Unexpected Job Hazard

So, I work in a pretty rough environment. On any given day, I might expect to get kicked, scratched, bitten, stepped on, or exposed to any number of zoonotic diseases, including rabies. Then, there's the other less obvious hazards like frostbite, sunburn, heat exhaustion, insect stings, and such. While I was preggo, you could add x-rays, anesthetic gas, hormones and exposure to cat feces to the list.

Well, last Sunday, I was exposed to a toxin I wouldn't have ever thought about. I was working on a blocked tom cat (read: he had a bladder stone plugging his urethra and couldn't pee) on the 'wet table' on emergency. The wet table is kind of our prep/dental/small procedure table in our ward room that has a grate on top and is a sink underneath so you can just rinse away any nastiness that may occur- which does quite frequently. Anyhow, the ideal place to catheterize a cat so that the urine will just go into the sink and not make too much of a mess. I had the cat under gas anesthesia and finally was able to dislodge the stone and bloody, stagnant urine under pressure came shooting out of the catheter.

Have you ever smelled cat pee? Have you ever smelled tom cat pee? Have you ever smelled it mixed with blood and concentrated- yeah, not the best smell. So, shortly after I had expressed the bladder, I was sewing the catheter in place and my eyes started burning and my throat got really scratchy. There were some crazy fumes going on, but I realized it wasn't the anesthesia or the urine. Hmm... then it dawned on me- the only person that had been in that morning was the cleaning lady.

She likes to clean with bleach.....

Stagnant cat pee breaks down into ammonia.....

GREAT!!!!

I finished up with the cat, turned off the anesthesia, put the cat in a cage to recover, rinsed down the pee and bleach (which had started to bubble and turned into a gel in the bottom of the sink), opened some windows and went outside. Awesome.

Aside from some random waves of nausea, not being able to smell for the rest of the day, and a scratchy throat, I'm fine. And very grateful to have been able to figure out what was going on in time to not pass out and have the cleaning lady find me the next morning.

Babies everywhere...

In the past few days I've worked on all kinds of babies. I love that about Spring- new life is everywhere!

I worked on a premature foal that didn't get enough colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk that a mother produces and is what provides neonatal animals with their immune system. Animals are born without immunity to any diseases, so they are at high risk for infection. This special formulation of milk is only absorbed in the intestines for the first 24 hours of birth, so if a baby doesn't nurse right away, their immune system is not equipped to handle any diseases they encounter in their environment. This particular foal did not nurse enough and required a transfusion of plasma, which is the fluid part of blood that carries all of the antibodies. We kept the foal and mare for a few days and let them bond and they went home in very good health.

Note the milk mustache!

Then I saw a 2 day old puppy that it's mom wouldn't accept. There's not specific reason why this happens. Some feel that a mother animal can detect a problem with her baby and just won't take care of it. Another reason may be that a dog with a large litter simply can't make enough milk to feed all of the puppies and will selectively decrease her litter size. Lots of people think this is cruel, but animals have been doing  just fine on their own for thousands of years without our help. Anyhow, this particular puppy did not nurse well (or mom kept kicking her off) and kept crawling away on the cold garage floor. She got so cold our thermometer wouldn't read her temperature and her blood sugar was also really low. A little warmth, milk, and TLC later, the puppy went home doing well. However, then next day the same thing happened, so now the owners are having to bottle feed the puppy.

And then there's always baby calves..... :) Think someone is trying to tell me something?