6 Special Tales from RAVS

We got an email today saying that we treated 626 animals in our week, but I thought I’d add a few snippets about some of the special patients and clients we had this week.

Mama gets a break
I had a patient in anesthesia, she was a handsome square faced dog who also came with a litter of puppies about 4 weeks old. She was a little defensive around other dogs, so we gave her a nice quiet spot in the bathroom for her initial physical and to wait for us to take her to surgery. Her puppies were pretty relentless, so she didn’t get much peace until she was on her way to surgery. The spay went well, and in recovery she woke up particularly fast. Her temp was good, her eyes were bright, she had some appetite and she looked “with it.” But she would just NOT get up. Eventually, a little yelpy dog was put beside her and made such a fuss when he was waking up that she jumped up and walked quickly to the other side of the gym. “Hmm.. so you can walk,” I told her. She then refused to budge from the floor when we tried to take her back to the bathroom to be with her pups. She had no reason to sit any longer in recovery, her puppies needed her and I needed to get a new patient started. We carried her in, much to her dismay, and her pups started nuzzling.We think she was just enjoying her mini vacation from her pups!

Hearing the heart
We had a lovely cat in receiving one day brought to us by a young owner. She was probably about 15. We did the exam and told her about the cat’s surgery and it was all routine. Her mom came over at the end and told us that the girl was interested in vet med and that she loved animals. This cat was particularly agreeable (most cats this week had typically short fuses) so I asked her if she wanted to listen to his heart. She came into the cat tent and I found the sound, then handed my stethoscope over to her. Her eyes lit up and she said “I can hear it! Wow that’s fast!” It was a really cool moment to see someone get excited over vet med the way we do.

Homeless no more
When I was on receiving, we checked in at the intake table:

“We have a patient for you, actually, this man has already dropped off 3 dogs. But on his way home he saw a puppy on the side of the road and he wants to get her done too.”

So we headed out to the parking lot. Turns out this man works at a pet store that adopts out pets, so he does some rescue work with the stray dogs. He knew that there was a small window of opportunity to get her spayed and vaccinated for free while we were in town so he came right back over. She was a sweet, but dirty, little shepherd puppy. We made sure she didn’t have a fever and didn’t have signs of the common puppy viruses and then took her inside to finish up. She was a real sweetie, and we were happy she was picked up by someone with such a big heart!

New start for a Mom and her kitten
When we get cats with suspected Respiratory tract infections, we isolate them from other cats because it is very contagious. We had one of those cases and so were delegated to the bathroom. I was surprised that there was also a very small kitten being taken care of in there as well. The kitten was barely 2 weeks old, and very cold. The owner was concerned because she had found the cold kitten and it had seemed as though the mother had abandoned her and wasn’t nursing. We then looked at the mom, but we heard her first. She presented with nasal discharge and a lot of wheezing and sneezing. She was also ravenous. She was content enough to eat food while the doctor listened to her with her stethoscope. Lower respiratory sounds were clear, and she seemed pretty good otherwise. The doctor explained that she probably has Herpes, a fairly common disease among outdoor cats, along with another respiratory disease. She said that herpes never really goes away, but that cats can get flare ups when they are stressed. Having the kitten was definitely a stressor on her immune system and probably caused her to have the respiratory symptoms we were seeing today. There was definitely risk involved with doing a surgery on a cat in less than optimal health, but we discussed with the owner the fact that if we did the surgery, she wouldn’t have any more kittens and therefore she would have less stress with a lower likelihood of having another flare up. With these outdoor cats in remote areas, respiratory problems can be more serious than they are here at home with regular veterinary care.

We moved forward with the surgery, after keeping mom fed and putting her and her kitten in a warm, dry, quiet cage. She recovered well from surgery and even started to nurse. The owner was so happy, and even rigged a spare room to keep warm and give mom a place to hide out inside while she recovered from surgery. It was good to see mom and kitten doing so well when we sent them home! We were glad we went forward with the surgery and gave them both a new healthy start.

A dog with truly impeccable timing
I personally didn’t have this dog assigned to me this week, but we talked about her in rounds. If the details seem kind of fuzzy, just know that I wasn’t on her case! So we had a small dog present with a history of being attacked by a bigger dog. There was a hernia at the site of the bite would, but they couldn’t tell if it was just fat involved in the hernia, or if intestines were also included. This was the middle of the week, so they figured that we would be around for several more days in case this became more complicated than a simple hernia repair. Turns out, it was. When they got inside, apparently it was a mess. There were adhesions and the intestines were jammed up in one spot. The plan then became to do a resection anastomosis – a new term I learned! Here’s a helpful picture of what it is.

Basically they wanted to remove the damaged section of intestine and attach the healthy parts back together. If they didn’t remove the adhesed and damaged parts, they could undergo necrosis and cause a life-threatening blockage or other complications. It was a long surgery, and the patient had some trouble during anesthesia, coupled with a long recovery. Her students were ever vigilant though, and the dog stayed with us until the last day of clinics.

So lets get to the crazy part. This surgery has the possibility of “dehiscence,” which is the separation of the incision and therefore a failure of the attempt of surgical attachment. This can also be a life-threatening complication. According to the surgeons (And Merck Manual!) this can usually happen up to 5 days after surgery. The crazy thing is, when this dog came to us, we had 5 days left of our clinic. If this dog had come any later… her opportunity for a life saving surgery would have been basically zero. The surgeons don’t want to perform something that they can’t monitor properly after, or anything with a high risk of post-surgical complications that could happen when we leave town. The owner had also been financially constrained, so it was unlikely this dog would have been able to have emergency veterinary care if we hadn’t come around. When we learned about this at rounds, we were all stunned by how perfect the timing was.

This dog was sent home with very specific after-care instructions and the HSVMA-RAVS number that she could call. They have been checking up on her, and we heard today that she is doing well!

A Special Client
My very last client on the very last day was a friendly man with a beautiful dog named Mato (which means “Bear” in Lakota). My partner went inside to look for the dwindling rabies certificates and so I had a bit of time to talk with the client. We had an eye opening conversation about what it’s like to grow up not knowing much about your heritage and then living in the “white-world,” then coming back to learn the real history of your people. He said many people go through “generational grief” upon learning the truth about the oppression of their people. He told me about the 4 ways you can become a Lakota tribe member and the “adoption” ceremonies that happen when you’re brought in as a member. He also explained the importance of language in preserving the culture, and how many people of the older generation in Standing Rock have lost the Lakota language after being raised in “boarding schools” where they were punished for speaking their native tongue. He said he tries to teach his kids the language and traditions in order to preserve their heritage. He taught me a few Lakota words too!
Mato – Bear
Sapa – black
Sunka – dog
Igmu – cat
Chante – heart
I was so happy to have this conversation, all week I had been interested in learning more about the people we were interacting with every day. I thanked him for his lesson and said he had a lovely healthy dog and he was on his way.

I hope this gives you a better picture of how awesome this week was, and just how wonderful and miraculous veterinary medicine can be.