Body language of my special needs dog

One of my passions in veterinary medicine is behaviour. I have always enjoyed helping owners learn to live with their anxious, aggressive and/or compulsive animals. Well, almost eight years ago I got a graduation gift, an English Cocker Spaniel puppy.

Within two weeks, I knew I had my hands full. Kodak was showing signs of four different aggressions – impulse control aggression (aggression to two legged family members), fear aggression (aggression to men and young children), territory aggression (no one was allowed to take anything from him) and interdog aggression (to all dogs). My poor boy had to endure so much anxiety based on his genetically induced abnormal neurochemistry. You can imagine how heavy my heart was as dogs do not fully emotionally mature until they are three years of age. He was 11 weeks old!

There is nothing like living with a special needs dog and monitoring his body language. Over the years I have taken many pictures. The one I am showing here has many pieces of information.

Parents, this is very important body language that Kodak is showing. If you see your dog exhibiting this look, do NOT let your children of any age near him/her!

He is showing the whites of his eyes (whale eye) and his pupils are dilated (his fight or flight system is activated). His paw is on top of the roll. There is a slight wrinkle of his upper lips spreading out his whiskers. As well, there are wrinkles between the eyes. At this angle you cannot see how tense the rest of his body is. If approached, there is a very good chance he would bite since he is so anxious.

This is where I have two choices, take a picture and leave him to chew one of his favorite things, cardboard, or try to take it from him. Obviously, I chose to back away; thereby respecting his body language. The adorable tail wag was more than worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!

The joys of lunch loss

As much as I love my lunch breaks, sometimes part of the job description is to just fantasize about them.

A dog that had a laceration on its right hind leg came in late one morning. We were not expecting the severity when she was dropped off. It was long and wide. When I enquired as to the activity level of this dog, I was told that it is impossible to keep her quiet. Not going to lie, I was excited that I was going to be able to use my cool stapler!

The edges were freshened and we were lucky enough that no flaps were required to close the defect. I closed it in two layers to make sure the incision was as strong as possible. The stapler is a pretty neat tool. It significantly decreases closure time (this incision only took 30 seconds to close). As well, it is the strongest suture so in an active dog it is a huge help.

Now, if only she could tell us how she did this to herself!

Case number three

Although I know it is a coincidence, it always feels like cases come to me in threes. I wasn’t even expecting it when I initially entered the room to yet another goofy retriever on Friday. (Bailey’s owners are going to need to enter my support group as well.) He bounced around as usual during the physical.

I had a radiograph taken because I was concerned about his esophagus. How his owner described his retching sounded like I needed to rule out megaesophagus (big and floppy esophagus). What none of us expected was to see a stone in his stomach. I asked for a lateral view to be taken of the abdomen. Feel free to count the stones.

Luckily the stones were small enough to induce vomiting. We figured they would “fly” out. The amount of hay was unexpected! There were a few almonds and quite a few leaves. After a while it started to smell like silage in the treatment room. I kind of felt like a CSI agent when the yellow thing came out and discovered it was a fourth place ribbon.

After the third application of apo-morphine (this is not the fun kind of morphine – we only use it to cause vomiting), four stones plunked on the blanket. The repeat radiograph showed the stomach was much less distended and the stones would be able to pass on their own.

Some days all I can do is shake my head!

Case number two

My patient, Mack is a goofy teenage dog whose owners are getting a little frustrated. Sometimes I feel like I should run a support group for those of us who own teenage dogs. They do the darndest things.

Since Sunday, he just hadn’t been himself. As he liked to chew, we decided to do a radiograph. The gas pattern we found indicated a stuck foreign body. So, for a second day in a row, we performed emergency surgery.

What I didn’t expect was to have to make three separate incisions. One into the stomach where I found plastic and “stuff” in the pyloric sphincter. One in the duodenum and the other in the jejunum. The ones in the small intestines looked like little aliens trying to break out.

When the owners came to visit Mack after surgery, they recognized the plastic as the bottle of ear medication he’d eaten recently. Who bloody eats ear medication?

It comes in threes - Case number one

Case number one was this past Monday. A female dog came in for a physical exam since she had been vomiting for the past couple of days. She appeared stable enough until I palpated her abdomen. Holly was incredibly painful because her bladder was the size of a baseball! I immediately had a radiograph taken which showed multiple stones in the bladder and one stuck in the urethra.

There are only two options when faced with a case like this and I only liked the first one which was surgery…..

The bladder looked like a water balloon about to burst. Getting all the stones out took some time. There were so many different sizes. The one stuck in the urethra has given me a number of new grey hairs. I may have done a happy dance when I finally got it out.

This is part of the job description?

One of the perks of owning my own veterinary hospital is being able to make the protocols. One of them is to have an exam room dedicated to just cats. It sometimes looks like the cats think they’ve been abducted by aliens. I would like to help them change their minds about the visit.

The change can actually start at home. If the carriers are left out they can’t mean something scary will occur. When you periodically leave wonderful toys and treats in there, the cats will start to anticipate good things and seek out the carrier on a regular basis. The odd time they are placed in the carrier and taken somewhere, they will be more relaxed. A relaxed cat is much easier to examine.

The cat room has toys and a cat tree for them to hang out on. They are allowed to get used to the room by walking around. It is always best to let them go at their own pace when possible. A very important thing is to not shake them out of their carriers. Cats do not like to be treated like salt and pepper shakers. If they won’t come out on their own, taking the top off the carrier is easier.

Ideally, I like to do the physical exams on the exam table but some cats will have none of that. I have done exams on the floor, chair, cat tree, sink and counter. About three times a year I have to do the climb. I get up on the counter and do a complete physical and vaccinations while the cat is on top of the cupboard. They did not tell me about this maneuver in vet school!

Lipomas

On a fairly regular basis owners bring their animals in for a physical because they have found a mass. I appreciate their concern. When one was found on our old cat, Jasper, we immediately aspirated it and were relieved to see fat on the slide. This great news meant he had a lipoma.

Lipomas are generally soft, usually round lumps of fatty tissue just under the skin. Often they are fairly moveable. Making the diagnosis usually involves taking an aspiration (using a needle and syringe) and placing the contents on a slide. The fat is glossy and starts to take on a round shape.

Periodically I see some rather large lipomas. These are the ones we generally need to discuss surgically removing. Some are in areas where it actually has an effect on how they move. The picture is of a case I had recently. We had been monitoring the mass for a while but when it started to how she walked, it was time for it to be removed. This mass was right in her left armpit. Once it was out, it took both hands to hold it. It was nice to see how much she enjoyed walking out of the hospital at the end of the day.