Yesterday I was on operations. First there were a few admissions to get through, including a four-year-old terrier cross who had come in for x-rays. She had been lame for a while and the owner was keen for us to do further investigations. The owner was also keen for pre-op bloods to be done, as she was a rescue dog and no history was available. After she was admitted, she had her bloods taken and settled into the kennels until the results came through.  All the other admissions had been done, so I headed down to theatre to start setting up the operations.

First, I assisted the vet with a bitch spay on a one-year-old border collie. She was very well behaved so she was easy to induce and was soon under anaesthetic. The surgery went well and the general anaesthetic was steady. She was soon recovering in the kennels.

Next, I helped the little dog I admitted earlier for x-rays. The vet took several images of limbs and the spinal area and couldn't find anything abnormal. The general anaesthetic was steady and the patient recovered very well.

After that, I helped the vet with another x-ray on a golden retriever that had been vomiting on and off for a few days.  The vet thought that she could feel a foreign body in her abdomen. We sedated the dog and took images of her abdomen which confirmed a foreign body in her intestines. After the vet discussed what he had found with the owner,  the owner opted to have the foreign body removed from the dog surgically. We maintained the patient under a general anaesthetic for the surgery, performed an exploratory laparotomy on the patient, and the vet removed the foreign body from the small intestine. The general anaesthetic was steady and surgery went well - the patient was soon up and walking about.

At 2pm I went for my break and returned at 5pm to take over kennels for the night.

I had one cat and three dogs to look after overnight. The cat was in on fluids as it was in renal failure. The dog who had the exploratory laparotomy earlier in the day was also staying in for fluids and observation. Another dog was in for an on-going urinary problem - he was struggling to urinate and needed catheterising regularly. He was due to have a cystotomy the following day. The third dog was in for fluids and meds as she had been suffering bloody diarrhoea for a few days.

The next day:

I was in kennels again today. The dog with the bladder problem was starved overnight ready for his general anaesthetic. The little dog with diarrhoea went home as she had stopped displaying symptoms and was very bright in the morning. The little dog that had had the exploratory laparotomy was also very bright and ate her breakfast very keenly. She also went home that morning. The cat stayed in for further fluids, but sadly the owner opted to have him put to sleep in the afternoon as his bloods hadn't improved. There were quite a few day patients admitted for operations, so the kennels were pretty busy. Most of the morning was spent sorting out day patients and hospital patients.

My kennels assistant was very helpful clearing up after me and getting the patients walked around the garden. Late morning the dog with the urinary problem went for a cystotomy. He returned shortly after and vet had removed lots and lots of urinary crystals - they looked like rice crispies! Once he had recovered I took him out for a walk around the garden and he did a big wee without straining or discomfort, so that was a great result. He stayed in for the rest of the day and overnight for observation.

The afternoon was pretty manic with patients getting discharged and having to sort out hospital patients before the duty nurse came and took over. I managed to get patients discharged and plans made for the hospital patients for the night. Five o'clock came around quickly and I handed over to the duty nurse.