The curse of the vet student

I’ve mentioned before my old lady dog who has some form of condition with just about all of her bodily systems. I might have mentioned my horse who likes to occasionally test how good I am at catching equine emergencies with her recently developed vaccine hypersensitivities. Why did I think getting a cat would be any different?

She was free, no adoption fee or anything. She’s sweet and cuddly and comes with an extremely weird immune condition called lymphocytic plasmacytic gingivitis, which was not diagnosed until I brought her in to get vaccinated. Basically, her body says, “Hey teeth, I don’t like you!” So it causes painful swelling of her gums as her body attacks her teeth. Now, I am the proud and poor owner of a toothless cat who just had a whole mouth extraction. She’s 100% recovered and is even more cuddly than ever though!

This curse isn’t just limited to me. My friend within a week of arriving at AVC had to take her dog in for a mystery problem (that never got solved but fixed itself) which caused her dog to not walk. The day after I found out about Tessa’s tooth surgery, another friend’s bird decided to break his beak. We just can’t get ahead of the game. I swear on my life we are just magnets for the problem fur babies of the world. But what can I say? They trust us to take care of them, and we should take it as a complement that we are able to take such good care of our problem children. I love my special cat, dog and horse with all my heart, fingers crossed that my guinea pigs stay intact. They’re next!

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Shannon

Shannon grew up in southern Maine hoping to one day become a veterinarian. She completed her bachelors degree at the University of Vermont in Animal Science with a minor in Applied Mathematics. Shannon graduated from the Atlantic Veterinary College in 2017 and is now spending her long awaited time as Dr. Emmons at a small animal veterinary clinic in her hometown. She is happy to be home and living with her husband and their collection of fur babies. While in practice, Shannon is applying her interests in dentistry, exotic species, and animal behavior to her everyday practice and is enjoying the busy and friendly practice she now calls home.

Latest posts by Shannon (see all)

• My First Day as a Veterinarian - July 19, 2017
• The Great Western Roadtrip - July 18, 2017
• Graduation Weekend - July 5, 2017