I think the most horribly nasty thing I've ever dealt with occurred yesterday. A client's approximately 100 pound rottweiler passed away in the owner's backyard and he brought the body to the office to be sent away for cremation. I was the only employee in the building when he arrived.
It is August and I live in Northern California. Summers mean triple digit heat.
There's no telling how long that dog's carcass had been out there in the sun, and it had begun to decompose. The body was wrapped in plastic bio hazard bags but they were leaking some sort of fluid. In the process of helping him remove the dog from his car and carry it into the hospital (we don't have a stretcher so the client and I placed it on a sheet and carried it in that way) I got the fluid on my hands, my arms and my clothing. The dog was too heavy for myself and the owner to lift into the large freezer in back. So we left in the hallway - stinking up the entire building. I called my dad and had him bring me a change of clothes, but there was nothing I could do about the horrible smell in the building.
When the doctor returned from his lunch break, he and the technician rebagged the dog and put it in the freezer. Then he opened up all of the doors in the building to air it out... which helped dissipate the smell but attracted several flies.
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