When I arrived to work, I heard the little client before I could see her. Desperate sounding wheezing noise emerged from one of the cages. I went closer and saw a terrier puppy, roughly 10weeks old, who sat in a cage with a saline drip attached to her. She looked at me with the most saddest eyes, clearly being too tired to even wag her tail. When I opened the cage and stroked her back, she leaned a bit closer to me, trying to lick my hand but not quite managing the effort. Little pup looked very poorly indeed. When I lifted her to the clean cage, I could feel that her belly was quite swollen and I had to clean her back side. Even before I read the notes, it was quite obvious that the poor little thing had a bad case of Gastroenteritis.

I had to leave the pup when I heard the door go and first clients came in for the consulatation. But every available opportunity I sneaked to the back room to give some TLC. I had to wash my hands after every time I touched the pup, and I'm quite sure that some of the pet owners might have tought I had some kind of McBeth complex with my frequent hand washing sessions. As the day progressed, both the Vet and I, took turns to go and have a check on the pup- giving each other running commentary about the progress. We got really hopeful when the pup started moving, but unfortunately our joy was short lived. As was the puppy. When I went to see her after the consultation clients had gone, I couldn't see her ribcage moving. Neither could the Vet, so he had do finally declare the pup dead. We do see animals dying at the surgery, but it is somehow harder to deal with if they are only babies. So, although I do enjoy my work at the Vet's very much, this day ended with a sad note.