Bad week/good week

I have had a bunch of weird frustrating cases at work lately. One that really stands out in my mind is an 18 month old golden retriever who had all sorts of weird problems, resulting in me doing a huge work up over a 2 week period of time (including x-rays, a ton of bloodwork, skin biopsies, and an ultrasound). The owners are a young couple with limited finances and I felt bad spending so much of their money, but his case really did baffle me (and a bunch of other people as well.)  The end result - he probably has cancer and I put him to sleep yesterday. The owners did approve an autopsy (which I offered to pay for because I really want to know what caused his weird signs). Very sad. I don't cry often at euthanasias but I teared up with this one.

The same day (yesterday), I referred a profoundly anemic 4 year old dog to a specialist for a bone marrow biopsy and blood transfusions. This dog also has a good chance of having cancer. Also yesterday I saw a patient of mine who is less than a year old but has had weird GI issues for many months. This time was different, however. For one thing, he had a high fever. For another, he had an abdominal mass. After a long discussion with the owner about the many possibilities (and need for surgery ASAP), she ended up deciding to euthanize him. That was a tough one and I teared up AGAIN. Twice in one day!

Notice how all of these dogs are young? Hate that.

So today I walk into work and have on the schedule a tooth extraction on a 7 month old dog. She broke her tooth fighting with another dog (yes, she's a pitbull). However, after sedating this pup and taking dental x-rays, I found that she also had a fractured jaw! Great! A full morning of appointments, an animal under anesthesia, and I don't know how to fix a jaw fracture! I called a surgeon for advice (the owner declined referral, which is what I really wanted to do) and removed the rest of the broken tooth and wired the jaw together. I don't do orthopedic surgeries, so all of the orthopedic supplies had to brought up from the clinic basement.

But it was fun to do somehting different and to (hopefully) fix this dog. Fixing youg dogs' problems are not something I've been able to do much of lately.

So I'm ending the week on a good note. Let's hope that continues (the day is only half over). I also posted a pic of my fracture repair. The fracture is actually behind the big tooth and you can't see the back end of my figure 8 wire job, which goes through the bone. Feel free to critique...