These next two journals cover the last two days at work.  They can be
grouped into two categories, happy and sad.

This is the sad one, so if you are feeling depressed or are in a bad
mood, SAVE THIS FOR LATER!!!!

Yesterday I came into work and saw Alister the kitten in a cage.  I
like Alister.  He's a six month old orange ginger cat with a fiesty
personality.  I was there when we were drawing blood for an FELV/FIV
test.  He was a QUITE a handful.  He didn't think too much of the
dewormer I gave him either.

I was curious why he was in the clinic.  I was pretty sure he had
already been spayed.  Now on each cage we have an index card with the
pet's first and last name and in the corner, a brief abbreviation of
what the animal is here for.  It'll say things like Blood, X-rays, or
if it's boarding the dates they are staying.  I walked up to the cage
and my jaw dropped when I read the card.

He was there to be declawed.   (Awwww s***)

Until yesterday I didn't know that the clinic performed declaws.
Yipes!  In the cage next to Alister's there was a pretty white cat
named Angel.  Angel didn't look to happy and when I checked the file I
noticed that he had been declawed on Tuesday.  (double s***)

I didn't know enough to help out , but I just went about my daily
duties. I helped clip toenails and bathed dogs, fed and medicated
animals.  But for the first few hours, I would look into Alister's
cage and feel really sad.

When they were doing the operation, I had never seen it before, and
I'm technically not supposed to hover nearby.  So I went about and did
other things, but I would pass by the doctor doing the operation every
time I walked through the treatment room.  Next thing I look over and
Alister is being putting back into the cage, which both front legs
wrapped in bandages.  I walk up to the table and I can see the claws
lying on a towel.  My fingers hurt just looking at them.

I took a deep breath and kept working.  I did my other daily tasks,
but it was a slow day and it's hard sometimes to keep busy.

Later at the end of the day, when we give all the evening medications,
my co-worker Susan took out Alister so I could give him some oral
Amoxicillan drops.  So I gently reach up and grasped the head gently
and start to work the syringe into the corner of his mouth.  Alister
suddenly freaks, and bites down.  I pulled back just a bit so he just
chomped down on the syringe, but that easily could have been my
finger.  Then we gave him a painkiller shot which he did not like.  He
was fighting us and trying to bite at the bandages. Poor thing.

This morning the bandages were removed but Alister was kicking and
screaming the entire time.  He's got an appetite but it's pretty
obvious that he's quite grumpy.  I don't blame him a bit.  Both he and
Angel would tuck in their front feet so they wouldn't have to put too
much weight on their front paws.  He's staying one more day for
observation.  Angel went home today though.  They are both young cats,
and I'm told that doing it at a younger age is better.  (yeah, define
'better')

I don't know anything about the client.  Client relations is not my
job.  I'm guess that this kitten is going to be strictly indoors.  I
wish I could saw something, but once the vet and/or the client make
the decision, there's nothing I can do about it, even if it's
something like euthanasia or declawing.
Now, I was very tempted to ask Dr. C, at  the end of the day why we
even offer doing something like this.  I kinda dropped the subject to
my supervisor Jen and she agreed that it was a horrible thing to do.
But I kept my mouth shut because I wasn't sure how to approach and ask
him, but more importantly because since I'm such a new employee, I
don't feel I'm in a position to raise criticisms on the types of
treatment we offer.  I supposed I could quit and try to find a place
that doesn't declaw.

However, I do really enjoy working there and I know I will learn a
lot.  Watching Jen's reaction tells me, that I just have to grin and
bear it, since there's nothing I can do.  I could raise the subject
and raise a ruckus over it, but it's not worth it enough to me.  And
most clinics do perform this, though there are those that refuse to do
it.

Quite depressing, isn't it?  But as always in life there are tons of
things that really piss us off but we can't do anything about.

Kristi

(if your'e really depressed now, go on to Vet Tech journals 8)