Crazy Dog
I wanted to attend a Socratic Club debate yesterday evening (which my friend Casey discusses so well here)... but last Friday I RSVP'd about the Northwest Equine Practitioners Association Monday evening meeting, saying I'd attend. It would look bad to not go after saying I would -- or so I thought -- and I thought it might be a good chance to connect with some veterinarians -- and etc -- so I went.
It was a dinner meeting held in one of the conference rooms at the Wilsonville Holiday Inn. This fellow, Barry Ball, DVM from the vet school in Davis, CA came up to talk about breeding issues in older mares and stallions. It was neat how well the lecture complemented what I've been learning in theriogenology. There were a number of vets at the meeting whom I have spoken to (even two whom I shadowed during freshman spring quarter) or heard about -- interesting to finally see the legendary Ben Braat, whom our farrier likes to talk about.
***
Time moves quickly for me -- there's a lot going on these days -- but for some reason it seems longer than a week ago that I was monitoring the Old Dog with a New Trick.
I was the surgeon's assistant today, which is probably the least stressful role in surgery lab because the assistant is not responsible for anything in particular. However, the time was not without its excitement.
For starters, the dog was a very hyper black chow mix that kept lunging at dogs and people (I think it had friendly enough intentions... but it was still a spaz). Her name is Molly -- too calm and old fashioned a name for such a dog -- but then, maybe Molly from the American Girls books was sort of crazy. I don't precisely recall.
Anyway, I tried to restrain her head so the student anesthetist could premedicate her (with acepromazine? and morphine), and she tried to wiggle from my grasp. Knowing the chow reputation and not taking a fancy to being bitten, I was concerned with the freedom her head was taking. We put a muzzle on her (she tried to pull it off), I restrained her head, LO restrained her elsewhere and AS injected into the epaxial muscles. Just as she was finishing the injection, Molly jerked and the syringe came off the needle (which bent). It seemed like AS had injected most of the drugs so we waited to see if the dog would settle down. After a long time we put the dog on the operating table to set a catheter in its leg. She layed there until AS turned the clippers on and proceeded toward clipping the leg, and then she tried to scoot backwards to get away (most premedicated dogs just lay there). Dr. Mosley came over, we applied our joint forces to the dog... she was unmanageable and we gave her up to extra drugs. An injection of medetomidine (which should have really zonked her), more waiting, and Molly was sort of groggy but still willing to put up a fight (I joked that she must be a drug-user -- she seemed rather refractory to anesthetics. But maybe she had filled her receptors with neurotransmitters and there was little place for the drugs to bind. I know it works that way with medetomidine, but I don't think morphine is the same). This time Mosley took the head (I was only too happy to relinquish the position), I the back legs and AS got the catheter in. She induced Molly and hooked her up to inhalation anesthesia.
All went well... for 45 minutes.... and then the medetomidine wore off and Molly tried to get off the operating table. Thankfully the surgeon hadn't cut into her yet. I missed that part.
I've got to work on an electrocardiogram take home exam tonight (it's due tomorrow), so au revoir.
It was a dinner meeting held in one of the conference rooms at the Wilsonville Holiday Inn. This fellow, Barry Ball, DVM from the vet school in Davis, CA came up to talk about breeding issues in older mares and stallions. It was neat how well the lecture complemented what I've been learning in theriogenology. There were a number of vets at the meeting whom I have spoken to (even two whom I shadowed during freshman spring quarter) or heard about -- interesting to finally see the legendary Ben Braat, whom our farrier likes to talk about.
I was the surgeon's assistant today, which is probably the least stressful role in surgery lab because the assistant is not responsible for anything in particular. However, the time was not without its excitement.
For starters, the dog was a very hyper black chow mix that kept lunging at dogs and people (I think it had friendly enough intentions... but it was still a spaz). Her name is Molly -- too calm and old fashioned a name for such a dog -- but then, maybe Molly from the American Girls books was sort of crazy. I don't precisely recall.
Anyway, I tried to restrain her head so the student anesthetist could premedicate her (with acepromazine? and morphine), and she tried to wiggle from my grasp. Knowing the chow reputation and not taking a fancy to being bitten, I was concerned with the freedom her head was taking. We put a muzzle on her (she tried to pull it off), I restrained her head, LO restrained her elsewhere and AS injected into the epaxial muscles. Just as she was finishing the injection, Molly jerked and the syringe came off the needle (which bent). It seemed like AS had injected most of the drugs so we waited to see if the dog would settle down. After a long time we put the dog on the operating table to set a catheter in its leg. She layed there until AS turned the clippers on and proceeded toward clipping the leg, and then she tried to scoot backwards to get away (most premedicated dogs just lay there). Dr. Mosley came over, we applied our joint forces to the dog... she was unmanageable and we gave her up to extra drugs. An injection of medetomidine (which should have really zonked her), more waiting, and Molly was sort of groggy but still willing to put up a fight (I joked that she must be a drug-user -- she seemed rather refractory to anesthetics. But maybe she had filled her receptors with neurotransmitters and there was little place for the drugs to bind. I know it works that way with medetomidine, but I don't think morphine is the same). This time Mosley took the head (I was only too happy to relinquish the position), I the back legs and AS got the catheter in. She induced Molly and hooked her up to inhalation anesthesia.
All went well... for 45 minutes.... and then the medetomidine wore off and Molly tried to get off the operating table. Thankfully the surgeon hadn't cut into her yet. I missed that part.
I've got to work on an electrocardiogram take home exam tonight (it's due tomorrow), so au revoir.
posted by Claire at 21:14
1 Comments:
Wow - chow - medetomidine - what fun! We seem to get sweet animals, but every time I am assisting our patient tries to wake up, and LD starts yelling about "Mt Vesuvius" intestines and distracting the anesthetist.
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