Last Friday, I went into the clinic at my usual time and expected to go through the usual routine of back-to-back appointments. I have come to learn that the best thing about this career is that even though your day consists of the same schedule, the things you handle are always different.
In my 2 hour shift I got the chance to witness and "help" draw a urine sample, look for kidney stones, and actually see ear mites.
I have heard Dr. D ask the Vet Techs to get urine samples from different patients quite a few times and I always wondered how they did that. Well, on Friday I got to see! Basically, they lift up the patient (in this case it was a dog) onto a table and flip it on its back. They then use an ultrasound to locate the bladder and then they draw out the urine using a needle. It is much harder than it sounds.. Especially when the dog we had to do this on was a dog that had been rescued from being a Mama at a puppy mill.. so she had some trust issues. But she trusted us more than her son did and he was the one we were checking for kidney stones. Looking for kidney stones had the same routine as getting a urine sample, minus the needle. So all we did was flip him on his back, and look at the ultrasound to see if we spotted any stones. Luckily, we didn't find any. But, he did empty his anal gland during the process.For those of you who don't know what that is.. It is the thing dogs use to "mark their territory" and identify other dogs. It is common for the dog to empty it during super stressful times leaving you with a very stinky dog. But, you get used to it.
The next thing I got to see was actual, live ear mites.. under a microscope. It was very detailed and and moving and kinda gross but it was really cool to see.
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