For years they have been decimated by infectious diseases, and their work can be deadly. Today, health and safety standards assess the occupational risk of veterinarians as moderate. If someone, of course, accepts the collection of inherited scars from dissatisfied patients …
In 1887, military physician David Bruce decided to take a closer look at the disease that had decimated British soldiers. He discovered that it was caused by a bacterium called brucella after him, transmitted by Maltese goats whose milk the soldiers drank. It quickly turned out that brucellosis also affects cows, horses, donkeys, pigs and other animal species, and is easily transmitted to humans. In Poland, its real epidemic broke out after World War II – it was estimated that in 1948 23% of the viruses were infected. cattle on state farms. And cattle infected people, especially those working with it, including veterinarians.
Occupational disease
– Brucellosis was once an occupational disease of veterinarians. Brucelle incl. cause miscarriages in cattle and a vet is then called to peel off the retained placenta. In the past, we did not use gloves, so it was enough that the vet had damaged skin on his hands, which is not difficult in our profession, and he became infected through contact with amniotic waters, the fetus or placenta – Aleksander is a veterinarian with 20 years of experience, admits in one of the towns near Warsaw. Fortunately, brucellosis, like most of today’s veterinarians, has only heard. – In the past, almost 100 percent of veterinarians were sick, and this is a very serious and chronic disease, causing, among others, inflammation of the testicles, endocarditis, meninges and the brain. There was even a kind of shelter, a retirement home for the most seriously ill veterinarians, because as a result of severe and chronic infection, some became invalids.
Polish veterinarians and breeders have struggled with brucellosis for many years, incl. by eliminating diseased animals and allowing only healthy individuals to reproduce. Today, according to the State Sanitary Inspectorate, there are several infections with brucellosis among people in Poland every year, and these are “imported” cases, most often from the Mediterranean basin. Tourists fall ill after eating preserves made of raw or undercooked milk of goats and sheep, which are still carriers of brucellosis in those areas.
– At the moment we do not have brucellosis in our country, which does not mean that he cannot come back. When it comes to zoonoses, rabies may also be a threat to us, doctors, but the last recorded case of rabies in humans in Poland happened in 2002.
So what is the threat to the veterinarian today? His patients’ dissatisfaction.
All animals big and small
– Everything bites us, larger animals kick and bite. Every vet, myself included, has scars all over my body. Already during the surgery exam, a horse stepped on my foot in patent leather, on concrete, it was not nice … The most spectacular hit was also during my studies, from mastino napoletano, this is the breed of dogs that the Romans used to guard their slaves. I carried him from the cage to the cage and he bit me halfway down my arm, between the elbow and the wrist. It hit the radial nerve that is responsible for straightening the fingers. An abscess developed, the nerve became acidified and stopped working for a while. For two weeks my hand was paralyzed, I changed my toddler’s gear with my wrist.
The vet needs reflexes, some strength and good condition. Because otherwise, more often than patients, he will stitch and bind himself.
– Each of us can be bitten dangerously at any time. A friend of the behaviorist, such a canine psychologist, wanted to fix the Rottweiler’s badly put muzzle and she lost her finger. Once my dog did three fingers at once – one bite, less than a second. I splashed my office with blood in a dozen or so seconds. Well, I had to put a patch on and finish giving the dog injections. After work, I put on a surgical glove so as not to splash my motorcycle’s blood and somehow I got home. Wife screaming “You fucked up on a motorcycle!”. And I replied that I was not at work!
Alexander says a vet must have a sense of humor is the best stress vaccine. Because when you are injured at work, you will get hit a second time – you are less careful and react slower. And you cannot get off duty. But there is no boredom in this profession, every day is an adventure.
– You never know what you will come across. A colleague, the police once brought a spider, by the eye of a tarantula – he got out of the car in the workshop, the mechanics caught it in a jar and called the policemen, who came to the vet to find out if it was poisonous. A guy asked me for help when I was on a training course at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. “Only an injection to be done”, so I agreed. He took me to the herpetarium, where there were several dozen snakes, and the patient was a reticular python, about 40 kilos, the thickness of my thigh. I felt the walls pushing up against me, because I was panicky, but I’m really scared of snakes, I never work with them. Well, I did this injection and I screwed up from there so that when my colleagues downstairs saw me in the bar, they asked what happened that I was so pale.
Wild animals are the most difficult to perform treatments because they are unpredictable. And then the comedy can turn into a tragedy. Like fifteen years ago, during a raid for a Bengal tiger who escaped from a circus in Warsaw’s Tarchomin. Ryszard Karczewski, the only specialist in catching wild animals in the capital, died then.
– Rysiek was mistakenly shot by a panicked policeman, he was 43 years old, he left two daughters. He really wanted to save this tiger and added his own life to it. This is also the danger of our profession.
Air attack
In everyday life, what is not visible is more dangerous than a tiger. Narcotan and halothane are inhalation anesthetics used during surgery. An intubated animal breathes in a semi-closed system and receives it directly into the trachea, but the gas is not metabolized by it and is in the air exhaled by anesthetized patients.
– In theory, there should be absorbers in the surgery room that recover gas from the air, or a device that expels it through pipes to the outside of the building. It’s just that often vets don’t have it because it’s expensive. And such gas escaping from the apparatus is dangerous especially for our pregnant girlfriends, for example halothane reduces the muscle tone of the pregnant uterus and increases the risk of postpartum hemorrhage. They have more problems in general, because they can also contract toxoplasmosis from cats. Most vets have had contact with her, and unless we catch HIV, this disease is not a threat to us. But infection in a pregnant woman or woman trying to conceive can lead to fetal damage or miscarriage. That is why a large proportion of my friends expecting a baby stop their work for some time.
Veterinarians working with cancer chemistry are particularly exposed to the toxic effects of drugs. They are very powerful and toxic drugs.
– I do not touch on it, but my friend has a special set for mixing these drugs, because even when pouring them, you have to be very careful. It mixes and dilutes cancer chemistry under a special extractor to minimize the risk of skin contact or inhalation of these preparations. All doctors using this type of drugs should have such kits, but it is known that this can be different, especially in smaller offices.
It is also different with protection against X-rays. Officially performing x-rays, doctors work under controlled conditions.
– Unofficially, two colleagues working at a well-known Warsaw x-ray point have developed cancer. Of course, no one said it out loud, but it is unlikely to be a coincidence.
What lies in wait for veterinarians is also their own immune system, which is weakened and unable to fight an attack, e.g. mushrooms Microsporum canis, causing small-spore mycosis, which is most easily infected from a sick cat or dog.
– It is enough that we have lower skin resistance and damage to the skin on our hands, which happens to us permanently. This ringworm is not serious, it gives little itchy patches on the skin, and is easy to heal, but it’s not pleasant.
So are allergies, which are also the bane of vets. They are sensitized by drugs and preparations used on animals. Or … the animals themselves.
– In the third year of college, a friend found out that he was allergic to a cat. Nevertheless, he started working in a small animal clinic. He only panicked when he suffered a terrible asthma attack himself in the ER. He began to choke and lose consciousness, he was unable to call an ambulance. He crawled to the drug cupboard, took a syringe of a steroid and two milligrams of atropine, and slapped it in his thigh through his pants. His breath came back. He ended up quitting his job and starting a pig business. I know he has a small animal clinic again, but he has people working for him. When you have a veterinary virus in your blood, it’s hard to get rid of …