Degloved by UPS

warning: GRAPHIC.





Timeline: My clinic is considered an emergency clinic and today we had an epic one. Pet Sitter calls stating the pet she was watching just got ran over by the UPS truck. A Pomeranian to be exact.

Pomeranian small then UPS TRUCK

Stated pet was still alive but coming over now. About 10 mintues later we get the pet in our hands and OH MAN. This. is. BAD. Major sedation, Trachtube, 2 cathaters and fluids started. Epinephrine down. Vitals not the best at all. Now what? What do you do with a pet that half of its body was DEGLOVED (which an extensive section of Skin is completely torn off the underlying tissue, severing its blood supply)Unfortunately after 45 minutes the pet didn't make it- the trauma was just too much for his young, little body.The parents said their child was walking the pet and he shuck out of his collar to chase after the truck ( a recently new habit)

Discussion: So is the child at fault. the parent for not tightening the collar enough or the pet sitter who let the child walk the dog?

Future: Moving to the new apartment this weekend- so much to do in 2 days .

A Lucky Rabbits Foot

Timeline: Had a client come in today with a pet rabbit that wouldn't use its back leg for the past day. After a basic TPR and clearly being able to see the foot was as limp as it could be the Owner admitted that the 3yr old son took care of the pet and might have pulled on the leg when the pet was jumping back into the cage. After a nice x-ray and defiantly seeing many bones in the foot broken the O chose to surrender the pet to a technician who knew of a vet that would do it for low cost. That night the rabbit had a pin placed into the food and is doing well!

Later we had another client come in with a pet cat that got ran over by the neighbors car. The pet was not using either of the back legs and was making it quite clear he was NOT happy. With an x-ray we found that one socket was out of place ( look left on the picture above.) and that he fractured his hip( top right ) Dr. tried a few time to put the bone back into the socket with no luck. Unfortunately the pet ( and the Owners pocket minus$ 1600.00) will need surgical correction or the pet will have a major limp for the rest of his life and a LONG recovery.
Discussion: It seems many parents buy small animals for their kids because the are cheap and supposedly easy to care for. I would have to say a rabbit is so fragile that it can cause itself more harm then good in small hands. Or when something goes wrong parents tend not to want to spend $45.00 on an exam of a $4.00 animal.
Future: Off to Hollywood for My great friends " congrats to getting into vet school party" at the end of the month!

My what big Eye(s) you have...

There is always that ONE SURGERY that passes you by. The one when you are at lunch, or aren't scheduled for that day ... maybe you might even be in the building but busy with another pet. Well for me that has always been an Eye Enucleation ( Removal of the eyeball without taking all the tissues around it.) After removal of the eye, the eyelids are permanently sutured closed. Once the hair and whiskers grow back, the appearance of the cat is usually decent.

Well as it turns out... I FINALLY GOT MINE! A rescue cat that came to us - probably from a big tom cat fight ( he sure was a BIG tom cat..if you know what i mean hah!) and that thing had to come out. This is one of three cats in the past few weeks that we had to do this too, must be eye season!

Overall the procedure went well and hopefully he will soon be adopted!

“The best doctor in the world is a veterinarian. He can't ask his patients what is the matter -- he's got to just know.”

Time line:
Case #1:So we normally do not do small animals such as rats, gerbils, guinea pigs etc. But we will on the occassion for existing clients. A few weeks ago we had a client come in with a newl purchased gerbil that his back leg was not "working". Soon to find it the leg was not broken ( and me getting a slight bite on my finger from the bugger) the Dr. deduced it was a neurological disorder. At this point the mother had to make the young daughter aware of the situation- with a few tears for her new friend the O ( owner) elected to euthanize. Now the pet could have lived quite a while with this problem- but you have to think of the quality of life. The gerbil would have gotten his foot stuck in the wheel or the other gerbils might have done some harm as well.
_____________________________Gerbil shirt! ______________________________



Case #2: When vets usually see the smaller animals it is usually due to eating problem because teeth are overgrown. Many times you never have to trim a guinea pigs/rat/ hamsters teeth if the chew on a wood block or wear down naturally. When we get them in it is a pretty simple procedure of just using nail trimmers to cut of the excess tooth since there is no nerves in the teeth. We had a 2 yr old Guniea come in with those exact problems. One tech says its easier to just knock them out with gas ( anestesia) others opt not to due to how poorly these guys do with it. The Dr. elect to go without gas. Pet was doing great until we were completely done and then he goes limp. This guy just might have had a heart attack due to the stress! We immediately put him on O2 and start stimulating him and within less them 10 seconds he is breathing again and fine. That pet is not getting teeth trimming for a long long time!


Discussion:For you future vets out there- are you interested in our small animal population? Any experiences with these little guys?

Future: Bday this weekend and off to Orlando!