Relating to our Patients

For one of our final Volume 55, Issue 3 winner spotlights, here is a funny anecdote from Alexis Book who attends the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine!

In college I worked as a vet tech and this is one of the funniest moments I think I had working as
a tech…
This lady brought her cat in because she believed that it was going into labor. So, I brought her
and her cat into the exam room and started asking her the usual history questions. I asked her
why she thought her cat was going into labor and she said because she thought had seen
something sticking out “back there”. The cat had really long hair and was slightly matted. I
started trying to part the hair so that I could find the cat’s vulva to see if there was a kitten
hanging out, a prolapse, or any swelling so that I could report it to the vet that was seeing her. It
was not an easy task seeing as the cat’s hair was so long, so I apologized to the owner for taking
so long in an attempt to get a look. She said, “No need to apologize, I should have trimmed up
her hair by now anyway so that she won’t be a mess when she has her kittens.” I said that it
might not be a bad idea and that if she wanted, we could do that for her today. She then
proceeded to say, “In fact, I really ought to shave my own “kitty” (she used more colorful
language) because its been a while since it’s seen a razor.” It took every bit of self-control to not
outwardly show the horror that I’m sure still managed to show in my facial expression or bust
out laughing!!