Life on the Wild Side
A new grad trying to figure out life after school. |
The back hallway of the VMTH is long and narrow. At 6:30pm on a Saturday, it was mostly deserted. A classmate and I walked towards each other. Classmate: "Did you just get called in?" Me: "Yeah, just did." Him: "That sucks." Me: "Yeah, well, it is what it is." And then we parted ways, me to my after-hours call and him to his patients in the hospital. The brief conversation we had reflected the views of many of my classmates: being on call on a weekend pretty much sucked. But on this particular Saturday, I was excited (if not a bit nervous) to be called in--I was going to examine a Great Horned Owl with a broken wing. Two things stuck with me with this particular owl. As I peered into the XXL dog-crate that she was brought in, I was first struck by her giant, round yellow eyes staring back at me, never losing focus. Her eyes were wise, like she knew I was there to help, yet wary of new people, new places. When we took her out see what we could do, a second thing hit me: her wing was broken. Ordinarily, we can fix broken wings, but this majestic animal had pieces of wing sitting on the bottom of the dog crate, completely detached from her body. The only thing we could do for her was put her out of her misery, and as quickly as possible. Being a veterinarian requires more compassion than any other profession. Looking at an animal and wanting to do everything you can for them, yet knowing that sometimes the most compassionate decision you can make is to end their suffering, it takes a toll on the soul. The excitement I felt initially when I received the call to help an owl quickly turned to dismay and heartbreak. I remind myself: Today I helped an animal. Tomorrow is a new day with more animals to help. I am a fourth year veterinary student and I know this is just the beginning of a long career ahead of me. I hope to never lose the excitement and wonder of treating and helping animals. But I also hope that I can show every animal as much compassion as we showed the owl. R.I.P Great Horned Owl. Thank you for teaching me one of the most important lessons I can learn as a veterinary student.
2 Comments
|
AuthorKatie is rotating intern at Atlantic Veterinary College in Canada. She graduated from veterinary school at UC Davis in 2018. Archives
November 2018
Categories
All
|