Weirdest injury you've seen an animal get

[PetPony]

I like parasites. They're super interesting to me!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[primatevetjess]

I love parasites!! My non-vet friends give me a funny look when I say that my favorite parasites are tritrichomonas foetus and giardia. They just don't understand how I can have a "favorite parasite".

 

[Trematode]

*ahem*

 

[Minnerbelle]

I love internal parasites, but ectoparasites just make me feel itchy.

 

[TooLove]

I love internal parasites, but ectoparasites just make me feel itchy.

Not an injury really, but had a client who was convinced her pets were infected with some type of ectoparasite. Started the dogs on ivermectin and Vectra, but she became convinced that she was infested with the bugs too....somehow she deduced that they were coming from her chickens. Went over both dogs and a chicken with a fine toothed comb, not a thing. Then, she kind of lost it. Kept calling multiple times a day, insisting that she had bugs. Told her to go to her MD, who wanted to put her on antipsychotic meds.....she started bringing the "bugs" in, and every speck we looked at under the microscope was lint. I turned her away when I found out she was picking them off herself (ew ew ew) and said we had to get it off an animal. She came back (I can't make this up) with both dogs in pillowcases, latex gloves on, a shower cap, and 3 layers of clothes on, including a hat with the shower cap poking out. She proceeded to whip off the shower cap and show me her hair, which she chopped off herself and had doused in olive oil to draw the bugs out. She also reeked of listerine, which she was soaking in because it apparently drew the bugs out from her skin. It was by far the craziest thing I have ever dealt with. I felt SO ITCHY every time I saw her, it was terrible.

 

[485501]

Joining the abscess party!

I was working at a spay/neuter clinic that did a lot of TNR. One feral came in, caretaker fortunately had enough money for a full exam, we found three scabbed-over punctures on the kitty's left side. After some exploration, we found that the abscess under them covered the ENTIRE LEFT SIDE of the cat, plus a good chunk of her back and butt. Caretaker had enough money for antibiotics, so we got to clean her up. We just kept getting more pus out of this cat's side. A lot of it was chunky, too. We kept thinking we'd gotten most of it, flushing with saline, putting the cat in a recovery box, coming back in 15 minutes to find that so much more pus had drained that it had soaked the towel, putting the cat back on the table, squishing more pus out, flush with saline, repeat...maybe 4 times? This poor cat was VISIBLY SMALLER when we were done. She was pretty spunky, though. I hope she made it. It was an awesome experience for me, I gotta say.

Regarding dogs eating things, I've got two stories:
My undergrad advisor's golden once pulled a pyrex baking dish of chocolate fudge off the counter, then ate all the fudge-covered glass bits. He was so proud of himself, too. He was just fine after some surgery.
One night when I was a little kid, my family's spaniel mix ate a full pound of dark chocolate covered espresso beans. There wasn't any emergency vet place in town at the time, so my mom (who has a lot of human med experience) used what she knew about drug overdoses to take care of him overnight. Apparently he was acting like a heroin addict who'd had some bad heroin.

 

[kakurubird]

we saw a guinea pig from a while ago that we expressed white material from something on the side of its' neck. like a solid, white discharge. held its' shape and everything after. probably enough material to cover half of a gauze square. poor guy.

also saw a recently adopted shelter kitten whose tattoo site from her spay had become infected. pulled out the tattoo material in one glob. we called the shelter just to give them an fyi, and they said they had never seen or heard of anything like that happening before.

 

[cs5910]

If you guys like abscesses, you will LOVE bot fly cases! So addicting/gross/cool to watch haha We have a lot of those cases down here in FL!

 

[emacc]

If you guys like abscesses, you will LOVE bot fly cases! So addicting/gross/cool to watch haha We have a lot of those cases down here in FL!

There's so many videos on youtube with those and other blow flies like mangoworms. Fun times, friends look at me like I'm psychotic while I squish my face against the screen.

The only time I've ever gotten slightly icked out by bugs was when we had an older toy poodle who's labor had stopped a while ago and the puppies had all died and ruptured her uterus. Somehow her GI tract had also been perforated and there was just infection everywhere. Maggots were just pouring out of her mouth, rectum, and vagina. In that situation I was mostly just enraged with the owner who claimed "she was fine yesterday" and my state's lack of any useful animal cruelty enforcement. They admitted that they knew she was pregnant but they didn't think anything of it when she never had puppies.

 

[cs5910]

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a client say "He/she was fine yesterday!!", I would be able to pay prepay my entire vet school tuition five times over....

 

[cloverbug]

Joining the abscess party!

I was working at a spay/neuter clinic that did a lot of TNR. One feral came in, caretaker fortunately had enough money for a full exam, we found three scabbed-over punctures on the kitty's left side. After some exploration, we found that the abscess under them covered the ENTIRE LEFT SIDE of the cat, plus a good chunk of her back and butt. Caretaker had enough money for antibiotics, so we got to clean her up. We just kept getting more pus out of this cat's side. A lot of it was chunky, too. We kept thinking we'd gotten most of it, flushing with saline, putting the cat in a recovery box, coming back in 15 minutes to find that so much more pus had drained that it had soaked the towel, putting the cat back on the table, squishing more pus out, flush with saline, repeat...maybe 4 times? This poor cat was VISIBLY SMALLER when we were done. She was pretty spunky, though. I hope she made it. It was an awesome experience for me, I gotta say.

Regarding dogs eating things, I've got two stories:
My undergrad advisor's golden once pulled a pyrex baking dish of chocolate fudge off the counter, then ate all the fudge-covered glass bits. He was so proud of himself, too. He was just fine after some surgery.
One night when I was a little kid, my family's spaniel mix ate a full pound of dark chocolate covered espresso beans. There wasn't any emergency vet place in town at the time, so my mom (who has a lot of human med experience) used what she knew about drug overdoses to take care of him overnight. Apparently he was acting like a heroin addict who'd had some bad heroin.

I would seriously be in awe if I saw something like that! I bet that cat felt ten times better once she healed and was lucky that person brought her in. Catching stray cats is no easy feat, but I'm guessing she got pretty slow near the end of that. Largest cyst we've had took up almost the entirety of the dog's face. The doctor nearly blew a gasket when she saw it because she was so angry at them for not doing anything pro-active about the situation. We ended up draining at very, very least a liter and a half off that dog.

 

[cloverbug]

There's so many videos on youtube with those and other blow flies like mangoworms. Fun times, friends look at me like I'm psychotic while I squish my face against the screen.

The only time I've ever gotten slightly icked out by bugs was when we had an older toy poodle who's labor had stopped a while ago and the puppies had all died and ruptured her uterus. Somehow her GI tract had also been perforated and there was just infection everywhere. Maggots were just pouring out of her mouth, rectum, and vagina. In that situation I was mostly just enraged with the owner who claimed "she was fine yesterday" and my state's lack of any useful animal cruelty enforcement. They admitted that they knew she was pregnant but they didn't think anything of it when she never had puppies.

I probably would have to excuse myself from the room if I saw that just to avoid crying in front of the client. That is just unacceptable beyond even the limits of unacceptable. How can anyone not notice the smell that must've been coming from that dog long before the maggots showed up?

 

[dovelover]

On the abscess bandwagon...

We had a vulture with a foot abscess. Unfortunately was not so simple as cutting it open and draining out fluid. Birds heal differently than mammals so we treat things like abscess very differently. I can't explain it perfectly, but they have more of a dry healing process than a wet. They don't usually get puss streaming out of abscesses. They actually wall off their infections and eventually sort of push them out of their body (in theory). It's the latter part that often doesn't work so well. He was under treatment with DMSO for awhile (scary stuff) while we waited to see if the infection would wall off, then he had to have surgery (which is a bit of a big deal... we rarely do surgeries on our birds), which was only partially successful. He spent about 4 months having the foot debrided, flushed with chlorhexidine, and medicated with several ointments. He was also on systemic antibiotics pretty much the whole time . He then had another surgery. Then about two more months of wound flushing and antibiotics. Only then did he get released from the hospital. I miss the guy, actually. He was quite cute, especially the dainty way he picked at his food. There were days I'd spend over a half hour holding him... and then couldn't get the smell of vulture off my hands no matter how many times I washed them. It was always fun when I'd get abscess gunk rinsed onto my hands too...

Largest cyst we've had took up almost the entirety of the dog's face. The doctor nearly blew a gasket when she saw it because she was so angry at them for not doing anything pro-active about the situation. We ended up draining at very, very least a liter and a half off that dog.

Obviously I can't speak to this particular situation as I have no idea just what the cyst looked like, but I generally try not to be too appalled when people say they don't notice stuff (obviously, sometimes it's okay to freak out, and this may have been one of those cases). Sometimes as people who work in the vet field I think we forget that most people aren't always on the lookout for something to be wrong with their pet. They're just not as sensitive to noticing abnormalities, nor as familiar with what is normal or abnormal. Many years ago my 15 year old family cat with liver cancer started having thick brownish saliva ooze out of his mouth--so thick he'd walk around with strands of it hanging down almost to the floor before he'd shake his head to try to get it off. We were still cleaning it off the walls months after he died. We took him into the vet and she was like, "Oh, see here, this giant lump on the side of his face? He probably has a tumor in his salivary gland." My mom and I were both just like, what? How the hell did we not notice that? Of course once she pointed it out, it was obvious. But we'd failed to see the forest through the trees that were his nasty saliva and decreased appetite. Of course now I notice immediately when anything changes about my pets'. One day when I came back from being gone awhile from vet school interviews and I held my bird and knew immediately that she had lost weight because of the change in how much of her keel I could feel. Turns out she hadn't been eating well while I was away. But I doubt most pet owners are that in tune with their pet's bodies.

 

[emacc]

I probably would have to excuse myself from the room if I saw that just to avoid crying in front of the client. That is just unacceptable beyond even the limits of unacceptable. How can anyone not notice the smell that must've been coming from that dog long before the maggots showed up?

Apparently the dog lived in their yard and they didn't have much contact with it aside from selling its puppies. I just about bit through my tongue trying not to say anything inappropriate. At the point when she came in her body temp was down to 93 and there was no real way to save her. Worse was that the owner was adamantly refusing euthanasia. We doped her up as much as we could before they took her off to another vet. We called ahead and let them know what was coming, she crashed almost as soon as she got there, and last I heard the people were trying unsuccesfully to sue that clinic because they believe she didn't die naturally.

 

[cloverbug]

I was just in awe of it because of its size and it had been drained quite a few times at another clinic. I didn't delve too far into the history and don't remember much about it since we haven't seen the dog since that day. Hopefully she's doing ok.

 

[cloverbug]

Yet another weird case today. I swear it's rarely this interesting around here haha. So we had a young dog come in today due to lameness on his right rear leg. The owner obtained him from animal control 5 days prior and they believe he was hit by a car due to the enormous wound on his hip. Just from the pictures it looked like you could fit like 2 golfballs in the wound. So, we took rads and found at least 30 little balls on the film. Turns out he was shot in the butt with a pellet gun! Last thing I expected to see.

 

[primatevetjess]

we saw a guinea pig from a while ago that we expressed white material from something on the side of its' neck. like a solid, white discharge. held its' shape and everything after. probably enough material to cover half of a gauze square. poor guy.

That's the normal consistency for pus in a rabbit or guinea pig. It's really thick and caseous, because heterophils lack myeloperoxidase, the enzyme in neutrophils responsible for making pus a more liquid consistency. So it was just an abscess

 

[kakurubird]

That's the normal consistency for pus in a rabbit or guinea pig. It's really thick and caseous, because heterophils lack myeloperoxidase, the enzyme in neutrophils responsible for making pus a more liquid consistency. So it was just an abscess

thanks! that's pretty interesting.

I figured as much when I was googling trying to find pictures of something similar because I couldn't figure out how to describe it and there were lots of photos of basically the same thing. It's still rather interesting to me because all I had seen before then was cat abscesses.

 

[485501]

I would seriously be in awe if I saw something like that! I bet that cat felt ten times better once she healed and was lucky that person brought her in. Catching stray cats is no easy feat, but I'm guessing she got pretty slow near the end of that.

That kitty was just really lucky that the caretaker for her colony had enough money to treat the infection. A lot of the people who do TNR barely have enough money for the spay/neuter and rabies vaccine.

I was totally in awe, yeah. The tech actually managed to get an airborne stream of pus shooting out when she pushed on the cat's side the first time. It was pretty epic.

 

[kernel]

I love me some abscesses. Every now and then I'll see some other, equally neat-o skin stuff. Sebacious cyst the size of a golf ball exuding what looked like the cottage cheese I left in my fridge all last summer? Dat smell.

 

[Hotfillyky]

That's the normal consistency for pus in a rabbit or guinea pig. It's really thick and caseous, because heterophils lack myeloperoxidase, the enzyme in neutrophils responsible for making pus a more liquid consistency. So it was just an abscess

It gives a whole new level of respect for abscesses when that stuff just peels out (whenyou are lucky).

 

[kernel]

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a client say "He/she was fine yesterday!!", I would be able to pay prepay my entire vet school tuition five times over....

Yeah. Also the, "well, he's been vomiting/not urinating/not defecating/not eating/not drinking for almost a week now, so I figured I'd bring him in now, at 3am on a Sunday."

 

[cloverbug]

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a client say "He/she was fine yesterday!!", I would be able to pay prepay my entire vet school tuition five times over....

Or "they've never bit anyone before" is also a million dollar statement. I swear, they always say that right before their angry dog tries to take off my fingers. We should have like an angry dog jar. Every time a person says that statement and the dog then attempts to put holes in us, the owner should have to put a quarter in the jar for lying.

 

[Moiralov]

Yeah. Also the, "well, he's been vomiting/not urinating/not defecating/not eating/not drinking for almost a week now, so I figured I'd bring him in now, at 3am on a Sunday."

True that...and my response is...so why is he/she coming in now???

I love working emergency and never cease to be amazed by some neat cases. The coolest one I can think of at the moment occurred last fall:

A cattle dog came in slightly ataxic and gave the general appearance of some sort of toxicity. He roamed several acres of land and had been outside all day. The owners could not think of at the time what he could of gotten into. The pet's condition rapidly declined; we were immediately placing IV catheters, pushing boluses, and within half of an hour the pet was comatose. Then the owner remembers what maybe the dog could have gotten into...

Earlier in the weekend they had euthanized a goat (or goats) on the land and decided to try and burn the bodies before burying. The bodies weren't completely burned nor were they completely buried. It was suspected that the dog had eaten some of the euthanized goat and the euthasol solution was affecting the dog significantly. We discovered this fact while we were pumping his stomach (not very effectively).

45 minutes later, the same owner of that dog came speeding into our parking lot with her other dog, who had become ataxic. This time, we had a better grip of what was going on, so before said dog became comatose, we induced vomiting--just in time to see the grossest amount of undigested goat meat vomitus. That dog within minutes received activated charcoal, IV boluses, and never became as critical as his housemate.

Amazingly enough, both dogs went home the next day.

 

[Moiralov]

Or "they've never bit anyone before" is also a million dollar statement. I swear, they always say that right before their angry dog tries to take off my fingers. We should have like an angry dog jar. Every time a person says that statement and the dog then attempts to put holes in us, the owner should have to put a quarter in the jar for lying.

Funniest time owner lied about their dog not biting: a dog had attacked a police officer and would not let go of his arm/leg/limb, etc. Fellow police officer in defense shot the dog and the dog presented to our hospital. While the dog with the owner and the police came in on our ER shift, the owner the whole time is stating, "aww he won't bite, you don't hafta muzzle him...wouldn't hurt a soul!"

 

[cloverbug]

Funniest time owner lied about their dog not biting: a dog had attacked a police officer and would not let go of his arm/leg/limb, etc. Fellow police officer in defense shot the dog and the dog presented to our hospital. While the dog with the owner and the police came in on our ER shift, the owner the whole time is stating, "aww he won't bite, you don't hafta muzzle him...wouldn't hurt a soul!"

That owner has to put in a dollar into the jar lol

 

[PetPony]

I always feel kinda lame saying my dog won't bite when she's standing there growling and barking. She's often scared of strangers (but getting much better about it) and tries to scare them away first. If they come closer, she either runs away or lets them pet her. She has never bitten or snapped at anyone but of course that's hard to believe when you're in front of this big German Shepherd with her hackles up.

 

[pirateyoho]

Or "they've never bit anyone before" is also a million dollar statement. I swear, they always say that right before their angry dog tries to take off my fingers. We should have like an angry dog jar. Every time a person says that statement and the dog then attempts to put holes in us, the owner should have to put a quarter in the jar for lying.

And it's always the frou-frou dogs with the most bite. Darn little buggers.

 

[Crystalight33]

Craziest one I've ever seen was a boxer HBC, broken right femur AND broken left tibia/fibia. The vet repaired both legs at the same time with bone plates and the dog was doing great the couple days he spent with us post-op. He was sent home with strict cage rest and towel walking instructions. Two weeks later, he came back for a recheck and both legs were bowing out. X-rays showed that the tibia plate had bent probably 20 degrees!! A steel plate! Bent! And the screws on the proximal aspect of the femur plate had been stripped out. We kept thinking he got hit by another car but the owners claim he fell down the stairs... The vet replaced both plates and none of us could manually bend the tibia plate that he took out. It was absolutely crazy. After the second surgery, the dog boarded with us for a month and a half so the owners wouldn't be tempted to let him run wild....

 

[lovesfall]

My parakeet broke a leg when he flew into a fight between my two brothers and got grabbed (accidentally) in the scuffle. Luckily for him it wasn't worse. Our vet made him an adorable splint out of a paperclip, some gauze and tape and he healed OK.

 

[DVMDream]

I always feel kinda lame saying my dog won't bite when she's standing there growling and barking. She's often scared of strangers (but getting much better about it) and tries to scare them away first. If they come closer, she either runs away or lets them pet her. She has never bitten or snapped at anyone but of course that's hard to believe when you're in front of this big German Shepherd with her hackles up.

My only problem with people saying this is, you never know when your dog will have reached a limit and will bite. My dog who never growled, never snapped, never snarled at all finally did so with my cousin after she repeatedly wouldn't leave him alone and kept stepping all over him (we warned her multiple times to back away and kept pulling her away, she just kept going back to him)... it took him over 5 minutes to start growling and then finally he gave a warning snap... he had never, ever done that prior and never did so since (he didn't even fight back when he was attacked by another dog).

There is a fine line between a dog being fearful and submissive and fearful and becoming a fear biter and a dog that does grow with hackles up, I would always be keeping an eye on to be sure they don't cross that line....

A dog that is growling at me with hackles up in the vet clinic, gets an automatic muzzle, I don't even try to press my luck... not worth it. Better to have the protection for the dog, the staff of the clinic, the vet and the owner as well.

 

[PetPony]

My only problem with people saying this is, you never know when your dog will have reached a limit and will bite. My dog who never growled, never snapped, never snarled at all finally did so with my cousin after she repeatedly wouldn't leave him alone and kept stepping all over him (we warned her multiple times to back away and kept pulling her away, she just kept going back to him)... it took him over 5 minutes to start growling and then finally he gave a warning snap... he had never, ever done that prior and never did so since (he didn't even fight back when he was attacked by another dog).

There is a fine line between a dog being fearful and submissive and fearful and becoming a fear biter and a dog that does grow with hackles up, I would always be keeping an eye on to be sure they don't cross that line....

A dog that is growling at me with hackles up in the vet clinic, gets an automatic muzzle, I don't even try to press my luck... not worth it. Better to have the protection for the dog, the staff of the clinic, the vet and the owner as well.

I don't argue with any of that and always try to keep it to a minimum so we never overstep that line. She has never bitten or snapped and I want to keep it at that so we're very careful about how she is approached. Sine she was released from the guide dog program, she's made a lot of progress. Probably because she isn't so stressed anymore (also pretty much cleared up her skin problems).

I want to get a muzzle for her not because I think she needs it but because I think she should get used to wearing one. I don't deny that she can sound and look very scary and if a muzzle is necessary to keep people comfortable, then she needs to wear one. I'd rather not have someone overstep that line and have her bite eventually.

 

[DVMDream]

I don't argue with any of that and always try to keep it to a minimum so we never overstep that line. She has never bitten or snapped and I want to keep it at that so we're very careful about how she is approached. Sine she was released from the guide dog program, she's made a lot of progress. Probably because she isn't so stressed anymore (also pretty much cleared up her skin problems).

I want to get a muzzle for her not because I think she needs it but because I think she should get used to wearing one. I don't deny that she can sound and look very scary and if a muzzle is necessary to keep people comfortable, then she needs to wear one. I'd rather not have someone overstep that line and have her bite eventually.

Yeah.. you have always seemed to have really good control over her and she seems to do well with you. That is great! Just trying to give a perspective from the vet tech position.... which was any dog growling at me with hackles raised will get a muzzle; I would just rather be safe than sorry for everyone involved.

 

[PetPony]

Yeah.. you have always seemed to have really good control over her and she seems to do well with you. That is great! Just trying to give a perspective from the vet tech position.... which was any dog growling at me with hackles raised will get a muzzle; I would just rather be safe than sorry for everyone involved.

Hey I don't trust other people that say that either!

 

[bunnity]

I always feel kinda lame saying my dog won't bite when she's standing there growling and barking. She's often scared of strangers (but getting much better about it) and tries to scare them away first. If they come closer, she either runs away or lets them pet her. She has never bitten or snapped at anyone but of course that's hard to believe when you're in front of this big German Shepherd with her hackles up.

I posted before I read the rest of your posts, glad to hear that Ivy is doing better. I'm going to leave my post up anyway in case any of it is new info for you or anyone reading:

Not to get all behavior advice-y on the forum, but a dog barking and growling is saying "Please go away. I'm really scared of you, please don't come closer or I will bite you to get you to go away." If a dog's attempt at verbal communication is ignored, they may turn to biting since they feel they have no other option. Similarly, if the barking or growling is punished, they may learn to give no signals at all before biting - really dangerous. Also, aggression in dogs usually worsens until social maturity (3 years old) so anything you see in a puppy has the potential to escalate.

It is super super super important that a dog's signals of fear are not ignored and that people do not keep approaching a dog that is acting this way.

 

[myotherself]

Hmm, some interesting cases that I remember:

Jack russell that hadn't been eating, abdomen felt kinda funky so they did x-rays to find he had gotten into some fishing line and it was wired all around his intestines! They had to be in surgery quite a while removing bit by bit of it in no greater than 2 inch pieces but for a total of almost 4 feet! That poor thing. Recovered fine thankfully.

Dachshund swallowed a starfish from a fish tank but it got caught in his esophagus because he decided he would gulp it down whole and the starfish was NOT about to have that and stuck all oddly inside. It was still high enough up that they could remove it without surgery though, but it was about a 3" starfish tip to tip for such a small dog!

I also love when the vet goes to do a spay only to learn, an hour into it, the animal has already been spayed... Or that... you know... it's a boy.

 

[cloverbug]

Hmm, some interesting cases that I remember:

Jack russell that hadn't been eating, abdomen felt kinda funky so they did x-rays to find he had gotten into some fishing line and it was wired all around his intestines! They had to be in surgery quite a while removing bit by bit of it in no greater than 2 inch pieces but for a total of almost 4 feet! That poor thing. Recovered fine thankfully.

Dachshund swallowed a starfish from a fish tank but it got caught in his esophagus because he decided he would gulp it down whole and the starfish was NOT about to have that and stuck all oddly inside. It was still high enough up that they could remove it without surgery though, but it was about a 3" starfish tip to tip for such a small dog!

I also love when the vet goes to do a spay only to learn, an hour into it, the animal has already been spayed... Or that... you know... it's a boy.

One of my coworkers told me that happened to a male cat once. They went to neuter him but didn't find any testicles so they told the owner it was a girl and about a week later he brought it back for a spay. Well, after about an hour or so of digging around the doctor looked at my coworker and asked if the cat had a penis. Sure enough he did! They then had to figure out if he was already neutered or a crypt or what. I guess it happens more often than they would like to admit haha.

 

[Lab Rat83]

Dachshund swallowed a starfish from a fish tank but it got caught in his esophagus because he decided he would gulp it down whole and the starfish was NOT about to have that and stuck all oddly inside. It was still high enough up that they could remove it without surgery though, but it was about a 3" starfish tip to tip for such a small dog!

Did the determined little starfish make it?

 

[HorsesRLife]

Did the determined little starfish make it?

I was wondering the same thing!!

 

[myotherself]

Did the determined little starfish make it?

Very unfortunately not! Whether it was from the dachshund swallowing him or (probably more likely) the vet and his fancy tools removing him, the little starfish did not survive.

 

[lei325]

This isn't something I saw personally, but I did see the aftermath of it while I was working at the practice (it was in Lancashire).

Anyway, so apparently the vet I work with went to see this 3 year old horse that was dyspneic and anorexic. Did a full clinical exam, couldn't find anything really wrong. Decided to refer it to a local equine hospital because the horse was really stressed and he couldn't really do anything more at the farm. He gets called about 2 hours later after the horse has had some diagnostics (endoscopy/radiographs) done and is told that the horse ate a lunge whip. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the x-rays that clearly show a lunge whip in the esophagus. Apparently, the owners left a lunge whip in the stall overnight and didn't think anything of it when it went missing and suddenly the horse wasn't doing so great. Because who expects a horse to eat a lunge whip?? Thankfully the horse was insured, but imagine that conversation!

 

[orcagirl]

I've seen a Chihuahua mix with a tumor on the side of it's body so large it was like someone attached a throw pillow to the little dog. It at least caused the dog to double in size. Wasn't my room and this was years ago so I can't remember the whole story. But seriously, who lets a tumor/growth get to that size without doing something.

 

[dyachei]

I've seen a Chihuahua mix with a tumor on the side of it's body so large it was like someone attached a throw pillow to the little dog. It at least caused the dog to double in size. Wasn't my room and this was years ago so I can't remember the whole story. But seriously, who lets a tumor/growth get to that size without doing something.

A lot if people .

Couple more fun cases.

1) a dog that had suddenly gained a lot of weight. Take a look and sure enough there is fluid in the abdomen. Decide to drain it. 107 lb dog becomes 75 lb dog again. We never did find the cause but we assume cancer of some sort.

2) dog comes in for growth removal. It has been there for 1.5 years and the chow mix got it after seeing a groomer. The dog comes in smelling like death with an abscess on its back that has become enlarged with constant inflammation. On surgery there was no mass to remove but clean up took a few of my assistants out gagging. Not a very productive abscess though. I did have to debride a lot of material. Back is completely normal now.

3) dog has a mass in the abdomen deforming it so we go to sx in vet school. There are metastases everywhere but there is a tumor the size of a basketball on the liver. Weighed 12 lbs I believe. We euthanized on the table and the mass came back as a hemangiosarcoma.

 

[sblove17]

An owner brought her puggle in to a clinic I worked at because the dog had gotten into gorilla/super glue. Thank God the dog didn't ingest any, but he had stuck both of his front legs in it and the poor dog's paws and legs were covered in a heavy coat of SOLID glue! The owner had tried to get some of it off, but it only resulted in peeling the FUR AND SKIN with the glue. Ouch

 

[TooLove]

An owner brought her puggle in to a clinic I worked at because the dog had gotten into gorilla/super glue. Thank God the dog didn't ingest any, but he had stuck both of his front legs in it and the poor dog's paws and legs were covered in a heavy coat of SOLID glue! The owner had tried to get some of it off, but it only resulted in peeling the FUR AND SKIN with the glue. Ouch

How did you remove it?

 

[485501]

And it's always the frou-frou dogs with the most bite. Darn little buggers.

Or the cats with names like "Angel" or "Sweetie" or "Lovums" or something. When a cat comes in named "Bruiser" I know I'm probably safe, but when it's a "Sugar-Pie" I'm inclined to have the bite-proof gloves nearby.

 

[BlackDog17]

Okay, I have a few. Some of these I heard about second or third hand, so forgive me if the details are patchy.

1.) HBC dog rushed into one of the first clinics I worked at. X-rays showed dislocated hip. Would have been perfectly routine, except as we were trying to reset the hip a tech came rushing in and informed us that the owners had just casually mentioned to him that they'd given the dog Vicodin to help with the pain. Fortunately it was a Newfoundland so the dose they'd given him was relatively low for his size. The vet was furious.

2.) Only saw the very end of this case so I'm not really clear on the details. Long time client rushed her dog to our hospital the second we opened one morning. Dog had been seen by our clinic regularly and was on some kind of long term treatment (I think it was phenobarb for seizures, but again I'm not positive) but the owner had recently asked if she could take the dog to a holistic vet to try to treat an allergy/skin issue he was having. Vet gave the okay and sent the records to the holistic office. Holistic vet put the dog on an herbal treatment that was well known to interact with the dog's current medication. This drug interaction was clearly listed on the Merck veterinary manual and everything. Dog was rushed to our hospital in shock. Fortunately the owner caught it early and the dog recovered just fine. Our vet even called the holistic vet and asked why the dog had been put on a treatment that was obviously going to interact with his meds. Holistic vet firmly maintained that the herbal treatment was a "safe natural remedy with no side effects and did not interact with other drugs." Pretty sure the owners sued them after that.

3.) St. Bernard with a huge football-sized growth on his chest. Took some persuading but eventually they agreed to have it removed - I think more because he was a show dog than out of any concern for his well being. Dog was barely out of surgery when the owners called demanding that he be released to them the second he was awake. Apparently he had some kind of "adverse reaction" to anesthesia at a previous clinic, and they wanted to take him home immediately in case it happened again. No idea what they expected to do for him at home if he did have a reaction. Receptionist, techs, and vet all tried to reason with them to no avail. Eventually we had no choice but to make them sign a waiver acknowledging that they'd been advised against this course of action and releasing us from any liability. They took the dog home less than an hour after it came out of surgery, and switched to a new vet the next day. Guess they weren't impressed with us. I should probably also mention that their combined "flea, tick, and heartworm "prevention" was to feed each of their dogs a tablespoon of garlic powder. They claimed "everyone on the show circuit does this." Wtf?!

4.) Geriatric unneutered pug with a huge growth on his left testicle. Owners claimed that their previous vet told them it was a sack full of "testosterone fluid" and it was nothing to worry about. REALLY hope that was a miscommunication and not what the vet actually said. Our vet removed the growth in surgery, dog's heart stopped on the table, they brought him back, and surprisingly he recovered just fine afterwards.

 

[TooLove]

I should probably also mention that their combined "flea, tick, and heartworm "prevention" was to feed each of their dogs a tablespoon of garlic powder. They claimed "everyone on the show circuit does this." Wtf?!

I just love the garlic for heartworm, I hear it all the time!
I also hear a lot of clients tell me they use brewers yeast for fleas....
Had an owner a few months ago who rubbed coconut oil all over her dog, for what I don't remember.

What takes the cake though is a man who was deworming his greyhounds (that always had coccidia and giardia) with some type of holistic dewormer. The "active ingredient"? Microscopic dinosaur bone shards. He said because they are so sharp (harder than diamonds!) they just tear all of the intestinal parasites up!

 

[dovelover]

What takes the cake though is a man who was deworming his greyhounds (that always had coccidia and giardia) with some type of holistic dewormer. The "active ingredient"? Microscopic dinosaur bone shards. He said because they are so sharp (harder than diamonds!) they just tear all of the intestinal parasites up!

That is what I'd like to do to people who do those sorts of things...

 

[ThePiedPiper]

Not to get all behavior advice-y on the forum, but a dog barking and growling is saying "Please go away. I'm really scared of you, please don't come closer or I will bite you to get you to go away." If a dog's attempt at verbal communication is ignored, they may turn to biting since they feel they have no other option. Similarly, if the barking or growling is punished, they may learn to give no signals at all before biting - really dangerous. Also, aggression in dogs usually worsens until social maturity (3 years old) so anything you see in a puppy has the potential to escalate.

It is super super super important that a dog's signals of fear are not ignored and that people do not keep approaching a dog that is acting this way.

We believe this is what happened to my Cocker, Summer. She came to us, bit me a couple times (no puncture wound, just a snap), and had some other issues with aggression that seemed to happen out of nowhere. Other than a very slight tense of her muscles, she gave absolutely no calming signals. Across time, she became more confident in her ability to give a warning and through my praising her for "using her words," as I put it, she's gradually reverted to using certain calming behaviours again, but she did used to be a bit dangerous in the sense she'd snap before she'd show any signs of warning whatsoever.

I'm surprised to hear so many people say they've been lied to about dogs biting, though. I'm always straight forward that my dog bites and needs a muzzle (I've actually had more people believe they have the "magic touch" with animals and won't need to muzzle a sweet little Cocker that looks like Lady from Lady and the Tramp) and will now refuse to take her anywhere people say they don't muzzle dogs or only use muzzles as a last resort. She's never broken the skin, but she packs a powerful snap and I don't want to deal with the consequences because you believe you can rehabilitate her in an instant. If it were that easy, we would not have needed to log as many hours doing the work she and I do.