Friday, July 10, 2015

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw

One of the job hazards of working with animals is injury. We had a monthly nurse meeting this morning and I was looking around the room at all of the bruises and scratches and scrapes on everyone. I am not at all implying that my co-workers and I are careless. Quite the opposite. We learn to use a large number of techniques to restrain animals so that they aren't harmed but their teeth and claws are safely out of the way. Experience helps but it is no guarantee. Shit still happens even when everyone is prepared and doing all the right things.

On Monday night, I was helping a very experienced nurse get a temperature on a fractious little dog. She had a good hold on him, so I gently lifted his tail, said "poking!"(it's a courtesy to your colleague to let them know you are inserting a needle or thermometer or some other intrusive thing into the animal they are restraining; you never assume they can see what you are doing) and slipped the thermometer into his bum. He exploded, raking his rear claws down her arm. Blood was dripping off her elbow but she still didn't let go of him (very impressive). We put some gauze and vet wrap on her (works for dogs, works for us too), then she said to me, time for pup to get a nail trim. He was a little black dog and all his nails were black. Fortunately, trimming nails holds no mysteries for me. I clipped them all, including dewclaws, without a single bleeder.

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