This week I’ve been helping our village vet with operations, vaccinations, and other things. It always feels good to help out and save animals that are very sick and in pain.
Throughout the four years of helping her, I’ve raised a litter of puppies, and about three litters of kittens. We’ve also rehabilitated cats with three legs, dogs close to death, parrots with holes in their necks, and even a snake.
I really enjoy the work I’m doing with the vet because it’s a great learning experience and it makes me feel like I’m making a difference. It’s great to be able to be a part of operations and even do some of the stitching, injecting, cutting, and cleaning.
Yesterday, we had two, week old porcupines come in from the zoo. They had been attacked by their father and one of them had its intestines coming out of its leg and its back completely open. The other porcupine, we later found out, had broken ribs.
We operated on the first porcupine for almost two hours, and I was super impressed at how the vet closed the wound to make it look like there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. She even left me for a couple of minutes to do some of the stitching, while she helped her daughter get her bathing suit on. I was really nervous, but was able to complete two stitches before Mandy, the vet, came back in, looking very impressed with my work.
Unfortunately, after the operation was complete, the poor little guy stopped breathing and nothing we did could get his heart started again. It was sad to see him die after all that work. Soon after that its brother died as well while we were trying to bandage up its back to secure its ribs.
Working as a vet assistant can be very rewarding, but also emotionally and physically exhausting. I love working along side a vet, but I could never do it as a lifetime job. I want to spend my life studying animals and trying to save them, but not be around sick animals constantly. There’s only so much death I can take. I will continue to help as much as I can until I go to university, and you never know, I might even get a part time job as a vet assistant while I study in England. I’m very thankful for the experiences I am getting being an assistant and cannot wait to help with another operation again soon.