Week 4: May 26-29

This week felt very short due to Memorial Day. This week closely resembled the previous week however there were no neuters or spays. I learned to never trust a cat and the safest way to hold them during a small procedure such as taking blood or urine. During one of the appointments I stood in on, I saw Doc give mouth to mouth to a small bird. Unfortunately it was unable to be resuscitated. I also took my snake (Seymore) in to have a check up because he wasn’t eating and did not shed properly, it turns out that he is a she! Doc suggested trying to feed her pinky mice to see if I could get her to eat and to give her a warm bath for her scales. Both of these worked and I now know she is a girl. Oh the many things you learn from others. Due to the fact that this coming week will be very short because of TPOL preparation, I have decided to continue my internship and extra week to make up for the time spent on my TPOL. Although this is not what I want to do when I get older or specifically what I want to learn about, I enjoy the company of my co-workers and being able to interact with animals on a medical basis.

Week 3: May 18-22

Each week I am finding more and more to do other than cleaning. I have learned how to properly wrap surgical towels and drapes along with run the autoclave (steam sterilizer) that they have. They were impressed that I knew what it was when I first saw it. Finally, science fair last year was worth something in the real world! Similarly to last week, I watched many spays and neuters this week. There were more very cute kittens that I was allowed to play with. This week there were two adorable puppies that were boarding and I enjoyed playing with them whenever there was a dull moment. Another time-filler that I have found is a book called “Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine.” By reading this book I found at ABH, I have learned many facts about exotic animals along with the various illnesses they are prone to and how to treat them. From this book I learned that it is possibly to do surgery on fish; in order to put the animal under anesthesia, the sedative is mixed in the water and a special arrangement is set up so that water is run through the gills and mouth so the fish is able to breathe.

Week 2: May 11-15

This week is much improved in comparison to the last week. I decided that with time, I will be allowed to partake in more activities at ABH thus I did not split my time between two internships. I feel as though I am establishing trust and enthusiasm the more I work. The highlight of this week was all of Tuesday, on this day there were six Rescue House kittens who were with us for the day. Five of them needed to be neutered and one spayed. I had never learned about the process of spaying and neutering and I learned that neutering an animal is not very difficult; the male does not even get stitches. However, to spay a female it is a fairly intense procedure. Imagine a woman getting her ovaries and uterus removed, that is quite the recovery. During these procedures, I was allowed to work the anesthesia machine, much the step up from the tasks I was allowed last week. This week I was allowed to mix a few bordatela vaccines and I was able to vaccinate two dogs with the vaccines I mixed. A valuable skill I learned from this is syringe handling and tricks on how to extract all the liquid from the bottles. I also learned how to properly fold, wrap and label surgical drapes and towels. These two skills seems like they will come in handy if and when I work in a medical facility again because I will have experience dealing with these materials and be able to handle them like a professional!

Week 1: May 4-8

The first day of working at the Animal and Bird Hospital (ABH) was not exactly what I had expected when I decided to work in a small animal clinic. On the first day I got to watch a dental cleaning of a rescue cat, it was neat to see them extract two of his teeth. The second day I learned how to bath a dog. Wednesday was a half day and was very slow, so I cleaned the entire pharmacy and kitchenette area. Thursday I got to watch a growth removal surgery where I got to hold the dog’s leg out of the way and I helped clean all the bird cages for the non-profit organization called Free Flight located next door. Friday I bathed two dogs all on my own and I got to see two surgeries where Doc used a laser! Over all I realized that I never want to work with household animals because majority of the time is dealing with the animals owners. Meanwhile dogs, cats and small birds can get very monotonous. At this point I am considering breaking up my internship between ABH and the Joan Embery Institute for Wildlife Conservation because I feel like I can get more out of Endersession that way.