askye, I worked for 2 different vets for a total of 7 years before and during college. The first was an emergency vet - we got a lot of badly injured animals - it was hard a lot of the time and I had to learn not to panic (I'm a natural born panic-er so that was tough!),but I also got to see lots and lots of newborn puppies and kittens.

You have to be OK with lots of blood and often times gore, plus bodily fluids. AND keep in mind that some people are sometimes irrational about their pets and others very blasé about their animals when they shouldn't be and that you can't change either one.

We had one woman who drove 90 miles one way to see one of our vets, but only during the normal lunch hour - she didn't want any other animals around, and if any procedures had to be done, she had to stay in the room with her dog, most times she was in the cage with the dog (a daschund). She was nice enough but very demanding. We had one guy try and bring a pony through the front door of the office.

The upside is that I got to know a lot of really cool people and a lot of really cool animals. I learned a ton, and gained a lot of skills.

Darby is home. Groggy and disoriented and minus a tooth. BUT, she kept her fang (one of her canines they were concerned about) and does not appear traumatized, which is actually a big step forward from her previous visits.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dawn is wicked cool.

Oh man, thanks Scrappy! Being called cool by you is like a dream!!!!

Oh and can I just say that there isn't much more fun than getting to snuzzle newborn puppies!

brenda, I don't often get to post but I am in awe of Darby's progress, you have done a wonderful job helping her come into her own. I'm glad she's home and is only minus one tooth!

Thanks for the information Dawn!

I think I'll be okay with gore and blood and bodily fluids. With Dean and his intestinal issues I've had to clean up a lot of diarrhea. And with my previous cat she got an abscess and there was pus and I had to clean it up and get her to the vet. But those were my animals and sometimes it's different when it's someone else's. So I'm torn, I want to give this a shot because I think it's something I could do well and would be interesting. On the other hand I don't know exactly how I'll deal with blood and gore and all of that.

Glad Darby's appointment went well.

The good thing about the tooth stuff is that it meant that all the other stuff - exam, blood work, vaccinations - could be done while she was out. I was planning to do it soon, but not today since it's ton to do all at once. But the new vet happened to be having a $100 off dental work special for the month of June so yay!

And really it needed done sooner than later. The one they extracted had been broken before I got her, but I didn't realize how badly. They said it was clearly a traumatic injury.

I feel guilty I didn't do it before, but OTOH I don't think she'd have handled it as well.

Oh, and the vet thinks she's older than we thought - maybe 5 or 6 instead of 3 or 4. Which makes some sense, really, but it's all guesswork.

The new tenant is bringing three dogs. So I have to find somewhere to stash my cats Thursday night. Fuck this, I think I'm going to bed. Done for the night.

Cass, how was your experience working at vets? Did you like it, do you have any advice?

There were some things I didn't expect. Someone brought their dog in for a spay and she was full-term pregnant. And they did it. People who brought in puppy after puppy with parvo. Heartbreaking times when people lost pets they did care about too. Plus the expected in blood, guts, gore and gross. Mostly dogs and cats and the occasional run out for horses.

Then I worked for a vet that did house calls. Which was ... any animal. And people treating exotic animals like possessions they didn't really care about but possessions that were valuable so they would pay for upkeep.

There was the gore, sickness and necropsy bits in vet work that was expected. Dealing with the people was less expected.

Oh, and snakes. Apparently even if they are dead. But that's my phobia.