Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Unusual

In my line of work we get a lot of unusual requests, questions and conversations. For your amusement, here are some of my favorites

1. A caller who was convinced her dog had "milk-titus, just like cows get." She was just sure it could not have been mastitis-which is in fact, a real disease-just like cows get.

2. A person who wanted us to determine if their snake was dead-over the phone.

3. Another caller who had bombed their house for fleas but had left what is now their almost lifeless tarantula in the house during this process. They wanted to know 1)was it going to die (probably) and 2)if they bring it in for euthanasia how would we do it (seriously? crush it or flush it people-I think you can handle that one at home)

4. Can we declaw a dog that digs in the yard (um, no)

5. Can we extract all of their pet's teeth because it is biting them and/or the other pets (again, no)

6. I recently had a nice young man bring in a ferret because he thought it had been acting painful. After examining a perfectly normal ferret (actually one of the healthier ferrets I have seen) and finding no evidence of pain, the young man responded with-"maybe he just bruised his ribs jumping off his futon." I see his point-ferrets have short legs and the rib cage almost touches the ground normally-it's just something I never expected to hear anyone say.

7. A client once asked during an appointment how cows felt about wearing clothing. Apparently she had seen something in a magazine that someone was making clothes for farm animals. I responded that I did not know because I had never actually asked a cow that question.

8. A new puppy owner was very concerned about whether or not their puppy was old enough to get a rabies vaccine because the little guy had been biting her (normal puppy chewing) and she did not want him to get rabies because if he did she would have to find him a new home. For a moment I contemplated explaining the flaws in her logic but in the end decided to just give the vaccine. The puppy was old enough and it made everyone happy.

I'm sure I will have more at a later date-enjoy!

9 comments:

Sue said...

Many years ago my aunt was mowing the lawn and cut the leg off a toad. She was so upset, she put the toad in a box and took it to her vet for euthanasia. My uncle was furious with her. Two weeks later she hit a bird with the car and took it to the vet for euthanasia. She was afraid to tell him that time.

Melissa said...

I love these! We had a client ask if we could declaw their rabbit because they were afraid the nails would ruin their hardwood floors.

Sara said...

Make sure you keep writing all these comments down!

I wish I had started writing down all the funny things my students have said, from when I first started teaching.

Could make for a good book1

Splash said...

Silly things we have had Vets ask us about Labradors:

1) "Do you think he ate something?" Hello? I am a LAB.

2) "His tail looks paralyzed." Yes, I was just swimming in Lake Tahoe and got a bit chilled, don't worry about it dude, how's about dealing with the bleeding first?

3) "Do you think he's been playing rough with other dogs?" Urm, see my response to #1.

Have a great day, we envy you the snow.

2 Labs and one itsy bitsy little BC

CK said...

OMG...that makes me wish I would have saved all the dumb things folks call an ambulance for or the questions they ask.

Katrina Hunt said...

ok....client number45295 blah blah...wonders what goes thru your mind when we walk thru the door!!!

"thank god they are seeing L today??"

Carleen was in tears after reading these! LOL

BCxFour said...

Oh my goodness, I am just reading your blog for the first time and I really enjoyed this!

Daryl and Tina said...

This is a fun post! Sometimes I think people should have to take a test before they are allowed to care for pets. :-)

Jayme said...

OMG...I can't believe I missed out on the last "rabid puppy" visit. Probably for the best as I would have burst out laughing before I could stop myself.