Feb09
Not the Hospital I was Taught About in Vet School
Some days I just want to be a vet. Yet more and more, the knowledge and skill, the sharpness and the urgency of day-to-day vet care, are becoming something foreign to me. I’m still proud of knowing how to take care of animals. And I hope I can still do a fairly reasonable job of it. But working on individual animals, for one problem at a time, is so alien to my now daily fare of looking at the health and welfare of groups and large populations of animals. So this weekend’s duty as the “on call” vet for our Medical Center was an eye-opener.
Our hospital treats shelter animals, our own and those of our partner shelters in the region, as well as the pets of more than 6,000 low-income clients in the Capital area. And this weekend we were slammed. I got a call to review cases by one of our staff vets the day before and I have to say, my heart sank at the number and complication of the cases our hospital was treating. The cases I needed to look at the next day! These were no simple shelter animal cases. But ours is no simple shelter hospital.
There were two animals with back fractures, both sadly paralyzed. There were a cat from a crime scene in Baltimore with extensive burns on his back, a dog with a rare form of infectious anemia, and another in kidney failure. Then there were two puppies in insolation who were acting like they didn’t know they had parvo (thankfully). And finally, a terrible broken femur in one of the sweetest dogs you could ever meet. This is not the traditional shelter hospital I was taught about in vet school.
But it is the whole reason the Washington Animal Rescue League exists: to care for the broken and homeless, the disadvantaged, the ones with have nowhere else to go. And, in spite of my trepidation at walking into all of that, I was proud of what our hospital does. And of the staff who do the job of caring for these poor animals every single day. This is what we’re here for. And what is going to, finally, change the way shelters are run. And more importantly, up the game for what we as civilized human beings will tolerate in our standards of care for the most disadvantaged and forgotten of our animal companions. This is true rehab, giving a second chance to animals, and many of the people who love them. They truly would not have been given this chance anywhere else.
Dr. Weitzman,
Just wanted to say thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for the welfare of these broken animals. This is exactly why I love WARL.
And we would not have it any other way……Thankfully, you are there when we need you!
Thank you and everyone at WARL for your kindness and compassion towards all of the little souls you care for.
Thank you all. This is another reason why I give to WARL.
I just wanted to say that I appreciate the medical center and its staff for their recent support. My Jeffrey was an FIV+ cat I had the privilege to adopt from WARL three years ago; on Monday he passed away at the WARL hospital after being hospitalized for nearly five days. Dr. Petrovich in particular was wonderful, in answering my questions and encouraging me to visit Jeffrey every day while he was ill (which I did, and it helped both me and him to have some time together each day) and allowing me to sit with him for as long as I needed after he died even though I know they could have used the room. It has been a very trying time, but I am so very thankful that Jeffrey was cared for at a place like WARL, where the staff are mindful of the people as well as the animals.