Showing posts with label sidenotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sidenotes. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13
Today was my last day at location b. It was sad, much like Monday. Unfortunately, we only had one surgery today and it was another dental prophy. I didn't do the prophy this time, instead I kept up with Dr. S during the day and got to accompany Dr. L into one of her rooms. Today was neither busy nor slow. Various appointments came in - a couple of spaniels, one with various health problems, a dog being treated for heartworms, a cat to be put down...he'd actually come into location a on Monday and wasn't doing any better overnight, a cute boxer puppy that I saw the first time I shadowed at location b...he was back in for a skin recheck and the last of his puppy boosters, and a few others. There was nothing terribly exciting, but I got to draw blood for an advanced panel we did on an older, overweight Golden Retriever who we suspected to be suffering from arthritis. The owner brought her in because her activity level changed suddenly. A urinanalysis showed nothing of significance but I'm not sure what the blood results said. I also gave a few vxn injections and asked a lot of questions. I saw that Dr. C had posted a packet about ordering a test kit for the MDR1 gene [SIDENOTE] so I did some research and found out what that was. I will definitely be posting about that in the next couple of days. Since I'm done shadowing Dr. S, I'm thinking of moving to a new blog but I haven't decided for certain just yet. I'll update once I've made up my mind.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2
Happy New Year!
Today was an interesting day at the Vet. Dr. S has been on vacation so today I followed Dr. D and Dr. J (mostly Dr. D) around. I got to watch a cat neuter which I've never seen before so that was great! While neuters in general are pretty simple and quick procedures, cat neuters seemed to be simpler and quicker (it's a product of the anatomy of cats vs. dogs, according to Dr. D and the Vet student there with us) than dog neuters. We also had a spay on a cockapoo. Spays are much more intricate processes but they're very neat to watch up close...especially because I recently took a course on Reproductive Physiology in Animals (last spring), so I knew what I was looking at and I knew what Dr. D was referring to as he walked us through the procedure.
Ashley came back today. It seems that the ADC found that her platelet count was EXTREMELY low. (Don't quote me on these numbers, but I believe Dr. D told me that she went from a 150,000 count to a 35,000 count the next day) It was suspected that maybe the foreign substance she'd gotten into was rat poison. I don't remember the specifics of how they treated her at the ADC but if she'd gotten into rat poison, the treatment there should have cleared it up. However, she came back to us today because now she wasn't keeping any water or food down. It was quite sad. We drew a bit of blood from her to measure her platelet count again. Dr. D had a private conversation with the owner...so I'm not sure what they discussed or what the next step will be for poor Ashley.
A couple of weeks ago we had some feeder mice come in from a pet store. They'd been beat up by another mouse on a rampage in the cage. We checked them out and treated them with antibiotics. Today, one of the mice (the one that had the worst scab) returned. Dr. D thought there were ways we could handle the ugly wound but the pet store didn't want to invest that much money into him so we had to euthanize him.
We also had a puppy come in...this case was quite sad. She was a Christmas puppy for a kid. She was a cute little tan and white mix of some sort. In any case, she was suffering from distemper. The family said they'd taken her to the Vet when she had a cough and that the Vet diagnosed her as having kennel cough. However, a couple of days later, the puppy began have tremors and convulsions and was throwing up so the owners brought her to our Vet. Within an hours time at our place, she was having seizures. It was determined that she was most likely suffering from distemper and that it was progressing so fast that the little treatment we can do for distemper (supportive care) probably would not have saved her life. (Sidenote: I will update with information about distemper at a later date.) I'm not sure what happened later on in the day but I'm fairly certain that the puppy had to be euthanized.
Today was an interesting day at the Vet. Dr. S has been on vacation so today I followed Dr. D and Dr. J (mostly Dr. D) around. I got to watch a cat neuter which I've never seen before so that was great! While neuters in general are pretty simple and quick procedures, cat neuters seemed to be simpler and quicker (it's a product of the anatomy of cats vs. dogs, according to Dr. D and the Vet student there with us) than dog neuters. We also had a spay on a cockapoo. Spays are much more intricate processes but they're very neat to watch up close...especially because I recently took a course on Reproductive Physiology in Animals (last spring), so I knew what I was looking at and I knew what Dr. D was referring to as he walked us through the procedure.
Ashley came back today. It seems that the ADC found that her platelet count was EXTREMELY low. (Don't quote me on these numbers, but I believe Dr. D told me that she went from a 150,000 count to a 35,000 count the next day) It was suspected that maybe the foreign substance she'd gotten into was rat poison. I don't remember the specifics of how they treated her at the ADC but if she'd gotten into rat poison, the treatment there should have cleared it up. However, she came back to us today because now she wasn't keeping any water or food down. It was quite sad. We drew a bit of blood from her to measure her platelet count again. Dr. D had a private conversation with the owner...so I'm not sure what they discussed or what the next step will be for poor Ashley.
A couple of weeks ago we had some feeder mice come in from a pet store. They'd been beat up by another mouse on a rampage in the cage. We checked them out and treated them with antibiotics. Today, one of the mice (the one that had the worst scab) returned. Dr. D thought there were ways we could handle the ugly wound but the pet store didn't want to invest that much money into him so we had to euthanize him.
We also had a puppy come in...this case was quite sad. She was a Christmas puppy for a kid. She was a cute little tan and white mix of some sort. In any case, she was suffering from distemper. The family said they'd taken her to the Vet when she had a cough and that the Vet diagnosed her as having kennel cough. However, a couple of days later, the puppy began have tremors and convulsions and was throwing up so the owners brought her to our Vet. Within an hours time at our place, she was having seizures. It was determined that she was most likely suffering from distemper and that it was progressing so fast that the little treatment we can do for distemper (supportive care) probably would not have saved her life. (Sidenote: I will update with information about distemper at a later date.) I'm not sure what happened later on in the day but I'm fairly certain that the puppy had to be euthanized.
Friday, December 26, 2008
SIDENOTE: Cardiomyopathy
I did some research on cardiomyopathy and I must say that it is quite an extensive topic. As such, the information I give here will be less in depth than the explanation I gave for gout.
To put it simply, dogs and cats (and other animals as well) can suffer from Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart which causes it to function improperly/poorly. Boxers seem to have their own set of symptoms when suffering from cardiomyopathy (search: boxer cardiomyopathy). Large/giant breeds of dogs have a higher rate of incidence with this disease (FYI - Doberman Pinchers, Scottish Deer Hounds, and Irish Wolfhounds were commonly named in the articles I read). There are two types of cardiomyopathy that occur in dogs: hypertrophic and dilated. Cats can suffer from three types of cardiomyopathy: hypertrophic, dilated, and restrictive. The details listed in this article are brief descriptions of what occurs in dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. For more information regarding either of these diseases in cats or dogs, please visit the links listed below the definitions.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common form. It occurs when the chambers of the heart increase in size and the muscles that form the walls become thinner.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a rare form of this disease, but occurs when the heart's chamber walls thicken, causing decreased pumping efficiency.
More information on cardiomyopathy in Cats -
http://www.2ndchance.info/cardiomyopathy-cat.htm
More information on cardiomyopathy in Dogs -
http://www.2ndchance.info/dogdilcardiomyopathy.htm
http://www.2ndchance.info/conghtfaildog.htm
SOURCES
Hines DVM PhD, Dr. Ron (2006, 06 24). Heart Failure In Dogs - Congestive Cardiomyopathy. Web site: http://www.2ndchance.info/dogdilcardiomyopathy.htm
Cardiac Diseases of Dogs and Cats. from Pets Health Web site: http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/cardiac.html
To put it simply, dogs and cats (and other animals as well) can suffer from Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart which causes it to function improperly/poorly. Boxers seem to have their own set of symptoms when suffering from cardiomyopathy (search: boxer cardiomyopathy). Large/giant breeds of dogs have a higher rate of incidence with this disease (FYI - Doberman Pinchers, Scottish Deer Hounds, and Irish Wolfhounds were commonly named in the articles I read). There are two types of cardiomyopathy that occur in dogs: hypertrophic and dilated. Cats can suffer from three types of cardiomyopathy: hypertrophic, dilated, and restrictive. The details listed in this article are brief descriptions of what occurs in dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. For more information regarding either of these diseases in cats or dogs, please visit the links listed below the definitions.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common form. It occurs when the chambers of the heart increase in size and the muscles that form the walls become thinner.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a rare form of this disease, but occurs when the heart's chamber walls thicken, causing decreased pumping efficiency.
More information on cardiomyopathy in Cats -
http://www.2ndchance.info/cardiomyopathy-cat.htm
More information on cardiomyopathy in Dogs -
http://www.2ndchance.info/dogdilcardiomyopathy.htm
http://www.2ndchance.info/conghtfaildog.htm
SOURCES
Hines DVM PhD, Dr. Ron (2006, 06 24). Heart Failure In Dogs - Congestive Cardiomyopathy. Web site: http://www.2ndchance.info/dogdilcardiomyopathy.htm
Cardiac Diseases of Dogs and Cats. from Pets Health Web site: http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/cardiac.html
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