The Prune Pit Murder by Renee George

Author:Renee George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Renee George

Chapter 10

The next morning, Parker took Elvis and Smooshie with him to the shelter so I could prepare for my early class, Veterinarian Diagnostic Imaging. The course description described the class as an in-depth study into the history and practice of veterinarian medical radiology. I would be learning the history of radiology, along with how to take the x-rays and develop them.

I’d seen Kelly, at vet tech at Ryan’s practice, perform several radiological images on dogs and cats brought into the office. The clinic had an up-to-date digital imaging table with a mobile arm and an adjustable seventeen-inch square flat panel that displayed an image immediately on the monitor. It required a fraction of the time the old tables that used film cassettes used to take, so most of the animals that needed x-rays these days didn’t need sedation unless they were in a lot of pain or couldn’t hold still for a few seconds.

I didn’t do much except observe, but I thought it was fascinating. I hoped the class would teach us a little about the diagnostic aspect of radiology as well. It wouldn’t be in my job description, but I was still very curious.

Dr. Milo Cramer, a retired veterinarian radiologist by practice, taught the course. I’d met him before because he was the guy Ryan sent images to if he wanted a second opinion. Dr. Cramer gets a consultant fee, but he doesn’t charge a lot, so Ryan can keep the fees down. Hearing some of the billing nightmares some of his clients faced at other clinics made me angry. One woman had been billed over thirty thousand dollars to keep her pug alive for an extra six weeks with painful surgeries to remove tumors and part of a lung, and finally, the poor thing had to be placed on a ventilator, where it spent the last week of its life sedated.

Ryan would have never recommended such an expensive and invasive course of treatment for a terminal creature. He would have strongly recommended comfort measures until it was time to say goodbye, and if she’d insisted on more extreme measures, he would have referred her elsewhere. Some people, whether it was with pets or people, struggled to let go, sometimes to the detriment of the ones they loved. I knew this because Ryan had told me so in confidence.

“Well, hello, Lily,” Dr. Cramer said when I got to class. He was robust and physically fit for his age, which I guessed to be early seventies. He had white hair, but it was still thick and healthy, no thinning. “I saw you were on my roster. How’s the pup?”

I knew he wasn’t talking about Smooshie. Dr. Cramer was hands-on when it came to reading x-rays, which is why home delivery of the printed images had been required. I’d delivered three of them to him at his home office last week on a beagle who’d been hit by a car. There’d been no doubt his hip had been fractured, but Ryan had been worried about the cervical spine as well, and he wanted a second opinion.

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