New Job Starting Today.

[vansX2]

Just needing to put this down. I hate my job!! I would give anything not to feel.

If this job is really so bad emotionally than maybe a career change is in order.

 

[silent meowlook]

I can’t change careers this late in life. I don’t know how to do anything else.

 

[vansX2]

I can’t change careers this late in life. I don’t know how to do anything else.

I guess then seek out a Mental health specialist to help you better deal with your job anxiety.

 

[silent meowlook]

I guess then seek out a Mental health specialist to help you better deal with your job anxiety.

Seriously? I was only venting in the middle of the night during a really hard shift. Didn’t have anyone I could talk to on a five minute break at 2 am. I don’t have anxiety. I just work in a really difficult field.

 

[AbbysMom]

It's probably tough to answer this because you haven't been at this place very long S silent meowlook , but have you seen any improvement in staffing? My vet practice had one of the main vets leave during Covid and for a bit the tech situation was a rotating door. They've finally been able to hire a new vet (although she is fresh out of vet school) and the tech situation seems to have settled down and they've hired another. I got to talk to the head vet in person in January during Abby's annual and she said she thinks things are starting to improve a bit. She did say it got so bad that at one point she had to stop accepting new patients (as did most vets in this area) but is back to accepting them. My niece works at a larger practice that also takes emergencies and she thankfully isn't working as much overtime now as she was.

 

[Margot Lane]

Seriously? I was only venting in the middle of the night during a really hard shift. Didn’t have anyone I could talk to on a five minute break at 2 am. I don’t have anxiety. I just work in a really difficult field.

This comment reminds me of when they closed several major hospitals in NYC at the same time, right when someone I knew had just become a nurse on the night shift. She said they had patients lined up in the hallways and out the front door. She had a haunted, faraway look in her eyes, but no matter how exhausting the shift was, she did always feel rewarded she said when someone bothered to say “thank you,” (which I now do, constantly, whether vet or nurse).

 

[silent meowlook]

I work 10 hour shifts and usually 3 to 4 hours in we have to turn people away because we are at maximum capacity. There are wait time of 3 to 5 hours. We get the true emergencies in right away like rattle snake bites and coyote attacks and blocked cats etc. but we also have to turn away many that call. There is extreme staffing shortages. We are minus 3 techs per shift and don’t have enough doctors to staff the hospital overnight on weekdays. There is only one vet on at a time and that vet will have 4 exam rooms full with as many as 10 patients waiting to go into the rooms. The last shift I worked it was me and another tech and one receptionist and one doctor. It gets really crazy. One day with the same staffing we had 5 euthanasia’s back to back and all were in really bad shape. Finished the shift with a pit bull who’s head was the size of Detroit and didn’t like us. He had been attacked by another dog. I don’t know what dog would be stupid enough to attack that dog.
We had a cat 1 year old with bite wounds from a dog who had air escaping from his lungs due to one of the bites. It was a mother with two girls. It was like pulling teeth to get her to consent to a pain injection for the cat. Then it took so much time to get her to approve an X-ray. I could feel the air under the skin. She didn’t want to do anything for the cat but talked her into a chest bandage and atibiotics to go home. She refused pain meds. She repeatedly had to talk to me or the vet. She wanted to know things we have no way of knowing and to top it off she was rude. I wonder if she knows that patients had to be turned away because of how much time she took and didn’t need to.
I’ve worked emergency before but it has never been this kind of busy. It’s mentally and physically exhausting.
Thanks for reading.
I don’t see any staffing improvement yet but I’ve only been there a month.

 

[Margot Lane]

I work 10 hour shifts and usually 3 to 4 hours in we have to turn people away because we are at maximum capacity. There are wait time of 3 to 5 hours. We get the true emergencies in right away like rattle snake bites and coyote attacks and blocked cats etc. but we also have to turn away many that call. There is extreme staffing shortages. We are minus 3 techs per shift and don’t have enough doctors to staff the hospital overnight on weekdays. There is only one vet on at a time and that vet will have 4 exam rooms full with as many as 10 patients waiting to go into the rooms. The last shift I worked it was me and another tech and one receptionist and one doctor. It gets really crazy. One day with the same staffing we had 5 euthanasia’s back to back and all were in really bad shape. Finished the shift with a pit bull who’s head was the size of Detroit and didn’t like us. He had been attacked by another dog. I don’t know what dog would be stupid enough to attack that dog.
We had a cat 1 year old with bite wounds from a dog who had air escaping from his lungs due to one of the bites. It was a mother with two girls. It was like pulling teeth to get her to consent to a pain injection for the cat. Then it took so much time to get her to approve an X-ray. I could feel the air under the skin. She didn’t want to do anything for the cat but talked her into a chest bandage and atibiotics to go home. She refused pain meds. She repeatedly had to talk to me or the vet. She wanted to know things we have no way of knowing and to top it off she was rude. I wonder if she knows that patients had to be turned away because of how much time she took and didn’t need to.
I’ve worked emergency before but it has never been this kind of busy. It’s mentally and physically exhausting.
Thanks for reading.
I don’t see any staffing improvement yet but I’ve only been there a month.

…well again, THANK YOU for all you do. This is a good reminder to me to be as prepared as I can be before I ever go to a vet’s so as not to waste valuable time (yours, mine or the dozen or so patients behind me). Vent all you like here if it helps— to me it’s an astounding window into the side of the clinic we don’t get to see….

 

[neely]

THANK YOU for all you do. This is a good reminder to me to be as prepared as I can be before I ever go to a vet’s so as not to waste valuable time (yours, mine or the dozen or so patients behind me). Vent all you like here if it helps— to me it’s an astounding window into the side of the clinic we don’t get to see….

I completely agree!
Our vet's office lost two vets to retirement and one vet to another clinic closer to her home. I am always courteous and appreciative of the staff. Unfortunately the pandemic has only made things more difficult. Please feel free to rant, vent, blow off steam, anything you like. Your efforts are admired and truly valued.

 

[silent meowlook]

This is my fourth 12 hour night in a row. I just took my first break after 11 & 1/2 hours of work. I’m sitting on the curb in the parking lot. I only have a few minutes. Have to get back inside. I work tomorrow too. This is crazy. Rewarding but exhausting. We have to turn people away. Other emergency hospitals are full.
Just wanted to put this out here.

I love cats and dogs and horses!!

 

[strider rose]

aww i know that putting animals down is hard to deal with and hurts you inside . i hope that you are doing ok ?

 

[silent meowlook]

Yes. I am okay. There was some comic relief last night. A dog was there, a chihuahua. He was in an upper cage. He had been in a fight with a squirrel. I was below cleaning a bottom cage. All of a sudden I thought “kind of a warm rain........” He managed to projectile pee out of his cage on to my head. I had to crawl in the cage for cover. Everyone was cracking up laughing. Thankfully I keep at least 2 extra pairs of scrubs at work.

 

[denice]

He was just letting you know what he thought of the whole situation.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oh man! Every chihuahua I’ve met has a certain kind of attitude!

 

[AbbysMom]

I'm sorry it's been so difficult. One of the local Vet ER's recently announced that they will no longer to 24 hours due to lack of staff. The other has been turning away a lot of pets. I think I've mentioned before that me niece is a tech. She told me she has been seeing a lot of really awful vet practices lately.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi.
The hospital I am at can no longer find veterinarians to work the overnight shift, so we only have a doctor overnight on the weekends. During the week the vet leaves at 1:00AM. There is a technician working overnight.

We hit max capacity quickly at night. It is hard to have to turn people away, on the phone and in person. One time it was a cat that lived down the street and I could hear him screaming when the people called in hysterical. All I could do is give them numbers of other hospitals to call. While I understand that we can only take care of so many critical animals at a time, it is still gut wrenching to turn people away.

When I worked emergency back in 1998, and then later in 2005, we couldn't turn people away. It didn't matter how short staffed we were or what was going on, we still saw them. Things are different now. The case load is much heavier, and doctors and staff just won't do it anymore. I don't know which is right. I don't like to turn people and pets away and it just goes against everything I think an emergency hospital is there for. Yet, I do understand that it sn't right to take in more animals than we can provide good care for. So, it is a difficult situation.

I think the staff at hospitals has changed as well. Most there are burnt out. They are tired and tired of caring. They always start out with the best intentions but after the abuse from clients and the gut-wrenching work of having to see trauma after trauma come in, sometimes preventable traumas and illnesses, people without funds that you bend over backwards to try to help only to get no commitment on their part. People accusing the staff and hospital of being in it just for the money. And of course, the suffering. I think all of that eventually gets to people and they just shut down. In 30 + years, it never happened to me. I don't think it every will, but it sure would make it an easier job if I didn't care. The other issue is of course, the pay. Technicians are not compensated appropriately for what they do. Most people working entry level jobs in unskilled labor make more. My last job, I didn't have any benefits and spent so much time working and not getting paid. Most of the staff in veterinary hospitals, except for the veterinarians, don't make much more than minimum wage. That is sad. I do make more money and have benefits at this job.

 

[silent meowlook]

I worked 12 hours without a break tonight, from 3:00 PM till 3:00AM. It was me and one other person, and one veterinarian.
We saw:
Dog bit by rattlesnake 2 vials of antivenin hospitalized
Chihuahua 18 years old in respiratory distress hospitalized and released later in the night.
King Charles Cavalier Spaniel in heart failure hospitalized on oxygen
Labradoodle with metabolic issues hospitalized on IV fluids and medications
Bichon Frise with necrotizing pancreatitis hospitalized on IV fluids and medications
Cocker spaniel with foxtails in his feet. Hospitalized anesthesia explores feet
Boston Terrier with a mass on his leg that ruptured and was bleeding profusely
Another Chihuahua in respiratory distress that started seizing. We were out of oxygen cages by then and had to improvise.
Feral black female cat with a large abscess on her head, did surgical repair (not really feral)
Fluffy long haired orange cat that fell out of the second-floor window 2 days ago and was gone all night. 106 temp
Kitten with 105 temp with an upper respiratory infection yet the regular vet felt it was a good idea to vaccinate. Hospitalized on fluids
Cute friendly man cat with a urinary obstruction, hospitalized, anesthesia, urinary catheter etc.

There were more, but I can't remember them all.

The struggle is very real. There are 4 people out with Covid-19, two out with serious injuries, two others on vacation. Where we used to have 4 or 5 techs working and receptionists, we now have two techs or assistants' total. We used to be able to staff a veterinarian overnight and now they leave around 1:00AM.

On the plus side, all of the clients were super nice tonight, and nobody objected to having to wait.

I've been home 1 hour now and am wide awake. Its harder to sleep when the sun is out. I just realized I have half a beer left and it is the time that most people are waking up.

 

[catapault]

Lives saved, people relieved at the good help their fur friends were given.

 

[neely]

I worked 12 hours without a break tonight, from 3:00 PM till 3:00AM. It was me and one other person, and one veterinarian.

I know you are tired and stressed but all of us appreciate your efforts and hard work. What would we do without dedicated caring vet techs like you? I go to a feline only vet practice and they are struggling too. Two vets retired and the other two are supposed to work part-time due to one recovering from cancer and the other with health issues also. They have been diligently looking for a third vet and found a winner but she recently moved so they don't know if she'll accept the position. I hope you enjoyed that half a beer and are able to get some rest.

 

[AbbysMom]

It's sounds like you earned that beer.