When I created my blog, the tagline was "The daily musings of a duck loving pet shop employee embarking upon Farmerhood" While I was driving home the other day, I realized that that tagline no longer applies to me. I'm still a duck-lover, that's never going to change. And I am no longer really embarking upon farmerhood. I moved off the acreage to live in the city with my boyfriend, so apart from my gardening, I'm not much of a farmer. And I am no longer a pet shop employee. My 2 years of employment in the pet shop industry has come to an end, as I have been hired at a Veterinary Hospital. Let me tell you, it's been a rough month, but I am coming around and loving my job.
So, at the end of April I graduated from my journalism program. I now have a diploma, and it was an awesome feeling to complete my schooling. I was so done with school. Right after graduating I was hell-bent determined on getting a job at a veterinary clinic.
Me, late April 2015:
Believe it or not, I was hired on the spot at one of the city's most popular 24hr emergency veterinary hospitals. This is a big deal! I was hired as an assistant to the hospital's AHT's and Veterinarians. It is my job to:
- run lab-work
- complete lab paperwork and enter results in the system
- maintain the lab equipment
- write discharge notes and instructions
- trim nails
- restrain animals
- clean kennels
- walk dogs
- bag deceased animals
- make memorial paw prints after a pet dies
- tend to the patients' IVs
- feed the animals admitted in hospital
- call in and tend to all strays and wildlife
- manage paperwork create discharge bins
- make and sterilize surgical packs
- prep animals for surgery
- set up, assist in, and clean the surgical suits
- and much, much more.
I am now on rotation work (5 days on, 5 days off) and I work 11 hour shifts. Labs and surgeries prove to have rather steep learning curves, and I've been flooded with so much information.
Me, after learning about all my responsibilities:
I pretty much spent my first shift bagging dead cats, which I found incredibly difficult. I love animals very much, and I get attached to the patients rather easily. I get tremendously sad when I watch animals die, and I find it to be difficult to bag them and bring them to the morgue.
Me, every time an animal dies:
Me trying to pretend that I didn't see an animal that needs bagging:
Me, when I actually have to do the bagging:
After I put someone's pet in the freezer I feel like:
On one of my first shifts, I had to bag up a hare and her baby. Both were euthanized in hospital, and I was rather upset as the baby hare was just brand new and healthy. After bagging both up with the most tender care, I carried them downstairs to the morgue. Unfortunately, I forgot the code to get into the morgue, and couldn't get in. I ran back upstairs, and to my complete horror, couldn't find a single co-worker. Everyone was gone. There wast a veterinarian at the computer in triage, but he didn't know the code to the morgue. So I spent close to 15 minutes running around the hospital with dead bunnies in a bag, looking for someone who could help me get into the morgue. Fun stuff right there. I went home and cried that day, actually.
While it's taking some time for me to get the hang of things, I'm really learning to love my job. I love my scrubs, and I love being with animals all day. Unfortunately, 90% of my patients bite and/or scratch me, and I am covered in cuts and bruises. I love it though. Animals are the best. I sincerely don't mind being covered in fur and having my arms and hands bedazzled with band-aids. I like working the centrifuge and using the refractometer to identify the USG of a urine sample. It's so cool. The only thing that's quite daunting is the amount of lab results I have to manually enter to patient files. On my last shift I had an actual mountain of paperwork.
When I see stacks of paperwork on my lab desk:
I'm so stoked with my job, and I feel confident that I am in my career. I'm currently deciding if I want to go to school to become a Vet Tech, or if I'm gonna go balls out and go for the full meal deal:
DANIE THE DVM.
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