Don't Leave Your Lunch on the Chicken Corpse

[gonzai]

Actual words spoken at clinical last night. The hospital has a rather diverse animal clientele and yesterday, they performed emergency surgery on a young rooster. Yes, a chicken. However, guesstimating anesthesia for a chicken is tough, and the chicken never woke up from surgery. The owner was OK about the chicken dying, but wanted to keep the body for burial, except she couldn't pick it up tonight, could we keep it until tomorrow? The deceased chicken promptly took up residence in the refrigerator. The night crew didn't know about it, hence the warning when they came in. (They were not amused.)

Meanwhile we also had a ferret and 3 different guinea pigs with varying levels of hair, a feral kitten that was actually very pretty and had a great personality (she didn't like having her ears cleaned and kicked me as I held her, but the claws never came out) and several boarded dogs who were anxious for new friends.  Now that my time there is growing short, I'm bugging people to let me try things that are specifically on the course list, so yesterday I filled my first prescriptions and did my first fecal test. I may be a pain tomorrow about drawing vaccines, it's high on the priority chart of the school.

Comments

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

So, now that you've been there for awhile, do you still want to do animal medicine? :)

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

Still mulling that one. Euthanasia is tough and my feet are killing me from just part-time, but it's a lot better/more interesting than the current job. I'll have to keep pondering it.

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

What's your current job? :)

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

Legal secretary. Been doing that for almost 21 years now, save for 18 months of mostly unemployed. Sick of it, too.

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

I was a legal secretary once. Didn't do it long enough to be sick of it. It still pays well, right? :)

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

Uh, no. Less than 20K.

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's low! Back in the day, secretaries used to make beaucoup bucks, particularly legal secretaries. Wow, no wonder you are looking for a different career. :(

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

Basically, big (downtown) firm, big bucks. And you spend all the extra on wardrobe and parking. Small firm, small bucks.

Vet assistants don't make much more than that, but it's a recession-proof job.

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

And probably a more rewarding one as well. :)