Unpleasant Surprises

Being a vet out on the road can lead to all sorts of unpleasant surprises. Like coming to a client's barn in the spring and finding it flooded. Not in a dangerous sort of way. More in a really annoying need to tip-toe through the water 10 times kind of way. Turns out this particular barn floods every spring. It sits at the bottom of a hill and in April the snowmelt runs down the hill and into the barn leaving several inches of ice cold water. The horse's stalls are raised slightly so they don't mind.

Cats in the vet box are almost never a good surprise. Sometimes it's because they are covered with mud and have climbed over every piece of equipment and medication bottle. The worst is when I'm working on an emergency in the dark. Usually I'm running back to the truck every so often for supplies. Since I pretty much have everything memorized that is in the box, I might just open the door and reach in and that is when the semi-wild barn cat explodes out the door at me! That is always followed by lots of cursing in the dark. Then the clients get concerned that I have hurt myself and I have to explain that I am fine, just very shocked.

Arriving to find my patient anesthetized on the ground was a surprise. Especially since I thought it was dead, never suspecting another veterinarian would have dispensed so much tranquilizer for the owner to give, that it would cause the horse to lay down.

Unpleasant surprises can really slow down the day too. Bad driving conditions are kind of normal in my part of the world, but a flat tire is really a pain. Road detours are always challenging because I don't just need to get through the area, I need to get to an address and the detour signs never say if the road is closed before or after the farm I'm going to.

Surprising stunts by other pets on a farm make for good stories but are usually dangerous at the time. One year I was trying to ultrasound mares in February for breeding. The stalls had nice heaters in them that hung from the roof. We would position the mare under the heater since I needed to take my coat off to do the exam and it was often about 10 degrees. I was in the middle of an ultrasound one day and noticed a barn cat watching from the top of the stall wall. It seemed to be watching with more than a casual interest. It started to size up the distance from the wall to the back of the horse. I pointed out the accident waiting to happen and the client assured me the cat would not jump on the mare. WRONG! The cat made the leap and landed right where it meant to - on the horse's back. Somehow I got lucky, the horse didn't really react and the owner plucked the cat off immediately.

Loose dogs that don't like visitors are no fun. At one farm there is a Rottweiler that is protective enough of her turf that the UPS man just throws the packages out the door of his van rather than get out. (If you've been reading along, no this is not the same driver I have.) I had to figure out how to get along with this dog, since I had to get out of my truck in order to do any work. The owner says I had an advantage since I wasn't a man. I think the dog treats I was carrying around for the first 12 months helped a lot too.

The one unpleasant surprise that hasn't happened to me, is the pet that runs out in front of the truck and gets hit. I really hope it never happens.