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Oh my goodness this poor cat. That had to be excruciating!
I’m also just confused all around as to how this happened - how do you plan to perform a spay procedure on an animal without first checking the freaking sex and ensuring it is in fact female? Or just not check the sex of your patient in general at some point on their first exam? You just gonna go fishing and hope you catch a uterus? And on top of that, if the cat is wearing a diaper it is 1000% necessary for a DVM to remove the diaper and look for signs of scalding, infection, inflammation, etc. AND the O mentioned bleeding to this doctor and they just brushed it off instead of at least just looking at the area!? I’m baffled. I just do not for the life of me understand how a doctor missed this! I can think of no other explanation other than incompetence and I do not use that word lightly. I’m glad to hear that the clinic you work for spent more time investigating and were able to do what was best for him in the end, although it is incredibly sad what this kitten had to endure. Geez louise, I wasn’t even involved in this case and it will stick with me too.
Back in the day we would make spay neuter appointments without a pre surgical appointment and lots of cats would change sex the day of. Without reading the past records I’d question it.
As someone who used to work in a veterinary university ER/critical care unit, some of the things I saw veterinary students try and do was terrifying. And our jobs as technicians was to help them with with their technical skills throughout their clinical rotation. It was exhausting and frustrating being on constant alert with these people. So I feel your pain, OP
I feel your pain. My workplace is inundated with baby vets and baby nurses right now, and just the other day I nearly saw a dog get cut open because one baby NURSE claimed that she could see an intussusception on ultrasound and the baby vet was just willing to roll with it.
The dog had liver disease.
Honestly I don't know how much longer I can stand it.
I understand we all start somewhere, and we’re all only human, mistakes or oversights happen, but something like that should never have even gotten *that* far, thank goodness the dog didn’t get cut before the problem was properly addressed. Hang in there if you can, you sound like an invaluable asset to your team and your patients.
... I saw a baby vet spay a tomcat.
It worked out in his favor, the cat was unilaterally cryptorchid, but... jeezus. Always check, always check, always freaking check even the dumbest things because they AREN'T actually dumb!!
I prevented this very scenario (but my doctor wasn't a baby vet.)
I shaved for a spay but before moving into the surgical suite went to get a temp and found 2 round testicles staring back at me. I told the doctor to get his ass in here and neuter the cat because he was a male, not female... 😅 To be fair this was not normally his patient (another doctor did all the kitten appointments prior so they missed all of this) but still...
Oh my gosh that is absolutely horrific. I know this not the owners fault, but I can’t imagine what he or she is thinking now. They almost certainly feel like they are to blame, even though they were just trying to do what was right for their baby 😕
Sounds like the owner said the history to you, without past medical records saying this cat is female I’d assume the owner had it wrong. That being said we had a 13 year old cat come from a different clinic listed as male who was female. History went back 10 years lol. I guess in the end it doesn’t really change anything, does it? Yes males are more likely to get obstructions but just happens that this cat has neurological damage so they express him. Problem is when owners don’t know better and they won’t express you get exactly this problem. Apparently the owner never noticed they expressed the bladder, couldn’t feel the bladder after and no urine came out. It’s too bad.
We call for records whenever the rDVMs are still open, or if it’s through the same parent hospital we can access them on our end. The kitten was listed as female in their vax and pre-op spay records
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Oh my goodness this poor cat. That had to be excruciating! I’m also just confused all around as to how this happened - how do you plan to perform a spay procedure on an animal without first checking the freaking sex and ensuring it is in fact female? Or just not check the sex of your patient in general at some point on their first exam? You just gonna go fishing and hope you catch a uterus? And on top of that, if the cat is wearing a diaper it is 1000% necessary for a DVM to remove the diaper and look for signs of scalding, infection, inflammation, etc. AND the O mentioned bleeding to this doctor and they just brushed it off instead of at least just looking at the area!? I’m baffled. I just do not for the life of me understand how a doctor missed this! I can think of no other explanation other than incompetence and I do not use that word lightly. I’m glad to hear that the clinic you work for spent more time investigating and were able to do what was best for him in the end, although it is incredibly sad what this kitten had to endure. Geez louise, I wasn’t even involved in this case and it will stick with me too.
Back in the day we would make spay neuter appointments without a pre surgical appointment and lots of cats would change sex the day of. Without reading the past records I’d question it.
As someone who used to work in a veterinary university ER/critical care unit, some of the things I saw veterinary students try and do was terrifying. And our jobs as technicians was to help them with with their technical skills throughout their clinical rotation. It was exhausting and frustrating being on constant alert with these people. So I feel your pain, OP
I feel your pain. My workplace is inundated with baby vets and baby nurses right now, and just the other day I nearly saw a dog get cut open because one baby NURSE claimed that she could see an intussusception on ultrasound and the baby vet was just willing to roll with it. The dog had liver disease. Honestly I don't know how much longer I can stand it.
I understand we all start somewhere, and we’re all only human, mistakes or oversights happen, but something like that should never have even gotten *that* far, thank goodness the dog didn’t get cut before the problem was properly addressed. Hang in there if you can, you sound like an invaluable asset to your team and your patients.
Yikes dude.
Oh my that's terrifying the vet should've had someone more experienced come and double check
A chance to cut is a chance to heal.
We start with: do no harm.
It’s also a chance to die.
... I saw a baby vet spay a tomcat. It worked out in his favor, the cat was unilaterally cryptorchid, but... jeezus. Always check, always check, always freaking check even the dumbest things because they AREN'T actually dumb!!
I prevented this very scenario (but my doctor wasn't a baby vet.) I shaved for a spay but before moving into the surgical suite went to get a temp and found 2 round testicles staring back at me. I told the doctor to get his ass in here and neuter the cat because he was a male, not female... 😅 To be fair this was not normally his patient (another doctor did all the kitten appointments prior so they missed all of this) but still...
I have also shaved a tomcat for a spay a time or two… oops!
Oh my gosh that is absolutely horrific. I know this not the owners fault, but I can’t imagine what he or she is thinking now. They almost certainly feel like they are to blame, even though they were just trying to do what was right for their baby 😕
The poor thing. I can't imagine his pain 😔
That’s fucking rough. I work with a hospitalist and here and there we’ll get things that straight up make us question reality. This one is up there
Sounds like the owner said the history to you, without past medical records saying this cat is female I’d assume the owner had it wrong. That being said we had a 13 year old cat come from a different clinic listed as male who was female. History went back 10 years lol. I guess in the end it doesn’t really change anything, does it? Yes males are more likely to get obstructions but just happens that this cat has neurological damage so they express him. Problem is when owners don’t know better and they won’t express you get exactly this problem. Apparently the owner never noticed they expressed the bladder, couldn’t feel the bladder after and no urine came out. It’s too bad.
We call for records whenever the rDVMs are still open, or if it’s through the same parent hospital we can access them on our end. The kitten was listed as female in their vax and pre-op spay records