Cool emergency case

[VeganChick]

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I wasn't there when this came in last night but one of the nurses took pics. This 12-year old cat came in for limping. Turned out he was a polydactyl whose extra toe was never discovered and the toenail grew underneath his skin. Crazy!

 

[david594]

Huh. Don't have any before pictures?

Owners never noticed the large mass on that paw?

How common are polydactyl cats down there?

 

[sunnex3]

vegan chick, do you work at south paws in fairfax by any chance?
i'm from the northern va area too, and might be working at south paws over the summer! 🙂

 

[littlehooves]

WHOAAA thats awesome!!! Did you have to x-ray it first to figure out it was polydactyl?

 

[VeganChick]

Don't have any before pictures?

No because they had no idea what it was until they cut.


I work in Leesburg at the Animal Emergency & Critical Care Hospital. I hear great things about SouthPaws so I hope you get to work there! What will you be doing?

 

[sunnex3]

oh cool! i love leesburg, i wish i could make it out there more often...BUT it's like 1 hr from where i am...

i haven't figured out the details yet about what i'll be doing exactly at southpaws, but it looks like i'll be working in their CritiCare department most likely. they do see some cool cases, and the practice i work at right now refers several of our clients there all the time.

 

[DollyyLlama]

wawaa-wee-wow!

so was the nail attached at the center of the coil, and then as it grew, it wrapped around the outside (so the very end would be on the outside-most layer?)

 

[twelvetigers]

I would totally keep the toenail in a jar up front or something. That's cool!

 

[gex2006]

That is really cool looking! One of my friends looked over my shoulder at the moment I had the pictures up and got all grossed out .

 

[CatVet2Be]

I can't believe it took 12 years before this became enough of problem to lead to surgery. That poor cat, I can't imagine how long it must've hurt. Reminds me of a polydactyl we fixed at a spay/neuter clinic, one of her nails on a front paw had grown in between the visible toes and created such a huge pocket of infection you could look straight into it and see muscles, tendons etc... However just looking at the cat while she was awake you would have never known, no oozing, swelling and of course she wouldn't let you touch her paws so no one knew there was a problem until she was under anesthesia. I now make it a point to check between all the toes on any polydactyl whenever I can. Great case, did they do an x-ray or go right to surgery?

 

[eventualeventer]

I would totally keep the toenail in a jar up front or something. That's cool!

Me too! It should go right next to the parasite collection. Wait, you mean there are practices that don't have tapeworms, etc., in formalin? 😕

 

[twelvetigers]

We do, we do! Also have a few recluses, a bot fly, and a collection of bladder stones, the largest of which is the size of... the entire palm of my hand? It's damn big. From a beagle too.

 

[littlehooves]

wawaa-wee-wow!

so was the nail attached at the center of the coil, and then as it grew, it wrapped around the outside (so the very end would be on the outside-most layer?)

No, check out the 2nd picture. The nail is attached to the foot on the outside, and the oldest part of the nail is in the middle of the coil.

 

[DollyyLlama]

that is so. freakin. neat. was the nail fully removed, as with a declaw?

 

[VeganChick]

did they do an x-ray or go right to surgery?

X-ray but I don't think they knew from the image that it was actually a toenail!

I would totally keep the toenail in a jar up front or something.

We wanted to but gave it to the kitty's dad for a cool party trick ("guess what this is?")

was the nail fully removed, as with a declaw?

I think that is what they did since the toe was so far recessed. But check this out..the cat was actually declawed! The original vet had missed the extra toe completely.

 

[StillDreaming]

that is kinda crazy looking... poor cat must have been so uncomfortable for years...

Pretty cool friend! Thanks for sharing!

 

[littlehooves]

Wow he was declawed!!!!! Comes to show just how *secretive* cats can be!! 🙂

 

[Jochebed]

This is probably just raining on everyone's parade...but...

...as cool as those pics are and the case too...did the owners give you permission to post pictures of their cat on a public website? Did the vet for whom you work? You didn't give any information that would allow us to easily ID the cat, but the owners sure could as you stated age, history, sex and location. We definitely do see some cool stuff in vet med, but we are responsible for confidentiality as well. Just a thought...

 

[DollyyLlama]

i think it's okay since the OP didn't include the cat's face in the pictures.. if you do, then you just put a black bar over the eyes. 🙂

 

[TurtleLover]

Thats awesome! I had a pretty cool emergency case yesterday too. We had two dogs come in that were bit by the same pygmy rattlesnake. The owner shot the snake (which full grown, as it was, is only about 12 inches long) with 2 BB gun pellets. One in the mouth, and the other in the side of the thorax. I asked the doctor if I could dissect the snake, and he said sure, opened a book for me, and off I went!

As I separated the skin from the muscle, then the muscle from the viscera, the heart was still BEATING!!!! (and I had cut off the head too because of potential reflexes we didn't want it to accidentally invenomate me) That was by far the coolest thing I've seen in a while! 😀

Here's some pics of the snake and the dissection.
And yes, we salted the skin to try and save it and show our clients, lol. We'll see what happens with that!