My beloved Tonka is sick. He’s the old boy, nearly 16, and has a long history of low grade inflammatory bowel disease and all the other fun stuff that goes with it. He had a bad flare up Sunday night/ Monday morning (puking at 1 a.m.) and I took him to the emergency clinic for basic supportive care. As a relief vet it’s kinda hard, I have no clinic of my own (one of the hazards of reliefing), but the e clinic’s awesome, and they do 24 hr critical care. Anyway, trust me, even as a vet, you feel helpless when it’s your own baby. Half of me is rational, thinking, Okay, we’ll get him on this drug, doublecheck his kidney values, keep him on his fluids, etc etc, the other half just tears up when I see his little face and know how unhappy and sick he is.