Small Animal Emergency

So I'm just wrapping up my 2 weeks of Small Animal ER tonight.
I've gotten to put in several catheters over the last couple of weeks. The one thing I never was able to do id hit the jugular of a small animal. I could get the jug of a big dog, but that is on my list of to-do's over the next several months.

Memorable cases:

An english coonhound with hind limb paralysis. It started as 1 leg, then moved to both. She was 11 years old. Blood work was all ok. Radiographs showed complete lysis of the spine of T10 (or so). So she had neoplasia.

A 7 month old bishon presented for convulsions that the reg DVM could not control. On presentation, she had severe meisois with no pupillary reflexes. We administered drugs to control the seizures including diazepam and propofol, gave manitol to reduce the swelling of the brain. All blood work checked out ok. The clients were out of town and the dog sitter said they kept a close eye on the puppy the entire time they were watching it. We assumed it was necrotizing meningitis. This is something that bishons and pugs get. It can happen anywhere from 6 months old to 7years old, has a grave prognosis and it some sort of auto immune thing that cannot really be managed. We were ready to euthanize. We all agreed that this puppy was in GRIM shape. From vacation, the owner insisted we give it just a little more time. So we gave her supportive care through the night. The next morning, the day shift came in to see the dog sitting up and perky. At some point through the night she snapped into being a normal dog again. She got to go outside to pee, was eating, etc. So it turned out to be (most likely) a toxin of some sort. Put away your pills people!

A puncture would in the groin kept me at school until 6am this morning. Dog playing in the lake. We had  4 other cases last night (including a [most likely] osteosarc in a 7 year old golden [clients were in denial], a cat with FIP that we drained 1200 ml out of the abdomen, a [conscious] hit by car puppy with mild head trauma, a pug with a UTI, and a little dog that was licking the couch and eating grass [nausea]). Once we got to the puncture would we realized how bad it was- went through 2 layers of muscle. We had to do rads to be sure it did not puncture the body wall, then call the radiologist to read them, then call the ER doc to come assist with suturing the dog since it was a procedure that none of us ha done. So by 6am, the drain was placed and the pup was ready to go home on a crapload of antibiotics. Puncture wounds are things we will see ALL the time, so I was SO glad I stuck around to watch this procedure being done.

Overall this rotations has been great. I've learned a ton.

Deep thoughts from this rotation:
Cats like to turn blue because they can't breathe for many kinds of reasons (congestive heart failure and asthma are the 2 main reasons). Furosimide, albuterol and O2 are key.
A lot of stuff cannot be diagnosed.
It is sad, but relieving, when an owner chooses euthanasia for their extremely ill animal.
It is sad when an owner cannot afford treatment for a fairly easy fix.
There are stray dogs and cats everywhere but many have chips. SCAN THEM!
People love to "rescue" any kind of wildlife.
Always muzzle a dog - just do it.
Pain meds, pain meds, pain meds!
NOVA (stat blood machine) vs ultrasound? Hopefully I'll get both at MY clinic someday! I woudl never be able to choose.

Emergency is like feast or famine: sometimes all animals are ok in the world and sometimes all animals like to get acutely ill or injured. And it usually happens all at once!

I still love dogs and cats and people are crazy.
One more night shift on ER then off to 4 weeks of (hopefully) large animal bliss!!