I wrote about the smaller crocs being moved to their new enclosure at Tenerife Sur Zoo but thought l would tell the story of Celia the Cuban crocodile and her move to the same enclosure…. Once the fence was made higher and croc proof.
Paco had built the new enclosure as he felt the smaller Niles were now at a size they were less likely to get eaten by Celia. Both sets of crocs enclosures had only been temporary ones, true for a few years but only “short term”
Celia had been at the zoo for a number of years. She is a very rare croc being a Cuban and her arrival was different to the normal sort of arrival.
A container ship had docked at Santa Cruz in Tenerife to off and reload cargo. The sailors had been in Cuba and South America on one leg of their trip and had acquired quite a few creatures, mainly parrots. They decided that they would sell the creatures in Tenerife to earn some extra cash.
They had sold most of the animals except Celia, sensibly the citizens of Santa Cruz decided that they would not buy her but stuck to the parrots and few smaller creatures.
At the end of the day when the ship was refreshed and due to sail the crew went back to the ship leaving poor Celia to walk around the streets looking for food and security. The zoo was called and they rescued her. She had been there growing since, and was now around about 7ft and happy in her home.
The trouble with moving her was she spent a lot of time in her pond. It was muddy and impossible to see into, and though only narrow it was deep and Paco insisted she had to be caught not trapped.
This “simple” job was accomplished by pushing a broom handle down into the muddy water and pinning her to the floor. As she reared up in anger a noose was to be dropped over her jaws and pulled shut, then she was hauled out, hogtied and carried to her new home.
No matter how Marco or l said it was a crazy scheme, your hands ended up in the water as the pond was deep, It stressed her out, it stressed us out, we risked injuring her, we risked her injuring us, we got no place he was adamant.
After 2 hours Paco had got bored of supervising, you notice “supervising” he was not putting his hands in there and wandered off but my hub had arrived by now and joined in.
We continued to push the handle down while one of us waited with the noose, every so often we would swop to give a broom pushers a break. You could feel her wizz under the handle as it brushed her. At times she would surface, grab a look and breath and go down again it was crazy. A couple of times we got her to rear up but never managed to get her noosed as she was always at the opposite end to where l was or to far away.
It took about 4 hours before they succeeded in getting her back end pinned, and on cue she reared up by me and l managed to get the noose over her jaws and pull tight.
She slammed around but l held on the other 2 leaping over to help. We got her part way out and more ropes onto her then pulled her out and tied to a plank and immobilised her tail and body.
We carried her over to the new enclosure with the smaller Niles. We were all barefoot, normal for me but not for hub or Marco. Hub cried out as he stood on something but kept going. When we checked his foot later there was just a small hole.
Celia settled quickly into her new home seeming to enjoy it but hubs foot didn’t get better. Finally after about 5 months of limping he allowed me to have a proper look. A dig with a needle and a hard squeeze and out popped a chunk of plastic, it must have gone in deep and the hole closed over it, once out the foot healed.
Celia had her revenge on at least one of us for the indignities of being caught as she was.
Showing posts with label Foreign Bodies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foreign Bodies. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Shootings, Chocolate and Work
Sorry it has been so long since l wrote or replied. I have been on the good old work treadmill but covering 2 different practices, several days going from the day shift to the emergency job to cover part of the late evening shifts. That means that l have only really glanced at the computer to tired to bother.
Then this week l got hammered with this bug that is going around and have had about enough energy to get me from shift start to shift end with nothing left over.
High temperatures and hacking cough is not my idea of fun. I may as well have lived in a sauna l have been so sweated out.
All l want is to get fit, l have just got over my last problem of 3 weeks cold and laryngitis but it seems health must wait.
Food has been on my list of l can’t face much and l have had so much chicken broth l am about to start to crow.
On the work front the feeling of good will seems to as usual be lacking to many animals. There has been a lot of older abandoned dogs appearing needing veterinary care, mainly for cold and arthritis. Stray puppies are doing the odd guest appearance but they won’t really start to hit till Xmas day and beyond.
Last week we had a cat in that was owned. It looked to have been attacked by a dog and was full of holes. We gave a quick x-ray to check for ruptured diaphragm (from being shaken) or any other x-ray obvious injuries and lo some scum had shotgun’ed the cat.
I lost count at 35+ pellets, it is not easy to count them your eyes tend to get confused.
He was quite bright considering the holes in him. His tail will probably have to come off as that has been fractured in what’s called a high tail base fracture, thankfully his urination isn’t affected.
He had a pellet removed from his stomach and a couple from his intestine. Some may need removal from his legs but the majority will be left as it is better than going aimless hunting and if they are not causing a problem then they are left.
The same night we had a small terrier in. His owners had gone out and come back to find their house broken into and the dog stabbed once into the chest.
Air had leaked under the skin and he was very blown up. His skin felt like bubble wrap as the air rippled under it in the fat, not a nice feeling. He was stabilised overnight and a thoracotomy sorted him out.
Parvo dogs have been pouring in. One night we had 4 in isolation and one stray with kennel cough. The small day practice l have been at has also had several parvo dogs in.
Good old Xmas poisonings are starting to make their way in as well, raisins, grapes and chocolates top the charts at the moment.
I am not a fan of American Bulldogs. The ones l know have all been darn right nasty. That has changed and l have fallen for a big lump of one.
He came in because he had eaten a tea-towel, socks and a few other items, apparently the breed is as bad as Labradors for scavenging. All l have known the AB to scavenge though is human body parts, whichever its teeth can close on. The socks and other items reappeared, tea towel hadn’t.
What a sweet dog, stood there while dripped just trying to give sloppy licky kisses. Post op he was in a walk in on a duvet and then l wrapped him like a big sausage roll in a flower duvet. All you could see all night was his nose, even awake he snuggled in.
A couple of days later he came into the small day practice l am at for an op check. He was a bit subdued still but gave me a nice welcome. I chatted to the owner while Bruno (not his name) sat on my lap trying to give more sloppy kisses while l sat on the floor in reception. Apparently his sister had a pair of pyjamas removed from her not long ago.
2 days after that Bruno came back in for another check and he bounded in. He heard my voice as l came round the door to greet him and almost knocked me over.
His long suffering wallet….sorry owner, said he had removed some newspapers from Bruno that day so he was on the mend.
They do try and keep him separated from items but with kids on hand l don’t think it is too easy.
The American Bulldog is a very powerful breed and needs to be line checked carefully for temperament especially and health. I had a history lesson on the breed in the UK and it was the usual. Bad lines brought over from USA and bred with garden breeders for money.
Then a few dogs carefully chosen and brought over from USA by a breeder and bred but a higher price and carefully checked potential owners. Bruno comes from the careful lines and it shows, too many do not.
The emergency hospital is part of a corporate setup and they have upset the whole night shift. There was an Xmas party H/O said they would pay £25 they were quids in. It was to difficult for the majority of us to get to and day shift were going enmasse, and quite frankly was not really anyone’s on nights cup of tea, a drunken night out with non work friends. Not that we do not like them just they are a different world and most day and night shifters do not really meet.
We wanted a nice get together, chat laugh and just unwind so we organised our own, although l am a locum l am included as l spend so much of my life there and doing stupid shifts and getting them out of the brown stuff.
This split party had been done other years. There is a whole setup of night shift starting at 13:00 in the afternoon and ending at 8am, collection drivers, vets, veterinary nurses, receptionists, auxiliaries. Some staff were not going to go to bed, others missing a couple of hours of shift and going it at about 15:00 not 13:00 (day shift were fine about that) Some of us due to work that night and forgoing a full days sleep. It meant we could all get together and have a lunch time gathering. The place chosen was an all you can eat pub. £5.99/head.
The practice manager rang up H/O on Tuesday to get final clearance and was told tough they should have gone to the night meal. The fact it meant that out of 20 who put their name down for the day meal about 5 could have gone to nights was not their problem.
A letter signed by a lot of us has been sent in not that we expect it to do any good. Night shift is a set group of people who only do nights and unsociable hours. There is bank holidays and weekends and all those family gatherings they miss. If their normal work pattern falls on a weekend they do not get extra. They get less holiday than days and less for covering bank holidays. Yet again night shift has been shafted.
Then this week l got hammered with this bug that is going around and have had about enough energy to get me from shift start to shift end with nothing left over.
High temperatures and hacking cough is not my idea of fun. I may as well have lived in a sauna l have been so sweated out.
All l want is to get fit, l have just got over my last problem of 3 weeks cold and laryngitis but it seems health must wait.
Food has been on my list of l can’t face much and l have had so much chicken broth l am about to start to crow.
On the work front the feeling of good will seems to as usual be lacking to many animals. There has been a lot of older abandoned dogs appearing needing veterinary care, mainly for cold and arthritis. Stray puppies are doing the odd guest appearance but they won’t really start to hit till Xmas day and beyond.
Last week we had a cat in that was owned. It looked to have been attacked by a dog and was full of holes. We gave a quick x-ray to check for ruptured diaphragm (from being shaken) or any other x-ray obvious injuries and lo some scum had shotgun’ed the cat.
I lost count at 35+ pellets, it is not easy to count them your eyes tend to get confused.
He was quite bright considering the holes in him. His tail will probably have to come off as that has been fractured in what’s called a high tail base fracture, thankfully his urination isn’t affected.
He had a pellet removed from his stomach and a couple from his intestine. Some may need removal from his legs but the majority will be left as it is better than going aimless hunting and if they are not causing a problem then they are left.
The same night we had a small terrier in. His owners had gone out and come back to find their house broken into and the dog stabbed once into the chest.
Air had leaked under the skin and he was very blown up. His skin felt like bubble wrap as the air rippled under it in the fat, not a nice feeling. He was stabilised overnight and a thoracotomy sorted him out.
Parvo dogs have been pouring in. One night we had 4 in isolation and one stray with kennel cough. The small day practice l have been at has also had several parvo dogs in.
Good old Xmas poisonings are starting to make their way in as well, raisins, grapes and chocolates top the charts at the moment.
I am not a fan of American Bulldogs. The ones l know have all been darn right nasty. That has changed and l have fallen for a big lump of one.
He came in because he had eaten a tea-towel, socks and a few other items, apparently the breed is as bad as Labradors for scavenging. All l have known the AB to scavenge though is human body parts, whichever its teeth can close on. The socks and other items reappeared, tea towel hadn’t.
What a sweet dog, stood there while dripped just trying to give sloppy licky kisses. Post op he was in a walk in on a duvet and then l wrapped him like a big sausage roll in a flower duvet. All you could see all night was his nose, even awake he snuggled in.
A couple of days later he came into the small day practice l am at for an op check. He was a bit subdued still but gave me a nice welcome. I chatted to the owner while Bruno (not his name) sat on my lap trying to give more sloppy kisses while l sat on the floor in reception. Apparently his sister had a pair of pyjamas removed from her not long ago.
2 days after that Bruno came back in for another check and he bounded in. He heard my voice as l came round the door to greet him and almost knocked me over.
His long suffering wallet….sorry owner, said he had removed some newspapers from Bruno that day so he was on the mend.
They do try and keep him separated from items but with kids on hand l don’t think it is too easy.
The American Bulldog is a very powerful breed and needs to be line checked carefully for temperament especially and health. I had a history lesson on the breed in the UK and it was the usual. Bad lines brought over from USA and bred with garden breeders for money.
Then a few dogs carefully chosen and brought over from USA by a breeder and bred but a higher price and carefully checked potential owners. Bruno comes from the careful lines and it shows, too many do not.
The emergency hospital is part of a corporate setup and they have upset the whole night shift. There was an Xmas party H/O said they would pay £25 they were quids in. It was to difficult for the majority of us to get to and day shift were going enmasse, and quite frankly was not really anyone’s on nights cup of tea, a drunken night out with non work friends. Not that we do not like them just they are a different world and most day and night shifters do not really meet.
We wanted a nice get together, chat laugh and just unwind so we organised our own, although l am a locum l am included as l spend so much of my life there and doing stupid shifts and getting them out of the brown stuff.
This split party had been done other years. There is a whole setup of night shift starting at 13:00 in the afternoon and ending at 8am, collection drivers, vets, veterinary nurses, receptionists, auxiliaries. Some staff were not going to go to bed, others missing a couple of hours of shift and going it at about 15:00 not 13:00 (day shift were fine about that) Some of us due to work that night and forgoing a full days sleep. It meant we could all get together and have a lunch time gathering. The place chosen was an all you can eat pub. £5.99/head.
The practice manager rang up H/O on Tuesday to get final clearance and was told tough they should have gone to the night meal. The fact it meant that out of 20 who put their name down for the day meal about 5 could have gone to nights was not their problem.
A letter signed by a lot of us has been sent in not that we expect it to do any good. Night shift is a set group of people who only do nights and unsociable hours. There is bank holidays and weekends and all those family gatherings they miss. If their normal work pattern falls on a weekend they do not get extra. They get less holiday than days and less for covering bank holidays. Yet again night shift has been shafted.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Foreign Bodies
We were having a discussion yesterday on items that pets have swallowed apart from the usual balls that get stuck some place and require an operation or we manage to get them to vomit with a timely dose of apamorphine.
This conversation came about as we were trying to decide what the soft chunk of blue rubber was from the dog’s intestines. It turned out the owners recognised it as a piece of plastic from the dog’s tugger toy.
Swallowed commonly are: Chunks of corn on the cob or bones, bits of plastic, needles and thread, panties, pantyhose, stones, golf balls, chocolates and medication.
Sometimes if you have a good enough x-ray you can play the guess what it is game. A friend of mine said that they never worked out the thing they saw was a small concrete frog the GSD had swallowed.
Pantyhose and long items can be a major problem as they can end up telescoping the intestines and have seen a few animals die through complications or take a longer recovery as multiple holes have to be made in the intestines and remove the item piecemeal.
For those in UK that use bounty to clean up spills apparently that goes into a hard ball in the stomach and if you big you have problems, it doesn’t dissolve like normal spill and wipe paper. That is from a VN who had to do an op on her dog to remove said item.
The last couple of needle swallows l have been involved in with dogs the vets made the decision to wait. Every time the dog’s passed faeces we had to x-ray it. Oh such a glamorous job. On cats though, l have never known a wait they always go in to retrieve it.
The SVN l was speaking to was telling me about a kitten that was about 4 months old and was fine, eating, drinking, and playing perfectly apart from horrendous breath. The vet opened it’s mouth and caught a very fast glimpse of something? They gave it a GA and x-ray and there was a huge bodkin needle (big and thick) at the very back of the throat jammed upwards. She had to do an op slicing through the roof of the mouth upwards to dislodge it and pull it downwards flat, not easy in a tiny kitten with a tiny mouth and retrieved the needle. The breath cleared up.
Many years ago when l locumed the first time round l went into work at one of my regular places and was told of an incident the week before. The vet and nurse had popped a dog that appeared to have something stuck onto the table and took an x-ray. On development there was an entire breadknife stuck inside the stomach. The vet said they went from casual handling to treating it like it was gelignite that was going to blow up it was very scary. The case made the national papers.
Some cases stick in my mind, like the dog that ate a tampax and we gave it apamorphine…only there was at least 12 used ones came up. The dog was not the only one that wanted to throw up l think we all did.
There was the dog that ate the used condom and caused a divorce. It was the wife’s boyfriends and the husband found out as not everyone had been warned what was going on. The vet informed him at the check up when he asked what had happened, as he had been away when the dog was treated.
One owner l knew many years ago had a stock of french mustard in. His dog as is typical of Labradors ate everything and if he was in time and knew what the dog had eaten he gave him a good dollop. Apparently french mustard made the dog throw up english mustard didn’t! Unfortunately the dog died after eating panty hose, it telescoped the intestines and complications set in.
This conversation came about as we were trying to decide what the soft chunk of blue rubber was from the dog’s intestines. It turned out the owners recognised it as a piece of plastic from the dog’s tugger toy.
Swallowed commonly are: Chunks of corn on the cob or bones, bits of plastic, needles and thread, panties, pantyhose, stones, golf balls, chocolates and medication.
Sometimes if you have a good enough x-ray you can play the guess what it is game. A friend of mine said that they never worked out the thing they saw was a small concrete frog the GSD had swallowed.
Pantyhose and long items can be a major problem as they can end up telescoping the intestines and have seen a few animals die through complications or take a longer recovery as multiple holes have to be made in the intestines and remove the item piecemeal.
For those in UK that use bounty to clean up spills apparently that goes into a hard ball in the stomach and if you big you have problems, it doesn’t dissolve like normal spill and wipe paper. That is from a VN who had to do an op on her dog to remove said item.
The last couple of needle swallows l have been involved in with dogs the vets made the decision to wait. Every time the dog’s passed faeces we had to x-ray it. Oh such a glamorous job. On cats though, l have never known a wait they always go in to retrieve it.
The SVN l was speaking to was telling me about a kitten that was about 4 months old and was fine, eating, drinking, and playing perfectly apart from horrendous breath. The vet opened it’s mouth and caught a very fast glimpse of something? They gave it a GA and x-ray and there was a huge bodkin needle (big and thick) at the very back of the throat jammed upwards. She had to do an op slicing through the roof of the mouth upwards to dislodge it and pull it downwards flat, not easy in a tiny kitten with a tiny mouth and retrieved the needle. The breath cleared up.
Many years ago when l locumed the first time round l went into work at one of my regular places and was told of an incident the week before. The vet and nurse had popped a dog that appeared to have something stuck onto the table and took an x-ray. On development there was an entire breadknife stuck inside the stomach. The vet said they went from casual handling to treating it like it was gelignite that was going to blow up it was very scary. The case made the national papers.
Some cases stick in my mind, like the dog that ate a tampax and we gave it apamorphine…only there was at least 12 used ones came up. The dog was not the only one that wanted to throw up l think we all did.
There was the dog that ate the used condom and caused a divorce. It was the wife’s boyfriends and the husband found out as not everyone had been warned what was going on. The vet informed him at the check up when he asked what had happened, as he had been away when the dog was treated.
One owner l knew many years ago had a stock of french mustard in. His dog as is typical of Labradors ate everything and if he was in time and knew what the dog had eaten he gave him a good dollop. Apparently french mustard made the dog throw up english mustard didn’t! Unfortunately the dog died after eating panty hose, it telescoped the intestines and complications set in.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
The Long Carry
I have written about the dangers of sticks being thrown but in this case it was not a thrown stick that did the damage but a dog off having a good lunatic run and enjoying the summer weather. To be honest you can not blame him as we see so little sun in the UK like all accidents it was one of those things that happens. Oh dear l can hear the hands rub of the health and safely people looking for some reason and way to stop it.
The dog ran into a broken end of branch from a fallen tree. The stick slammed in under his front leg and upwards. His owner had to lift him off the branch as he sensibly froze and screamed for help. She then had a 1 mile walk back to the car carrying the poor lad. I think she was in a worse state of exhaustion when she got to us than the dog with his wound. Reception got her a mug of tea as a first aid measure.
He was very lucky it missed all vital nerves, bones, chest etc and after a very good flush to remove bits of dirt, bark and other debris he only needed sutures and a drain. The drain is called a Penrose drain, it is a hollow thin flexible silicone “straw” and is placed to allow fluid that builds up in certain wounds an escape route; they run down the outside of the tube and drip onto the floor.
If as in this case you can not pull all the muscle across to close the hollow all the way up there is a sort of open hidden space, tissue fluid would form in here and cause problems as it built up hence the penrose drain, then the fluid just causes problems on carpets.
The dog ran into a broken end of branch from a fallen tree. The stick slammed in under his front leg and upwards. His owner had to lift him off the branch as he sensibly froze and screamed for help. She then had a 1 mile walk back to the car carrying the poor lad. I think she was in a worse state of exhaustion when she got to us than the dog with his wound. Reception got her a mug of tea as a first aid measure.
He was very lucky it missed all vital nerves, bones, chest etc and after a very good flush to remove bits of dirt, bark and other debris he only needed sutures and a drain. The drain is called a Penrose drain, it is a hollow thin flexible silicone “straw” and is placed to allow fluid that builds up in certain wounds an escape route; they run down the outside of the tube and drip onto the floor.
If as in this case you can not pull all the muscle across to close the hollow all the way up there is a sort of open hidden space, tissue fluid would form in here and cause problems as it built up hence the penrose drain, then the fluid just causes problems on carpets.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Autopsy
The bulldog had been restless so the owners let it out the back door it had taken 2 steps and keeled over dead. He came into us if the boss could have a quick look for any obvious reason if not he was to go for full autopsy.
Given that it was a bulldog it was cherry pick a reason and that would probably be why it died. The dog was put onto the tub table. (big sink with grid on) The boss opened the dog’s mouth and sure enough the reason it died was because it was a bulldog.
The owners had given the dog a chew. It was large and flat, he had chewed some then swallowed it. The chew had become stuck but because he was a bulldog and his normal breathing was so bloody awful they did not realise that he was choking. All it needed was a quick look in the mouth and pull out the item jamming his airway and he would have been eating dinner that night, not lying cold and stiff on a vets tub table.
Since then l am always wary of any pet chews:
I make sure they are on the larger size.
Once they get small enough for the whole chew to go into the mouth l sling them.
I never leave my dog/s alone with a chew.
I am also wary about how long they have them, because in things like rawhide the bacteria build up and can cause gastro enteritis.
Given that it was a bulldog it was cherry pick a reason and that would probably be why it died. The dog was put onto the tub table. (big sink with grid on) The boss opened the dog’s mouth and sure enough the reason it died was because it was a bulldog.
The owners had given the dog a chew. It was large and flat, he had chewed some then swallowed it. The chew had become stuck but because he was a bulldog and his normal breathing was so bloody awful they did not realise that he was choking. All it needed was a quick look in the mouth and pull out the item jamming his airway and he would have been eating dinner that night, not lying cold and stiff on a vets tub table.
Since then l am always wary of any pet chews:
I make sure they are on the larger size.
Once they get small enough for the whole chew to go into the mouth l sling them.
I never leave my dog/s alone with a chew.
I am also wary about how long they have them, because in things like rawhide the bacteria build up and can cause gastro enteritis.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Guessing Game
So how about a quick guessing game... what's this picture of an x-ray .... hint it is to do with a dog.
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If you said ball you guessed right 2 dogs want the same play item so one wins by default and cheating, well what else do you call swallowing the item in question? Oh and the squeaker still worked post removal.
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If you said ball you guessed right 2 dogs want the same play item so one wins by default and cheating, well what else do you call swallowing the item in question? Oh and the squeaker still worked post removal.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Blood
This is a request for help from all dog and cat owners of any breed but specific sizes and certain requirements.
It was just over a week ago l was placing a PBBuk blood bag onto a canine patient post op, relieved we had the blood in as it was midnight and did not have to play hunt the donar. True it was a fluke we had the correct type in for this patient, the one it was ordered in for had died but we had the blood in store. Dogs can take their first transfusion from any of the canine groups but idealy it should be the correct one.
I do not know about humans and blood but with animals we take a pre placement measurement of temperature, pulse, respiration (TPR)and check the gum CRT(capillary refil time). We then put the blood on at a very low flow rate and monitor TPR every 5min while sitting by the patient. If they stay stable for about 20mins then we move to 10min TPR for a few checks then 20(ditto) and finally we will up the flow rate, monitor them again for the first 15 min. If all stays stable we place them on full flow. If they have a bad reaction to the blood we are able to react instantly.
Until not long ago the law would not allow the storing of pet blood. When it was needed then donars were rung and blood sought for immediate use. Thankfully this has all changed and now storage is allowed. This has led to the setting up of the Pet Blood Bank UK
The website is based around dogs and you will not find cats mentioned there. However in 2008, PBBuk was awarded $15,000 from the Waltham Foundation, an organisation which provides funding towards research that directly improves the health and welfare of animals world-wide, which has enabled PBBuk to start the research project into collecting feline blood.
Like canine donors, feline donors will be required to meet certain criteria before they are able to donate. Cats should be indoor cats, fully vaccinated, friendly in nature, aged 1 - 7 years, in good health and a few other requirements. Full info for cat requirements are available via phone
PBBuk break the blood down into whole blood, packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, frozen plasma, cryoprecipitate and cryo-supernatant just the same as the human blood service and this is then available all over the country to vets, sent via courier.
Yes vets do pay for the blood/products it is not free however it is not cheap to run the service and yes the cost is passed onto the owners of animals that have received the end product.
Some times it is not possible for the vets to order blood in and they need to use local donors but the PBBuk has made a huge difference. Before we only had whole blood from local donars. If a practice does not have many blood donors available and they have just given or do not have suitable blood type, or the one that did has owners on holiday etc.
Blood (and their byproducts) are not just a life saver for humans but for dogs and cats so if you think your dog or cat would fit the criteria and are interested in helping, please go to Pet Blood Bank UK and if you fit the criteria apply.
I have helped with a lot of donar dogs and cats and they all come off the table happy to have a bicci and a bowl of food. None have been harmed and many are multiple donors.
There was a situation l was peripherally involved in. A patient had died and the vet decided that the owners that were away may like an autopsy. Bodies for PM must not be frozen so it was left on the side in the back with orders to keep it cool. I asked an auxiliary to sling some wet towels into the freezer these could be placed over the body at various intervals.
One of the nurses decided to place some ice packs around the body to help. A lot of lab slides and tests are sent though chilled with blue ice packs. Practices keep these as they are useful. So the nurse slung a big blue “ice pack” on the dog.
A week later l went back to work and was asked about the dog as l had been there. I explained my part, the nurse asking then broke into shreiks of laughter. It was not a large ice pack but actually several bags of plasma in a blue outer bag.
I stared in astonishment, asking if no one had marked the bags on arrival. I was told well they were marked…inside the blue outer bag.
I am afraid l joined in the general laughter especially when told that it was now about £1000 worth of worthless mush, ok so it was not politcially correct but it was not a small one man practice, then l would have been upset, it was one of the big national groups in the UK and tough tits to them.
Just a pity that the donar dogs blood products ended up useless in that case.
Saturday, 3 January 2009
The Eye
Eye injuries curl my toes. As soon as l see a damaged eye, my eyes start to get sore in sympathy. This cat was a total toe curler when he came in.
He had somehow stabbed him self in the eye when he was climbing, the stick had broken off and was protruding from the corner. Amazingly he did not appear to feel the problem and was calmly sitting on his bed looking out at the world.
We sedated him and Puss proved he was one of life’s lucky creatures. The stick slid around the orb of the eye, stayed outside of the whole globe and had not damaged anything. It came out when the vet applied firm but gentle pulling pressure. It was a smidge under 2 inches long, l measured it in disbelief.
Puss went home later in the evening when he came round. He was annoyed that we had put a buster collar on him to stop him touching his face for a few days that really did bug him.
Looking down at the stick from behind puss
The Stick from the front
He had somehow stabbed him self in the eye when he was climbing, the stick had broken off and was protruding from the corner. Amazingly he did not appear to feel the problem and was calmly sitting on his bed looking out at the world.
We sedated him and Puss proved he was one of life’s lucky creatures. The stick slid around the orb of the eye, stayed outside of the whole globe and had not damaged anything. It came out when the vet applied firm but gentle pulling pressure. It was a smidge under 2 inches long, l measured it in disbelief.
Puss went home later in the evening when he came round. He was annoyed that we had put a buster collar on him to stop him touching his face for a few days that really did bug him.
Looking down at the stick from behind puss
The Stick from the front
Monday, 29 December 2008
Drips and Drops
I really need to learn to say no to work. I was rung up Sunday at 16:30 in the afternoon and said ok to working the 17:30-03:30 shift and as we were so busy l didn’t leave till 04:30.
Just as well l went in as from 22:00 there were 2 of us nurses and a vet with no auxiliaries, so we had to do their jobs the laundry, bins, cleaning and reception, phones as well as our own jobs.
I ended up doing the anaesthetics and assisting the vet on ops, l took x-rays (nurses job generally), did dressings (nurses are better at dressings than vets), placed drips, took and ran blood tests and the odd bit of inpatient ob’s to help when l got a chance.
The other nurse did the inpatients, a bit like painting the forth bridge never ending.
The rest of the jobs we shared between us. The 02 alarm has a fault on and at one point l ended up laughing hysterically, leaning against a wall as the other nurse marched like the honey monster snarling in frustration towards the alarm to slam it with her hand for the 10th time or was it the 15th l lost track.
We had a couple of major operations like removing a collar buckle from a stomach. The dog got bored and ate his friend’s collar FFS talk about a pimple brain!
“Duh l am bored wonder what l can do, l know l is gonna eat your collar”
His friend joined in and ate the studs and other bits of the collar that fell on the floor. After all it was his collar so fair is fair, x-ray showed they were moving through his intestines.
That was the op that ended late then l had theatre and prep to clean and mop post op, l refused to pack the kit though just slung it into the cleaning fluid to soak.
A pyo, the uterus fills up with pus and it is life threatening. Why oh why do people not get their bitches neutered when they are puppies. They would avoid the £700+ bill, the misery and illness of the animals.
Add that to the usual night time crop of x-rays of dog and cat RTA’s or accidents and temporary support dressing (if possible) till the patient is operated on.
Stitch up wounds, gastro enteritis - joys of Christmas dinners, blocked bladder cats and renal failures.
Wound breakdowns – Listen people use the sodding buster collars they are there for a reason, don’t sit and watch your pet chew the bloody wounds.
A rabbit, a couple of birds some medical cases and oh 2 Parvo dogs in isolation.
It added up to a fun round of work yourself silly night. Think it was 36 inpatients with 32 on drips. Not the busiest of nights but more than enough to keep us going without a break as we had so few staff. If one more dog pulled, ate or disconnected its drip line then there was going to be a group of hysterical staff on duty. Drip lines can be the bane of our lives. If you have a “Bad Drip Night” you know things are just going to go downhill.
At one point l had 5 redrips waiting for me. I tend to prefer dripping to holding and the other nurse on was happy with that as she prefers holding to dripping.
I had the locum vet holding earlier in the evening. He is a Jelco person. And is to bloody slow when we need to motor. Being male he can hold and talk but not drip and talk and l felt that taping his Irish mouth shut was a bit extreme as being the only other option.
There is 2 main makes of iv catheters (canulas) we all tend to use Surflo or Jelco. I have had to get used to Jelco with locuming about but generally if you can use one sort you will screw up the other. I am in the hate Jelco camp.
The other type is winged catheters. These have little wings next to the cap to suture them in. Not something you do with animals we chop them off.
We tend to use these for rabbit ears. Yes rabbits do need iv fluids and we give it via their ears. I also hate doing rabbit ears. We put a local on their ears but it never properly works. They jump at just the wrong second. The skin is so thin and veins so tender it is all done by hope.. “hope l am in this ***ing time”.
For those who understand sizes, 27 or 26 (purple, yellow) rabbits, puppies and kittens, 23 (blue) cats and small dogs, 21 and 18 (pink, green) bigger to huge dogs.
One Jack Russell broke 2 buster collars and chewed out 2 lines. The little git got a shock when his teeth descended on the 3rd line though. I left his buster collar off and he thought Christmas had come again, stupid vet nurse. I won that round though, l sprayed the line and dressing with bitter spray.
I also placed the drip into his back leg vein. This can be a difficult one to get, but often patients will tolerate it better here. The vein is very wobbly and the stylet on the catheter bounces off it, you have to give a hard jab but not to hard so you go straight through the vein and blow it. The hind legs are a difficult shape (The vein goes diagonally towards the back of the leg just above the animals hock from front to back, run your finger round your pets leg there and you will see what l mean about shape, lumpy, bumpy and a rounded leg.)
There was a lot of short legged dogs last night, again a nightmare to drip. We call the short front legs, Queen Ann legs. The veins are very loose and wobbly, run in weird shapes around the legs and are a nightmare to find let alone drip. These dogs tend to wriggle a lot often try and bite as well and there is no decent handles on them to grab.
The drip lines used where l was disconnect part way up. This is useful when you have dogs to walk and swop lines for some reason or trying them off drips for a bit. The down side is that they can come apart and when this happens blood flows out till it clots. The clot happens fairly fast but not fast enough that the bed is not a blood bath (blood mixed with the fluid leaking out of the bag spreads well).
To sort it you disconnect the whole line and flush the blood this comes out like a hard long worm, then reattach everything. Change the bed, which was probably cleaned about 10minutes before when they peed or pooed on it.
Then there is the restless walkers, round and round till your drip is one long snarling twisted mess and pulls out the leg. Mind you not that it was dripping anyhow. Even if you manage to untangle the drip line before it pulls out they damage it with the tight twists. We were to busy though to give hourly boluses. At least there was only one “walker” and she was a non critical dog, being a recovery and going home the next day, we ended up taking her drip out.
I was so glad to get home last night and climb into bed forgot to drink my coffee. I fell asleep while trying to decide if l should reach a finally warming up arm and hand out to the cold air to grab the mug.
Just as well l went in as from 22:00 there were 2 of us nurses and a vet with no auxiliaries, so we had to do their jobs the laundry, bins, cleaning and reception, phones as well as our own jobs.
I ended up doing the anaesthetics and assisting the vet on ops, l took x-rays (nurses job generally), did dressings (nurses are better at dressings than vets), placed drips, took and ran blood tests and the odd bit of inpatient ob’s to help when l got a chance.
The other nurse did the inpatients, a bit like painting the forth bridge never ending.
The rest of the jobs we shared between us. The 02 alarm has a fault on and at one point l ended up laughing hysterically, leaning against a wall as the other nurse marched like the honey monster snarling in frustration towards the alarm to slam it with her hand for the 10th time or was it the 15th l lost track.
We had a couple of major operations like removing a collar buckle from a stomach. The dog got bored and ate his friend’s collar FFS talk about a pimple brain!
“Duh l am bored wonder what l can do, l know l is gonna eat your collar”
His friend joined in and ate the studs and other bits of the collar that fell on the floor. After all it was his collar so fair is fair, x-ray showed they were moving through his intestines.
That was the op that ended late then l had theatre and prep to clean and mop post op, l refused to pack the kit though just slung it into the cleaning fluid to soak.
A pyo, the uterus fills up with pus and it is life threatening. Why oh why do people not get their bitches neutered when they are puppies. They would avoid the £700+ bill, the misery and illness of the animals.
Add that to the usual night time crop of x-rays of dog and cat RTA’s or accidents and temporary support dressing (if possible) till the patient is operated on.
Stitch up wounds, gastro enteritis - joys of Christmas dinners, blocked bladder cats and renal failures.
Wound breakdowns – Listen people use the sodding buster collars they are there for a reason, don’t sit and watch your pet chew the bloody wounds.
A rabbit, a couple of birds some medical cases and oh 2 Parvo dogs in isolation.
It added up to a fun round of work yourself silly night. Think it was 36 inpatients with 32 on drips. Not the busiest of nights but more than enough to keep us going without a break as we had so few staff. If one more dog pulled, ate or disconnected its drip line then there was going to be a group of hysterical staff on duty. Drip lines can be the bane of our lives. If you have a “Bad Drip Night” you know things are just going to go downhill.
At one point l had 5 redrips waiting for me. I tend to prefer dripping to holding and the other nurse on was happy with that as she prefers holding to dripping.
I had the locum vet holding earlier in the evening. He is a Jelco person. And is to bloody slow when we need to motor. Being male he can hold and talk but not drip and talk and l felt that taping his Irish mouth shut was a bit extreme as being the only other option.
There is 2 main makes of iv catheters (canulas) we all tend to use Surflo or Jelco. I have had to get used to Jelco with locuming about but generally if you can use one sort you will screw up the other. I am in the hate Jelco camp.
The other type is winged catheters. These have little wings next to the cap to suture them in. Not something you do with animals we chop them off.
We tend to use these for rabbit ears. Yes rabbits do need iv fluids and we give it via their ears. I also hate doing rabbit ears. We put a local on their ears but it never properly works. They jump at just the wrong second. The skin is so thin and veins so tender it is all done by hope.. “hope l am in this ***ing time”.
For those who understand sizes, 27 or 26 (purple, yellow) rabbits, puppies and kittens, 23 (blue) cats and small dogs, 21 and 18 (pink, green) bigger to huge dogs.
One Jack Russell broke 2 buster collars and chewed out 2 lines. The little git got a shock when his teeth descended on the 3rd line though. I left his buster collar off and he thought Christmas had come again, stupid vet nurse. I won that round though, l sprayed the line and dressing with bitter spray.
I also placed the drip into his back leg vein. This can be a difficult one to get, but often patients will tolerate it better here. The vein is very wobbly and the stylet on the catheter bounces off it, you have to give a hard jab but not to hard so you go straight through the vein and blow it. The hind legs are a difficult shape (The vein goes diagonally towards the back of the leg just above the animals hock from front to back, run your finger round your pets leg there and you will see what l mean about shape, lumpy, bumpy and a rounded leg.)
There was a lot of short legged dogs last night, again a nightmare to drip. We call the short front legs, Queen Ann legs. The veins are very loose and wobbly, run in weird shapes around the legs and are a nightmare to find let alone drip. These dogs tend to wriggle a lot often try and bite as well and there is no decent handles on them to grab.
The drip lines used where l was disconnect part way up. This is useful when you have dogs to walk and swop lines for some reason or trying them off drips for a bit. The down side is that they can come apart and when this happens blood flows out till it clots. The clot happens fairly fast but not fast enough that the bed is not a blood bath (blood mixed with the fluid leaking out of the bag spreads well).
To sort it you disconnect the whole line and flush the blood this comes out like a hard long worm, then reattach everything. Change the bed, which was probably cleaned about 10minutes before when they peed or pooed on it.
Then there is the restless walkers, round and round till your drip is one long snarling twisted mess and pulls out the leg. Mind you not that it was dripping anyhow. Even if you manage to untangle the drip line before it pulls out they damage it with the tight twists. We were to busy though to give hourly boluses. At least there was only one “walker” and she was a non critical dog, being a recovery and going home the next day, we ended up taking her drip out.
I was so glad to get home last night and climb into bed forgot to drink my coffee. I fell asleep while trying to decide if l should reach a finally warming up arm and hand out to the cold air to grab the mug.
Sunday, 21 December 2008
The Rebar
Twas 2 nights before Christmas a couple of years ago, all was settling and nicely quiet. The dogs were in bed and the cats hunting mice.
Well not exactly. The bull mastiff decided that he would go for a pre bed yippee round the garden. The house was mid repairs and part of the garden held big 5ft+ re-bars. (reinforcing bars)
How Bruno succeeded in getting one through his thigh area no one knew but he was now in big trouble.
I had to go on the call out to sedate Bruno and give him a nice dose of pain relief and sedative, then help get him moved and back to the vets. I went with a now long gone driver called Sam.
When we got there Bruno was lying in his plastic dog bed in the kitchen. The leg sticking up in the air, supported on the bar. The owners were not kidding about the bar. Even though he appeared friendly, I passed the owners a muzzle to put on Bruno. With the way things were l did not want to go trying to upset him more, and I am too old for heroics. I drew up a dose of sedative and pain killer.
While this was going on and the drugs were taking effect there was a regular “thud” followed by digging then snarling and other fearsome noises coming from behind the locked door. This was their other bull mastiff who hated everyone. Apparently if she had got spiked then even the owners would have had problems handling her. And we would probably never have got a muzzle on so she could be sedated or handled. I guess there are some small mercies then, she was not the one spiked, and that sounded like a strong enough door to hold her away from us.
Sam wasn't really in the right job. He was scared stiff of all animals and was staring, like a rabbit caught in headlights, at the shaking door. I sent him out to dismantle all the cages in the back of the van. There was no way would we get Bruno and his bar in any of the cages, or in the back of the van with the cages up in it. The owners of Bruno were following us in their car and the cages were loaded in there.
Getting Bruno out of the kitchen to the van was not the easiest of jobs. First we had to get him out of his plastic bed, without causing him any more pain, he had had injections but even so it hurt. The bed was too wide to go through the door. We could not get him on the stretcher either as the bar was sticking out. Also he would have slid on the stretched as we would have had to tip it to get dog and bar through the door. In the end we got him on a blanket, sort of bending him around the doors and furniture in the tiny lounge.
Once he was loaded l sat in the back of the van to keep an eye on him, and try and support the leg to stop to much movement. This was not going to be fun l am prone to carsickness and was locked in the back of a smelly van. Bruno was very good with just the odd whimper if we hit a bump. It took what seemed like forever to get back and by then I was almost as green as Bruno felt.
The vet and l debated the fire brigade coming out and cutting the bar. We could not x-ray the leg to see where it went, due to the bars position. In the end the vet decided that he would try and pull it through slowly. If it was jammed then fire brigade would be called to cut it off, we would get our x-ray and take things from there.
That dog had to be the luckiest that night. The 5ft re-bar pulled smoothly out of the leg. On it’s way in, the bar hit no major blood vessels, no bones nothing, it just slid through the muscle like the proverbial “Hot knife through butter” and came out the same way. Bruno went home the next day.
Well not exactly. The bull mastiff decided that he would go for a pre bed yippee round the garden. The house was mid repairs and part of the garden held big 5ft+ re-bars. (reinforcing bars)
How Bruno succeeded in getting one through his thigh area no one knew but he was now in big trouble.
I had to go on the call out to sedate Bruno and give him a nice dose of pain relief and sedative, then help get him moved and back to the vets. I went with a now long gone driver called Sam.
When we got there Bruno was lying in his plastic dog bed in the kitchen. The leg sticking up in the air, supported on the bar. The owners were not kidding about the bar. Even though he appeared friendly, I passed the owners a muzzle to put on Bruno. With the way things were l did not want to go trying to upset him more, and I am too old for heroics. I drew up a dose of sedative and pain killer.
While this was going on and the drugs were taking effect there was a regular “thud” followed by digging then snarling and other fearsome noises coming from behind the locked door. This was their other bull mastiff who hated everyone. Apparently if she had got spiked then even the owners would have had problems handling her. And we would probably never have got a muzzle on so she could be sedated or handled. I guess there are some small mercies then, she was not the one spiked, and that sounded like a strong enough door to hold her away from us.
Sam wasn't really in the right job. He was scared stiff of all animals and was staring, like a rabbit caught in headlights, at the shaking door. I sent him out to dismantle all the cages in the back of the van. There was no way would we get Bruno and his bar in any of the cages, or in the back of the van with the cages up in it. The owners of Bruno were following us in their car and the cages were loaded in there.
Getting Bruno out of the kitchen to the van was not the easiest of jobs. First we had to get him out of his plastic bed, without causing him any more pain, he had had injections but even so it hurt. The bed was too wide to go through the door. We could not get him on the stretcher either as the bar was sticking out. Also he would have slid on the stretched as we would have had to tip it to get dog and bar through the door. In the end we got him on a blanket, sort of bending him around the doors and furniture in the tiny lounge.
Once he was loaded l sat in the back of the van to keep an eye on him, and try and support the leg to stop to much movement. This was not going to be fun l am prone to carsickness and was locked in the back of a smelly van. Bruno was very good with just the odd whimper if we hit a bump. It took what seemed like forever to get back and by then I was almost as green as Bruno felt.
The vet and l debated the fire brigade coming out and cutting the bar. We could not x-ray the leg to see where it went, due to the bars position. In the end the vet decided that he would try and pull it through slowly. If it was jammed then fire brigade would be called to cut it off, we would get our x-ray and take things from there.
That dog had to be the luckiest that night. The 5ft re-bar pulled smoothly out of the leg. On it’s way in, the bar hit no major blood vessels, no bones nothing, it just slid through the muscle like the proverbial “Hot knife through butter” and came out the same way. Bruno went home the next day.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Christmas First Aid
I thought l would get some Christmas hints up here so vet staff can have a quiet Christmas and hopefully save some unexpected costs for owners. It applies year round but Christmas is a time of many problems.
This is general advice we give out most nights however If at anytime you are worried always ring your vet. All vets in UK have to have a 24hr cover but some use an emergency service (especially over holidays) to cover for them so always ring your vet with a pen and paper handy and listen to what any message or person tells you to do.
If you are upset then get a friend or partner to do the phone work.
Never just turn up always notify your vet you are on the way down. They may have another place for out of hours emergencies or they may be about to operate and need to hold off for your arrival.
It helps also if you pre find a taxi service that will take you and your pet if you have been drinking you can ring them up instead of panicking at the last moment.
If your pet is on medication make sure you have enough to last the holiday period, especially if you are going away. Often it has to be ordered in by the vet and wholesalers have Christmas closures, so get in and order early.
Do not keep ringing your vet out of hours if your pet was admitted. Christmas is a very busy time for vets. There is usually only a skeleton staff on duty and they will ring you if needed.
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TOXIC
Some of the items to be worried about, especially about around Christmas.
Grapes, Sultanas, Raisins
Some dogs can eat grapes or sultanas or raisins with no problem, others can not. The reason is genetic – so just don’t risk it.
Chocolate (the darker the more toxic)
Only use pet chocolates this has theobromine removed.
Christmas trees often have chocolate and sweets hung on them be careful with pets trying to eat them.
Christmas Plants
Cover the water with live Xmas trees the water can be toxic if drunk.
Other Christmas plants may be toxic. If your pet eats any then ring the vets. They can always contact the poisons centre for clarification.
Do not give any medication (other than that prescribed for that pet with that problem at that point in time) unless you have been advised to as human preparations can be dangerous for animals.
Especially DON’T give cats paracetomol you WILL kill them. Do not give paracetomol to dogs unless the vet has told you can and how much to give.
Minor cuts and wounds wash the wound with a teaspoon of salt in a pint of warm water. Avoid human antiseptic solutions these can be toxic. If you are worried ring your vet. Be careful putting on bandages, often they are too tight and cause damage to the area applied, including loss of limbs.
If your pet has eaten anything it should not always ring your vet to check up if other treatment is needed even if it was vomited up. Not all will have come back up and supportive treatment may be needed.
In UK you can pre buy in some washing soda crystals and keep them some place handy and safe. Inform your vet you have them and ask if you can try those to make the dog vomit.
Only use these on dogs and after speaking to your vet, some items can cause problems when they are vomited back out.
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CHRISTMAS & BOXING DAY MEALS
Giving your pet a lovely big meal with the rest of the family meal can bring on the good old diarrhoea and vomiting. It is safer to mix a SMALL AMOUNT of food in with their normal meal if you must. Whacking a huge meal of strange food down is asking for problems.
If your or a friends pet is on a special diet i.e. pancreatitis, renal failure, diabetic etc do not feed anything but the prescription diet. Make sure that any friends and family also understand the importance of this. That little bit that can not hurt, may well result in your pet being admitted and needing treatment.
If your dog is an adult or generally over 8mths and gets diarrhoea, and you are pretty sure it was caused by the food you gave them. Stop all food for 24 hrs but make sure they have water. Slowly wean them onto plain boiled rice or scrambled egg or boiled chicken. (no seasoning just plain boiled) then if no more problems over a couple of days, back to their normal diet.
If it is a puppy or under 8mths then ring your vet.
If they vomited stop all by mouth, once they have stopped vomiting for at least 2 hours give very small amounts of water every so often. Too much will cause vomiting. If vomiting restarts stop fluids and call the vet. Water can irritate and cause vomiting, so if your pet has been vomiting do not think "oh this will wash his mouth out". It wont.
If you are worried, if there is blood, if it is coffee grains colour and or texture, or anything looks strange, if at any point, start, middle or end of the vomiting or diarrhoea episode you are worried, call your vet for advice.
If you have a large breed lab, GSD, setter etc dog (but not always large l have known small breeds to bloat) and it starts to retch but unable to vomit They may also appear to have a rounded tummy. Ring your vet tell them your dog has a possible bloat.
Bloat is FATAL and needs treating immediately.
For all ages of felines with vomiting or diarrhoea ring your vet. Do not withhold food/water from cats. Ring your vet for advice. Cats can not go without food for long because of the way their metabolism works. If your cat has not eaten for 12hrs it must see your vet.
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CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
Lights can cause problems bite the sweets on Christmas trees and get cable in the mouth bite into it and bang.
Pets especially cats get tangled up playing with the lights cables and getting a shock.
Baubles may get crushed in the mouth by a pet thinking it is a ball. If a bauble is broken, bits of broken baubles may be pushed into feet.
Tinsel glittering can attract a pet especially a cat. They start licking it and it goes down the throat. Once inside it can get bunched and jammed, or cause a telescopic effect on the intestines.
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FITTING
Dim lights and turn off TV/radio do not try and comfort the pet. They are totally unaware of what is happening and often bite in a reflex action. They may also defecate or urinate again they are unaware they are doing it and have no control over themselves.
Wait till the pet stops it should last no more than about 2 mins. They can be disorientated when they come round and stagger into things this can go on for some time and is not unusual. They are also very clingy.
If it has one fit don’t go rushing to your vet. Unless there has been other illness over the last few days. Ring and discuss it with your vet.
Otherwise keep an eye on the dog and see if and when it has another fit (make a note of how long it lasts) ring your vet and see if you should take them down.
If the dog stops and goes back into a fit, or doesn’t come out of it notify your vet and go down.
Travelling in a car can bring on another fit which is why for the single fit dogs we advise keeping an eye on them and going to your vet after a few hrs. Dogs may fit once and never again.
In the car do not hold your pet put it in the back if it is a hatchback or estate car or back seat of it is a saloon as per earlier warnings.
If a cat has a fit then it should see the vet even if it is just one fit as they do not usually fit. Wait for a bit though to allow the animal to settle down unless it does not come out of the fit or goes straight back into one.
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PARTY and FIREWORK STRESS
An earlier blog contains a lot of advice. It applies to new and old pets (all species) with safe areas and locked doors.
And for fireworks this blog has advice.
Especially if your cat is a nervous type or has a history of not urinating they may stop urinating with all the stress of Christmas. This is more obvious if a litter tray is used, they strain a lot but nothing or just a few drops come out. The pet MUST see a vet, non urination can be FATAL.
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I am sure l have missed some info off this, it is just a basic guide. If in doubt about your pet speak to the vet.
This is general advice we give out most nights however If at anytime you are worried always ring your vet. All vets in UK have to have a 24hr cover but some use an emergency service (especially over holidays) to cover for them so always ring your vet with a pen and paper handy and listen to what any message or person tells you to do.
If you are upset then get a friend or partner to do the phone work.
Never just turn up always notify your vet you are on the way down. They may have another place for out of hours emergencies or they may be about to operate and need to hold off for your arrival.
It helps also if you pre find a taxi service that will take you and your pet if you have been drinking you can ring them up instead of panicking at the last moment.
If your pet is on medication make sure you have enough to last the holiday period, especially if you are going away. Often it has to be ordered in by the vet and wholesalers have Christmas closures, so get in and order early.
Do not keep ringing your vet out of hours if your pet was admitted. Christmas is a very busy time for vets. There is usually only a skeleton staff on duty and they will ring you if needed.
*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*
TOXIC
Some of the items to be worried about, especially about around Christmas.
Grapes, Sultanas, Raisins
Some dogs can eat grapes or sultanas or raisins with no problem, others can not. The reason is genetic – so just don’t risk it.
Chocolate (the darker the more toxic)
Only use pet chocolates this has theobromine removed.
Christmas trees often have chocolate and sweets hung on them be careful with pets trying to eat them.
Christmas Plants
Cover the water with live Xmas trees the water can be toxic if drunk.
Other Christmas plants may be toxic. If your pet eats any then ring the vets. They can always contact the poisons centre for clarification.
Do not give any medication (other than that prescribed for that pet with that problem at that point in time) unless you have been advised to as human preparations can be dangerous for animals.
Especially DON’T give cats paracetomol you WILL kill them. Do not give paracetomol to dogs unless the vet has told you can and how much to give.
Minor cuts and wounds wash the wound with a teaspoon of salt in a pint of warm water. Avoid human antiseptic solutions these can be toxic. If you are worried ring your vet. Be careful putting on bandages, often they are too tight and cause damage to the area applied, including loss of limbs.
If your pet has eaten anything it should not always ring your vet to check up if other treatment is needed even if it was vomited up. Not all will have come back up and supportive treatment may be needed.
In UK you can pre buy in some washing soda crystals and keep them some place handy and safe. Inform your vet you have them and ask if you can try those to make the dog vomit.
Only use these on dogs and after speaking to your vet, some items can cause problems when they are vomited back out.
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CHRISTMAS & BOXING DAY MEALS
Giving your pet a lovely big meal with the rest of the family meal can bring on the good old diarrhoea and vomiting. It is safer to mix a SMALL AMOUNT of food in with their normal meal if you must. Whacking a huge meal of strange food down is asking for problems.
If your or a friends pet is on a special diet i.e. pancreatitis, renal failure, diabetic etc do not feed anything but the prescription diet. Make sure that any friends and family also understand the importance of this. That little bit that can not hurt, may well result in your pet being admitted and needing treatment.
If your dog is an adult or generally over 8mths and gets diarrhoea, and you are pretty sure it was caused by the food you gave them. Stop all food for 24 hrs but make sure they have water. Slowly wean them onto plain boiled rice or scrambled egg or boiled chicken. (no seasoning just plain boiled) then if no more problems over a couple of days, back to their normal diet.
If it is a puppy or under 8mths then ring your vet.
If they vomited stop all by mouth, once they have stopped vomiting for at least 2 hours give very small amounts of water every so often. Too much will cause vomiting. If vomiting restarts stop fluids and call the vet. Water can irritate and cause vomiting, so if your pet has been vomiting do not think "oh this will wash his mouth out". It wont.
If you are worried, if there is blood, if it is coffee grains colour and or texture, or anything looks strange, if at any point, start, middle or end of the vomiting or diarrhoea episode you are worried, call your vet for advice.
If you have a large breed lab, GSD, setter etc dog (but not always large l have known small breeds to bloat) and it starts to retch but unable to vomit They may also appear to have a rounded tummy. Ring your vet tell them your dog has a possible bloat.
Bloat is FATAL and needs treating immediately.
For all ages of felines with vomiting or diarrhoea ring your vet. Do not withhold food/water from cats. Ring your vet for advice. Cats can not go without food for long because of the way their metabolism works. If your cat has not eaten for 12hrs it must see your vet.
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CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
Lights can cause problems bite the sweets on Christmas trees and get cable in the mouth bite into it and bang.
Pets especially cats get tangled up playing with the lights cables and getting a shock.
Baubles may get crushed in the mouth by a pet thinking it is a ball. If a bauble is broken, bits of broken baubles may be pushed into feet.
Tinsel glittering can attract a pet especially a cat. They start licking it and it goes down the throat. Once inside it can get bunched and jammed, or cause a telescopic effect on the intestines.
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FITTING
Dim lights and turn off TV/radio do not try and comfort the pet. They are totally unaware of what is happening and often bite in a reflex action. They may also defecate or urinate again they are unaware they are doing it and have no control over themselves.
Wait till the pet stops it should last no more than about 2 mins. They can be disorientated when they come round and stagger into things this can go on for some time and is not unusual. They are also very clingy.
If it has one fit don’t go rushing to your vet. Unless there has been other illness over the last few days. Ring and discuss it with your vet.
Otherwise keep an eye on the dog and see if and when it has another fit (make a note of how long it lasts) ring your vet and see if you should take them down.
If the dog stops and goes back into a fit, or doesn’t come out of it notify your vet and go down.
Travelling in a car can bring on another fit which is why for the single fit dogs we advise keeping an eye on them and going to your vet after a few hrs. Dogs may fit once and never again.
In the car do not hold your pet put it in the back if it is a hatchback or estate car or back seat of it is a saloon as per earlier warnings.
If a cat has a fit then it should see the vet even if it is just one fit as they do not usually fit. Wait for a bit though to allow the animal to settle down unless it does not come out of the fit or goes straight back into one.
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PARTY and FIREWORK STRESS
An earlier blog contains a lot of advice. It applies to new and old pets (all species) with safe areas and locked doors.
And for fireworks this blog has advice.
Especially if your cat is a nervous type or has a history of not urinating they may stop urinating with all the stress of Christmas. This is more obvious if a litter tray is used, they strain a lot but nothing or just a few drops come out. The pet MUST see a vet, non urination can be FATAL.
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I am sure l have missed some info off this, it is just a basic guide. If in doubt about your pet speak to the vet.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Lung Foreign Body
The English springer spaniel bounced into us last week. He had a bad cough and was coming in for a heart lung check-up. His breath was like a charnel house but his teeth were clean.
Mike well experienced with what may be the problem took a couple of x-rays which tipped the diagnosis more in favour with his idea. There was a fuzzy area on the chest x-ray in the lungs which was suspicious.
A general anaesthetic and a scope down the trachea into the lungs confirmed what was happening. Springer’s and apparently Labradors are the main culprits for “foreign bodies” being inhaled into the lungs. They generally cause a cough and can be well tolerated. Often just the cough and no slow down in their lifestyle, oh and the bad breath. Do not mistake it for doggie bad breath. This is putrid and bad teeth/tooth smell is not even on the scale it is so tame.
A set of graspers was pushed down the instrument channel in the scope and the item was caught. It was fairly difficult and at first a few single grains were pulled up. This moved the main plug a bit into a better position and a 5th go the grasper's managed to get a good grip on the full plug. It was slowly lifted all the way out the lung.
If l thought the smell was bad before it got a whole lot worse as the plug arrived in what had been fresh air. The whole lot was shoved in a bottle ASAP so that we could get some more un-putrid air circulating, the plug was put to one side for the owner to see.
The lung was red and spots of pus still remained but would soon settle down.
An hour later the Springer was back to his bouncy self. There was still a bit of a cough but that would go pretty quickly. The plug was an awl of barley. The cough had started in about august which was cropping time (roughly) so that was about a 3 month window of how long it had been down in the lung.
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Better photos views in thePhoto album
Mike well experienced with what may be the problem took a couple of x-rays which tipped the diagnosis more in favour with his idea. There was a fuzzy area on the chest x-ray in the lungs which was suspicious.
A general anaesthetic and a scope down the trachea into the lungs confirmed what was happening. Springer’s and apparently Labradors are the main culprits for “foreign bodies” being inhaled into the lungs. They generally cause a cough and can be well tolerated. Often just the cough and no slow down in their lifestyle, oh and the bad breath. Do not mistake it for doggie bad breath. This is putrid and bad teeth/tooth smell is not even on the scale it is so tame.
A set of graspers was pushed down the instrument channel in the scope and the item was caught. It was fairly difficult and at first a few single grains were pulled up. This moved the main plug a bit into a better position and a 5th go the grasper's managed to get a good grip on the full plug. It was slowly lifted all the way out the lung.
If l thought the smell was bad before it got a whole lot worse as the plug arrived in what had been fresh air. The whole lot was shoved in a bottle ASAP so that we could get some more un-putrid air circulating, the plug was put to one side for the owner to see.
The lung was red and spots of pus still remained but would soon settle down.
An hour later the Springer was back to his bouncy self. There was still a bit of a cough but that would go pretty quickly. The plug was an awl of barley. The cough had started in about august which was cropping time (roughly) so that was about a 3 month window of how long it had been down in the lung.
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Better photos views in thePhoto album
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