How not to die on the job.

1. Do not get bitten by a rabid animal.
2. Do not set self on fire.
3. Do not inject self with Beuthanasia-d.

The rest of the health hazards the staff of an animal hospital deal with on a daily basis are a bit more subtle. One of those things is radiation.

Not the sort of radiation that'd turn us into superheroes (although think of what we could do with superpowers!) but the kind we get exposed to from taking radiographs (x-rays) of Fluffy's hips.

Think of the radiation emitted by an x-ray machine as a bunch of tiny ping-pong balls being poured out of a bucket. They'll fall straight down initially, but when they hit the tabletop, they'll bounce in every direction there is, hitting whoever is helping to restrain the animal.

Really, though, what's the problem with a few stray beams of radiation smacking into you? Not much, if you do it once or twice, but if you do it several times a day over the course of a few years? Radiation can cause genetic abnormalities in tissues of the body--an in quickly-growing tissues, the harm can be irreparable. This is the reason that we employ as many safety precautions as we can during even the quickest, most routine radiographs.

These rules are SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for our clinic (and most other clinics we know of!):
1. Only employees who have been specifically trained and passed a test on radiation safety are allowed in the radiography suite.
2. Pregnant employees are not allowed in the radiography suite (remember--quickly-growing tissues, like those of a fetus, can be harmed by scatter radiation!)
3. All employees present in the suite at the time a radiograph is taken MUST be wearing the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE) which consists of a lead apron, a lead thyroid shield, lead-lined gloves, and a personal dosimeter badge.

By the way, have you tried anytime lately to restrain a cat while wearing lead-lined gloves?

The lead and lead-lined equipment effectively shields our bodies from the radiation, and the dosimeter badge records how much radiation exposure we've had in a certain amount of time. Those of us who may have had more exposure than is considered wise will be pulled from the radiograph suite for a period of time. Fortunately, this hasn't happened to anybody.

I can't say we don't complain about the PPE; it can be oppressively uncomfortable, and as I mentioned before, doing just about ANYTHING while wearing lead-lined gloves is well nigh impossible. But we do it. Because we love these animals and want to be around for a long time to keep helping them be at their best.