The good news is that I had absolutely no problem staying awake. The less-than-ideal news is that within an hour of me walking in the door I had five patients arrive and all of them were trying to die. Time to triage. I had a chocolate Labrador in EXTREME respiratory distress turning blue. A Chihuahua HBC (vet language for "Hit By Car") without a pulse. A white-as-a-ghost old yellow Labrador with a (likely) bleeding splenic mass. A young never-been-vaccinated Rottweiler with acute vomiting and diarrhea. And a terrified little Yorkie with a drain cover attached to his paw.
So the Rottweiler went into an isolated room to wait and not contaminate the hospital with possible canine parvovirus. And the poor terrified Yorkie was moved to the very back of the line, as unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it) she was the most stable. Meanwhile chest compressions and CPR had already been started on the Chihuahua. The blue Labrador was sedated and an oxygen mask was thrown over his face on top speed O2 delivery. His color was slowly fading from blue to a much more normal pink.
Thank the Lord I had another doctor (and one with a year of experience - priceless!) to help me. We made it through the night, one patient at a time. The poor Chihuahua did not make it despite our best efforts and the two old Labradors were euthanized - one in particular really wrenching at my heartstrings (though I do think it was the best decision for him). I used wire cutters that were at least four times the size of the tiny Yorkie to cut away that pesky drain cover. And that was a much needed very rewarding case. We performed a few diagnostics on the Rottweiler puppy, but he ended up going home on a bland diet and a promise to follow up at his regular veterinarian. And that was Saturday night to Sunday.
I think (hope) Sunday night was a much more typical overnight. I spent the greater part of it removing porcupine quills from the muzzle of a couple of Akitas. I'm pretty sure the porcupine won that fight. Some of the quills were actually quite satisfying to remove. Others were soft with saliva and quick to to break, frustratingly so. But it seemed like every time I was starting to get fed up with a soft and friable quill, the next one I pulled would be a great big one that came out very smoothly and gave me that rewarding feeling all over again. There really must have been a million of them though.
A possible foreign body ingestion, a coughing Labradoodle, a few puncture wounds, and a stunned wild barred owl later and the Fourth of July weekend was over. Go America. We may not have seen any real fireworks to celebrate our independence, but I think its safe to say we had our own little show in ER.
