Veterinary Diaries

The adventures and misadventures of navigating the veterinary field

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Had the opportunity to dissect a cat who was pregnant. Here is the fetus still in the amniotic sack!

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Here is a schedule sample of my first semester of veterinary school! I have never had so many labs before. There are some electives to fill up the open space but I am hesitant to add anything more to a 20 credit schedule. Wish me luck :)

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This poor dog was hit by a car. Notice that the dog is still intact. Surveys show that 85% of dogs that are hit by cars are intact.

Another reason to neuter your dogs!

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@people in human medicine: bet you can’t say you’ve had a patient come in because they ate staples lol

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I would like to stress that keeping a routine and giving yourself structure during these times makes all the difference.

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Thought it may be interesting to share what a day in the life of veterinary emergency workers looks like.

My most memorable is “Avian fell in pot of boiling water”.

Here are some common acronyms we use:

ADR: means “ain’t doing right” for those outside of the veterinary field. Any patient who just doesn’t seem to be acting normal to the owners gets put on the schedule as ADR.

PRAA: persistent right aortic arch

BDLD: big dog little dog. Tells us that there was a fight between a large breed dog and small breed dog.

DIR: down in rear. Patient is unable to use hind limbs to walk. Most commonly seen in dachshunds with T3L3 lesions at our hospital.

HBC: hit by car

Our emergency service helps see the other speciality service’s patients when they are unable to fit them in. We also take patients from other clinics in state and out of state who need hospitalization and more advanced diagnostic testing.

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Brachycephalic versus non-brachycephalic dog

Be very aware of brachycephalic airway syndrome. Symptoms include snorting, noisy breathing, tiring easily and some even have syncopal episodes. This is a lifetime of difficult breathing. These breeds are trendy nowadays, just know what you are signing up for.

*some breeds are worse than others and not all dogs will suffer, but many certainly do

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How I will feel in isolation in a couple weeks:

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Let’s play a game of: Guess The Animal!

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First day of online instruction, stay sane out there friends! Hard to stay motivated in my pajamas with my kitty but I’m doing it anyway!

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From Ventricular Premature Contractions to Ventricular Tachycardia

Patient history: Patient presented with difficulty breathing, muffled heart sounds, weak pulses, and tachycardia. Referring clinic sent the dog to our ER because they found sporadic VPCs on their ECG. By the time the patient arrived at our clinic, it was in ventricular tachycardia. Three VPCs or more in a row is considered ventricular tachycardia.

Ventricular tachycardia occurs when the ventricles beat very quickly. It is considered a shockable rhythm and can be helped with antiarrhythmics (like lidocaine).

V-tach is considered a medical emergency as sudden death is a risk.

Signalment: 10 yr Male Neutered Labrador Retriever

Presenting complaint: difficulty breathing, lethargy, anorexia

Differential: due to the muffled heart sounds, VPCs, and poor pulses, our top differential was pericardial effusion.

Diagnosis: we diagnosed pericardial effusion by use of an ultrasound scan of the thorax. There was marked effusion around the heart. (example shown below)

Result: patient was euthanized due to the likelihood that the pericardial effusion was caused by a cancerous process. In the event that the owner proceeds, we would do a pericardiocentesis (remove fluid around heart). This is usually a procedure that has to be done repeatedly until we can find out what is actually causing the fluid accumulation and unfortunately most of the differentials have poor prognoses.

Bonus fact: Pericardial effusion can put so much pressure on the right side of the heart that it cannot beat properly, effectively causing right sided heart failure. This can result in abdominal effusion. We often see bicavitary effusion in these patients (the fluid is both around the heart and accumulating in abdomen).

**patient was being actively tended to when video was taken, this is a teaching hospital so we like to get examples on video for students**

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Patient presents with open lesions on its skin, has trouble breathing, and a cough. All blood work is WNL. Interestingly enough, the cough and skin lesions go together to give us our top differential: blastomycosis

Signalment: 1yo SF mixed breed dog

Vital signs: Temp: 104.2 Pulse: 120 Resp: 40

How to obtain a definitive diagnosis: FNA of lymph nodes or skin lesion, or a urine antigen test

Treatment: long courses with the anti-fungal itraconazole. Fortunately the success of the treatment is relatively high, however, cases like these where there is severe respiratory difficulty are a bit more complicated as the patient is often oxygen dependent and will need to be hospitalized.

Other manifestations of blasto: while blasto typically causes skin lesions and difficulty breathing, it also can have ocular manifestations. The eyes can become infected and the animal can get uveitis (inflammation of the iris). Although quite rare, we have seen blasto abcesses in the central nervous system. This particular patient was having seizures and other neurological events. This can be confirmed via MRI or sample of cerebrospinal fluid.

How does blasto infect? Blasto spores are found in damp soil and can enter the lungs vía inhalation. There is not a vaccine or any other medical preventative measure to take.

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Veterinary Diaries #2: Where did you put your body wall??

Prepped a kitten for surgery only to find very evident peristalsis in action!

Peristalsis: the progressive wave of contraction and relaxation of a tubular muscular system.

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Accepted into Veterinary School

Hello all! I have not been very active on this account in some time because I have been heavily focused on preparing my application for veterinary school. I am very pleased to share that I have been accepted into my top choice program! I am hoping to be more active on this account and continue to share my journey to becoming a veterinarian. 

I work in emergency and critical care at the veterinary school so I look forward to sharing some of those cases with you all. Thank you for being an outlet for me to share my passion for veterinary medicine. Currently working on writing about the beginning of what I am sure to be a long road of imposter syndrome. Stay tuned!

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Guess who turned 4 years old and had a $4,000 bill :,)

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Mesenteric Torsion: twisting of bowel on the mesenteric axis. Normally intestine is a light pink but the bowel is turning black due to the compression of the mesenteric arteties (necrosis is occurring). This causes blood to flow into the lumen which allows bacteria and endotoxins to enter systemic circulation.

Signalment: 6 yo FS GSD

Patient presented with vomiting and seemed to be in shock. X-rays were taken which made us suspicious of MT. Exploratory surgery was elected since MT versus foreign body were the top differentials. Exploratory showed mesenteric torsion. Unfortunately it has an extremely high morality rate at nearly 100%. The cause are diseases of the GI tract such as parvo, IBD, parasites, etc.

Due to the high mortality rates, owner elected euthanasia and patient was euthanized on the table.

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Signalment: 6 1/2 yo Grey Hound FS Patient presents with hyporexia, lethargy, tachycardia, and high temperature (107.3) Diagnostics: FAST scan shows free fluid in abdomen, hypoglycemia Pocket of fluid in abdomen was poked and revealed intercellular bacteria (rods) which is a tell tale sign of a septic abdomen. Septic abdomen is considered a surgical emergency and is not correctable by medical management. It is most likely due to a perforation of the colon, which introduces bacteria to the abdominal cavity. Humane euthanasia was elected as there were financial constraints.