My thoughts exactly. I've been a vet tech for almost 10 years and what OP described sounds like a good day to me. Unless you have done it, people just don't know how it can be.

Life of a vet tech is a glamorous one :) all the things OP described are better than anal gland juice

You learn very quickly to keep your mouth closed while expressing a dog's anal glands. :)

Amen to that, #72! Or urine in the eye. Had that one happen to me a few times.

This comment thread quickly turned into a "oh girrrrlll i know watchu mean mmmm" ;)

So the owners just get another dog.

True, they can get a new dog. But it's not easy to say good bye to your pet. Of course if you don't give a shit. If my cat dies right now (God forbid) I can get a new one. But it's hard to get over it. You sound like you never had a pet and don't know how it feels. Or your just heartless.

21 your comment made me so sad, I'm so sorry for your loss :( I'm still upset about my grandparents springer spaniel who passed 4 years ago from cancer

#21, was is visceral hemangiosarcoma that your dog had? Going through the exact same thing with my 14yr old cat. Had to have his cancerous spleen removed and was told that this cancer is so rare in cats that there is no data in treatments in follow ups with chemo and prognosis/outcome longterm for what we are doing with him. I have 2 other geriatric pets under treatment for ailments and even though I know at some point meds etc will no longer help them, my heart just breas thinking about if and when those days come.

I dont remember the exact term. But he had no symptoms of being sick and the day before He was suddenly wobbly on his feet. So I called the vet and had an appt for him within the next hour. Vet did a physical exam, x ray and found the mass. She said the good news was that she didnt see any signs of it spreading. But to keep in mind the x ray can only pick up masses 5mm and larger, and she may see signs of cancer spreading during surgery. Well the next morning during surgery, she opened him up and it was already spreading to his liver, pancreas, abdominal wall...and he would prob live maybe a month at most. And advised me he would be in too much pain and miserable if she were to wake him up out of surgery. That the stress of the recovery would aggravate the cancer and kill him painfully. Its just terrible to see your dog laying unconscious on the operating table and holding him as the vet injected the OD of barbiturates or whatever it was to stop his heart. He would still randomly twitch in his paws and lips after he died. :( He was such a great dog and didn't deserve to get sick and die like that.

I thought he would have the surgery, come home to recover and be fine. So the vet calling me after she removed his spleen, and discussed with me that she thinks it would be best to not wake him up was a nasty shock. I was fully expecting I would pick him up that afternoon to take home and get better. I even baked his favorite peanutbutter and oats dog biscuits for when he came home. And to come home from the vet to an empty house without my dog devastated me.