Firstly, thanks to everyone for your kind words and messages following last week’s article. It meant a lot to get so much support.
It is always hard to know how much to share the emotional side of our job, as it can be hard express how we feel or why some things affect us so much.
Fortunately, to match the low points we also have some real highs, so if you don’t mind me going a bit “James Herriot”, I’d like to share another story from my days as a new graduate, and once again starring the wonderful bosses I had in Esperance.
When you graduate as a vet, you still have a lot to learn. Not only do we need to be able to treat a wide range of species, we also need to cover a wide range of roles for each animal. We need to be a GP, anaesthetist, obstetrician, dentist, dermatologist, endocrinologist, emergency doctor, etc. for dogs, cats, and whichever species come our way.
Because one person can only know so much, especially as a new graduate, I made sure I knew what to do in an emergency as I knew I might not have time to read up on what to do.
The first snake bite victim I saw was a young Jack Russell called Spot. His owner found him with a tiger snake in his mouth, so rushed him in to see us.
During the drive to the clinic Spot became quieter and quieter, then stopped breathing. By the time the owners ran in through our door, Spot’s heart had stopped.
Fortunately for Spot, it was a quiet day at work, and we had two vets and three nurses there to start work on him straight away. We intubated him (inserted a breathing tube), gave him some emergency drugs and began CPR. After a couple of minutes his heart started again, so we know he had a chance.
To treat a pet following a snake bite, we need to give them antivenom, which is very expensive. Back then is was around $500/vial, and they often need more than one dose to survive.
We needed to have a talk to Spot’s owner about how much the treatment was going to cost. Spot’s owner could only afford $750, so we knew Spot needed to respond to one vial or he wouldn’t survive.
We gave the vial to Spot, and 10 minutes later he still wasn’t breathing on his own. He was unconscious, and we knew that the one vial wasn’t going to save him.
One of my bosses, Nicole, was helping with Spot. She made one of the most generous decisions I have ever seen a vet make and told the owner that the clinic would cover any costs above $750. Over the next hour we gave Spot five more vials of antivenom, which was every dose we had. The clinic had effectively donated $2500 of drugs to try to save Spot.
For the next six hours we continued to breathe for Spot. We took it in turns keeping Spot alive. After so many hours, we were amazed when Spot took a breath for himself.
That night I slept on my swag next to Spot’s cage, and by morning he was awake and wagging his tail. We sent him home later that day, back to his normal self.
He’s one of those cases which remind me why I became a vet, and I’ll always remember the feeling I had as he walked out the door, happy and healthy again.