Surviving Snakebite Against All The Odds�

What a fascinating week it has been… It hasn’t been as busy which is really nice for a change.

We all took advantage of the situation and turned it into BRING YOUR PETS TO WORK week.

Here are Licorice & Kay, owned by Karen (one of our vet nurses)

I had discovered a lump growing on my own dog’s stump.

Poor Shepo. He had been licking his stump excessively and not allowing me to fully assess it. He loves to shake his stump so I thought he must have knocked it on something. I dragged him and his cute stump with me to work on Tuesday and got Alana to do the works on him. She did a great job at removing the main lump plus a few other benign ones he had.�We decided it is best to get the�lump on his tail�checked out by a pathologist.

It was quite entertaining to see how nervous I make my colleagues. It is never easy operating on a fellow staff’s pet because you dread the worst happening. Thankfully Shepo�made a smooth recovery and I had to send him home early because he woofed�the clinic down. The histopathology report on his lump came back saying it was a benign lump.�His lump was�referred to as a ‘collagenous hamartoma’.

My pooch had a fancy type of lump that I have never heard off.

How odd? I was just happy to know it was benign!

Shepo’s�irritating lump on the stump

While Alana was operating on Shepo, I was called out to a property to examine a cow with retained placenta post calving. The farmer was worried because he had lost a cow with retained membranes the week before.

I arrived on the property and was waiting for the owner to meet me when my breath was taken away by the smallest calf I have ever seen.

It turns out to be a one day old twin. I fell in love with it. It was just so small and adorable. As for the cow, the owner had already successfully pulled out the retained placenta. After examining the cow and ensuring she didn’t have any more membranes attached to her uterus, I gave�him a handout that thoroughly discussed our vet recommendations on prevention and treatment of retained membranes.

This is the�calf quickly getting up as it noticed me approaching it.

A close up: So petite and adorable. I called him/her ‘midget�calf’

You can run�but you can’t escape from posing with me Midget!

I think the farmer was fascinated with my obsession with the calf even though he agreed it was the smallest he has ever seen.

Midget joins mom and is relieved to be free from me.

Wednesday came, it was a very quiet day. I had to leave work half an hour early to make a doctor�s appointment.�One of the vet nurses had just taken a call from a very distraught owner and had advised her to bring dog in URGENTLY. �I told my colleagues I would be back to pick up the afterhours phone as I was on emergency call and take over any cases in hospital.

When I walked back into work after my appointment, I was baffled. There was this staffy on the surgery table that was intubated�& on oxygen therapy.

A total of 4 staff members (2 vets and 2 vet nurses) were working on her.

She had blood coming out of her nose and anus. My colleagues quickly updated me on her situation. She was being treated for snakebite envenomation. She had already been given one vial of antivenin. She had been resuscitated only minutes before. I jumped in and took over her care as it was my duty on call. My dedicated staff members didn�t want to leave and kept trying to help until I was able to completely manage her on my own. I then gave her ANOTHER vial of antivenin�and monitored her heart rate & breathing closely.

Her temperature got too high, about 40.5 degrees. I started cooling her down with wet towels, ice packs�and a fan. At that stage, she was in an unconscious coma-like state. Her pupils were miotic�and non responsive to light. As soon as her second vial of antivenin kicked in, I started to notice small signs of responsiveness. She started to gain her blink reflex and would occasionally suddenly start paddling. I let her owners pat her before they went home even though she was in an awful state. I just wanted to ensure they got to see her one last time because her prognosis was very guarded.

Needless to say, it was then almost impossible to get her owners to leave.

Unfortunately, I had to encourage them to go home to get some rest so that I could focus on monitoring their baby Roxy. I always feel so terribly guilty when I ask owners to leave. I just find I�perform better�in the absence of the owners. My focus is the patient and not trying to soothe the owners during the whole ordeal. It is hard to answer all the questions of the concerns owners when you managing a very critical patient that can crash at any one moment.

As soon as the owners left, Roxy lifted her head and started swallowing. We had to extubate�her. I could not believe my eyes. Roxy must have felt that her mom was leaving. This was the critical period. She could have easily collapsed and required resuscitation again. Shockingly, she was getting very stubborn about jumping off the surgery table. I moved her to a comfortable cage and she started blowing bloody bubbles from her nose. I cut down her fluid rates and started her on�gastric protectants.

I checked on her throughout the night & early morning and she looked ace. She made an incredible recovery.

I kept her hostage for an extra day in hospital because she still had blood in her urine. Roxy then made a big statement declaring she is overdue to go home and chewed her drip out.�We are all in awe of Roxy’s�strong will to survive. She defeated all the odds!!! Needless to say, she was the highlight of the week for everyone involved at my practice.

This is Roxy 2 hours after she recovered. She is�looking very drowsy and unhappy in the cage.

Roxy is very camera shy. She sure�loves to wag her tail…

All my attempts to get a great photo with Roxy�failed. This�is the best�picture I could�get

I am on call this weekend and it has been fairly steady. I was mostly called out to treat dog binges. First I had to admit Flash for chewing a ice�gel pack that may have contained anti-freeze (ethylene glycol) which can lead to kidney failure 72 hours post ingestion. He was put on iv fluids to flush him out.

He howled like a hyenna as he hated being left alone in his cage.

This is him today still on a scavenging mission. He needs 24/7 supervision-worse than a child I tell ya!

Flash raiding the clinic trash. Don’t worry it was empty!

Flash giving the tragic�look for having the e-collar on & being kept in a cage.�Sorry buddy, you tried to pull�your drip out twice already!

Finally, I promised to talk to you all about Sky this week but will have to postpone her story for another week. Why? Well it is because her owner couldn�t bring her in for her revisit last Friday. I will be seeing her tomorrow instead and can�t wait to see how she is feeling and to tell you all about it in the next issue.

I will also be talking about Spot. I��treated him�yesterday�and he also had an eye problem. It will all be about EYES next week.

Related articles

Mixed practice keeps you on your toes (rayyathevet.com)

Filed under: Cows, Emergency Dogs Source: http://rayyathevet.com/2012/02/05/surviving-snakebite-against-all-the-odds/

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Rayya The Vet

I was born overseas and grew up in Lebanon. About 9 years ago, I left my family and friends behind to pursue my dream of becoming a veterinarian in Australia.

I have now been out in practice for the past 5 years. I absolutely love being involved with all types of animals and consider it my "calling". Whilst my job can be quite an emotional rollercoaster ride, I cannot fathom doing anything else for as long as I am living. I simply feel blessed every day that I am practicing what I truly love.

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