Steve Howard, Senior Veterinary Surgeon at the Swansea PDSA PetAid hospital describes a working day.
I'm on consultations this morning and I've got a completely full list - about 30 pets booked in for the two of us. We normally work in 'pairs' - two vets consulting, two operating. We are working in dual consulting room which has separate private areas, but the space at the back is shared - so the vets can discuss a particularly complicated case or assist each other.
My first case is a little hamster called Jacko. As hamsters are more awake at dawn and dusk, they naturally can get a bit grumpy when they are woken up during our day. I would too! I therefore discuss first of all what Jacko's owner is worried about. She is feeling very guilty, because she got Jacko out of his cage and dropped him.
This kind of accident isn't that unusual, so we always advise owners to be very careful when handling small pets. Even a small drop can cause serious injury! I put a clean plastic cup into Jacko's cage and gently wake him up. He crawls into the cup and I then take the cup out of Jacko's cage - taking care that there is no danger of another fall! I initially look at Jacko as he sits up in the cup - so far so good.
However, when I let Jacko crawl out of the cup, I can immediately see there is a problem. Jacko's not using his back leg, so I suspect that he's broken it. He will need to come in to the hospital to have an x-ray. Jacko is admitted into the hospital by the 'consultations' nurse and I know that Jacko's owner will have a few anxious hours before we can let her know how her hamster is doing.
I have a few more 'follow up' cases - one where I've operated on a pet and the stitches need to come out, one that are on long course medication coming in for a check up and other pets that are just generally unwell.
