In my line of work I deal with some things that aren't always pleasant. Today I had one such case. A small dog had been bitten by her housemate about a week and a half ago, and the housemate just happens to be a Rottweiler. Well the owner, who's a medical assistant, used her VAST knowledge of animal medicine to decide that a small bite wound would be okay. Then today calls my clinic claiming its just a small hematoma that needs draining and some antibiotics.
Once we got into surgery for this animal I've never seen such stupid induced destruction! The leg was dead from the inside out. Not a pretty picture I know, it was disgusting. We had to euthanize this animal on the table. The sheer extent of what continued care would have been for this leg if not amputation was too much, and cost played a price too, imagine you loosing a limb and no insurance to pay for it.
There is a bright side to this blight of my day. The husband/boyfriend/father, whatever he was, handled the explanation of loosing a pet to his daughter better than any person I have seen. He was supportive, he was caring, he was sensitive, and most important he was honest. Daily I see adults who don't want to tell their children what has happened, or that lucky just isn't coming home. I was moved by this man, in the gravest of circumstances he was star. God bless him!
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