Weirdest injury you've seen an animal get

[cloverbug]

So, today at the clinic I work at we had a client come in with her cat that somehow impaled himself between his genitalia and leg. Apparently, this little guy was playing in the garage and fell right onto a rod from some roofing stuff. He was running and jumping all over the exam room even though the puncture was full thickness and you could actually see the structure of the muscle underneath. It was crazy!

Anyone else encounter some "how did you do that/pull that off" injuries at your job? It's amazing the situations they get themselves into.

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[ouijetaime]

I saw a dog who impaled itself in the same place as the cat you are talking about. It tried to jump over a fence and found the post instead.

 

[Camelidcrazy]

I did wildlife rehab in a past life. I saw some kits who were hopping around like life was grand after being partially run over by a lawn-mower with maggots squirming from an open wound in their head...

Yikes. And gross.

Sorry for the graphic image. I tried to word that as delicately as possible.

 

[PetPony]

I saw a dog who impaled itself in the same place as the cat you are talking about. It tried to jump over a fence and found the post instead.

My grandpa's dog did that. He was playing with ponies in a field enclosed by a barbed wire fence. He had crawled under it to get in. When my grandpa called him to come back, he tried to get back as quickly as possible and jumped. He got stuck and ripped most of his belly open. Fixed himself pretty much.

He was sick pretty much for the rest of his life. There were always problems after that.

 

[cloverbug]

My grandpa's dog did that. He was playing with ponies in a field enclosed by a barbed wire fence. He had crawled under it to get in. When my grandpa called him to come back, he tried to get back as quickly as possible and jumped. He got stuck and ripped most of his belly open. Fixed himself pretty much.

He was sick pretty much for the rest of his life. There were always problems after that.

Aw, that sucks. I hope he was at least generally happy even though he was sick.

 

[livestockdream]

I saw a sheep that was missing a front leg. No bleeding, no leg laying around and no idea what happened.

 

[eschmidt32]

Junior year of high school we pulled a bullet from the femoral artery of a dog. By the time the vet pushed all of the coagulated blood out (it was an old injury that was causing arthritis), the artery blew. It shot blood across the room and coated the vet. I held the tourniquet, and the vet went in blind with the suture and eventually got it sewed up. The dog is still alive to this day. Talk about rewarding!

 

[Hotfillyky]

I have seen multiple HBT (hit by train) and have seen the other HBT (hit by tractor). Probably some other stuff but too tired to think right now.

 

[LetItSnow]

I'm amazed the horse people have chimed in yet. Those beasts are always finding new and creative ways to hurt themselves.

 

[pirateyoho]

At our clinic, we once found a metal shard stuck in the small intestine of a dog during exploratory surgery. Swallowing chew toys I can understand, but I just didn't see the appeal of a scrap of metal...

 

[Hotfillyky]

I'm amazed the horse people have chimed in yet. Those beasts are always finding new and creative ways to hurt themselves.

True that! I haven't worked with recently enough to have a good story. However, when I was in HS, some ppl that I worked for and rode with got a mustang. Horse busted out the side of a round pen and ultimately, caught 2 boards on the left side of his abdomen as he ran past. Very, very sad....he had to be euthanized due to all the damage/trauma.

 

[dvmdreamer]

I'm amazed the horse people have chimed in yet. Those beasts are always finding new and creative ways to hurt themselves.

Haha I actually had three examples I couldn't decide on a winner between, and then thought I better not because they are unique enough the owners could recognize them. But what's the likelihood... It is true, they spend their life looking for creative ways to maime themselves.

1. Horse broke symphysis of its mandible by presumably hooking a corner incisor underneath the metal rim that holds the stall bars into place, as that tooth was also very damaged. Jaw popped apart like it was spring loaded with a massive gap down the middle.

2. Horse got cast in stall. Managed to dig lower rear leg underneath the stall wall so that the stall wall was above his hock. Simultaneously, he managed to wedge his other rear hoof between the bars of the stall four feet higher, which yes, were placed at a recommended width that a hoof should not be able to fit through. Two bars had to be removed to extract the foot.

3. Horse sat on T-post. One end entered near anus. Other side came out the leg somewhere around the medial stifle. No damage to any internal structure other than muscle in between.

 

[Hotfillyky]

Haha I actually had three examples I couldn't decide on a winner between, and then thought I better not because they are unique enough the owners could recognize them. But what's the likelihood... It is true, they spend their life looking for creative ways to maime themselves.

1. Horse broke symphysis of its mandible by presumably hooking a corner incisor underneath the metal rim that holds the stall bars into place, as that tooth was also very damaged. Jaw popped apart like it was spring loaded with a massive gap down the middle.

2. Horse got cast in stall. Managed to dig lower rear leg underneath the stall wall so that the stall wall was above his hock. Simultaneously, he managed to wedge his other rear hoof between the bars of the stall four feet higher, which yes, were placed at a recommended width that a hoof should not be able to fit through. Two bars had to be removed to extract the foot.

3. Horse sat on T-post. One end entered near anus. Other side came out the leg somewhere around the medial stifle. No damage to any internal structure other than muscle in between.

3 =

 

[cloverbug]

I saw a sheep that was missing a front leg. No bleeding, no leg laying around and no idea what happened.

Wow, just wow. That is definitely a how the heck did you do that moment! Did it even seem bothered by the fact that it was missing a leg?

 

[cloverbug]

Junior year of high school we pulled a bullet from the femoral artery of a dog. By the time the vet pushed all of the coagulated blood out (it was an old injury that was causing arthritis), the artery blew. It shot blood across the room and coated the vet. I held the tourniquet, and the vet went in blind with the suture and eventually got it sewed up. The dog is still alive to this day. Talk about rewarding!

Haha, that is one lucky dog! I can't imagine trying to sew close something I couldn't see at all and probably could barely feel through all that coagulated blood.

 

[cs5910]

We had a kitten come in last week who clung underneath someones car from Key West all the way to Miami (thats about a 4 hour drive for those not from Florida).... The kitten came into the clinic because he got caught in the fan belt and his radius/ulna had been broken, almost a clear cut.... It was so sad, the kitten's foot was just dangling. We amputed and he is doing just fine now with his new owners. He is a lucky guy to have held on to a car speeding for 4 hours long!!

 

[orca2011]

Not really an equine person but I do work for two equine vets. One day I went along for appointments and we pull a decent sized rose bush branch out of the horse's nose. It had been having a foul order from its one nostril for at least a week. Original thought was that it was a tooth root abcess. Nope. The branch was probably at least a foot when stretched out. It was folded in half within the horse's nose.

 

[livestockdream]

Wow, just wow. That is definitely a how the heck did you do that moment! Did it even seem bothered by the fact that it was missing a leg?

He wasn't bothered at all.

 

[Jamr0ckin]

1. Mastiff with thunderstorm phobia launched himself through a sliding glass door and ended up with a large shard of glass piercing his heart. Strange thing though, it went through the abdomen and the diaphragm and only left a small laceration. We only found it on radiographs after he started to crash during the wound repairs. With pre-existing thrombocytopenia, poor guy didn't make it.

2. Border collie went to jump in the bed of pick-up, but missed and hit his lower abdomen on the tailgate. He presented several hours later with a uroabdomen, his bladder had completely burst.

3. GSD was HBC and then disappeared. Came into clinic 2 weeks later, with a rear leg hanging on by a few pieces of skin and muscle and all the gaps filled in with maggots.

 

[cloverbug]

Not really an equine person but I do work for two equine vets. One day I went along for appointments and we pull a decent sized rose bush branch out of the horse's nose. It had been having a foul order from its one nostril for at least a week. Original thought was that it was a tooth root abcess. Nope. The branch was probably at least a foot when stretched out. It was folded in half within the horse's nose.

Haha, that horrible but so funny at the same time. We once had a bearded dragon come in that was having issues breathing and kept having a wheezing noise. The doctor took him to the back so he could get a better look at him with extra hands and ended up pulling out 5 super worms from the back of his throat. We were all confused and very amazed.

 

[DVMDream]

Dog came in with a "torn nail", he was bouncing all around the exam room, happy and excited, acting like nothing was wrong, checked toe.. He had not just torn the nail, he had amputated P3 of that digit, all we did was sedate him and sew it up, the owner never found where he lost that part of his toe.

Dog came in with a severe laceration on its side about 6 inches in length with the skin just hanging like a flap, almost touching the ground, very little bleeding, the dog had fallen down a hill while playing with the owner, owner said when she stood back up, they saw the large flap of skin... No idea what the dog cut itself on.

Rabbit came in having nearly neutered itself on a fence.

Dog cut itself on a can, causing a large hematoma under the tongue and pushing the tongue out of the mouth... Had to drain the hematoma.

 

[Falina]

Puppy chewed and ate a plastic hair clip.
Golden retriever ate and swallowed a towel. Some threads on one end of it where hooked under the dog's tongue, and the towel went down the esophagus, through the stomach, and ended in the intestines.
An old rottweiler lived on a ranch, and its owner hosed it down sometime during summer, and then it rolled in a bunch of manure. Flies laid eggs all over it. When the dog came in, its entire back was coated with maggots. You could easily hear them squirming around from the other side of the room. (This one probably falls in the "grossest" injury category, rather than weirdest).

 

[Lissarae06]

My dog got out in the middle of the night one time. When he came back he had been shot in the face about 5-7mm below his left eye. They couldn't find the exit wound and couldn't find the bullet on his rads. Several years later he developed a mass on the point of his left shoulder. His brother had recently died of osteosarc so my parents immediately took him in thinking the worst. Doc did a mass removal and bam, there was the bullet. It made it all the way from his eye to his shoulder without damaging anything important.

 

[shortnsweet]

Hmmmm ponies:

I've seen a:

2x4 going through a horse's scrotum

2x4 going right through the chest along the sternum but the horse was still standing there...just looking a bit sorry for himself.

And my prof loves showing a picture of a tree sticking out of a horse's head ( was in the frontal sinus, so the horse wasn't bothered at all).

 

[PetPony]

Aw, that sucks. I hope he was at least generally happy even though he was sick.

He was. It wasn't that he was constantly sick but he was always on special diets and had periods of not feeling good. He was the best and sweetest dog I remember from being younger. He's the reason why German Shepherds are my absolute favorite dogs. I remember sleeping in his dog house filled with straw.

I'm amazed the horse people have chimed in yet. Those beasts are always finding new and creative ways to hurt themselves.

At my old barn, we were called to help catch a horse that got lose. Apparently it was tied to a bench and got scared to it took off running with the bench. Broke through two fences and rolled down the hill on the other side of the second fence, getting stuck there laying halfway into the road because the bench was stuck in the fence.

It looked bad at first glance with all the cuts and blood. But once we cleaned it up, it wasn't actually that bad.

 

[cloverbug]

My dog got out in the middle of the night one time. When he came back he had been shot in the face about 5-7mm below his left eye. They couldn't find the exit wound and couldn't find the bullet on his rads. Several years later he developed a mass on the point of his left shoulder. His brother had recently died of osteosarc so my parents immediately took him in thinking the worst. Doc did a mass removal and bam, there was the bullet. It made it all the way from his eye to his shoulder without damaging anything important.

That is one lucky dog! There's so much stuff it could've hit on the way down and I'm amazed that the bullet missed all of it.

 

[CanHardlyWait]

Just a funny one, no injury: Stray cat with it's head stuck, like really stuck, in a watering can. Some good samaritans brought it in to our ER. It was fine but watching it walking around like that and having to lube it's neck pull it out was hilarious

 

[Lissarae06]

That is one lucky dog! There's so much stuff it could've hit on the way down and I'm amazed that the bullet missed all of it.

Yeah he had nine lives, that's for sure. He should have died so many times. He had a bad talent for figuring out how to get out of the yard and into trouble.

 

[that redhead]

Not really an injury, but a flat-coated retriever got into a bees nest and his face got all swollen so they brought him in. Well, they're long-coated dogs and we had to stand him outside and get as many (live) bees as possible out from under his coat before we brought him inside. A few still escaped once we got back inside. He loved all of the attention

 

[wildowl]

Not exactly an injury but more of a weird case. At one of the wildlife/exotic centers I interned at, there was an emergency surgery with a Muscovy duck. He'd been acting strange and when the vet took x-rays, saw tons of coins, glass shards, and about 6-8 good sized nails (about 2 inches long!!). It's a wonder he was still okay and the other interns and I were in surgery when the vet (very seriously) asked us to verify the number of nails present so that he could verify how many to take out, and we had to be absolutely sure. I think we all froze in terror because it was the first surgery most of us had been in and we didn't want to eff it up.. so 2 of us spoke up and verified each other's counts. The duck recovered well though!

 

[hygebeorht]

We had a border collie come in who had attacked his owner's (running) circular saw. Not as much damage as you'd expect, but a fair chunk missing from his nose. Dog recovered fine.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Most horrific thing I've seen was a shelter cat whose face literally fell off. As in, the entire skin on her face slipped off and fell on the ground. Poor kitty. She was immediately euthanized.

After I learned that it can happen on rare occasions with cats on steroids, I've been so scared. Just another thing to be paranoid about I guess...

 

[Hotfillyky]

I've seen a dog that stuck his tongue in a paper shredder.

 

[Hotfillyky]

Most horrific thing I've seen was a shelter cat whose face literally fell off. As in, the entire skin on her face slipped off and fell on the ground. Poor kitty. She was immediately euthanized.

After I learned that it can happen on rare occasions with cats on steroids, I've been so scared. Just another thing to be paranoid about I guess...

HOLY %$#&(*@#%%!@!!! In all my years in vet med, I have never heard of this! That would freak anybody out?! I feel a little.....

 

[cloverbug]

Most horrific thing I've seen was a shelter cat whose face literally fell off. As in, the entire skin on her face slipped off and fell on the ground. Poor kitty. She was immediately euthanized.

After I learned that it can happen on rare occasions with cats on steroids, I've been so scared. Just another thing to be paranoid about I guess...

Ok you win... That is absolutely terrifying! I probably would've screamed like a little girl out of shock alone.

 

[emacc]

Most horrific thing I've seen was a shelter cat whose face literally fell off. As in, the entire skin on her face slipped off and fell on the ground. Poor kitty. She was immediately euthanized.

After I learned that it can happen on rare occasions with cats on steroids, I've been so scared. Just another thing to be paranoid about I guess...

We had the sloughing thing happen to a dog that got bit on the ear base by a rattlesnake, was the cat from the same thing?

 

[TooLove]

Saw a stray cat once with a jar stuck on her head. Poor thing had managed to crack it open so she could eat and drink. It took a Good Samaritan a few weeks to catch her.

Had a chocolate lab puppy have surgery 3 times in less than two weeks. First was a neuter, then he presented a few days later with vomiting and we removed a penny and some rocks from his small intestines. He returned two days after being discharged and we removed stuffing, screws, and an Invisalign! I clearly remember the owner a few weeks later saying "he's doing great, just pooped out a whole pencil the other day!"

Had a dog lacerate his prepuce jumping over a fence. Ouch

Had a JRT with aspiration pneumonia after getting in a fight with the water hose. He bit it and it got stuck in his mouth while on full blast.

I'm sure I have more. Next we need a thread with the funniest thing you have ever heard out of a clients mouth!!

 

[Trematode]

I've seen a dog that stuck his tongue in a paper shredder.

I saw pictures of that happening on a vet tech journal group. The tongue looked like a puzzle when they sewed it back together.

I mostly cleaned when I volunteered, so I have not seems lot of weird stuff.

The weirdest thing I saw was a dachshund that needed his eye removed because of infection. He had gotten into porcupine quills. When the brought him in because of his eye, they did not tell the vet this and that they removed the quills themselves. On surgery day they fessed up. A quill had migrated into his eye and caused the infection.

Not an injury, but I did see a kitten that had no bum hole. Poor cat

 

[prevetdreamer]

Weirdest thing I've ever seen was a pug. The owner gave it a big 'ole hug and it's eye popped out... at least, that's what she told us, who knows if that's the whole story or not! the eye was so badly damaged that we ended up removing it. Dog did fine though!

 

[pooter]

We had a cat in emergency that seemed perfectly fine. The owners had brought him in because he'd gotten out for a few hours and now wasn't eating. The only visible injury was what looked like a small scrape on the side of his abdomen, too small to even need sutures. Then the vet went to palpate him and he yowled bloody murder. We did radiographs and found a b.b. pellet in his abdomen. One emergency gastroenterotomy later, and he recovered fine. It was a bit of a wakeup call for me, though, when I realized how normal a cat could look after being freakin' shot.

This isn't one that I saw, but one of the first-year lecturers shared a story about a lab that came in with a scrape on her nose. Our lecturer was an ER resident (I think). He tried to open her mouth and couldn't, decided it was probably a jaw fracture, and called the dental service to arrange radiographs and treatments. When the dentists took the X-rays the next morning, they found a barbed arrowhead completely buried in this poor dog's face. It was a while before the resident lived that one down.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I dunno what happened in that case, but I felt so bad for the animal care tech who had noticed that the cat's face was dirty and got a warm moist towel to clean it off. The face came right off with it.

 

[TooLove]

Weirdest thing I've ever seen was a pug. The owner gave it a big 'ole hug and it's eye popped out... at least, that's what she told us, who knows if that's the whole story or not! the eye was so badly damaged that we ended up removing it. Dog did fine though!

I've seen a few of those... One happened in front of me while the dog was becoming stressed while being restrained. Also had a pug do that in an exam room with the owner, who promptly shoved it back in and said it happens all the time! some people....

 

[503372]

I dunno what happened in that case, but I felt so bad for the animal care tech who had noticed that the cat's face was dirty and got a warm moist towel to clean it off. The face came right off with it.

Wow. Poor cat!

Do you know what type of steroid?

 

[vickers]

There was this family that walked in with an amazon parrot with its wing missing. They said their rottweiler reached through the bars of the cage and ripped it off. When the doctor asked about the dog, they said they shot and killed it . Then the bird bled out anyway.

 

[TooLove]

There was this family that walked in with an amazon parrot with its wing missing. They said their rottweiler reached through the bars of the cage and ripped it off. When the doctor asked about the dog, they said they shot and killed it . Then the bird bled out anyway.

That is a sad story

We actually just did a 2 hour surgery on a female umbrella cockatoo who was egg bound in September. Owners declined removal at the time, just took home bayril and meloxicam. She came back in in tues with a distended abdomen and labored breathing. Yesterday we removed about a cup to a cup and a half of what looked like hard boiled egg and other nastiness. Shockingly the bird is doing okay!

 

[kakurubird]

We had to sedate a dog to slip a bone off from around his lower jaw. One of those bones with the marrow in the middle that he got a little too enthusiastic about. Beagles...

We saw a staple and pin in the rectum of a young doodle-type on a radiograph. Took the dog outside and he pooped and we found both in the fecal sample.

The magazine print-out of this has been hanging in our lounge at work for quite a while now.

Most horrific thing I've seen was a HBC cat whose eye was completely out of the socket. Came in as an emergency in the middle of another (scheduled) euthanasia. One of the worst days I've had at work.

 

[skysong13]

1)horse broke it's maxilla tripping. you looked at it's mouth and it was just like where'd it's top teeth go? the bone was completely folded inwards.

2) length of wood from a fence on the inside of the shoulder. horse moved around okay just walked in from the pasture that way.

3)horse jumped in to a trailer and scalped itself and broke his cranial bone enough csf was leaking

4)saw a horse with goiter. didn't injure itself or anything but it was pretty neat to see.

 

[Trematode]

I saw a cat that had ingested a needle. She was salivating and not eating. As soon as they put her under and the doc looked in her mouth, he said "A porcupine quill??" It was a needle with thread sticking out on her tongue and angled toward her throat.

 

[Bracco Pointer]

Dog with it's leg mostly chomped off by (the best we can figure...) an alligator. Only in Florida, eh? After amputating the leg and scapula due to terrible infection, the dog did fantastic.

 

[orcagirl]

Boxer with a screwdriver handle in it's stomach. It was brought in after not eating for 4 days. You could totally see the handle on the rads.

I've seen a cat with a completely fractured humerus because it was shot.

We've also had HBGC (hit by golf carts) come in.