Animal Cruelty

Another death day is finally over. I got into work this morning and as I was giving medications, 3 of my patients had passed in the night. Over the next eight hours, 4 animals had to be euthanized and another 4 were found dead. The worst, by far, was an opossum we got in a couple of weeks ago. She had come in with babies in her pouch the size of jelly beans. She was really lethargic and pale, and generally very weak. We gave her supportive care and when we re-evaluated her today, she had pretty stiff limbs. We thought we might have missed a broken pelvis so I took an x-ray while Dee took a phone call. I didn't find any broken bones. Instead what I found were 19 lead bullets in her body, 4 of which were in her face. These bullets must have been in her for months if not longer. She was in the last stages of lead poisoning, and we had to humanely euthanize her and her babies. It was a crappy end to a crappy day. I hope tomorrow goes better. Miss you all lots and hope that you never have to see an animal shot 19 times.