Script Veterinarian

Writing advice for veterinary topics. Not for getting scripts for medications! This blog is a veterinary consultant for writers. I will be answering technical questions about veterinary medicine for animals domesticated and wild, mundane, magical, alien and cybernetically enhanced BUT ALWAYS FICTIONAL.

[scriptveterinarian]

Will you ever come back to this blog once you find time or is this blog done for good?

I”m sorry anon. I have all the questions saved, but I can’t keep up with one blog, let alone two. I occasionally manage to answer fictional questions at @drferox but time is in precious little supply.

- Dr Ferox

[scriptveterinarian]

are you active???

Unfortunately not. I have been putting my time into my own blog and projects, and have not found enough volunteers to keep this one running.

- Dr Ferox

[drferox]

This isn't about animals, but about humans with animal features so I hope this is the right place? I'm writing about humanoids with dog-like tails except without fur and the tail's at leg length, and one of them loses that tail as an adult to ritual dismemberment with a blade. How fast can I expect them to recover, and could they recover at all without the use of electrical technology? I can imagine it's similar to a dog getting its tail docked? Tax: what's your fav humanoid mythical creature?

Tail docking with a plain old knife or scissors is traditionally done at a few days old when the bones are really still soft and cartilaginous and there’s not much blood supply. Sometimes cautery gets used, even at this young stage.

A tail is a limb. Amputating one is still a big deal, it has major blood vessels running down its length, and it’s an extension of the spine so it has some major nerve sensation. In an adult animal, they are always removed surgically, when removal is indicated to control pain and significant hemorrhage.

If you’re wanting a character to survive this, consider using a tourniquet around the base of the tail. This means there will be a stump remaining but it allows more immediate control of bleeding. You might then chose to use cautery afterwards, or a more refined surgical technique (ligation of vessels, closure of skin.

Crude transection and cautery is going to make a mess and be a pain to heal, but heal it eventually will. You’re more likely to end up with a painful neuroma at that surgical site. This method will take many weeks to heal, while a more refined surgical technique would take about two.

If you amputate a tail too close to the base, you are at risk or affecting other postural muscles around that area, so leaving a stump simplifies things. There may be along term pain issues, including neuromas and phantom limb pain, and that’s not considering the psychological component your character might have at play.

And it should go without saying that I am completely against the cosmetic tail docking of dogs.

[scriptveterinarian]

I have a cat character who was abused in a Russian circus and was also maimed by dogs. She was drugged, so she couldn't get away and protect herself. My questions are: What drugs would inhibit a cat enough that they could not react? Also, what would be the side effects that would show in a cat that had been drugged for around a year. Anything else you believe I should know would also be appreciated. Thanks.

Your cat would be dead.

‘Maimed by dogs’ is an extremely serious collection of trauma. Dogs that are attacking a cat, or any other small furry animal, are either deliberately trying to kill it or treating it like a chew toy. They grab it, hard, and they shake which does significant internal trauma. If you have two dogs, they often grab one end each and enter a tug of war. If you have a cat that can’t defend itself, it’s going to be torn to bits, even if the dogs are small breeds like terriers. Even if the cat can defend itself, there’s a good chance it’s going to be so severely damaged it needs to go to ICU and depending on which internal injuries are sustained it might die anyway. Spinal trauma is also common in cats which are bitten across the back, resulting in complete paralysis from that point down.

Adding to that scenario that this cat is ‘drugged to the point where she cannot protect herself’ and that cat is a chew toy.

On top of that you want the cat to be in this drugged state for about a year. Aside from liver failure and being unable to function, potentially repeating that massive trauma, it’s incredibly difficult to keep an animal alive under extended use of anaesthetic agents, which is what it sounds like you want.

If you are wishing to base this story in reality you need to completely rethink the duration of these events, and the degree of trauma the cat has experienced. A dog attack is already traumatic and potentially lethal for a cornered cat, even one that does have full function of its body, for example.

Disclaimer.

[scriptveterinarian]

I recently hit a stray dog. I picked it up to see if it was died. I had blood all over me. Should I be worried about any diseases

I regret to inform you that this is a writing advice blog and no real life advice will be given.

[scriptveterinarian]

How long should my 7 week old kitten character go without food? She leaves home for plot reasons and won't be gone for very long but she can't hunt yet. I eventually plan to have her meet 2 pet cats who share their food with her, but until then is mostly alone when it comes to food. How many days should pass before I have her meet these cats and still be healthy?

Ideally not more than one. A 7 week old kitten is still very small and has a short intestinal tract. While they can survive longer than that without food if they then receive veterinary attention, 24 hours is the most I would push it in your story with her still being in reasonable health.

- Dr Ferox

Disclaimer

[scriptveterinarian]

Hello! I was wondering if a chicken could be a travelling companion for an adventurer. Could it lay eggs? If yes, how often?

Assuming you have a human-sized adventurer, I see no reason why they couldn’t have a chicken traveling with them. They may have to keep the chicken in a cage, and I’m not certain how combat effective she’s likely to be, but it could be done.

Most domestic chickens lay eggs even in the absence of a rooster. Commercial layer hens may lay 300+ eggs a year, typically one a day. Heritage breeds, particularly meat breeds, may be as low as 60-80 eggs a year. They typically lay one egg a day through the period of the year with the longer day lengths, i.e. spring and summer. When chickens go through a molt, they stop laying.

However, this means that if your adventurer is traveling underground where there isn’t any daylight, the chicken may stop laying.

- Dr Ferox

[scriptveterinarian]

I have a character who needs to pass as human to go on a mission to Earth. Unfortunately, having goat horns is not a good way to pass as human. She will need to have them removed, but she doesn't have official permission to do so, so she'll have to do it herself. She has access to a library specializing in related topics, and she *might* be able to find someone willing to help her, although it would be nice if she didn't have to. She can also use magic to dull pain. How could I make this work?

Introducing our first answer from Dr Dactyla, the new mod for ScriptVeterinarian.

So, as I see it, your character will have four problems to overcome: getting the horn off without damaging anything else, controlling pain, preventing extensive blood loss, and closing the skin over the horn stump.

Let’s start with the first issue. It’s going to be a bit more complicated if your character has true goat horns, rather than just goat-like ones. This is because adult goats (and other ruminants, like cows) have an open space at the base of the horn that communicates with the sinuses in their skull. The sinuses, in turn, are only a thin slice of bone away from the brain. By removing the horn, you create an opening into the sinuses, and it’s not a great idea to get an infection in there. Here is an image of the sinuses and their out-pocket in the horn (a.k.a. the cornual diverticulum) in a cow:

(Image is from: Textbook of Veterinary Anatomy by Dyce, K.M., Sack, W.O. and Wensing, C.J.G.)

If the character’s horns are only goat-like, though, they could be solid bone at the base. That would simplify things considerably.

Theoretically, the character could perform the actual removal of the horns by themselves using the same obstetrics wire vets do. The angle might be a little uncomfortable, but the basic idea is to wrap the sharp wire around a pair of handles to protect your hands and then saw back and forth with it until it does the job. The trick would be in preventing the wire from coming into contact with skin, hair, or anything else you don’t want damaged or tangled up.

You mentioned that the character can control pain magically, so I won’t go into the specifics of how we anesthetize goats for dehorning here. It’s probably more than enough to know that there are two nerves which are responsible for sensation from the horn, and we anesthetize (or “block”) them near the base of the horn via injections.

Lastly, we need to contend with the blood flow to the horn. Horns have a keratin covering wrapped around a core of bone, and bone is a living tissue which correspondingly needs a blood supply. Depending on how close to the skull your character makes the cut, there could be multiple blood vessels severed. If your character also has the ability to magically stop blood flow, they could probably manage this whole shebang solo; if not, they’re going to need a partner in crime to stop the bleeding, through some version of clamping, tying off, or cauterizing the arteries in question. Be careful with heat this close to the skull proper, though, as the brain is both closer and less tolerant of heat damage than you might think.

After all of this is said and done, the character will still have to find a way to close the skin over the spots where the horns were. If they can magically knit it together, you’re home free; otherwise, while it’s again theoretically possible to suture your own forehead, it’s not easy. They may need someone to do this for them, if for no other reason than that trying to sew backwards via mirror reflection is a pain.

With the skin closed, in the true goat horn scenario, the remaining holes in the skull will eventually fill in some with new bone, but it will take a while and the character might want to wear something to cover the spots in the meantime.

- Dr Dactyla

Disclaimer

[scriptveterinarian]

A wild vet appears...

Hello, folks! Dr. Dactyla here, going about the business of introducing myself.

I’m joining the ScriptX crew to give Dr. Ferox a break from time to time. My background is mostly in general practice and veterinary academia, and I blog about those topics over on @ungulatesaremyjam . I’m US-based, having bounced around the country over the years for both education and work, and have experience in both rural mixed animal and urban small animal practice.

I’m excited to help out writers tackling veterinary and veterinary-adjacent topics, but like Dr. Ferox, the standard disclaimer applies: I can’t and won’t ever dispense specific veterinary advice for animals I haven’t examined, and any asks along those lines will be deleted.

With that in mind, ask away!

[scriptveterinarian]

How bad are paralysis ticks? The Australian kind? For my Nano, I have this scene of where a family's house is infested with ticks and the father nearly dies. Can they kill or at least bed-rid a man? Or I'm overblowing things?

Ixodes holocyclus is the most common species of paralysis tick in Australia, essentially limited in its distribution to the Eastern seaboard. Humans are not really my thing, but most human cases reported have been children because their smaller size makes them more vulnerable, and they may be less able to express that they’ve been bitten.

They tend not to infest houses so much as grassy areas that have a lot of native mammals pass through, so if the house is in bushland the garden may be host to these ticks.

Tick paralysis needs requires hospitalization if it occurs, but an adult human would likely require multiple ticks attached for a prolonged period to cause paralysis. However, these ticks can also cause anaphylaxis which will potentially kill your adult human. Check out Aunt Scripty’s write up on anaphylaxis for more information.

Australian ticks can also cause mammalian meat allergy, where the bitten human may develop lift threatening allergies to consuming mammalian meat. That’s a nasty little complication that not a lot of people know about.

- Dr Ferox.

For more information see: Reference 1, Reference 2, and more about mammalian meat allergy.

Disclaimer

[drferox]

Hey Dr. Ferox, just a quick question for you. Fortunately, this is writer research, not personal situation. Upon graduation, what happens if the graduate has a thing come up meaning they can't go into practice as a vet for a year or two? Injury, illness, that sort of thing. Do they have to take a quick certification test when they're ready to go back? Or can they just go back, but it's hard to get a job? Question tax: Came for the stories, stayed for, well, the stories.

I hope you don’t mind, but since It’s writing advice I’m going to bounce it across to @scriptveterinarian

[scriptveterinarian]

Most new graduate vets are very keen to get into work within a month or two, some only wait a few days after graduation. Once you are graduated, and registered in your relevant jurisdiction, you are free to practice, even if you take time off.

However, a new graduate who doesn't get into practice fairly promptly will most likely get very, very nervous about their clinical skills, which are typically honed in the first year or so in practice. The longer they go before getting into a job, the more nervous they are likely to be about 'forgetting everything'.

And employers will potentially share this anxiety. Seeing a newly graduated veterinarian who has been out of practice for 6 months or so raises questions of why. They will potentially be overlooked in favor of someone who has a consistent work history.

There are 'back to practice' courses available for veterinarians. These are usually geared towards mothers returning to the workforce, but can potentially be useful for any vet who has been out of practice and wants to refresh their skills. Some of these have an online component, but a lot include practical classes as well.

Even if he vet graduated two years ago, if they have no clinical experience their employer is likely to treat them as a freshly graduated veterinarian.

Disclaimer

[scriptmedic]

Um this is for NaNoWriMo, also thanks a lot for the awesome script family! Anyway, if person A was injected with something to stop their heart and person B was a doctor, knew what they were given, and started CPR right away would person A still have brain damage? The paramedics arrive shortly (like 10 minutes) and get him going again, and the whole time he had CPR with rescue breathing as well as ice around his head.

Hey there nonny! Thanks for the ask on this. 

With rapid CPR from a healthcare professional and effective interventions, I think this is just fine. 

As for what they’re injected with, though, remember that it’s a poison/treatment thing. If they already have an IV in, a large dose of potassium could get the job done (and can be fixed with calcium and sodium bicarbonate, medslanged as “bicarb”). Alternatively, it could be a massive overdose of an opiate (if you want something exotic, etorphine is a semisynthetic opium derivative that is 300x more powerful than morphine; I believe it’s the drug used (incorrectly) in Dexter). The counter to etorphine or any opiate is naloxone and lots of it; the hospital literally may not have enough to sort it out, so your character could go into cardiac arrest, get a pulse, get intubated, and stay on a vent for a day or two before the opiate washes out of their system and they wake up neurologically intact. 

To  be clear: the potassium requires an IV; etorphine I believe does not. (If you want to harp on modern fears, someone could blow white powder off a glove into their face, and we discover later that it’s fentanyl in powder form.) 

Hope this helps! 

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[disclaimer] 

[scriptveterinarian]

If you’d like more information on etorphine (sometimes called ‘Elephant juice’ in veterinary medicine) there’s an easy to understand summary here.

It is a scary drug. It’s one of those ones your professors warn you about. It’s also difficult to get because it has no use (that I know of) in human medicine, only veterinary practitioners are supposed to have access to it.

It’s only sold with its antidote diprenorphine, but Naloxone will work if you have enough of it. Etorphine is at least 1000x more potent than morphine, so you will need lots of naloxone to counteract it. Most exposures are accidental: pricking oneself with the needle or splashing yourself.

It’s recommended to wear gloves and eye protection when handling etorphine, and to have an assistant nearby prepped with a syringe of antidote already drawn up in case of accidental exposure. You do not mess around with this drug.

Have another disclaimer.

[scriptveterinarian]

I've heard that snakes grow through their entire lives, although my research says that they slow down after a point. I have immortal character with a familiar. My question is, and I know this falls under rule of reality but I'd still like your opinion: In theory if they didn't die of old age would a snake just keep growing indefinitely? The snake is a Brazilian Rainbow Boa if it helps. thank you for your time!

They are unlikely to grow indefinitely, forever. Most species have a maximum size and would not continue to grow once they have reached an age of senescence. At this age, the deterioration of their cells occurs more rapidly than they can replace them.

However, depending on how immortality works in your reality, you may choose to change this aspect of biology entirely. Keep in mind though that reptiles require specialized husbandry to remain healthy and in optimum condition.

[scriptveterinarian]

hi! so my character has very bad anxiety and has frequent anxiety attacks and he has a trained dog (which is supposed to help him a little during attacks whenever he's with the dog,) so I was wondering what things are the dogs usually are trained for (like doing something for their owners or something like that?) — generally?

This isn’t really a veterinary medicine question, but @scriptservicedogs could have some really helpful posts for you.

[scriptveterinarian]

Hi! One of my character's cats (adult but age otherwise unspecified, neutered male) is going to get hit by a car. As a result he has to have a hind leg amputated - how long would he stay at the vets, what would his recovery from this look like and how long would it take? Also, what other injuries would he be likely to sustain? Thanks!

Leg amputation in a cat looks like a brutal surgery, but the recovery period is not all that long. The cat may be discharged to its owner’s care that evening, or the next day. I’d then expect it to spend two weeks or so recovering, during which time it needs to be strictly confined.

However, if a cat was hit by a car then it may have other injuries that necessitate it staying in hospital for longer, either before or after the leg amputation. If the cat has sustained chest or abdominal trauma, care of those injuries will be prioritized before the leg amputation, as you want the cat to survive the anesthesia.

Low speed impacts, such as running over the cat in the driveway while parking the car, can have bruising and crushing injuries but do less damage than high speed impacts. High speed impacts may also result in the following:

Diaphragm rupture, which will require major surgery to repair and will likely result in having a chest drain and multiple days of intensive care

Bladder rupture, which can result if the cat is struck while its bladder is full. This may not be diagnosed for a day or so but will then require abdominal surgery to repair.

Gut ruptures, splenic ruptures and liver lacerations are relatively rare, but would also require abdominal surgery.

The cat is also likely to have superficial abrasions, they also commonly shred their nails when being hit by a car. They may have fractured teeth also.

Cat generally heal very well if you can put all the pieces close enough together. It’s also worth knowing that cats with hind limb amputations will still attempt to scratch their ear with the absent hind leg, though this seems to be the only thing that really holds them back. They are generally very mobile and active compared to pre-amputation, but may be more at risk of arthritis.

Disclaimer

[scriptveterinarian]

hey, sorry if this is a question better directed to aunt scripty! i have a character with severe anxiety who doesn't have any medication left, so they take their cat's anti-anxiety meds (inadvisable, i'm sure) so i was wondering what effect that might have? would it work? are there serious health concerns (what if they do this for a more extended amount of time??)?

This will depend on which anxiety medication the human and the cat are taking. You might want to follow up with @scriptshrink or @scriptpharmacist for additional information.

There aren’t all that many vet-only anxiety medications which come as tablets. Most of what we have available are actually the same drugs as those used in human medication, with a few important differences:

Different dose rate and tablet concentration (typically lower)

Compounded to be palatable for the cat (i.e. tastes like cat food)

The most common anxiety medication for cats in Australia is clomipramine, which comes as 5mg tablets. The human clomipramine comes as 25mg tablets, so taking the cat’s medication will result in an under dose and possible withdrawal side effects.

Another common anxiety medication for cats is fluoxetine, better known as Prozac. It can be specially compounded into small doses for cats, or they may be breaking up human tablets. If they’re using a brand of human fluoxetine, it’s only the dose rate which will be different.

Yet another possible anxiety medication the cat might be on is Megestrol Acetate, which is a type of progesterone. This will potentially have side effects on your character’s hormone cycles.

But side effects on humans aren’t really my field.

I do know of cases where humans with anxiety owned cats with anxiety, and their medication was mixed up. Generally the cat is the one in the most trouble in this situation.

Disclaimer.

[scriptveterinarian]

Hi! Question: are there on call vets like there are with doctors? If so, how does that work (i.e. how long are they on call and stuff)? Thanks!

Yes, veterinarians provide out of hours services, though how those services are structured will depend on the type of service the veterinarian usually provides, and where they’re located.

For example in small animal medicine, you may have a dedicated 24 hour clinic that the general practice clinics refer to. This clinic may be open overnight, weekends and public holidays only (that is to say, the reverse of the normal clinics), or they might be truly 24 hours. This situation is where you’re likely to find your emergency specialists and the fancy toys, including CT scanners and automatic ventilators.

For some reasons (usually political) or in places too sparsely populated to maintain a 24 hour clinic, the GP vets generally provide an after hours service. Clinics will vary, but either the phones are diverted to their mobile, or a message on the answering machine and door will tell you who to call when the clinic is closed. If there are multiple clinics in the same location, they may ‘share’ the after hours load in order to give themselves more breaks in between.

Large animal clinics, and mixed practices, often work this way. This is especially true where the value of the individual patient isn’t all that high (eg cattle).

Equine medicine may work this way with mobile vets, or they may have staff on duty in a fixed location hospital. Sometimes they’re just called in as needed. Partly this depends on how busy they expect to be.

Specialists of most disciplines often have an on-call roster, where they take turns being on call. In this situation the calls are fielded by the other after-hours staff, only calling in the specialist where required. For example, if I’m working overnight and I get a minor surgery that I can manage, I treat it myself. If it has a broken leg, it’s triaged and managed until morning when the surgeon gets in, and then handed across. If a patient presents with complete paralysis and loss of deep pain sensation in its hind legs, then surgeon-boy (they are not all boys, but the one who always seems to be rostered on when I am is) gets called in. 

Some specialists do not have a roster, but the emergency clinics have a means to contact them. There is very rarely a dermatology emergency, for example. Some consultants or individual vets may also choose to hand out their  personal mobile numbers for special cases.

As to how long a vet should be on call, well, what ‘should’ be and what ‘actually is’ is often very different, and laws will vary by country.

A typical ‘on-call’ period is 24 hours, but a veterinarian can be expected to do multiple on-call periods in a row (eg Friday, Saturday, Sunday). A vet working on their own in practice might be on call every single night for their entire working lives.

This, typically, drives one a bit crazy.

The sheer unpredictability and broken sleep of on call work isn’t great for your mental health. It’s not as though you get the next day off to sleep if you get called in, unless you’re working in a dedicated 24 hour center. (Dedicated 24 hour clinics have made my life so much better, you just do not understand unless you’ve lived it.)

Nine continuous days and nights on call is the most I’ve had to do, and let me assure you I was loopy by the end of it. That’s not normal or good, a more typical situation isn’t more than 1 in 3, but it does happen.