Real Veterinary Medicine
This week, aside from the large animal neurology test, has been pleasantly exciting.
On Monday I received orientation in the small and large animal hospitals and on Tuesday began a rotation through the small animal hospital. We saw chronic renal failure and a prostatic adenocarcinoma on Tuesday.
Wednesday I got to take the history and do the physical exam on an Italian greyhound which came in to have a bone plate removed. This was a first for me and therefore exciting.
Italian greyhounds have crazily small bones -- this particular animal broke its radius by jumping off the couch! There is concern that the bones may not be strong enough with the plate out. They packed the screw holes with bone grafts from the humerus and left a lag screw in place to hopefully deter any breakage. Glad I wasn't doing that surgery!
Today three of us scrubbed into surgery (this means you scrub your hands and arms with special scrub brushes and soap for 6 minutes, dry your forearms with a sterile towel, slip into a sterile gown, and don sterile gloves in a sterile manner). This puppy had an infection of the growth plates (physitis) in two bones. The infection apparently exited the growth plates and created nasty abscesses under the skin. Last night they drained 0.4 or 0.7 liters of pus from the area -- for some reason vets are more excited the more pus there is.
During surgery they inserted needles into the growth plates and flushed saline through -- for "dilution is the solution to pollution". This could lead to premature closing of the plates and stunted growth of those limbs, but it's better than the dog dying of sepsis.
It's great to start applying the information we'd learned to real cases.
On Monday I received orientation in the small and large animal hospitals and on Tuesday began a rotation through the small animal hospital. We saw chronic renal failure and a prostatic adenocarcinoma on Tuesday.
Wednesday I got to take the history and do the physical exam on an Italian greyhound which came in to have a bone plate removed. This was a first for me and therefore exciting.
Italian greyhounds have crazily small bones -- this particular animal broke its radius by jumping off the couch! There is concern that the bones may not be strong enough with the plate out. They packed the screw holes with bone grafts from the humerus and left a lag screw in place to hopefully deter any breakage. Glad I wasn't doing that surgery!
Today three of us scrubbed into surgery (this means you scrub your hands and arms with special scrub brushes and soap for 6 minutes, dry your forearms with a sterile towel, slip into a sterile gown, and don sterile gloves in a sterile manner). This puppy had an infection of the growth plates (physitis) in two bones. The infection apparently exited the growth plates and created nasty abscesses under the skin. Last night they drained 0.4 or 0.7 liters of pus from the area -- for some reason vets are more excited the more pus there is.
During surgery they inserted needles into the growth plates and flushed saline through -- for "dilution is the solution to pollution". This could lead to premature closing of the plates and stunted growth of those limbs, but it's better than the dog dying of sepsis.
It's great to start applying the information we'd learned to real cases.
posted by Claire at 18:47
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home