Your worst on calls

Re: Your worst on calls

Jo Twomey — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:56:24 GMT

I have had combinations o fc sections ,rtas gdvs and many inpatients so I fully sympathise with you all on bad on calls. I have been nursing so long now that they all merge and details get lost with the mists of time but I thi nk the horse and rider and dog run over in front of owners have to be the absolute worst on calls ever.

Re: Your worst on calls

Katie Mansfield — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:06:32 GMT

Poor, poor clients!! Obviously I feel sorry that you had such a crap Xmas, but those poor people seeing their dog run over, it being Xmas Eve makes it so much worse, plus the fact that he must blame himself - probably stressed and rushing about cos it was Xmas Eve.

Hope your New Years better Nin!!

K x

Re: Your worst on calls

nin86 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:44:26 GMT

I worked this xmas and had a pretty horrendous xmas eve. Was the only nurse on and had spinal in patients that needed physio etc- so that too a long while. But our last appointement on the saturday morning was a dog coming to have his eye looked at. The owner parked out the front of the practice and when he got the dog out, didnt hold the lead properly, so the dog bolted and ran head on into a car coming down the hill and was killed almost instantly. So had to deal with hysterical clients. Then a blocked cat came in and then had to go and do pts homes visit! The whole weekend was spent ferrying back and forth to work to do the inpatients and slept at work all over xmas!

Re: Your worst on calls

Sal the 1st — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:31:28 GMT

The rider has never been on a horse since - she broke her neck. Horse was PTS as soon as rider had been recovered from underneath it. I had never seen anything that bad before and wouldnt ever like to see it again

Re: Your worst on calls

Ilovehorses — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:29:27 GMT

Sal the 1st - as a horse rider myself the horse RTA sounds horrific, I assume the horse had to be PTS. Did the rider make it? So far today we've had a intestinal FB and a leg amputation! Feeling very christmassy :-(

Re: Your worst on calls

Sal the 1st — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:59:17 GMT

Worst call out I have ever had was a horse RTA where the horse had been spooked by a car, run across the road and been hit by a lorry, ended up in a dyke with 2 fractured forelimbs and rider underneath it. Horse was frantic and we had to work out a way of calming it down sufficiently for fire brigade to get some support underneath it to stop it doing anymore damage to rider but not so much that it caused it to fall onto rider. Horrible call out.

Worst on call in a building was a GDV in a great Dane when the vet was already out on a horse colic and the dog just turned up at the practice. All I could do was follow instructions. Couldnt pass a stomach tube and ended up gassing it off with a couple of large bore needles and getting it on fluids, which bought us some time till the vet could get back (breaking all speed limits) - the dog survived. The next dog on the table just over 2 hours later ( by now early hours of the morning) was a Red Setter caesar - they all survived but both vet and me were knackered

Re: Your worst on calls

Phrin Vernon RVN — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:31:40 GMT

I can't remember specifics, but have had plenty of nights with a ward full of intensive care patients :(

I remember coming in one morning at 8am, and finding the night nurse in tears - she & vet had had a GDV - for some reason they'd had to try a stomach tube (under GA I think - possibly not) anyway she got a mouthful of vomit. Dog died on the table, place was a sh*t tip, she'd had other emergencies and intensive care patients she hadn't been able to see too, and I just remember feeling so sorry for her! This was over 10 years ago btw

Re: Your worst on calls

Gemma Burden RVN — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:55:16 GMT

One of my worse on calls was combined with one of the worse Saturdays. Just me, the vet and the saturday girl, and almost as soon as we had opened we had a call from a client to say that their new rescue Dobermann was unable to move and screaming her head off. By the time they had got her to the surgery and the vet was looking at her another client had just turned up with their GSD which collapsed in the car park and had a gastric dilatation. The vet stabilised him, then went back this appointments, ending up admitting what turned out later ot be a ketoacidotic undiagnosed diabetic. The morning carried on ok until a lady who wasnt registed with us came in crying her eyes out wanting to discuss her dead dog with a vet as she wasn't sure if her vets were to blame for her death. We thoughs he was never going to leave, but eventually she did and we could return our attention to the inpatients. I dont think we admitted anything else over the weekend, but when I came back later the GSD was very bright and the vet told me it was ok to take him out for a wee as he had already had him out earlier. I got him outside the backdoor and he collapsed and tried to die. Luckily we managed to revive him, but he ended up being put to sleep in the night. The diabetic dogs owners decided the following day that she didn't want to treat her, so she was euthinased, the the Dobermann had something awful wrong with her (I can't remember what exactly, some kind of infection), and after a week of intensive nursing in which she didn't improve she was put to sleep as well. The sunday wasn't much better, but at least some of the animals that came in went home again.
The other great weekend I remember is having 5 puppies admitted that had been dumped in the middle of the summer, all having heat stroke and parvo, and I had three other dogs in to try and keep away from them. Sadly only two of the puppies survived.

Re: Your worst on calls

SmegSlayer — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:31:32 GMT

Being called out at 4am on a sunday morning for a yorkie c section- finished that and discharged aboout 6:45am then immediately as they were going out the door in came a status epilepticus german shepherd and no phenobarb injection in the practice so had to send it to vets now then yorkie owners phoned back to say that the dog had eaten all her puppies

The night when I had 23 inpatients to look after including 7 rabbits either pre or post op and a post spleenectomy greyhound and only me in the building.

Or the sunday night when i had already done the saturday night and was up from 2am on the sunday and then had to go straight to college on the monday

The worst one was when i arrived for my night at 4;50pm (due to start at 5pm) and the 4:30pm finish nurses hadn't left yet so I knew something was up before I walked in the door: 1 yr old OES that had been hit in the chest by a van and had a haemapneumothorax. Chest drain inserted and had to drain chest and TPR, CRT every 20-30mins from 5pm to 8am. The dog did well and started having short walks outside and then 5 days after he was admitted he collapsed and died.

Re: Your worst on calls

Vicky RVN — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:59:20 GMT

This is not something I want to think about when i'm on call for 48 hours from Monday morning