Adrenaline rush

There are a number of emergencies that can cause an adrenaline rush in a veterinarian. A hit by car, cat straining to urinate, seizures and a GDV (gastric dilation and volvulus) aka bloat.

A young Golden Retriever, named Harry, wasn't acting like himself. He was fine when he'd been fed around 6am but at 9am he just wasn't himself. He was retching, vomiting and eating grass hastily (98% of dogs eat grass just because they like the taste of it, just ask all four of my dogs).

I was relieved when I felt Harry's abdomen. His stomach was quite large but it wasn't hard like a basketball. His intestines were also pretty gassy feeling. I was also happy the history included vomiting up grass. Classically, GDV dogs try to vomit but nothing can come up. Off we went to take a radiograph.

What I did not want to see was a twisted stomach. If you look closely at this picture you will see the typical look of GDV. It looks like Popeye, the sailor, is flexing his biceps. When this is what you see, you either fly into surgery or perform humane euthanasia. Once the blood supply has been cut off from the twist of the stomach on itself, you have a very limited period of time before the stomach starts to die.

You can imagine how happy I was to see that the stomach was just significantly enlarged. There is another radiograph showing the gas extended right back to the rectum. We put a stomach tube down his throat to remove some of the gas and then admitted him for observation. We needed to make sure that if his stomach started to torse that we deal with it immediately.

He was taken on regular walks (helped to air out the treatment room as his gas was a nasty smell of success)! His folks also came to walk him a few times as well. By the end of the day, he was starting to act like his goofy normal self! The radiograph taken prior to him going home made us all so happy. The stomach was normal in size and only the large colon was gas filled. Yay Harry!!!!

Belly Ache Time

I had a rather long feeling day today and looking forward to yoga made it a bit easier. Did my first handstand ever and was on a bit of a high as I walked back in the door at home.

The problem was that I was only greeted by three out of four dogs. I followed some interesting sounds into the kitchen to find the fourth. Yes, that is my special needs boy, Kodak, sitting on the counter. What you can't really tell is how large his belly is from all the food he'd eaten.

I rethought my dinner plans (spaghetti) as I tried to figure out how he got up there. It wasn't until I went around to the other side of the counter that I discovered the key. Yes, I have now separated the boxes from the stool so his "steps" are dismantled.

Currently, he is laying around like a beached whale that has a cute little wagging tail.

Slab fractures

I was informed by one of my volunteers this morning that I have been rather negligent in my blogging lately. Luckily she told me this as I was about to start my dental surgery so I took pictures as I went along.

Recently, I had a dog come in for its yearly physical exam and vaccinations. I found that it had a slab fracture on its carnaissal tooth (if I'm going to use fancy dental charting - the 108 was fractured). It had occured long enough ago that the pulp was black. The thought of walking around with a tooth like this makes me want to cringe but our animals don't often tell us when they are having tooth problems.

Today was the day to take it out. I am holding the "slab" part of the tooth up. One thing you should never see is tissue between pieces of the same tooth. Yup, there is the infected tissue. Would you like to know what it smelled like? Nasty! There is a positive about a fracture like this, it exposes so much that it makes it incredibly easy to figure out where to do the drilling to isolate each of the three roots.

This is one of the three roots and all of them had granulomas on the root tip. Basically there were small abcesses on the tips. If you are having a hard time orienting yourself, the nasty tip is pointing to the left. The other thing that is missing from this root is length. The infection has eaten away at the tooth so it is now shorter. I won't bore you with how long I cleaned each of the sockets so I could feel comfortable about closing it properly. At least I know she will enjoy the pork liver flavored antibiotics!!!

Puppy and kitten brain mush

I have a confession. I absolutely loose all ability to be professional walking into the appointment room when there is a kitten or puppy. I can't tell you the amount of times the staff have reminded me that I am supposed to walk into the room, greet the owners and introduce myself while looking them in the eye and then greet the puppy or kitten.

Here's what goes on in my brain. Ok, this time, I'm going to be professional. I can do this.............I open my mouth and out comes cooing baby sounds. I pick up (possibly grab puppy or kitten out of the owner's arms) the little one and tell them they are going to have a good time with their auntie Bourque. I am sure that many owners would have no idea who I am except for the fact that I wear a white smock and wear a name tag.

I have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I would fall asleep with the litters of puppies piled on top of me (honest Mom, I was doing my homework, I just couldn't move and disturb the puppies). I think that when the day comes that I can't completely enjoy these little miracles, I'd better hang up my smock.

I only vaguely remember this picture being taken one Sunday morning after we'd completed the assessments for the new dogs coming into the PALs program. One of the volunteers brought in their puppy for a little socialization and this is what happened.......

Quirky night

My evening last night was rather interesting. Not only did I get very lost on the University of Calgary campus after being stuck in the wonderful traffic jam on Crowfoot, I got to meet Bob from Quirks and Quarks. I had been asked to come answer a question for the Quirks Question Roadshow. Dogs peeing isn't the sexiest topic to talk about but it was so much fun to be there. I wish that when I'd been asked about the fire hydrant, I'd said something along the line the dogs were urinating as "reply all".

Here's the link if you want to hear about this and other interesting topics:

NAVC Institute

I just have to write about last week when I was at the NAVC Institute doing a behaviour course with my idol, Dr. Karen Overall, a board certified veterinary behaviourist. I had taken this course five years ago and thought it was time to take it again. It was even better than the last time. We did behaviour cases, got introduced to new behaviour modification protocols and new medication protocols. It was all I could do to stay seated, I was so excited.

I’ve included a link so you can see what I was doing. What the schedule doesn’t tell you is how much extra time was put in. When the other courses were finished after dinner, we would head back into the room at 7pm for another few hours of work. I did get to bed at a normal time on Wednesday night since we were off “early” for the banquet.

I had been emailing Dr. Overall about a rather complex case and that evening she told me that I was going to present it to our course and the instructor of the neurology course as well as his students. Let’s just say that I didn’t get to bed cause I needed to make a proper case presentation. I haven’t done one of those since vet school. Luckily I was able to jazz it up a bit because I was able to email the owner for some photos. I will be forever grateful for her taking the time to send the pictures. I am also very glad my Mom made me do public speaking in 4-H. I was able to “turn it on” and get the answers we needed.

The next night another attendee presented how he’s changed the way he practiced general medicine so his hospital was more behaviourally aware. I am so glad not to be the only vet who sits on the floor if it makes the dog or cat feel more comfortable.

We were also lucky to have two attendees from Norway. They did a lot of search and rescue work and all the animals are trained with only positive methods. When Dr Overall as you to do a presentation, you do it, so she presented how they trained and were tested. Just amazing!!! I also loved the fact that both of her English Cocker spaniels had their beautiful tails.
In addition to being in class and madly taking notes, we also got to work on “bratty” dogs that were referred by local trainers and vets. While everyone else was adjusting equipment, I found a puppy that had been brought in for socialization. The focus on this 12 week old German Shepherd puppy was breathtaking. I grabbed a clicker and some treats and away we went. Willow would have jumped through a flaming hoop if I’d asked.

I also had a blast with the true behaviour cases. One dog had noise phobias and the other had fear aggression. I loved watching their body language and how the specialists work with them and their suggestions to the owners.

Check out the course at this link

First of the year

The girls had booked off most of the morning so I could catch up on my files before heading off to my behaviour conference in Florida. Before you get too envious, we have been asked to bring fleecy jackets and blankets as the conference rooms are kept quite chilly. Plus, we start at 8 in the morning and end at 9 or 10 at night.

I wasn't exactly looking forward to my worklist but I trudged through the files until one of the girls walked in and asked if I would be willing to take a look at a dog that had played with a porcupine. I was so happy!!! When animals wake up after having quills removed, they look so much more comfortable. The other great thing about this case was that the owners had not trimmed the quills. It is an old wives tail that trimming allows the quills to deflate. They cannot deflate as they are too stiff; however, the more you touch them, the more they work their way into the skin.