Weirdest injury you've seen an animal get

[TooLove]

Let me just pipe in and say that I gave a very abbreviated version of what happened. There were tears of course, but we never really got the full story of what happened. I have no doubt that the family felt terrible. Even so, I doubt anyone wants to intentionally cause a few thousand dollars damage to their CAR either....

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[missdarjeeling]

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, we poke fun at the "s/he was fine yesterday!" people, but...

A while back, we had a Maltese come in, looking like it was on death's door. The owners threw out the "s/he was fine yesterday!" line, and we all rolled our eyes. The doc talked to them a few times, trying to get them to approve blood work, when they casually mentioned that, oh, by the way, yesterday we were mixing antifreeze with water in a big bucket in the garage, and the dog lapped some of it up, so we shooed her away. So, yes, she was perfectly fine the day before but was in renal failure by the time she got to us. While we were waiting for the paperwork for the euth to go through, we noticed her claws were so overgrown that one of them had burrowed into the pad and was oozing pus. Nice.

Other weird/crazy things we've seen lately:

- Two sewing needle dogs, on separate days. One of them had it lodged in the back of his throat, but we didn't see it at first because he was too excitable for the intern to get a good look in his mouth. Once he was out for rads and once the abdominal and thoracic views turned up with nothing, we looked in and saw it there. When the intern took it out, the thread was still in the needle!

- A big ol' pitty came in with a fish hook in his upper lip. He was perfectly calm and happy until the hook got snagged on someone's scrub pants, and then they both freaked out. Luckily he didn't tear it out. We also had a cat come in with a fish hook. Give a cat a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a cat to fish...

- We had a little Maltese mix that had recently been rescued from a shelter, and it had no lower jaw. Just a flap of loose skin. Owners didn't know if it was a birth defect or what. It was freaking weird.

- We rolled in a 60 lb. Irish setter into the OR for a hemoab/splenectomy. The surgeon opened, and all you could see was this mass of veiny tissue. The liver was grey, and the instant they moved the mass out of the abdominal cavity, it started turning red again. The mass was gigantic, the size of a basketball at least. We took bets on how much it weighed, but everyone was under. It was 10.4 lb!

- An elderly man came in with his GSD. He said he had been playing fetch with the dog, using a stick, when the dog suddenly yelped. He noticed blood, so he came over right away. The dog's lower jaw was entirely degloved! How does that happen from playing fetch with a stick?! The man was very concerned and forthcoming, so none of us thought he was lying. It was bizarre.

- A boxer puppy came in with a broken femur. Poor thing got his paw stuck in his crate, and the owners were trying to help him get free. The dog struggled so much that he broke his own femur, and the owners were incredibly upset. They couldn't afford surgery so they went home with pain meds. A while later, one of the doctors asks if anyone wants to adopt a boxer puppy -- the owners went home and put him up on Craigslist to see if someone who could afford the surgery would be willing to take him in.

- We had a rare one come in a few weeks ago -- a cat with spontaneous hemoperitoneum. The owners opted to attempt surgery, and as soon as the resident opened, she said, "F%&$." Lots of cancery badness. They took some samples, closed, kept her under, wheeled her out, and then had to euthanize.

 

[hygebeorht]

The owners hitting the dog story reminds me of a family that brought in a sweet, goofy Golden that had been accidentally run over by an aunt. The dog was apparently an incorrigible car-chaser, and they lived on a rural tract with a long driveway, where the dog was hit. His tail was broken right at the base, but he was otherwise fine. The aunt was beside herself with guilt and was paying for the treatment and amputation, etc. It's nice to see people do the right thing after an accident.

But even if the owners were too ashamed to fess to hitting their own dog, they brought it in and got it treatment. I'm not really interested in who hit the dog, so long as it's getting treated.

 

[Minnerbelle]

But even if the owners were too ashamed to fess to hitting their own dog, they brought it in and got it treatment. I'm not really interested in who hit the dog, so long as it's getting treated.

Agreed. It's one thing if the owners wouldn't fess up to something that could actually prevent appropriate treatment, like saying they definitely have not given the dog any drugs/supplements, when in fact they gave the dog ibuprofen. But I don't think it really matters who drove over the dog so long as it wasn't on purpose. I'm sure they're feeling super guilty about it regardless (and probably like an even worse scum bag for lying).

 

[hygebeorht]

Agreed. It's one thing if the owners wouldn't fess up to something that could actually prevent appropriate treatment, like saying they definitely have not given the dog any drugs/supplements, when in fact they gave the dog ibuprofen. But I don't think it really matters who drove over the dog so long as it wasn't on purpose. I'm sure they're feeling super guilty about it regardless (and probably like an even worse scum bag for lying).

Totally. Lying when the information is critical for the animal's treatment is stupid and reprehensible (and sadly more common than it should be) but for something irrelevant, it's a big eh to me.

 

[Tigerlily7]

No real injury but at the shelter I work at one of the staff took a cat to the visitation room when suddenly we all heard it screaming and things hit the wall. Cat came flying out and the staff came out with her face all bloody from it kicking her with its back claws. We ended up chasing it around for a few minutes during which it gave itself a bloody nose and wedged itself between about a 3 in. gap between cages and we could barely get it out because it was such a tight spot. Never seen a cat flip like that with no warnings.

 

[Kpowell14]

Not super uncommon, but this weekend we saw 2 copperhead snake bites within 30 minutes of each other. One dog just had localizing swelling/ excessive drooling . But the other dog wasn't so lucky, she had seromas and hematomas on her abdomen, one of which ruptured while taking X-rays, As well as abnormal blood work. We started her on Antivenom which she then had a reaction to. We didn't think she was going to make it through the night. But when I came in to work last night she was doing better.

 

[Emiloo4]

We had a pest control guy bring a cat into our clinic after he found it stuck under the garage door of the house he was spraying. It had temporary paralysis of its back legs for a few days but was otherwise fine. Really sweet, fat orange tabby. Pretty sure that helped .
We found his owners, they brought in "his blanket" and watched him suck and kneed it for 2 days.

 

[cs5910]

Totally. Lying when the information is critical for the animal's treatment is stupid and reprehensible (and sadly more common than it should be) but for something irrelevant, it's a big eh to me.

We see a lot of this at our clinic. Sadly, most of the time when the owners lie/refuse to answer, the animal doesn't make it. I.e. Marijuana ingestion, Prescription pill ingestion (that owners don't want to admit taking: anti-depressants), or older women who use estrogen creams (causing estrous behaviors in spayed dogs/cats). The estrous dogs/cats survive, but we end up doing an unnecessary exploratory surgery just in case they have ectopic ovarian tissue. Not a healthy risk to put an animal under anesthesia, when the owner can just own up to using those creams

 

[MommaFox]

We recently had a big springy blue tuck coonhound looking dog jump up and wrap itself around the cord that is used to hold up/close the guillotine doors in the dog runs. Doing a walk through and the dog wasn't its normal self wagging at the front of the kennel. Go to look in and her front legs are floating.....hm? She is just giving me this "oh geez, please save me" look. Then I see the blood everywhere and OMG run in and lift her up and wait for the maintenance man to come and cut the cord. I dont know how she managed it but the cord was wrapped several times very very tight around her abdomen and she bloodiest her nails and paws up really good trying to get away. Thank goodness it didnt wrap around her neck. We keep cord cutters in all the kennels now.

She was treated then got adopted.

 

[Emiloo4]

We recently had a big springy blue tuck coonhound looking dog jump up and wrap itself around the cord that is used to hold up/close the guillotine doors in the dog runs. Doing a walk through and the dog wasn't its normal self wagging at the front of the kennel. Go to look in and her front legs are floating.....hm? She is just giving me this "oh geez, please save me" look. Then I see the blood everywhere and OMG run in and lift her up and wait for the maintenance man to come and cut the cord. I dont know how she managed it but the cord was wrapped several times very very tight around her abdomen and she bloodiest her nails and paws up really good trying to get away. Thank goodness it didnt wrap around her neck. We keep cord cutters in all the kennels now.

She was treated then got adopted.

It makes me more sad knowing how scared and confused she probably was. That's definitely gonna be the hardest part of vet med for me. I hate that part. Animals are pretty good with pain, but the scared, confused part is the saddest.

 

[MommaFox]

It makes me more sad knowing how scared and confused she probably was. That's definitely gonna be the hardest part of vet med for me. I hate that part. Animals are pretty good with pain, but the scared, confused part is the saddest.

Yeah I deff agree. She head whipped and put her teeth on me when we were trying to cut her loose(we had to sort of twist the cord tighter to get enough space in between her and the cord to get the cutters in, can't imagine it felt very good). She didn't bite down but I think she had just had enough. Once she realized what she had done she immediately got the guilty look on her face and was just pathetic. Showered us with kisses once she was free. Hurting a dog to help it is just terrible.... All the blood on the walls was dried so she mustve been there for quite a while overnight. Our ambulance drivers are supposed to do a walk through but knowing the one who was on that night, I'm not surprised that it happened.

 

[TooLove]

Not an injury but we had a stone day yesterday. Elvis the iguana had a 2lb stone removed, and the smaller ones were from a hairless rat! Wonder what the next one will be, they say things come in threes!

 

[cloverbug]

View attachment 24049View attachment 24050View attachment 24051

Not an injury but we had a stone day yesterday. Elvis the iguana had a 2lb stone removed, and the smaller ones were from a hairless rat! Wonder what the next one will be, they say things come in threes!

Do you just have really tiny hands or was that stone really huge?? I'm amazed that came out of an iguana!

 

[TooLove]

Do you just have really tiny hands or was that stone really huge?? I'm amazed that came out of an iguana!

I have average sized hands I think

It was quite impressive, you can't really tell from the photo but it also had little calculi on the surface. I suggested the owners use it as a paperweight

 

[1103]

Some of the weird stuff we saw....A dog with a 3 day erection, dog that the owner gave magic mushroom to, dog swallowed a razor blade and 4 weiner dogs with crabs.....( just imagine how they got them) ...NASTY

 

[1103]

My Golden Retriever once as a puppy ate the entire towel I let him sleep with while he was being kennel trained. He was fine. On another occasion he decided to open the cabinet door to the garbage and eat 7 whole corn cobs. I was at school at the time. It wasn't like him to do that but he was on temeril and hungry as heck...He had to have a gastronomy. They were whole corncobs too. I have no idea how he swallow them without choking. No problems since then.

 

[ryroo]

One time I was in an appointment at the small animal clinic I work at and suddenly this owner runs in with his dog who has a tuna fish can stuck in his mouth. He must've bit down on the tuna fish can and it got lodged in between his teeth. It was horrible! He was hysterical -- he just kept biting down on the can and making it go deeper into his gums. It was a struggle to hold him still but we were *finally* able to sedate him IV, get the can out, and suture his gums back together. Hoping he's not thinking about going into the trash again anytime soon!

 

[cs5910]

My Golden Retriever once as a puppy ate the entire towel I let him sleep with while he was being kennel trained. He was fine. On another occasion he decided to open the cabinet door to the garbage and eat 7 whole corn cobs. I was at school at the time. It wasn't like him to do that but he was on temeril and hungry as heck...He had to have a gastronomy. They were whole corncobs too. I have no idea how he swallow them without choking. No problems since then.

There must be something with Goldens and corn cobs... My golden was notorious for eating them as a young dog! We now have a heavy duty gate blocking our kitchen. He also likes to shred (and subsequently eat) paper towels.

 

[FelineTech]

My weirdest was an outdoor cat that presented with an odd, non-painful lump on his shoulder. Turned out it was the spine of his scapula, fractured clean off and floating under the skin. The only other injury found after I shaved the site for surgery was some minor scraping and bruising. The vet was just as confused as I was about what could chip off that piece of bone and leave no worse injury.

 

[GatorRunner]

A cat came into the clinic I work at who had a hole so large and deep in the left side of its abdomen that you could see internal organs. The worst part? Every orifice of the cat's body (including the hole in its side) was full of maggots. The lady said the cat was fine the day before (an obvious lie) and luckily surrendered the cat to us so we could put the poor thing out of its misery.

Vet med: where everything apparently "came up overnight".

 

[onisteverina]

A cat was brought into the clinic for having some itching and flaky skin. While one of the technicians was holding the cat, she noticed some blood coming from an injury on the cats side.. we shaved the area and realized that there was a cut that was a couple inches long... took xrays because the doctor suspected that something was in there.. turns out there was a piece of glass about 2/3 the length of the body of the cat... starting just under the skin under the "armpit" and making its way down the side of the cat and slightly piercing into the abdominal cavity. Very crazy xray to see, especially because the piece of glass was huge and went in at a weird angle that pretty much missed anything important.. lucky cat! hmm..I need to remember to take a picture of that radiograph.

Oh.. the owner went home and happened to find a broken picture frame with some glass missing..