacher came to check up on me today. First she sat down with my supervisor at the clinic. Then supervisor left and I went in for our meeting and my teacher is patting me on the back and saying "THEY LOVE YOU, way to go, you're doing great!" I was like, oh, that's great. Then she said my supervisor told her I was the strongest student they've had in years. eek


I think I could have cried. I have NEVER been a good student. Sure some subjects I'm passionate about. Sure I want to do well. But I have a horrid attention span when it comes to 99.9% of things, and I know I have ADD but I've never taken anything for it. In many classes I just scraped by. In nursing even i was one of the weak students and it sucks, like of course i wana be good at what i do so that was nice to hear lol  

[Vanilla eXee]

That's why I have a problem with the whole "You need to go to school to do _______". No doubt that you're passionate about animals, but you're good at it, and now you have proof. I think that stuff like this, if someone has an aptitude for it, schooling shouldn't be as important as it is.

Awesome job Gabby! I'm so excited for you!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Well, there's a lot of skills I would not have had I just started there without being in the program for 3 years. IM, SQ and IV injections being just a few examples. Like yes school taught me A LOT, I was just never that good of a student. So I felt like I wasn't good enough. Now it's totally hands on all day every day not just once or two classes a week, plus the learning experience is like one on one, no, better, I'm the only student and everyone else is there to teach me, so, I'm totally focused all day long and taking everything in.

The only bummer is, I have to write a 20 page medical paper and it's due the first Monday after my stage ends. In other words, while I'm working full time and not getting paid, plus part time in order to have some money...I'm also suppose to find time to research and write a huge project. I'm starting to stress out about that. I chose to do an ACL case, lol maybe Savage will have some advice for me. I mostly chose it cause it was the only case in which the client took the full physio package so I can talk a lot about the rehab process. Unfortunately I also have to talk in detail about the surgery itself, how it's done and what some other methods of doing it are. I don't think I'll have a problem writing 20 pages, it's more the research itself that will take time, and finding a good time to ask the vet to explain in detail how he does the surgery.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Today was uber cool, I got to do REHAB! okay, I did it all on Cowboy, but even better right? Cowboy was much more focused in the underwater treadmill with ME in it with him. And then afterwards I laserd him. The treadmill was cool mrgreen

My case study, I've decided to do on an ACL injury. The client opted to do the Gold Package post op rehab so there's LOADS to talk about. I have to try super hard not to focus on the rehab but to also talk about the surgery itself, blood work, drugs etc etc. I have 3 weeks and it's 20 pages. Writting it will not be that hard, but there;s a ton of research involved and it has to be SUPER detailed. Like almost idiot proof, explaining the class and mode of action of like EVERY drug used and explaning what each value on the blood test tells you and explaining the surgery down to each instrument, suture and monitoring deviced used. I'm actually worried about how I will fit all that into 20 pages.