rabies shot x 2
Yesterday started out like any other normal day. Before the Dr. came into work, I hurried and went through the receiving list. Chose which cats to keep and which to pull (there’s not a leash law on cats here in Illinois, so we only keep cats for stray hold if they have signs of ownership or are extraordinarily friendly, cause we don’t have the room for everyone. We get like, 30 cats a day..), went thru the list of dogs and then prepared all the vaccines.
When Doc came in, we started exams. I ended up only keeping 5 cats out of 18. So we went thru those pretty quickly. It’s a normal part of the job to get scratched here and there by uncooperative patients.
Our dog list was huuuuge though. Like, 13. And 5 I knew right off the bat I had to snare. Which is not fun because that requires getting the dog from the cage on the snare, which is never easy. If you have to snare the dog, obviously he’s not nice so shoving a big metal pole into his cage isn’t going to please him.
And when you get close to the dog with the snare, they snap. Bite. Lunge.
And when you finally get it around the dog, they roll like a gator. And lunge. And snap.
Yea, it’s pleasant.
Anywho – it takes a lot of strength and I’m 5’2", pretty petite and I’m handling all these big ole’ 60 lb, nothing-but-muscle, pitts who want nothing more than to bite my limbs off and rip them to shreds. And then I have to walk them thru the kennel and into the euth room where we have a gate set up to do vaccines on aggressive dogs. I shove the dog behind the gate and the Doc closes it so he can vaccinate them (somewhat) safely.
So, a few of these in a row and I’m pretty beat.
We get around to this wiggly little beagle whom I easily lift up on the table and think, "Awesome. An easy dog to give me a break." Pft. She turns out to be a little monster. And as I’m wrapped my arm around her rear end to control her wiggly little butt, the Doc proceeds to poke me with the vaccine.
Oh, and not just any little poke.
The whole damn needle.
Right in between my pinky finger and my ring finger. Owwwe.
He apologises and I quickly respond with, "Oh, I was supposed to get my rabies shot tomorrow, anyhow, Doc."
Pfffftt.
It really didn’t hurt a whole lot when it happened. I mean, I had a homebirth. Obviously sans pain medications. So, anything in comparison is pretty manageable. But now? My entire arm up to my shoulder aches. Owwe.
And I had to go in for my rabies shot this morning. They did it in the other arm, and that one is not even remotely sore. Go figure.