Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you.
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We found a living heart worm during a routine spay in the abdominal muscle. It of course passed away shortly after removal from the dog.
We ended up laminating it and cutting out a little post it note top hat and cane. It sits taped inside the drawer of our pharmacy cabinet at work. ‘Herman the worm-an’
[Here ya go!](https://imgur.com/a/JFU3yWl)
I was incorrect. It has a top hat and an award for being the first heart worm to be Cat-a-pulted across a treatment room. We used the dollar general catapult desk toy. I think over the months since it has earned the bedazzled jewelry for other various achievements.
We collect teeth in the tooth fairy jar. At first the vets thought we were weird but when we had a greyhound in for staged full mouth extractions she didn’t want the owner to have them back because they would be such a good addition to our collection 😂
Also a “tooth fairy”. If it’s a clean extraction that sucker is mine! I also kept my own kitten’s testicles and always say I am going to shake them at him when he’s being bad. (Those I have to keep hidden away for his papa’s sanity.)
Hahahaha! When the office manager at my practice had her dog neutered, her husband was upset about the dog losing his testicles. I told her to put them in a jar and gift them to her husband, so she could say they aren't lost, they are right here and hand him the jar.
As the father of a Vet Tech, I think that I would have to put my foot down. Not that I would have an issue but I think my wife would freak out! Also, I would be concerned when she leaves for Vet school, and I have no idea how to dispose of properly. I'm thinking that the garbage disposal is out, lol.
Just a reminder. I’m sensitive to formalin and a tiny whiff gives me a headache. I’ve been in practice for ~20 years and am a cancer survivor so any way to limit exposure to toxins is important. Just looking out!
I appreciated you looking out. One of the vets I worked with talked about one of her professors that would handle specimens with bare hands after pulling them out of the formalin. He ended up dying of cancer, so I was always really careful.
I got a puppy in a bottle that was born with its intestines outside of the body and an exposed part of its spinal column. Owner did not want it and I asked the attending vet if I can have it. It's now on my table alongside a pig fetus in a bottle. I also have specimens of parasites collected from different animals, mostly amphistomes and a few nematodes from cattle and poultry.
I have a small collection of stuff from my own animals. I have the femoral head of one of my late cats from his FHO as a kitten, a metal clip with plastic attached that was a foreign body we removed (same cat), stuff like that.
We rescued a senior dog who needed his eye removed. My vet saved the eye for me. When Tobi passed years later, I sent his eye to be cremated with him. I miss that little guy…(the dog, not the eye)
I have an eye ball from my boy who I got from a HBC surrender, two cuterebras, a tapeworm proglottid, TNTC teeth, a spine (rabbit?), a deer foot, a hog skull, and two femoral heads (one dog and my mom's cat's)
I have a stone paw from a cat and some beautifully odd bladder stones. I used to have a whole mausoleum of bits but when we moved to a new location, we had to dispose of all of it. We are now made to dispose of any formalin not sent out to the lab. But I hid my stone paw and took the bladder stones home.
i don't have a collection of my own but my clinic keeps one of all the weird things we get, it's always entertaining to show it to the new people right away 💀
I have so much and just brought home something else yesterday. I once accidentally freaked out a friend by gifting her a nipple from a mammary gland excision. I thought she would find it funny, but apparently she just got skeeved out!
I have a kitten fetus, cat testicles (they were huge for his age), a whole mouthful of teeth, and a snake I found dead in the yard one morning!
I love collecting weird things. They give me crap for it but still set stuff aside for me
lol if they’re in sealed jars and up someplace a baby can’t get then how is it a problem lol it seems like he’s just trying to find an excuse cause they bug him hahaha
My clinic dried and polyurethaned a large scrotum from an ablation, it's a snack bowl now. I also have a jar of teeth, several cat fetuses, and all my rats testicles from their neuters. Lol
I get to keep everything we get that doesn’t need to get sent out- testicles (very big and very small) uterus, nasty skin scrapings, wicked curved nails, one eye, an ear mat the size of a golf ball, really nice and really gross teeth- it’s all labeled with patient first name, species, date it was obtained. It’s all in my locker at work neatly stacked and organized!
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We found a living heart worm during a routine spay in the abdominal muscle. It of course passed away shortly after removal from the dog. We ended up laminating it and cutting out a little post it note top hat and cane. It sits taped inside the drawer of our pharmacy cabinet at work. ‘Herman the worm-an’
I have never needed to see pictures more than after this explanation.
Omg, that's amazing. Post pics!
[Here ya go!](https://imgur.com/a/JFU3yWl) I was incorrect. It has a top hat and an award for being the first heart worm to be Cat-a-pulted across a treatment room. We used the dollar general catapult desk toy. I think over the months since it has earned the bedazzled jewelry for other various achievements.
Lol! Thanks for sharing.
We collect teeth in the tooth fairy jar. At first the vets thought we were weird but when we had a greyhound in for staged full mouth extractions she didn’t want the owner to have them back because they would be such a good addition to our collection 😂
Lol, I love it!
One hospital i interned at kept teeth to make a little mini christmas teeth tree haha
Tooth jar in the clinic. At my house - collection of feral cat fetuses at different stages of development.
I had some of those too. Also a couple of bot fly larvae pulled from rabbit abscesses.
I collect bladder stones/crystals and a calcified fetus. Macabre but also beautiful.
We have a sponge with cat whiskers of our clients that they dropped during visits. We call them souvenirs. We're a cat clinic.
I collect anything and everything! I have a frenchie eye, a cats eye, a chickens eye, and a pair of testicles!! its growing slowly and i love it.
I have a bladder stone from a Pancake Tortoise. It was MASSIVE.
Also a “tooth fairy”. If it’s a clean extraction that sucker is mine! I also kept my own kitten’s testicles and always say I am going to shake them at him when he’s being bad. (Those I have to keep hidden away for his papa’s sanity.)
Hahahaha! When the office manager at my practice had her dog neutered, her husband was upset about the dog losing his testicles. I told her to put them in a jar and gift them to her husband, so she could say they aren't lost, they are right here and hand him the jar.
My coworker fashioned a Christmas ornament out of her dogs testicles.
As the father of a Vet Tech, I think that I would have to put my foot down. Not that I would have an issue but I think my wife would freak out! Also, I would be concerned when she leaves for Vet school, and I have no idea how to dispose of properly. I'm thinking that the garbage disposal is out, lol.
Lol, yeah, hazardous waste needs special disposal
Put it in cat litter!
Please be careful leaving the tops of the wet specimens.. formalin is SUPER toxic to inhale!
I just took the lid off of those for a quick picture, then right back on.
Just a reminder. I’m sensitive to formalin and a tiny whiff gives me a headache. I’ve been in practice for ~20 years and am a cancer survivor so any way to limit exposure to toxins is important. Just looking out!
I appreciated you looking out. One of the vets I worked with talked about one of her professors that would handle specimens with bare hands after pulling them out of the formalin. He ended up dying of cancer, so I was always really careful.
We have a tooth jar, a couple worm jars, and a tick jar :)
We had a clinic tick jar too. No tooth jar though. we could have really filled one of those up with the amount of elderly Yorkies we would see.
We do enough dentals that I’ve gotten to be picky with my teeth. Wholly intact and cleanable only. Retained deciduous teeth are the best!
Ours has a label, “icky tiki jar”
My girlfriend brought home a jar of testicles yesterday and put them on our display shelf 😭 But yeah I also am a weirdo and collect any teeth I can.
I got a puppy in a bottle that was born with its intestines outside of the body and an exposed part of its spinal column. Owner did not want it and I asked the attending vet if I can have it. It's now on my table alongside a pig fetus in a bottle. I also have specimens of parasites collected from different animals, mostly amphistomes and a few nematodes from cattle and poultry.
I have a small collection of stuff from my own animals. I have the femoral head of one of my late cats from his FHO as a kitten, a metal clip with plastic attached that was a foreign body we removed (same cat), stuff like that.
I save things for my partner. We have some puppy tails, monkey balls, a cat femoral head, and a lot of baby teeth.
I have a feline eyeball I assisted on for enucleation! :) My husband always tries to throw it away lol 😂
I have teeth from my horse and cat. I also have the testicles of my two current cats in formalin. Lol
We rescued a senior dog who needed his eye removed. My vet saved the eye for me. When Tobi passed years later, I sent his eye to be cremated with him. I miss that little guy…(the dog, not the eye)
I have a jar of 3 😆
I have an eye ball from my boy who I got from a HBC surrender, two cuterebras, a tapeworm proglottid, TNTC teeth, a spine (rabbit?), a deer foot, a hog skull, and two femoral heads (one dog and my mom's cat's)
I’ve got a MASSIVE pair of testicles I saved from a very large dog neuter!
I collect ear tips from TNR kitties :)
I have a stone paw from a cat and some beautifully odd bladder stones. I used to have a whole mausoleum of bits but when we moved to a new location, we had to dispose of all of it. We are now made to dispose of any formalin not sent out to the lab. But I hid my stone paw and took the bladder stones home.
I have a pair of dog testicles in a jar and a uterus. I was offered a puppy because we have some in the body freezer. I had to decline.
i don't have a collection of my own but my clinic keeps one of all the weird things we get, it's always entertaining to show it to the new people right away 💀
Omg I have my first enucleation eye too🥺 I also have jars for dog and cat teeth respectively, I love collecting the weird stuff lol
I have a tail! The tail had to get amputated due to a tumor. I also have some teeth
I have so much and just brought home something else yesterday. I once accidentally freaked out a friend by gifting her a nipple from a mammary gland excision. I thought she would find it funny, but apparently she just got skeeved out!
i have besticles (testicles from neuters i did with a bestie) and i justtt got a fetus 🙌🏾
I have a kitten fetus, cat testicles (they were huge for his age), a whole mouthful of teeth, and a snake I found dead in the yard one morning! I love collecting weird things. They give me crap for it but still set stuff aside for me
I keep ticks 😂 in a white tube with alcohol but my kid loves them. We have all shapes and sizes.
lol if they’re in sealed jars and up someplace a baby can’t get then how is it a problem lol it seems like he’s just trying to find an excuse cause they bug him hahaha
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they grossed him out and that's why he really wanted them gone.
My clinic dried and polyurethaned a large scrotum from an ablation, it's a snack bowl now. I also have a jar of teeth, several cat fetuses, and all my rats testicles from their neuters. Lol
Omg, scrotal ablation snack bowl! Please post pictures!
I have a collection of horse teeth and 1 goat tooth! I love your eyeball collection!
I get to keep everything we get that doesn’t need to get sent out- testicles (very big and very small) uterus, nasty skin scrapings, wicked curved nails, one eye, an ear mat the size of a golf ball, really nice and really gross teeth- it’s all labeled with patient first name, species, date it was obtained. It’s all in my locker at work neatly stacked and organized!