Well, Poop!

Here's a consequence of being in veterinary medicine that nobody seems aware of. When you're around animals on a daily basis you WILL get "stuff" on you. There is literally not a bodily excretion or fluid that I haven't had on me at one time or another. Most of the time you just get used to it since it all washes off. To someone in this profession, it's really not a big deal to get blood, pus, urine, feces, etc. on you. If that kind of thing really bothered you or disgusted you, you simply wouldn't last long.

Some days, however, are worse than others. Like today. The very first pet I handled was a dog that had been dropped off to be neutered. And apparently he wasn't too happy about it as he tried to bite my tech. I managed to get ahold of him so that she could put a muzzle on, but this was not easy. He was fighting me and flailing and really putting up a struggle. A 30 pound dog really isn't too hard for me to manage, and I was able to keep him relatively still. However, when a pet is really scared and stressed, they will often release their bowels and bladder. And he did so. In abundance. By the time we got him muzzled the floor and my legs were covered in feces and urine. He had managed to defecate right on my shoe, leaving a really big turd right in the middle. His struggles had also managed to get feces up and down both of my legs and one of my socks.

Many people reading this are probably completely disgusted and would have even thrown up if they had been that covered in poop. But not a vet. Oh, I was really ticked off, but it was because of the inconvenience. A little poop can be washed off, but this was too much to easily clean, and I couldn't exactly spend the day seeing clients with feces-covered pants. So I had to reschedule my appointments for an hour or so, drive home, change clothing, and drive back to work. I was more ticked that I had to change clothes and interrupt my schedule than I was about what exactly I had gotten on me. And that's the mindset of a vet. Yeah, we're not exactly normal.

Oh, and I got my revenge. He still got neutered.