Most memorable case?

[destiny1325]

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I did a search and didn't find a thread like this, so sorry if there is already one in existance! If not, then I thought it would be fun to share our most memorable, interesting, etc. cases that we've experienced so far as prevets.

My most memorable case involved a pretty routine surgery, but the circumstances of this case are what made it stick with me. A woman brought in a toy poodle for ACL surgery. The dog's owner had just been placed in a nursing home and the dog's care had been turned over to the daughter. The dog was 14 years old and had a significant heart murmer. During surgery preparation, most of the vet techs and assistants disagreed with the surgery and thought that the most humane option would have been euthanasia. After a very tense hour and a half, the dog woke up from surgery and began its recovery. When the woman brought the dog in for a post surgery exam she exclaimed that the dog was walking for the first time in weeks. It turns out that the dog went on to lead a healthy life for another year and a half before passing away. 🙂
I guess the reason this case was memorable for me was because I admired the woman's dedication to her mother's dog and the vet's optimism and confidence in handleing this surgery despite some other opinions at the clinic. (which were understandable) Just as importantly, I am sure that the dog's recovery meant a lot to the owner who was going through a very difficult transition.

your turn😉

 

[Kara31191]

I like this idea...

Uhmmm... hmm...

Okay, I remember an awesome story.

Well, near us is this BIG pet store, with an overly assertive bird manager. She said that she has a hawk and it's wing was broken. The bird was approximately 9 months old. How she caught it is a mystery and there was suspicion that she tried to raise it herself...

Turns out the bird was fine, and was sent to a wild life rehabber. The bird didn't know how to hunt. Someone captively raised it for sure. Made me angry. I just thought that was interesting.

-Kara

 

[rexosaurus]

This is fun 🙂

I use to work at an ER in Las Vegas (the land of people with lots of money and strange animals..... Wayne Newton anyone?) Anyway, the most memorable cases for me are the exotic animals we got. One day I came into work with a hypocalcemic 9 month old African Serval! Apparently it was in heart failure because the owners were too ignorant to feed the animal actual chicken with bones and everything. The serval ended up dying 🙁

Another one: We had a South American penguin with something stuck in its crop. I have a picture holding him, his name was Hawaii 🙂

 

[Hobiecat1642]

Good thread--A recent one for me would be a farm dog that came in because a cow had fallen on him. No kidding. He turned out to be okay, despite some bruising and soreness. We were all joking about our new HBC acronym--Hit by Cow.

 

[ElvisMarie6]

Mine happened about a year ago... A woman called in saying she thought her Vizsla had a chicken bone stuck in his throat bc he had gotten into the trash and was now making a gaging/coughing sound. She ran him right over and we couldn't see exactly what was caught so we ended up having to sedate him and try again. On the second try, we noticed a string caught around his tongue and it was very painful and we couldn't try and remove it without him yelping in pain. So we ended up having to anesthetize him and right as the doctor was about to tube him, he noticed something that looked like bloody cotton in the back of the dogs throat, he grabbed a hemostat and to our horror, pulled out a used tampon!! Oh man it smelled horrible! The owner was terribly embarrassed but happy that the dog didn't swallow it! 🙂

 

[rexosaurus]

that's foul i think i might rather deal with maggot-butt

 

[Kara31191]

Now we need an interesting client thread...

🙂

 

[Mellobunnie]

Yikes! That is foul....but it reminds me of a time a shepherd mix came in with a bone wedged in his mouth behind his two front canines. Man was that thing stuck! The doc had to anesthetize him and saw it off.

And Rex - I've actually got a maggot-butt story. One day an elderly woman came in saying that her cat had been hiding underneath the bed for a week or so and was now starting to smell. She managed to get her son to grab him and bring him over in a carrier. So we took him out, inspected him, and found in horror that the poor guy's rear end was absolutely covered in maggots! Hundreds of the lil suckers....
Evidently, the cat was allowed to roam in and out of the house and managed to get bitten by something which never got treated. We discovered a wound around the midsection of his tail that by then had turned into a gangrene mess which spread up over his rear end and up to his hips. Probably the most disgusting thing I've seen yet. The doc had to amputate the tail.

 

[pressmom]

This is fun 🙂

I use to work at an ER in Las Vegas (the land of people with lots of money and strange animals..... Wayne Newton anyone?) Anyway, the most memorable cases for me are the exotic animals we got. One day I came into work with a hypocalcemic 9 month old African Serval! Apparently it was in heart failure because the owners were too ignorant to feed the animal actual chicken with bones and everything. The serval ended up dying 🙁

That happened at the exotics clinic I shadowed at too.

As far as maggot butts...that exotics clinic had a rabbit that came in whose testicles had been eaten by maggots. Poor thing!!!! We had to euthanize.

 

[david594]

Had a rabbit that came in with 1 testicle after it was attacked by their other male rabbit. Was neutered and treated. The other rabbit came in a few weeks later to neutered also.

 

[destiny1325]

At the Ohio wildlife center we had an eastern box turtle that came in after being hit by a lawn mower. His head was covered in maggots; they had even eaten his eyes🙁. He had to be euthanized. That image definately haunted me for a few nights...

 

[lailanni]

Had a rabbit that came in with 1 testicle after it was attacked by their other male rabbit. Was neutered and treated. The other rabbit came in a few weeks later to neutered also.

A similar thing happened at the rabbit shelter a little while ago.

Anyhoo funny story: (not a first-hand witness, but my vet told me)

A dog comes in, not feeling well, fast forward to the laparotomy. The dog ate women's underwear!

Now, this was a married couple. And they requested to see what exactly the dog ate. So they're shown the underwear....the wife is furious....it's not hers!

 

[OSJ]

LOL that is really funny!
One of my most memorable experience was a wealthy woman who bought a toy poodle. She wanted the dog for company and planned on traveling abroad with her in the future. She really had no idea how to take care of a puppy, and every time the puppy even looked at her funny, she would rush her in. She did not work and pretty much stayed home all day , everyday, tending to the puppy. Well she came in on ER several times for vomiting and decreased appetite and no one could really find anything wrong with her. She was waiting for radiographs one day to look into this problem and was having a seizure in her cage. Turns out she had lead toxicity because the owner had been feeding her from antique china made with lead paint! Puppy recovered fine after a few days in the hospital. That's why you shouldn't feed puppies out of antique china!

 

[rexosaurus]

stainless steel all the way!

 

[heyday]

So we ended up having to anesthetize him and right as the doctor was about to tube him, he noticed something that looked like bloody cotton in the back of the dogs throat, he grabbed a hemostat and to our horror, pulled out a used tampon!! Oh man it smelled horrible! The owner was terribly embarrassed but happy that the dog didn't swallow it!

We had a mid-sized chihuahua named Peanut come into the clinic that had eaten used tampons. The doc I work for had to removed them from the stomach as they caused a blockage. Sad thing is is that the owner said he'd notorious for trying to get those items from the trash all the time.

This past weekend at the ER I work at a lab came in for bloat, but thankfully we didn't have to go into surgery. Poor thing vomited up about 3 lbs. of sausage and other meat. We weighed it.

 

[winkle1983]

I work in an ER and we had a couple come in b/c their dog had "eaten something". We get them into an exam room and the man says first..."we were, well...you know...and we were done...so I threw it on the floor. Well, the dog ate it and I'm concerned b/c it is rather large". The girl with him replies, "It ain't THAT large". I love some of our clients.

Melissa

 

[pressmom]

I work in an ER and we had a couple come in b/c their dog had "eaten something". We get them into an exam room and the man says first..."we were, well...you know...and we were done...so I threw it on the floor. Well, the dog ate it and I'm concerned b/c it is rather large". The girl with him replies, "It ain't THAT large". I love some of our clients.

Melissa

LMAO! HI-larious!

 

[Tiraka]

We had clients call and say "our dog has rope coming out of his butt." It was, predictably, a young lab, and he ended up needing surgery to remove the 15 feet of laundry line that ran from his stomach through his entire intestinal tract. He recovered surprisingly quickly and the real mystery was how a dog even managed to swallow that much cord and keep it intact

 

[Hobiecat1642]

That reminds me of a case--a client called and said that her cat had spaghetti coming out of its butt, but that "he didn't even eat spaghetti!"
It was worms, to her infinite horror.

 

[clawsbeatskin]

That reminds me of a case--a client called and said that her cat had spaghetti coming out of its butt, but that "he didn't even eat spaghetti!"
It was worms, to her infinite horror.

Haha, that's like the call we got the other day..."So I guess dogs don't digest spaghetti??" Ummm, yeah. Bring the dog in, please!

 

[ShelterGirl]

We had a cat come in that had eaten that curly ribbon stuff used for gift wrapping and balloons.

The most interesting case I've seen so far was a kitten who had no pelvis - it walked by dragging itself with its front legs, and we took rads only to find out that it had megacolon and no pelvis. Poor kid got euthanized. I suspect it was some sort of manx-related deformity since it had no tail either, but who knows.

 

[david594]

Ever hold up the back end of a bitch so the semen doesn't leak out after its just been AI'ed? The weird part is the casual 15 minute conversation with the owner while your holding up the back of their dog.

 

[Hobiecat1642]

Ever hold up the back end of a bitch so the semen doesn't leak out after its just been AI'ed? The weird part is the casual 15 minute conversation with the owner while your holding up the back of their dog.

Yes! Good times.

 

[heyday]

Ever hold up the back end of a bitch so the semen doesn't leak out after its just been AI'ed? The weird part is the casual 15 minute conversation with the owner while your holding up the back of their dog.

It's also a little weird having to help hold the dog that your male boss is collecting from.

 

[bakaduin]

Oh the conversations that stem from AI! I love it!

 

[Hobiecat1642]

It is also very weird to hear your clients give "advice" to a male dog while he's being collected, w/ or without a teaser bitch. Comments such as "you like her, huh?" and "go get her!" from clients made it very difficult for me to keep a straight face.

 

[david594]

Oh the conversations that stem from AI! I love it!

Speaking of collection. We recently had an Australian labradoodle with some say "performance anxiety". He just couldn't do it. Ended up having to give him valium before he could actually be collected.

 

[heyday]

Speaking of collection. We recently had an Australian labradoodle with some say "performance anxiety". He just couldn't do it. Ended up having to give him valium before he could actually be collected.

Wow, you had to give Valium to him? That's interesting. (And funny. 😛)

On the note of performance: One of our most recent AI's was due to the owners trying to breed a much older male who couldn't "get the job done". We collected a rather low volume, and the doc was sure that the AI wouldn't take. It did; the owners had 5 healthy puppies!

It's neat to see the product.

 

[tealamutt]

one of our vets brought her 15 year old cousin in to observe one day when they were doing AI's. She let the girl look at the semen under the scope and she exclaimed "There's so many!". To which the vet replied "and that is just in one drop- so remember pulling out *never* works!!"

 

[david594]

Couldn't find a more appropriate thread, but had a recent client experience where I almost died laughing.

Client was given oral antibiotics for her small dog with vaginitis and was given the bottle and instructed to give 1/2 dropper full twice daily.

The woman then made a very awkward hand gesture to the rear underside of her dog and asked "so I just like squirt it up in there?"

 

[enchantingme2]

We had a lab come in once that was recently spayed. The owner had removed the E-collar- just like too many owners do, and the dog had literally chewed open her abdomen. She came in with her intestines hanging out from her tummy... to the owner's horror there was a significant piece missing from her intestines. The dog recovered very well, and the owner happily found a few chunks of intestine later at home and called to let us know that it looked like she didn't actually eat her intestines, only chewed them to pieces.

 

[athenaparthenos]

That reminds me of a case--a client called and said that her cat had spaghetti coming out of its butt, but that "he didn't even eat spaghetti!"
It was worms, to her infinite horror.

This reminds me of the client whose cat had tapeworms and I told her that tapes were transmitted by the pet ingesting fleas. She looked at me in surprise and said, "Why would he eat fleas? I feed him plenty of food at home!"

Yes, I'm sure your cat eats fleas on PURPOSE because he's HUNGRY. 🙄

 

[SillyFilly]

Hmmm, some fun ones to choose from....

1. Client decided it was best to deworm his horses anally. We didn't know until I walk in to pet him (he is a special fav) and hmmm... white goop out of his bum... And dewormer on the stall door.

2. My boss let me take some radiographs one day - some of our clients had a horse on trial that they were getting for a "very good price".... He wa a half brother to a very successful show horse. Lounged him, he was off on a foreleg, popped a lateral and an AP of it. The person selling him just said they gave him adequan and he was "sound". When I developed them, the poor horse had ringbone so badly he had surgery to fuse the joint with 3 screws (p1/p2). He had 2 chips off the back of his coffin bone. He also had fractured his sidebone. IN ONE FOOT. It was really freakin' sweet since I got to take them all and got the right angles, and we did it for free of course since I played vet. Poor horse got sent back to the pasture he came from.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Craziest things I've seen dogs eat would have to be lighter fluid and sparklers. Funniest would have to be a bra just because of how it looked on radiographs. We probably see one tampon eater a week, and condom and underwear eaters are about equally common. Around Christmas we probably averaged 6-8 chocolate ingestions per day. Fortunately, I love to make dogs puke.

I also love it when they puke up something unexpected - like the dog who ate two chocolate flavored Power Bars and then proceeded to vomit a whole bunch of raisins! Good thing we took the cautious route and made the dog puke even though he probably didn't get a toxic dose of anything from the Power Bars.

Most memorable would have to be a 3-week-old kitten I obtained from someone's bathtub and rushed to the hospital where I now work. His temperature and BG were too low to read, his HR was about 50, and he was agonal - but when they tried to intubate, he kept biting the tube! After some atropine and dextrose and heat, he went home the next day and is now a healthy 12-pound cat.

 

[CalpardNY]

Craziest things I've seen dogs eat would have to be lighter fluid and sparklers. Funniest would have to be a bra just because of how it looked on radiographs.

My dog is pretty crazy and yet pretty lucky at the same time. He has not only opened a zippered backpack and taken out a tylenol bottle (lapped up the hydrogen peroxide and later the activated charcoal willingly), he stole a can of tuna (probably to play with it) and ate most of the can and the tuna. Our vet didnt believe us and we had to convince him to take x-rays! Lots of bread for coating and a week later out it came...thankfully with no other damage. The rascal also managed to take a bbq chicken you get from the supermarket in one of those plastic containers out of a microwave at shoulder height. He carried it upstairs to a bedroom, opened it with only one tooth puncture, and ate the whole chicken (bones and all) managing to leave just a little tiny spot of sauce on the carpet. He's so considerate to not be wasteful or leave us a mess!!

I know these aren't memorable cases - but as you all can imagine im pretty partial to my puppy - and most vets i tell the tuna can story don't believe it!

 

[alliecat44]

I love telling this story...but I'll try for the short version here:
I got off work (a surgery tech at the time) around 9pm. At 10:30pm, I received a phone call from the emergency clinician regarding a 5y/o Mn Belgian Malimois. The dog had been missing for several days before returning home. He seemed fine, save for a few superficial abrasions, so they figured he had gotten into a scrape or two and didn't even have him checked out by the vet.

Two days after returning home, he began having trouble breathing after eating a large meal. Brought him to our ER, and radiographs revealed a grossly distended stomach...overlying his cardiac silouhette. The ER doc was calling me in for emergency anesthesia duty, and the board-certified surgeon was on his way.

Yay for diaphragmatic hernias! I love 'em. I arrived as the ER folks were knocking the dog down; the surgeon got there as I was moving him to the OR. I wasn't happy with how stable he was, but knew that as soon as the hernia was reduced we'd ALL be breathing much easier, so to speak. Once in the OR, had him on the ventilator, surgeon makes his abdominal incision, and goes, "oh, s***" (this, from a surgeon who NEVER cusses). Within two minutes, 20% of this dog's blood volume is in the suction bucket, and I was yelling for a scrub assist and some packed cells.

Long story short, not only was this dog's distended stomach in his chest, but so was his entire liver, pancreas, gallbladder, a good portion of his small intestine, and...you guessed it...his ruptured spleen. I basically had to stand on my head to put a jugular catheter in (he only had the one peripheral line placed by the ER folks before his respiratory status went through the floor and they had to induce rapidly) in order to give him two transfusions. All told, he lost 40% of his blood volume (though the initial 20% was likely a slow bleed over several days).

The best part was that, after I was done washing the instruments and cleaning the bloodiest OR I'd seen in a while...my patient was standing and pawing at his cage door, wanting OUT, thankyouverymuch. 🙂

It was 5:30am at that point and I had to be back at work at 8am, but man, I couldn't have been happier. That's what it's all about! 😀

He was such a cool dog and probably my favorite patient ever. He's one of the top ten reasons I'm thinking of anesthesiology as my specialty of choice. 🙂

 

[VeganSoprano]

I know these aren't memorable cases - but as you all can imagine im pretty partial to my puppy - and most vets i tell the tuna can story don't believe it!

The worst animal-related injury I ever had came from a similar situation. I had a gig walking this elderly Golden Retriever while her mom was at work, and the client never bothered to tell me the dog had serious resource guarding issues.

The dog found an opened can of Vienna sausages on the sidewalk and proceeded to eat the whole thing, can included. When I tried to get the can away from her, she shredded my hand - tore off all the skin between the knuckles on the palm side of my index finger, and put in several punctures in random parts of my hand for good measure. It was six months before I could grip with that finger again.

I use this story to illustrate that breed doesn't guarantee anything when it comes to a dog's temperament.

 

[TCVM808]

I'm enjoying reading about everyone else's experiences. VeganSoprano's tale certainly had me cringing! Owwie. I have yet to sustain a serious bite, so I am not looking forward to that inevitable day.

My most memorable case was probably Shelby the Doberman. She had hemilaminectomy performed by a local veterinarian to treat cervical disc disease. She went into surgery walking, but came out of it unable to walk. Her owner brought her in to one of the vets I work with after she had already been "down" for a couple months. This veterinarian practices complementary medicine with a particular focus on acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. As such she is often a "last resort" for clients and is at the receiving end of many challenging cases. It took 10 months of nearly weekly acupuncture treatments coupled with aggressive hydrotherapy to get her walking again, but miraculously Shelby made an amazing recovery. This experience is one of the those that has "sold" me on acupuncture and solidified my interest in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. 😀

Unfortunately she has recently developed what we are fearing is advanced cancer. She was in with pretty severe ascites and pleural effusion last week. 🙁 At least her recent months have been quality ones!!

 

[VAgirl]

I love telling this story...but I'll try for the short version here:
I got off work (a surgery tech at the time) around 9pm. At 10:30pm, I received a phone call from the emergency clinician regarding a 5y/o Mn Belgian Malimois. The dog had been missing for several days before returning home. He seemed fine, save for a few superficial abrasions, so they figured he had gotten into a scrape or two and didn't even have him checked out by the vet.

Two days after returning home, he began having trouble breathing after eating a large meal. Brought him to our ER, and radiographs revealed a grossly distended stomach...overlying his cardiac silouhette. The ER doc was calling me in for emergency anesthesia duty, and the board-certified surgeon was on his way.

Yay for diaphragmatic hernias! I love 'em. I arrived as the ER folks were knocking the dog down; the surgeon got there as I was moving him to the OR. I wasn't happy with how stable he was, but knew that as soon as the hernia was reduced we'd ALL be breathing much easier, so to speak. Once in the OR, had him on the ventilator, surgeon makes his abdominal incision, and goes, "oh, s***" (this, from a surgeon who NEVER cusses). Within two minutes, 20% of this dog's blood volume is in the suction bucket, and I was yelling for a scrub assist and some packed cells.

Long story short, not only was this dog's distended stomach in his chest, but so was his entire liver, pancreas, gallbladder, a good portion of his small intestine, and...you guessed it...his ruptured spleen. I basically had to stand on my head to put a jugular catheter in (he only had the one peripheral line placed by the ER folks before his respiratory status went through the floor and they had to induce rapidly) in order to give him two transfusions. All told, he lost 40% of his blood volume (though the initial 20% was likely a slow bleed over several days).

The best part was that, after I was done washing the instruments and cleaning the bloodiest OR I'd seen in a while...my patient was standing and pawing at his cage door, wanting OUT, thankyouverymuch. 🙂

It was 5:30am at that point and I had to be back at work at 8am, but man, I couldn't have been happier. That's what it's all about! 😀

He was such a cool dog and probably my favorite patient ever. He's one of the top ten reasons I'm thinking of anesthesiology as my specialty of choice. 🙂

Wow! That's quite a story. I bet you have lots more, too. I'd love to hear more of them some time. 🙂

 

[RockStarKDub]

I used to tech at an emergency hospital and a former tech brought her own dog in because he was showing all the signs of a foreign body.

We took rads and sure enough.. something in the stomach that shouldn't be there.. in the shape of a tiny penis. 😱

Turns out? The owner had been at a bachelorette party the night before where one of the party favors was a penis straw topper.

We went into surgery and the dog was fine.. but the owner was understandably MORTIFIED! Especially since the attending vet was the most intimidating and stoic of all the vets I worked for at the time!!! (But even he broke down and had a laugh at that one!)

 

[CanadianGolden]

My own dog drank clipper blade wash once (why? who knows. it doesn't even taste good like antifreeze does...)

Another dog of mine developed a hard mass on her neck overnight--I was convinced it was lymphoma and spent a good part of the weekend sobbing and putting hot compresses on it "in case" it was an abscess like everyone told me it was. 2 days later it looked like an enormous abscess...$750 later it was just an infected granuloma.

Friend's dog ate an entire 20 lb bag of dog food (without owner's knowledge) and then went to agility practice--owner noticed grossly distended abdomen, rushed her to vet fearing bloat, and found that her stomach was so full of food that it was mashing all of her other abdominal organs

We had a tampon-dog while I worked at a vet clinic. The vomit-inducing was oh so fun

One guy insisted his dog didn't need a lepto vaccine because it never went to kennels

 

[alliecat44]

Oh my gosh, CanadianGolden's story reminded me of one with my own dog...New Year's Eve, I palpated a HUGE sumandibular swelling. I had had one beer, though, and since I was 20, I couldn't drive her in until the morning (!). I was convinced it was lymphoma, too. Distraught, couldn't sleep.

Turned out to be a salivary mucocele. She had surgery the next day, and while a mucocele is very benign, she was such a little stressball upon being extubated that she almost stressed herslf to death. Several times. Had to be reintubated. Several times. Oxygen cage all night. Her trachea wasn't collapsing, she was just so stressed every time she woke up that her anxious panting wasn't enough to adequately ventilate her. Since she's such a lap dog, I even tried sedating her and drivng her home in the morning, with a laryngoscope and trach tubes "just in case" and allowing her to wake up in my parents' bed...to no avail...ended up rushing her back to the ER with grey mucus membranes. We thought we were going to have to euthanize her--she was slowly exhausting herself to the point of even worse ventilation/hypoxia. Not even the criticalist had a good solution. Finally, we did the only other thing we could think of...let her wake up in my mother's lap on the floor of the ICU. Worked like a charm.

!! Ten years in specialty practice, and I've never even seen something come CLOSE to what happened with her. Just totally bizarre.

 

[VAgirl]

!! Ten years in specialty practice, and I've never even seen something come CLOSE to what happened with her. Just totally bizarre.

Do animals get anxiety attacks? Because that kind of sounds like one...I mean, the worst one ever. Yikes! I'm glad she was ok in the end!!

 

[alliecat44]

Do animals get anxiety attacks? Because that kind of sounds like one...I mean, the worst one ever. Yikes! I'm glad she was ok in the end!!

Good question, and one for the behaviorists! 😀 I have no idea. I think it definitely was anxiety due to dysphoria (disorientation) upon waking up from anesthesia coupled with perhaps some respiratory depression from the drugs...though it lasted far after the drugs should have been out of her system. She never had separation anxiety or anything like that--just really bonded with my mother, and a bit of a "delicate soul" as I like to say to clients. 🙂

 

[CanadianGolden]

Animals definitely have anxiety attacks--look at how some dogs behave during thunderstorms or even when the pressure drops before a storm. Obviously I can't say for sure whether alliecat's dog was having one, but it could have been. I know that many animals wake up from anesthesia and are anxious/fearful/stressed. That must have been very scary! I'm glad she was all right in the end.

My dog's granuloma actually had scar tissue wrapped all the way around her jugular vein. The vet (my friend) suspected it but didn't tell me because she knew it would just freak me out and that the surgery HAD to be done regardless. She and the other head vet had my dog under for 90 minutes(!!!!) picking the scar tissue off of the vein. Fortunately they are awesome vets and she was completely fine. It made me SO glad that she is an athlete and that I keep her very fit and trim, because otherwise anesthesia for that long could have been a problem.

Warning: gross photos!

Prior to surgery

Bandage after surgery--I called it canine lobotomy

 

[alliecat44]

Very cool! 🙂 That was HUGE and very scary!

You're right about thunderstorm anxiety--d'oh! Of course! (I always forget the basic general-practice stuff!) Thanks. She never had one before or after, though--and after three years as an anesthesia/surgery tech in a specialty practice, I still never saw a response like hers (thank god!). Soooo weird....

btw, fun fact about the dog: there is so much collateral circulation to the head that you can actually ligate both carotid arteries and both jugular veins...and the dog will be just fine. 🙂 In humans, if you lose even one jugular, you're toast. Ack! 😱

 

[sofficat]

.

btw, fun fact about the dog: there is so much collateral circulation to the head that you can actually ligate both carotid arteries and both jugular veins...and the dog will be just fine. 🙂 In humans, if you lose even one jugular, you're toast. Ack! 😱

Really? How is the blood getting to the head without common carotids? And how is it leaving without jugs? Doesn't make any sense to me.

Also, when your dog was waking up an freaking out, what meds (if any) did you/the docs use to calm her? It seems like in a situation like that valium (or the like) would be useful to recover her from sx then the valium will slowly wear off.... right? I could be completely wrong, but I always try to think what I would do as the doc in situations.

 

[alliecat44]

Hi, sofficat,

The collateral ("extra" or "redundant") circulation to the head is what keeps the blood going to/from the head. Dogs have many, MANY more small veins going into/out of the head than we do. Our poor brains couldn't handle it--we don't have the vasculature to support enough bloodflow to meet the metabolic demands of the brain--but the dog has so much "extra" or "collateral" circulation that the blood is re-routed, so to speak. 🙂 Pretty cool, huh?

And yes, we tried all sorts of drugs. We had a board-certified critical care specialist on her case. Everything from torb to valium to ace to propofol to thio (thio of course took quite a bit longer) to try to ease the transition from asleep to awake...nothing worked. Combinations thereof, and nothing worked. And when I say that we tried all these drugs, I'm talking about over a period of about sixteen hours--they weren't all given at once! 🙂 I think we even gave her naloxone to reverse her opioids at one point, and that didn't work, either. But you're right--ideally (and with most patients!), sedating them is exactly what should help to wake them up. With my dog, she was just a freak--which is why I haven't seen it since. 🙂 (thank goodness!)

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

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?

 

[CanadianGolden]

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?

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.