Talked to Ashly my great Novartis Rep. and she was interested in our St. Croix project. The first thing she said was "OK, Take me with you!" I think she was thinking that it would be all about SCUBA diving and sandy beaches… "well, its not exactly a vacation". After we talked about the mission she said she would look into having The Novartis Company donate some suture material (used to close incisions) for the spay surgeries. Folks, this would be a great help and would give me a chance to try out some of the newer products on a whole bunch of surgeries. I hope they can come through.
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| Example of Dog with Endotracheal Tube |
Its been a crazy busy week at the hospital. Lots of great cases and surgeries. One case involved a senior Beagle that hadn't missed too many meals in her life (she had packed on some extra weight bless her heart). She was struggling with a history of a chronic cough that never completely cleared up with supportive care and antibiotics. It would get better then come back. We had been looking at this patient for some time and not able to put our finger on it. Her heart was slightly enlarged but there has not been a murmur and her heart rate was normal. Her lung fields were unremarkable for a senior canine. She never coughed in the exam room on previous visits. Her condition was quite perplexing until she came in this past Tuesday morning for additional work up and became very excited and anxious… I think she has "white coat syndrome", this is a condition that people suffer from when in the presence of a Doctor (who typically wears a white coat). Its almost a panic attack. Well with all the excitement she was panting like a freight train. Then she progressed into an inability to breath out. There was a distinctive "HUT, HUT, HUT" sound every time she attempted to breath. This progressed and got much worse. She was turning blue and needed help and needed it quickly!
I looked in her mouth and observed her larynx not working properly. She was unable to open the cartilages that block the wind pipe (these normally keep food and fluid from getting into the lungs). Having some background in emergency veterinary medicine, it was obvious that she was suffering from a condition called "laryngeal paralysis". This is called "roarers" in horses because of the noise they make. One thing about this problem, you have to intubate the patient (see picture above) to relieve the condition in canines. Well this patient (like most) wasn't about to let me place a tube down her throat while she had anything to say about it! This is where the "rubber hits the road" as they say. I can hear all my mentors talking in my head and saying "OK, what are you going to do now?". Folks I will tell you here and now, when you are looking at a patient that is turning blue and struggling to breath, the last thing you think of is sedating this patient… but thats exactly what needed to be done. I gave the injection and watched her become tranquil, then we put the O2 mask on her and masked her the rest of the way down with gas anesthesia until we were able to place an endotracheal tube. Vio La, she responded almost immediately and pinked up. We all breathed a little easier as we watched her rest comfortably with a normal breathing rate and normal vital signs. We referred her owner to the local Boarded surgeon for repair. Right after she recovered and was doing great I thought it would have been a great training video for some of the younger veterinarians but alas, it was not meant to be. Sorry, I would have liked to share it with you. Have to admit, taking pictures was a low priority at the time.
Well its back to work... stay tuned for more exciting developments for this adventure. Bye for now, Robin.
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