And surprisingly, I am looking forward to client interaction later on once I'm a vet student/veterinarian. I want to help their animals, but I also want to help the owners. I want to teach the owners. I want to make them feel better when they are upset about the path their animals are taking, whether it's good or bad.
At work, I was talking to a couple about their horse that was hospitalized. He was getting ortho surgery done and they were very nervous about it. They chose to have the vet take their horse's eye out because he has been having trouble with it for a while. They (him more than her) had trouble with the thought of the horse only having one eye and wondered if it bothered him very much.
What many people seemed to overlook is the fact that most of the time it seems to bother humans much more when an animal loses a leg, an ear or an eye (or something similar). Animals always look like they just deal with it. It's a fact that they can't change and they learn to live with it. It takes humans much longer to get over it.
I told them about something I was told a few weeks prior by my bf who heard it from a horse show judge. She said that the rider that she enjoyed judging the most was a girl. A girl that was completely blind, riding a horse with only one eye. She used a headset with which her trainer told her where to go and when to jump. Yes, JUMP. This girl couldn't see at all and didn't let that stop her from this already dangerous hobby. She didn't let it stop her from having fun and enjoying life. And right there with her was this horse with one eye that didn't even hesitate at all to follow along.
The couple that had their horse in the hospital just stared at me for a minute, like they couldn't believe it. And then the lady smiled. She sat back and sighed. And she agreed that she probably took it way more to heart than she should, that she should just go with it right now and see how the horse felt and think more about its wellbeing than her own worries about having a horse with one eye. She thanked me and said that I made her feel much better with that story.
And that's what I love. I love helping them and hope I can do it many more times in the future. It was only a short little story, but it made that couple feel so much better about the procedure their horse had to go through.
Btw, the surgery went fine. I cleaned the horse's stall the next morning and having only one eye didn't seem to bother him at all. He just went with it. (:
That teaching component is very much a part of why I want to be a vet. The vet I work with is naturally a teacher, and I see him work with clients in a way I have never seen any vet do- he educates them, humors them and reassures them in any way possible. Sometimes it falls to me to do, when the owner is watching a surgery, or when Doc is absorbed in extremely delicate work. I love those moments, the moments when I get to step up and say "Hey, there was this one horse who..." and get to see the relief on their faces, a small smile, the dropped shoulders, the knowing that everything would probably be okay... I want to take the time to know my clients as well as my patients, and be able to help both as needed.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what I want to do. And while I want to mainly work with large animal, I really like the thought of having my own clinic to be able to make the decision on how everything is done. I want to have programs for kids and teenagers to learn about handling animals, to have classes about preventative care for both owners and techs, etc. There is so much to do. I'm even thinking about getting a masters or PhD because of the chance of being able to teach at vet schools. I want something like that, the chance to educate others and help animals in that way.
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