From Floppy Dogs to a Rant.

It started out steady yesterday but then seemed to end up going a bit mad. We were several nurses down so that did not help.

There is a big German Shepard Dog (GSD) in l will call Max. He had been an RTA at about 3am. His main injury was a pneumothorax (chest full of air). When night shift came back on duty they were all shocked to see him. He had come in almost dead and no one would have bet on his odds of survival.

Now he was trying to leap out of the kennel whenever the door was opened, this was often as he had been having his chest drained every 30mins. When l got in they had decided as the amount withdrawn had been dropping it would be left for an hour.

As everyone was battered from playing grab the 10mth old nutter in mid air game, or the lift the floppy dog back into the kennel, l was given the job of official "air puller".
First pull was depressing at 650ml of air, oh well back to every 30mins. After a couple of hours though it settled down and by 23:00 we were only getting fairly small amounts out after an hour or so.

"Max" has a wonderful temperament which makes it nice to deal with him, a lot of GSD are dangerous. Max's problem is he hates to be in a kennel so you have to try and keep him in the kennel by pushing your head up and blocking as he tries to leap out. Sometimes he gives in and lies down, other times he pants and dribbles in your face and hair knowing you hate it and that you are stuck, hands holding the 50ml syringe and working a 3way tap.
Calling for help is no use as everyone is busy doing other jobs and this in theory is a simple job, as he is a softie. If he gets out he stands still for his draining.
Great except try and get him back in the kennel. Back legs slide slowly down front legs go stiff and he folds drunk style to the floor. You are left to lift bits of a roughly 40kg totally floppy dog into his kennel bit by bit, as he does his best to push just enough to slide out.
Slide him round on the floor like a mop head so he is facing the door, he bounces up and is all "Ohhh goody, no more kennel" Turn him back to the kennel and down he goes.

A sweet old terrier came in via a police collection call. His owner was walking down the street and started to kick the dog, ripped off all of his clothes and ran away naked. Well that was other peoples problem the old dog was lame on his back leg but we were not sure if it was an old injury or a new one. He was on pain relief and rest overnight and reassess today (Saturday).
From there it will be treatment on a new injury, decisions on what or if anything can be done to help the old injury. Then off to the rescue kennels where they will decide what his future will be. If they can track down relatives to look after him that will be the first course of action.

I managed to leave just in time last night. I am not a fan of breeders or dog breeding. A bulldog with whelping difficulties turned up. I guess the owners got the dates wrong or are new. Bulldogs are so screwed up thanks to the breeding that they are all caesarian to give birth. If they do manage to give birth to one pup the rest are caesarian out so the stress on them is lessened by elective caesarian.
Bulldog litters often come out all dead from deformations or just a couple dead with deformed bodies.

It gets better l was speaking to a bulldog breeder once he told me that it takes 4 people to support a pair of attempting to mate bulldogs as their legs can not support the effort. An Aussie vet was telling me that over there they just use artificial insemination a lot easier and in that heat would have dead dogs.
One research team was looking into bulldogs stamina and needed them to walk a certain amount of time round a hall (l or 2 circuits) the test was abandoned as none of the dogs could compete the walk.

While nice but ugly bulldogs are a walking disaster of inherited problems and for this people pay upwards of £2000 for one.

Many breeds should be allowed to die out. The extreme cruelty of their existence should be lived by those that want to breed them, not the animals whose crime was to be a source of income.

For information on genetic disorders in dogs, go to

Outright lies are often told to prospective buyers about problems associated with breeds but if they ask the correct people, vets and vet nurses, prospective buyers should be given the correct information in as much that is known but the website is the full known and often updated lists of a lot, but not all breeds.