This is a photo of the vetinary’s cat, Sabrina! Her expression in this photo along with the general feel of it makes it appear as if she’s unfriendly and anti-social, but she’s the complete opposite! In real life Sabrina is very loving and affectionate, accepting anyone’s touch as long as they are gentle with her, her fur is very soft and clean. Because of this she was a great companion to have during my internship. It’s funny to see how calm and collected she can be even if the environment around her is chaotic, filled with either dogs barking, staff running around all over the place doing their work, or pets being difficult. Originally her old owner wanted to have her put down because she was obese, but the vet asked for ownership of her and got it. After that she got put on a diet and now she’s a pretty healthy cat with a lot of extra skin, that’s the only reason why she looks quite fat at times. She lives in one of the bigger kennels now near the treatment area and is very spoiled by all the staff there.
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This is almost the entire staff in one photo, but we’re missing around 3 people. Everyone at Pacific Beach Veterinary Clinic is very friendly and welcoming, all of them just seem welcoming appearance wise and past that once you get to know them you suddenly find yourself apart of their small family. During the first week of internship I found myself feeling awkward and lost, unsure of what to do so I just spent my time silently following not asking any questions. But after my second week I grew instantly comfortable since it was easy to talk to all of them and they didn’t mind all my questions, I began to get the hang of things. Almost all of them taught me about things within the field so I consider all of them my mentor. I didn’t have just one mentor during internship I had multiple. Because of this it was easy for me to just travel around from one place to another to see what each person is doing and learn a variety of things within one day. My favorite things were just being able to talk to them so casually...and also the snacks they always seemed to provide.
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Dentals are important to your pets health and during my time here I got to witness plenty within the span of a month due to the fact February is dental month. You are given a discount for your dental and this usually helps encourage people to get their pet dentals. In this picture is a technician, Raul, giving his own dog a dental. I learned from him along with another technician, Danna, that it’s important to be careful how much pressure you apply on the tooth because you could end up damaging it while you’re cleaning it. Danna has a way of doing it where she goes in a specific pattern so that she doesn’t end up forgetting any teeth during the cleaning. All pets for this procedure are given a catheter and put under anesthesia. After the dental is finished they give them something to wake them up again and often time the animal is screaming. It's normal to hear, but when you have 4 screaming dogs it's like choir and hard to ignore. |
This is Donna, she's the groomer for the clinic, and a client. She originally owned her own grooming company for years and ended up retiring. But when she realized how much she missed grooming she went to the clinic and got hired there. A lot of her clients that were from the time when she owned her own business actually ended up coming to the clinic after hearing she was grooming again. The experience of washing a dog wasn't new to me, but in an environment like this and with someone who has experience within the field. It was fun learning that you shouldn't blow on clipper blades since before you blow your intake and you could end up accidentally inhaling fur. This could give you black lung which isn't too good.
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