Most memorable case?

[david594]

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What on earth is an Australian Labradoodle? Is that like a Lithuanian Puggle?😀

And they wanted to use it for AI? Oh my. Can we say BYB?

Trust me, we do NOT see back yard breeders at the clinic I work at. BYB are not in every other day for vaginal cytologies and progesterone tests. Nor would they pay for the AI, never mind the cost of the intra-cervical AI, when the first one didn't take.

Actually had another Australian labradoodle in this week for a repro workup.

(although its just hitting me now that the BYB reference is more to the breed as a whole than to the individual breeder)

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

BYB does not mean someone who is cheap. Some will indeed pay a pretty penny to make sure the mutt (er, sorry, designer "breed") will make more puppies (including paying for AI, cytology, etc). Because they will make a profit still by selling the dog for an arm and a leg. People have no business nowadays breeding designer dogs, IMO.

BYB reference is more to the breed as a whole than to the individual breeder

It refers both to the dog itself and the breeder - no matter how much money they pay or how well they take care of the dog, they are still unethical breeders. It isn't a breed...it is an overpriced mix that people are being swindled into buying when there are plenty of wonderful mixes (who could also make excellent service dogs, I might note) in shelters and rescues needing a home. These "breeders" who argue that a Labra-doodle by nature will have the "lovability" of a Lab and "intelligence/hypoallergenic coat" of a Poodle obviously knows zilch about genetics (random assortment of genes, anyone?) We end up with dogs that have the hyperactivity and hips of a Lab and the regurging heart of a poodle.

But sorry,for my tone david, I wasn't aiming at you, I was more simply ranting a bit. I'm derailing the point of this thread, sorry for that too. If anyone wants to continue this particular offshoot we can make a new thread 🙂

 

[banditalfi]

To continue derailing the thread, when I was at Penn I was talking to the faculty about the new breeds we see today and he specifically mention the "Australian Labradoodle" as one of the worst.

Kudos to the breeders to not breeding F1s with F1s - and I say that because the offspring will now be more predictable - but a mutt is a mutt. And just because you breed a mutt with a mutt doesn't make it a new breed.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Unlike most doodle breeders, they go beyond F1 crosses and are breeding F1s to F1s.

They are breeding F1s to F1s...or did you accidently put a 'not' in there? I was confused.

 

[nyanko]

They're the labradoodles bred in Australia as service dogs. Unlike most doodle breeders, they go beyond F1 crosses and are breeding F1s to F1s. As I understand, they're still BYBs though, since there are ZERO advantages to a doodle over a poodle or a Golden or Lab.

For whatever reason, purebred standard poodles were proving unacceptable as guide/service dogs, so that's why they started breeding them. For guide dogs for people with allergies. They wanted to develop a consistent type of Labradoodle with poodle coat and Lab demeanor to be used as guide dogs. They even threw some spaniel and curly coated retriever in, iirc. They were also doing genetic disease checks on these dogs and such.

I believe those breeding programs are largely defunct now, however, and most anyone especially stateside, who breeds these dogs is definitely a BYB.

 

[ShelterGirl]

I'm actually allergic to poodles!

 

[CanadianGolden]

.

 

[ElvisMarie6]

Don't these designer dogs at least introduce a little genetic diversity? That's never a bad thing right? Also, all the pure-bred dogs around today were once "mutts" themselves way back when their breeds were first being developed.

 

[banditalfi]

Don't these designer dogs at least introduce a little genetic diversity? That's never a bad thing right? Also, all the pure-bred dogs around today were once "mutts" themselves way back when their breeds were first being developed.

The main problem I have with the "designer" breeds is that the breeders aren't paying attention to any genetic problems or trying to standardize the breeds in any way. Instead of getting a new healthy breed we're left with super neurotic cockapoos.

 

[Rebeki]

To put in my 2 cents...if you want a mutt go to a shelter.

I was appalled at my recent trip to a local pet store. I had no idea what these expensive dogs were made from...there was the popular puggle and labradoodle and then there was the boggle, the Freedom bulldog and some other mixes with clever names. We have enough unintentional breeding in this country, I have no worries about a lack of diversity in our dog population. I feel that when the dog population is under control and there are no dogs left in shelters, then go ahead breed mutts. Finally, I totally agree about the fact that these mixes are probably not being bred from the top of the line purebreds, which should also worry the buyers of these expensive dogs.

 

[nyanko]

Don't these designer dogs at least introduce a little genetic diversity? That's never a bad thing right? Also, all the pure-bred dogs around today were once "mutts" themselves way back when their breeds were first being developed.

In a word, no. There are plenty of unintentionally bred (and some intentionally bred!) mutts at the shelter if you want genetic diversity. There is absolutely no reason to breed mutts today.

And to the second part of your post, that is completely different. Australian Labradoodle attempts aside, these people are not trying to make a new breed. They are breeding two different breeds over and over again and selling F1 puppies. People who want to make a new breed to fill a niche continue on past the F1 generation. People who breed pomchi's and maltipoo's and morkie's are just in it to make a couple of bucks.

 

[pupsforseeing]

At the guide dog school I work with, we have experimented with the labradoodles and goldendoodles with little success. I've had pet goldens, have raised lab guide dogs since I was in elementary school and some of my favorite puppies have been standard poodles, so naturally I was intrigued at the idea of the cross. However, I have been *extremely* unimpressed. It seems that if you happen to find one with an unoffensive temperament, it has a list of chronic health problems a mile long. The majority of the ones I've worked with have had significant behavioral problems preventing them from being successful guide dogs including anxiety, aggression, distractibility, etc. There have been a select few that have been *really* great dogs and have gone on to make excellent guides, but they seem to be few and far between.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Back to the original topic of the thread, I had a pretty interesting case today - a beagle attacked by - no kidding - a pack of Labrador retrievers.

Apparently the beagle and labs were playing in a neighborhood backyard and the labs formed a pack and attacked the beagle. The poor dog has literally dozens of lacerations and punctures, and after a 3-hour procedure he now has five penrose drains and countless staples. I've seen lots of Frankendoggies in my time in emergency medicine, but I've never seen anything quite like this.

I also had another beagle who was attacked by a dog *and* hit by a car within moments of each other. Amazingly, he's fine - just a bite wound on his ear and a laceration and some soft tissue injury to one paw.

And I also had a 1-year-old corgi who was referred yesterday for a 2-week history of vomiting and weight loss. We did a barium study last night and cut this morning when the barium hadn't reached to colon after 12 hours. She had a huge linear foreign body (part of a towel) and a perforation in her ileum that was leaking barium. About 10 cm of intestine was resected. No one suspected the GI perf since she was so BAR and only slightly uncomfortable yesterday. She's doing okay so far...we'll see.

And this was just on my cage bank today! It wasn't an especially busy day overall, but we had some of the wackiest stuff I've ever seen.

 

[banditalfi]

Back to the original topic of the thread, I had a pretty interesting case today - a beagle attacked by - no kidding - a pack of Labrador retrievers.

Apparently the beagle and labs were playing in a neighborhood backyard and the labs formed a pack and attacked the beagle. The poor dog has literally dozens of lacerations and punctures, and after a 3-hour procedure he now has five penrose drains and countless staples. I've seen lots of Frankendoggies in my time in emergency medicine, but I've never seen anything quite like this.

I also had another beagle who was attacked by a dog *and* hit by a car within moments of each other. Amazingly, he's fine - just a bite wound on his ear and a laceration and some soft tissue injury to one paw.

And I also had a 1-year-old corgi who was referred yesterday for a 2-week history of vomiting and weight loss. We did a barium study last night and cut this morning when the barium hadn't reached to colon after 12 hours. She had a huge linear foreign body (part of a towel) and a perforation in her ileum that was leaking barium. About 10 cm of intestine was resected. No one suspected the GI perf since she was so BAR and only slightly uncomfortable yesterday. She's doing okay so far...we'll see.

And this was just on my cage bank today! It wasn't an especially busy day overall, but we had some of the wackiest stuff I've ever seen.

Along those lines we had a chihuahua come in that had been attacked by the other two chis in the house - it's mother and sister. The dog had two broken legs and numerous puncture wounds and lacerations. The two dogs were literally tearing her apart for a full hour. And this all happened two months after those two dogs killed another chi in the house...

 

[mistifical]

Along those lines we had a chihuahua come in that had been attacked by the other two chis in the house - it's mother and sister. The dog had two broken legs and numerous puncture wounds and lacerations. The two dogs were literally tearing her apart for a full hour. And this all happened two months after those two dogs killed another chi in the house...

Not that I think this is a good thing, but hooray for it being "cute" and "nice" tiny dogs rather than "mean" and "vicious" pit bulls!

 

[banditalfi]

Not that I think this is a good thing, but hooray for it being "cute" and "nice" tiny dogs rather than "mean" and "vicious" pit bulls!

Haha - I would never have a toy dog - poodle, pom, chi - and a baby, but I wouldn't really hesitate to get a pitt. That being said, the dog would never be left unattended with the baby, but, man, the little dogs are just so freaking nuts.

 

[sofficat]

Along those lines we had a chihuahua come in that had been attacked by the other two chis in the house - it's mother and sister. The dog had two broken legs and numerous puncture wounds and lacerations. The two dogs were literally tearing her apart for a full hour. And this all happened two months after those two dogs killed another chi in the house...

it went on for an HOUR?! um... i guess the parents weren't home?
how did it manage to break two legs? are chihuahua bites really that forceful? i don't get it! stupie chihuas..

 

[banditalfi]

it went on for an HOUR?! um... i guess the parents weren't home?
how did it manage to break two legs? are chihuahua bites really that forceful? i don't get it! stupie chihuas..

Yep, the owners left for an hour and didn't separate the dogs. And I have no idea what those dogs did to her, but a front leg and a back leg were broken... I think they were going to set one leg and amputate the other, poor girl.

 

[Pandacinny]

Wow, what a lot of interesting cases!

We had a cat at the shelter with a sialocele. The specialist we sent him to was surprised because I guess they're much more common in dogs.

We also had a sheltie puppy who bit through an electrical cord. It was awful - the poor thing must have been in so much pain. Much of his mouth was burned and he had large holes in the roof of it. We ended up euthanizing him. 🙁

 

[kekemapa04]

Our receptionist has an older coonhound, I think 14 now....and in about 5 minutes when she wasn't watching him, he ate around 100 feet of carpet string. When she brought him in, some of it was tangled around his tongue so the vet pulled it out....only about 30 feet though. They waited to see if it would move at all, but eventually had to do a foreign body removal and it was soooooo cool. The first one I had ever seen. I love the long surgeries!!!

I was fairly new, but was given the daunting task of monitoring him under anesthesia and it was scary! Just about every change in heart rate or jaw tone was told to the vet, lol! The big bundle of carpet was successfully removed, but he isn't the same dog now. He doesn't eat very much and has gotten bloat at least 2 times since. We all know his time is running out, and it will be a sad day for all when Jesse is put down.

 

[lailanni]

Wow, what a lot of interesting cases!

We had a cat at the shelter with a sialocele. The specialist we sent him to was surprised because I guess they're much more common in dogs.

We also had a sheltie puppy who bit through an electrical cord. It was awful - the poor thing must have been in so much pain. Much of his mouth was burned and he had large holes in the roof of it. We ended up euthanizing him. 🙁

Unfortunately, this happens all too often with rabbits too. They love to chew, and electricl cords are on the ground and too tempting...🙁

 

[staythecourse]

The other day, an alaskan Malamute(sp?) came into the clinic. The owner complained of the patient having a larger than normal belly. Granted, this dog was not groomed very well at all and was a decently overweight. The hair was so bad it took the techs over ten minutes to get through due to knots, dirt, and god knows what else. Once the hair was removed, we could see a pretty large mass right underneath the skin. The incision made was around 12 inches long on the center of the belly. Once opened up, the growth was found to be a gigantic lipoma. It was probably about the size of a small soccer ball.



A case where I found that dealing with animals belonging to human doctors is annoying(due to the owner)
The same day:

An owner (who is a human pathologist) brought his Shib Inu in complaining of lameness in one of the front legs. After walking the dog in front of the Vet and I, it was determined the Lameness was in the Left front leg since the dog seemed to bear more weight and move his head down with the placement of the right front leg. After 4 different xrays were taken, the owner was shown the xrays in the eam room. Before the Vet even spoke he started blurting out suggestions of nerve impingement among other things. After fifteen minutes of him explaining his theories to us, the Vet pointed out a compression in the joint space in the front left elbow. It turned out to be a case of mild-> moderate arthritis.

Just a fun experience in dealing with Egos.

 

[NittanyKitty]

A couple of gross ones. One summer this older husky came in right after being shaved at the groomers to fight the heat. As soon as the hair was off, the owner was able to see a few wounds that were filled with maggots. The dog immediately came to us, and he stayed for several days to get the wounds cleaned. It was pretty nasty.

Another night we got a call from a lady who said her lab pulled out her spay stitches and there might be some intestine hanging out. She brought the dog in right away in a crate, and her intestines were all over the bottom of the crate. The puppy was stepping on them (they were completely crushed and bruised) and getting blood all over herself -- this dog had gone from yellow to red. She went in for surgery and got several feet of her small intestine removed; she made it through the surgery but died before even waking up.

 

[VeganSoprano]

That reminds me of a good one - a 6-week-old kitten who was attacked by a dog and completely eviscerated. What I remember most is that the kitten was BAR, normothermic, and completely looked like nothing was wrong - until you realized that her intestines were hanging outside of her!

She had surgery and did great. The vet even spayed her before he closed!

 

[staythecourse]

well i just topped my older story...well for me it does

well its sort of bitter sweet....


A long haired daschund was omitted early in the day for shortness of breathe(among other problems), after xrays and multiple evaluations, the patient was released(although i was not around to if she was sent home with anything..

three hours later

The owner calls reporting that she had passed on. I was so bummed. The Vets were a bit stumped and couldnt put anything together that would lead to her death. The owner agreed to let the Vet do a necropsy to harvest pieces thought to be suspicious. After the internal exam was done, the doctor i shadow under asked if i would like to practice some sutures. I ended up doing some simple interrupted sutures on the linea, fat layer and skin.

Her death was a huge loss, seeing as we at the clinic loved this patient. And i cannot wait to see the lab results.

 

[Kara31191]

For all the rabbit people, this one will be *particularly* sad.

These "kind" people made an appt for their rabbit one morning with "some skin problems". Well, I schedule them, and they come in. We bring the rabbit out back to see the mites had eaten half of the rabbits skin. The doc proceeded with appointments (After giving pain meds) and I was peeling and cleaning the skin of this rabbits face with chlorhexiderm solution. It was so bad.

Apparently, they had seen it start three months ago but "thought it would pass". After I was cleaning the skin for literally 3 hours with another caretaker holding, the rabbit started screeching at this one peice of skin, to which the vet came running. She informed the clients of an emergency and said that we'd be with them shortly. The rabbit was put under and after a more thorough examination, a large mass was discovered, and the rabbit was not allowed to wake up. Poor rabbit had to go through all that pain to no avail.

The family didn't have anything to say. The doc just upped the price and said that if they wanted the carrier we have it. *AKA... you better come back and pay*. Poor thing. You should have heard this screech. It was awful. I had just been scraping a bit from the inside of the ear. I felt so bad for him! 🙁

 

[david594]

The family didn't have anything to say. The doc just upped the price and said that if they wanted the carrier we have it. *AKA... you better come back and pay*. Poor thing. You should have heard this screech. It was awful. I had just been scraping a bit from the inside of the ear. I felt so bad for him! 🙁

You guys don't make clients pay before they leave an animal?

 

[bovine]

We had a young Beagle that came in over the weekend that had been HBC, she had some pretty serious degloving injuries (down to the bone) on one of her hind legs so today the Dr decided to go ahead and amputate. This reminded me of the first amputation that I ever saw I don't really know how I forgot because it was definitely a very memorable case.

A couple years ago not long after I first started volunteering at the clinic we had a dog with a severely broken leg, the owners did not want to try to save the leg so we had to amputate. At that time the owner of the practice was on vacation so it was up to the associate veterinarian to amputate the leg by herself. No big deal really, but what made it really interesting was the fact that she had graduated from vet school about 2 months before and had never done an amputation before. She starts cutting and she gets through the skin no problem, but when she started cutting muscle she cut through some arteries so blood started squirting but it was not too bad, at the same time the dogs heart rate was dropping so the head tech decided to try something that the doctor had told her about, that was mixing a little bit of epinephrine with atropine to bring the HR up. Let me tell you IT WORKED now the arteries that were bleeding slightly were squirting across the room and the doctor was scrambling to get them clamped off. Before the surgery was over this scene had been repeated a couple times. By the time the surgery was finished there was blood on the walls ten feet away. That is something I will never forget.😀

The dog recovered very nicely.

That also was memorable for me because it was the first time I scrubbed in to assist.

 

[enchantingme2]

I know that I already posted on this thread... but a previous post reminded me of a case from my first year as a vet assistant. It was an older dog who was never spayed, she of course came in for a pyo surgery. During the surgery, she began to spray blood from her abdomen. It was literally right out of a bad scary movie. But what made matters worse was that the dr panicked. Rather than trying to discover why she was bleeding, he began to close her up and say that we should call the owners because she has lost too much blood and it would be better to put her down. I was horrified. One of the older techs actually had to yell at him to continue the surgery. The dog was given a transfusion and recovered extremely well from the surgery. I was just suprised at the doctor's behavior. Needless to say that although I learned a lot from that first year, I found another practice to work at for the rest of my experience.

 

[Kara31191]

You guys don't make clients pay before they leave an animal?

Well, the got the "procedure estimate" and had paid for the PE. But sometimes the doc is like, I'm going to look them over, assess, and call you back. Most people pay... Some don't, but most do.

With most though, they will at least leave a deposit for like half or so.

 

[ShelterGirl]

Ok, I have one to add that is pretty funny.

Older cat comes in the other day with history of constipation for several days. Doc runs bloodwork and makes orders - enemas, famotidine, and so forth.

Before we could even finish setting up the kennel, cat poops in it.

Doc had us do the enemas anyway

 

[wi girl]

Are you kidding?!?! The idea of an enema would scare the crap out of me too!! 😀

 

[Mark G]

About 6 months ago an 8 year old Bichon came in to my hospital as an emergency. The dog had been vomiting for 12-24 hours, now mostly bile. Since it was right in the middle of a busy appointment block I was tasked with triaging it. Usually that means informing the owners that the patient was ok and we would be with them as soon as we could, but the color and refill weren't great so I braved asking the behind schedule doctors if one of them would listen to it. After a quick auscultation the dog was rushed into the treatment room and hooked up for an EKG. Somewhere in the middle of it he crashed and doctor and techs went into CPR.

About a week before one of our doctors had come back from a continuing education conference and gave the staff a talk about CPR and other emergency procedures in veterinary medicine. What stuck out to me was that she reported that 5% of CPR cases are successful once an animal crashes. That seemed like a really, really low number to me, so I wasn't very optimistic about the dog's chances.

I'm not sure what stage of heart failure he was in, but the EKG looked like v-fib or worse to me and the doctor did a direct cardiac stick. He wasn't sure if he got it or just injected into the pericardial sac but whatever he did worked! The dog came back (not sure from where) and was eventually QAR and moved to a recovery cage. Now there's still some confusion to this day as to what happened, as one of the technicians thinks a limb lead got knocked out of whack in the confusion, but anyway...I felt like I was watching ER or Emergency Vets or something. What a rush!

About two hours later the Cardiologist came to do an emergency echo, which I got to hold for. He spotted a mass on the left atrial wall right away, and told me he thought it was a hemangiocytoma. Everyone at my hospital knows I am a pre-vet student and they have been so great in educating me whenever possible. So while he finished the rest of his echo while his assistant, a Cardiology resident, explained about pericardial effusion and tamponade, which occurs when pressure builds up and prevents something else from happening. It can be a good thing, as it can stop bleeding, but it can be a bad thing when it stops the heart from beating. The cardiologist said the tumor wasn't operable and he could tap the chest to relieve the pressure, but it would build up again, probably in a day or two.

An hour later, after the family had said goodbye, I held while the doctor applied a bolus of euthasol directly to his IV. As if to prove what a fighter he was, the dog stayed with us longer than any I've seen euthanized, but the doctor explained that sometimes it takes longer with cardiac cases as the heart isn't strong enough to pump the euthasol to the rest of the body. A lesson to the last. I wrote out the paperwork, bagged the corpse and put it in the freezer. After that I just stood there for what seemed like forever. I had learned more in that one day about cardiac medicine than I had the rest of my time at the hospital put together and cemented much of what I learned in my Animal Physiology course, but at that moment I wasn't sure I cared.

I've seen other interesting cases, but none matched the manic emotions of that 8 year old Bichon.

 

[Biomajir]

At the clinic, this owner brought in her pit bull that had been having horrible stomach problems for a few days. It was severely bloated and so we went to go take x-rays of it. As we are taking it to the back the dog start violently vomiting and up comes what appears to be parts of a spine and something that may or may not have been a kidney. After we really got to looking at everything, the vet went and spoke to the owner only to realize that about the same time their dog got sick, they also had not seen their cat in awhile. So while they were away one day I guess the dog got hungry and ate the cat. Very, very gross.

 

[banditalfi]

At the clinic, this owner brought in her pit bull that had been having horrible stomach problems for a few days. It was severely bloated and so we went to go take x-rays of it. As we are taking it to the back the dog start violently vomiting and up comes what appears to be parts of a spine and something that may or may not have been a kidney. After we really got to looking at everything, the vet went and spoke to the owner only to realize that about the same time their dog got sick, they also had not seen their cat in awhile. So while they were away one day I guess the dog got hungry and ate the cat. Very, very gross.

Ugh. I am making the worst face right now and weird moaning noises.

This post is so wrong...

 

[wivet2011]

At the clinic, this owner brought in her pit bull that had been having horrible stomach problems for a few days. It was severely bloated and so we went to go take x-rays of it. As we are taking it to the back the dog start violently vomiting and up comes what appears to be parts of a spine and something that may or may not have been a kidney. After we really got to looking at everything, the vet went and spoke to the owner only to realize that about the same time their dog got sick, they also had not seen their cat in awhile. So while they were away one day I guess the dog got hungry and ate the cat. Very, very gross.

😱 O...M...G

 

[NittanyKitty]

At the clinic, this owner brought in her pit bull that had been having horrible stomach problems for a few days. It was severely bloated and so we went to go take x-rays of it. As we are taking it to the back the dog start violently vomiting and up comes what appears to be parts of a spine and something that may or may not have been a kidney. After we really got to looking at everything, the vet went and spoke to the owner only to realize that about the same time their dog got sick, they also had not seen their cat in awhile. So while they were away one day I guess the dog got hungry and ate the cat. Very, very gross.

Ewwwwwww! That's disgusting. 😱

 

[Hobiecat1642]

Oh my god, that's so awful!

 

[athenaparthenos]

Ok, I have one to add that is pretty funny.

Older cat comes in the other day with history of constipation for several days. Doc runs bloodwork and makes orders - enemas, famotidine, and so forth.

Before we could even finish setting up the kennel, cat poops in it.

Doc had us do the enemas anyway

That reminds me of the time we were supposed to get urine on a 16-year-old cat, but he didn't have a palpable bladder. So we gave him a kennel with no blanket and no litterbox, just a bowl of water, hoping he'd fill up his bladder on his own. An hour later go to check in on him -- he drank all the water and then peed in the 5"x5" water dish, not spilling a drop despite being an enormous cat! I just had to shake my head in amazement, roflmao...

"Ron Burgundy: What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole... wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing."

 

[david594]

This one should kind of speaks for itself. He just didnt quite fit...

The plastic piece was the front of a speaker.