Here's a practice-makes-perfect subject, and the one that I personally feel the need to practice the most. This is tricky stuff. And one of the biggest requirements to know.
Restraint.
Simply put, it's restraining pets for the vet's exam, for the tests or treatments they need...dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, lizards, ferrets, snakes, and more. Relaxed dogs, anxious cats, hostile rabbits, dangerous birds, aggressive lizards...or anxious dogs, aggressive cats, happy ferrets, hostile birds, dangerous lizards.....or hostile dogs, calm cats, anxious lizards, happy birds, sad turtles....well, you get the picture. Anyone can be anything. At ANY time. And a visit to the veterinarian's office can be a big, tricky stressor.
So, some tips:
Prey animals have eyes placed at each side of their skull. This provides a wide visual field.
Predators have forward-facing eyes, providing depth perception to help capture prey.
Prey animals have a blind spot in front of them.
Predators do not have as far of a side visual field as prey animals.
Prey have young who can stand and run shortly after birth.
Predators have young who are completely dependent on them the first few weeks.
So. Bunnies as predators then. Little bunniculas.
I kinda like that thought.
We must revisit those facts.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Good Grief (and Real Grief)
I apologize for letting the blog go so long without an entry, but life really interfered. It does seem amazing that I couldn't carve out 10 minutes....it feels LAME to use real life as an excuse, but the fact of the matter is that although I am a master (mistress?) of coordination my poor little blog fell by the wayside.
NOT by way of an excuse, but as a sharing thing, we lost another bun on May 18 - our eldest boy Dusty. Some of you I know already know what happened. Dusty had a prolonged bout of stasis in February/March. We couldn't figure out the cause, but because he was a prolific shedder when he shed (which did seem to be all the time), it was assumed that the excess fur he ingested while grooming was the culprit. Stasis is known as the 'silent killer' in rabbits. Typically it manifests in the bun refusing to eat something it always eats. That's when the alarm bells should sound. As a way of explaining, sometimes during moulting buns will ingest a lot of fur when they groom themselves. Or at any time they can potentially eat something that shouldn't be eaten (carpet fibers, towel fibers, cushioning, etc. -rabbits are prodigious chewers and will pretty much chew ANYTHING). The excess "stuff" makes them feel full, so they don't feel the need to eat. That's the start of the problem, because they NEED to eat their hay (which has fiber) and they NEED to drink (ESSENTIAL to their health). Without those two things, well, Houston, you have a problem. Their gut motility slows down. Gas builds up -which is very painful for them and causes them to REALLY not want to eat. Plus whatever they did eat stays "stuck" because their gut is not working properly to move things along. The train is not running on the tracks like it should. Picture a train having seizures. That's what the gut system is doing.
The fluid in the bun's last meal is pulled away from the stomach/intestines to go to the major organs because of the bun's lack of drinking. What happens? Everything in the stomach and intestines becomes drier. And harder. It's still there so they still feel full. Oooooh, but painful, too. So who wants to eat or drink? They don't. And that just makes the "stuff" drier and harder -and harder to MOVE. Then you have a huge problem. A blockage.
"Stasis" can take the form of a bun still eating a little, still drinking a little, passing tiny dry stool, or pointed-end stool in fits and starts and being generally unhappy with glimmers of hope, to a bun that is passing nothing, taking in nothing, and in a critical situation. Stasis is the result of something, not the cause. So bunny owners must look at stasis as having an origin. WHAT is causing it?
Going back to Dusty, it was thought that he was ingesting a lot of fur while grooming during his shed and that that caused his stasis. That's always a possibility in buns. Or eating some foreign object. Or pain from another source (OFTEN molar spurs which can puncture the inner cheeks or lacerate the tongue -note to self** must write about molar spurs at another time), infection, stress, trauma.
Again back to the Dust Bunny and his stasis....general anorexia...maybe eat this...maybe not want that. It was the strangest thing I had ever encountered in a bun who had an appetite like King Kong. The sun might not rise but Dusty would always want to eat. You could count on it even if you couldn't count on anything else in your life.
Eventually he began to eat again but not like his old self. He lost weight and could not regain it. One morning I noticed him holding his left leg up, in pain. He could not bear weight on it. Our vet found that the area around the knee was swollen, but it didn't feel like a normal swelling. She wondered if it could be a mass. X-rays showed there was something, but it didn't involve the bone and could be just inflammation, so Dusty was put on pain reliever. At his next appointment the swelling was reduced. HURRAY!
Short lived. In a matter of days, it was back again. And he had lost more weight. Aspirations of the tissue showed red and white blood cells, signs of inflammation. There was possibly an infection somewhere in the tissue so the vet put Dusty on antibiotics.
On the night of the 18th Jimmy and I went out to eat, and when we came home had one of those "I don't like the look of this" moments. Dusty was sitting in a corner, but I didn't like how he was breathing. The difference was subtle but one of the things I learned in class was watching for an abdominal tuck as a sign of difficulty in breathing. Dusty wasn't gasping, or breathing through his mouth (which bunnies never do unless it's an emergency), but his nostrils were flaring wider and there was that tuck. It was 10:30 p.m. but I couldn't go to sleep unless I knew he was OK. So, off to the vet hospital we went.
The tech who checked him when we got there confirmed he was not breathing well and took him to put him on oxygen. The doctor came in shortly thereafter to tell me that she had listened to him and while there were noisy sounds in the upper part of his lungs, there was silence in the lower part and that had concerned her enough so she had done an X-ray. She wanted to show me what it revealed. Can you guess? Tumors. You couldn't even see his heart on the X-ray. Area in his lungs that should have been black with air were white. His esophagus was pushed up to his spine. As much as it was startling, it was comforting because it EXPLAINED the last few months.
While the doctor was gently trying to tell me how bad this looked Dusty went into cardiac arrest....and died. I gave my permission for them to stop CPR. I'm sure that if I had not brought him in we would have found him dead the next morning and never known the exact cause. At least now we knew. The consensus is that Dusty had a soft tissue cancer in his left leg that over a short course of time metastasized. Nothing we could have done even 3 months ago.
So, there is real life. And real grief in the middle of saying "Good grief! There's been so much going on I haven't gotten to my blog!" But things go on, and that's as much a part of my learning about the veterinary world of life and death as it is my own learning about life and death. The lessons continue.
NOT by way of an excuse, but as a sharing thing, we lost another bun on May 18 - our eldest boy Dusty. Some of you I know already know what happened. Dusty had a prolonged bout of stasis in February/March. We couldn't figure out the cause, but because he was a prolific shedder when he shed (which did seem to be all the time), it was assumed that the excess fur he ingested while grooming was the culprit. Stasis is known as the 'silent killer' in rabbits. Typically it manifests in the bun refusing to eat something it always eats. That's when the alarm bells should sound. As a way of explaining, sometimes during moulting buns will ingest a lot of fur when they groom themselves. Or at any time they can potentially eat something that shouldn't be eaten (carpet fibers, towel fibers, cushioning, etc. -rabbits are prodigious chewers and will pretty much chew ANYTHING). The excess "stuff" makes them feel full, so they don't feel the need to eat. That's the start of the problem, because they NEED to eat their hay (which has fiber) and they NEED to drink (ESSENTIAL to their health). Without those two things, well, Houston, you have a problem. Their gut motility slows down. Gas builds up -which is very painful for them and causes them to REALLY not want to eat. Plus whatever they did eat stays "stuck" because their gut is not working properly to move things along. The train is not running on the tracks like it should. Picture a train having seizures. That's what the gut system is doing.
The fluid in the bun's last meal is pulled away from the stomach/intestines to go to the major organs because of the bun's lack of drinking. What happens? Everything in the stomach and intestines becomes drier. And harder. It's still there so they still feel full. Oooooh, but painful, too. So who wants to eat or drink? They don't. And that just makes the "stuff" drier and harder -and harder to MOVE. Then you have a huge problem. A blockage.
"Stasis" can take the form of a bun still eating a little, still drinking a little, passing tiny dry stool, or pointed-end stool in fits and starts and being generally unhappy with glimmers of hope, to a bun that is passing nothing, taking in nothing, and in a critical situation. Stasis is the result of something, not the cause. So bunny owners must look at stasis as having an origin. WHAT is causing it?
Going back to Dusty, it was thought that he was ingesting a lot of fur while grooming during his shed and that that caused his stasis. That's always a possibility in buns. Or eating some foreign object. Or pain from another source (OFTEN molar spurs which can puncture the inner cheeks or lacerate the tongue -note to self** must write about molar spurs at another time), infection, stress, trauma.
Again back to the Dust Bunny and his stasis....general anorexia...maybe eat this...maybe not want that. It was the strangest thing I had ever encountered in a bun who had an appetite like King Kong. The sun might not rise but Dusty would always want to eat. You could count on it even if you couldn't count on anything else in your life.
Eventually he began to eat again but not like his old self. He lost weight and could not regain it. One morning I noticed him holding his left leg up, in pain. He could not bear weight on it. Our vet found that the area around the knee was swollen, but it didn't feel like a normal swelling. She wondered if it could be a mass. X-rays showed there was something, but it didn't involve the bone and could be just inflammation, so Dusty was put on pain reliever. At his next appointment the swelling was reduced. HURRAY!
Short lived. In a matter of days, it was back again. And he had lost more weight. Aspirations of the tissue showed red and white blood cells, signs of inflammation. There was possibly an infection somewhere in the tissue so the vet put Dusty on antibiotics.
On the night of the 18th Jimmy and I went out to eat, and when we came home had one of those "I don't like the look of this" moments. Dusty was sitting in a corner, but I didn't like how he was breathing. The difference was subtle but one of the things I learned in class was watching for an abdominal tuck as a sign of difficulty in breathing. Dusty wasn't gasping, or breathing through his mouth (which bunnies never do unless it's an emergency), but his nostrils were flaring wider and there was that tuck. It was 10:30 p.m. but I couldn't go to sleep unless I knew he was OK. So, off to the vet hospital we went.
The tech who checked him when we got there confirmed he was not breathing well and took him to put him on oxygen. The doctor came in shortly thereafter to tell me that she had listened to him and while there were noisy sounds in the upper part of his lungs, there was silence in the lower part and that had concerned her enough so she had done an X-ray. She wanted to show me what it revealed. Can you guess? Tumors. You couldn't even see his heart on the X-ray. Area in his lungs that should have been black with air were white. His esophagus was pushed up to his spine. As much as it was startling, it was comforting because it EXPLAINED the last few months.
While the doctor was gently trying to tell me how bad this looked Dusty went into cardiac arrest....and died. I gave my permission for them to stop CPR. I'm sure that if I had not brought him in we would have found him dead the next morning and never known the exact cause. At least now we knew. The consensus is that Dusty had a soft tissue cancer in his left leg that over a short course of time metastasized. Nothing we could have done even 3 months ago.
So, there is real life. And real grief in the middle of saying "Good grief! There's been so much going on I haven't gotten to my blog!" But things go on, and that's as much a part of my learning about the veterinary world of life and death as it is my own learning about life and death. The lessons continue.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Fascinating Tidbits on Puppies
Here are some interesting facts that I've learned recently:
During a puppy's neonatal period (birth to 10 days) is the best time to have dewclaws removed and tails docked because they cannot feel pain at this age.
EEGs taken during this period show no difference between the puppy's brain waves when he is asleep and when he is awake.
Puppies that are removed from their mothers and siblings before 7 weeks old suffer psychological scarring. They tend to be nervous, bark a lot, may bite and be aggressive towards other dogs. "They will not realize their full genetic potential as a dog or companion." (So when are puppy mill puppies separated?)
At 7-12 weeks of age puppies are little sponges. Everything that happens now will make a greater impression on them more now than ever again.
True adolescence comes between 4-8 months old.
Puppies have 2 fear imprint/impact stages. The first occurs between 8-11 weeks. The second occurs between 6-18 months.
Imagine everything that can happen.....
I find it all so interesting. Much more to come!!!
During a puppy's neonatal period (birth to 10 days) is the best time to have dewclaws removed and tails docked because they cannot feel pain at this age.
EEGs taken during this period show no difference between the puppy's brain waves when he is asleep and when he is awake.
Puppies that are removed from their mothers and siblings before 7 weeks old suffer psychological scarring. They tend to be nervous, bark a lot, may bite and be aggressive towards other dogs. "They will not realize their full genetic potential as a dog or companion." (So when are puppy mill puppies separated?)
At 7-12 weeks of age puppies are little sponges. Everything that happens now will make a greater impression on them more now than ever again.
True adolescence comes between 4-8 months old.
Puppies have 2 fear imprint/impact stages. The first occurs between 8-11 weeks. The second occurs between 6-18 months.
Imagine everything that can happen.....
I find it all so interesting. Much more to come!!!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Preparing For A Euthanasia
Part of a recent class was devoted to preparing an exam room for a euthanasia. It's ironic because within 2 days of the class Jim and I made the difficult, but necessary decision to put one of our rabbits down. Cosmo was an elder bun whose right hip had deteriorated to the point where the ball and socket had just....dissolved. Though he was unaffected in the beginning, gradually he became more disabled. In the beginning he could still hop, even if he did lean to one side. He could still jump up on a box. He could hop down the hallway. Then we noticed him hopping less and scooting more. The lean was more pronounced. Eventually he stopped hopping entirely and just scooted when he needed to, taking longer rest stops in between. Then one day it seemed as though he was no longer even scooting. Instead he was pulling himself along by his front paws in a sort of hitching motion. In a short time his front paws took on the appearance of oars splayed out wide, and that pose helped him "paddle". A week later it seemed as though even paddling was becoming too laborious. Instead Cosmo chose to stay in his enclosure rather than explore. He could be found almost always lying on one side, curled in a backwards looking letter "C", no longer wanting to exert himself. He ate lying down. He still got so excited for treats that he would wiggle and make himself move, but we could see how difficult it was. His back end was atrophied and his body started to become twisted. Worse, the fur on the down flank wore away in a matter of days and I was afraid that his delicate skin would start to abrade and bleed and become infected.
Although he was on pain meds they were not ever going to be able to return his former quality of life to him. Cozzie, as we affectionately called him, had been reduced to a bunny grub.
And it was not fair to him to live this way.
So, we made the decision to euthanize him. According to my teachers, as hard as euthanasia is on an owner, it's also very hard on the staff of a veterinary practice, especially if they have come to know the pet well. Emotion aside there are certain protocols to be followed by the veterinary assistant(the parents and the pet go into an exam room right away, there is a soft blanket for the pet to lie on, a box of kleenex for the parents, a way for them to leave afterwards without going through a waiting area filled with people and their...alive pets. Things to ease the weight and sadness.) On the practical side there is paperwork authorizing the euthanasia and decisions about the body.
As teary as I was in the room with Cosmo in his last moments, I still found myself making a mental note of what my vet was doing, checking off items that I had recently been taught. The next day in class I think I did OK on that part of our quiz though sadly not just from what I learned studying.
RIP Cosmo Bunny. You were the BEST toy-tosser we ever had and we loved you dearly.
Although he was on pain meds they were not ever going to be able to return his former quality of life to him. Cozzie, as we affectionately called him, had been reduced to a bunny grub.
And it was not fair to him to live this way.
So, we made the decision to euthanize him. According to my teachers, as hard as euthanasia is on an owner, it's also very hard on the staff of a veterinary practice, especially if they have come to know the pet well. Emotion aside there are certain protocols to be followed by the veterinary assistant(the parents and the pet go into an exam room right away, there is a soft blanket for the pet to lie on, a box of kleenex for the parents, a way for them to leave afterwards without going through a waiting area filled with people and their...alive pets. Things to ease the weight and sadness.) On the practical side there is paperwork authorizing the euthanasia and decisions about the body.
As teary as I was in the room with Cosmo in his last moments, I still found myself making a mental note of what my vet was doing, checking off items that I had recently been taught. The next day in class I think I did OK on that part of our quiz though sadly not just from what I learned studying.
Monday, April 16, 2012
The Chemo Chronicle
Sorry for the delay. I must have been abducted by aliens.
So, where was I? Oh, chemotherapy. THIS is something.
Our recent safety protocol lessons (Remember I'm trying to reform myself with the needles? And did you see that gross arm exposed to radiation?) also included the clothing required while performing certain tasks like taking an X-ray or giving a dog a medicated bath. There are special gloves, gowns, masks, etc. for a variety of tasks, the overall goal obviously being protection from something you don't want.
Fast forward. There are some pets who come into the hospital once a week for chemotherapy treatment. (I think they are all or mostly dogs, but I'm not sure.) The chemo chemicals are delivered via IV catheter in a vein. It sounds relatively benign until you learn that the assistant who sits with the pet that is receiving treatment (to help keep it calm) is suited up like an extra in the movie "Outbreak".
You need:
and have on hand absorbent pads for all of the chemo agents, the IV catheter, etc.
This is just to SIT with the patient.
After use EVERYTHING goes into special yellow chemotherapy buckets except for the goggles (which are cleaned with alcohol). Chemotherapy waste is biohazard waste.
Patients also have 2 chemo bags; 1 for garbage, 1 for dirty towels.
Uneaten food= chemo waste. If the pet messes on the blanket it's laying on= chemo waste. Any discharge from the pet= chemo waste. All of this is segregated from everything else at the hospital and picked up by a biohazard company. Why?
Because the chemotherapy agents cause cancer if you are exposed.
So, knock me over with a feather.
So, where was I? Oh, chemotherapy. THIS is something.
Our recent safety protocol lessons (Remember I'm trying to reform myself with the needles? And did you see that gross arm exposed to radiation?) also included the clothing required while performing certain tasks like taking an X-ray or giving a dog a medicated bath. There are special gloves, gowns, masks, etc. for a variety of tasks, the overall goal obviously being protection from something you don't want.
Fast forward. There are some pets who come into the hospital once a week for chemotherapy treatment. (I think they are all or mostly dogs, but I'm not sure.) The chemo chemicals are delivered via IV catheter in a vein. It sounds relatively benign until you learn that the assistant who sits with the pet that is receiving treatment (to help keep it calm) is suited up like an extra in the movie "Outbreak".
You need:
- a chemotherapy gown (which is impermeable)
- chemotherapy gloves (thick)
- a mask (just in case)
- goggles (just in case)
and have on hand absorbent pads for all of the chemo agents, the IV catheter, etc.
This is just to SIT with the patient.
After use EVERYTHING goes into special yellow chemotherapy buckets except for the goggles (which are cleaned with alcohol). Chemotherapy waste is biohazard waste.
Patients also have 2 chemo bags; 1 for garbage, 1 for dirty towels.
Uneaten food= chemo waste. If the pet messes on the blanket it's laying on= chemo waste. Any discharge from the pet= chemo waste. All of this is segregated from everything else at the hospital and picked up by a biohazard company. Why?
Because the chemotherapy agents cause cancer if you are exposed.
So, knock me over with a feather.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Vacation Week
We had vacation from class this past week. It turned out to be a blessing because my little Escape had to spend a good part of the week in the shop, but she is back home now and good as new. Ready to bring me back to class on Tuesday.
The pets got lots of quality time. :)
Here is Keena today:
Doesn't she look thrilled to be an honorary bunny for the holiday?
Tomorrow it's back to hitting the books. Even without school work (and a car) the time filled itself with a ton of things to do.
Oh, I almost forgot! I want to share what I learned about chemotherapy. But darn it, I'm getting sleepy. It will have to wait until the next post.
Thanks, dear reader, for coming this far. There's a lot of interesting stuff ahead. I promise. (Good night!)
The pets got lots of quality time. :)
Here is Keena today:
Doesn't she look thrilled to be an honorary bunny for the holiday?
Tomorrow it's back to hitting the books. Even without school work (and a car) the time filled itself with a ton of things to do.
Oh, I almost forgot! I want to share what I learned about chemotherapy. But darn it, I'm getting sleepy. It will have to wait until the next post.
Thanks, dear reader, for coming this far. There's a lot of interesting stuff ahead. I promise. (Good night!)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Needle Safety
OK, here's where I need retraining. For YEARS I have been doing sub-cutaneous fluids on our kidney failure pets. (These are fluids that are injected by needle under the skin, to be absorbed by the body in addition to what the pet may be taking in by mouth.) I'm talking thousands of times I've done this, and lo, and behold I have just learned that I am not recapping my needle properly at the end.
Safety protocol dictates that you do NOT recap your needle using your other hand. Rather it's a one-handed sort of scoop of the needle into the cap which you then press against something to secure it.
I'm ashamed to admit I have used both hands (one to hold the needle, the other to hold the cap and then voila! the two are joined). The danger? That you miss the cap and skewer the pad of your finger. And have I ever done this? Of course. The caps are an opaque color and you think you're headed into it and then YEEEEEOW! Your finger's on fire and spouting blood like it's been actually cut off. Really it is amazing to me that the pets don't bleed like this when they are stuck. Maybe I'll learn why.
The good news is that I have only stuck myself with lactated Ringers needles and not with something that should absolutely not be poked into my body. The stakes are raised now.
I must reform. And throw away the Bandaids in favor of better prevention.
Safety protocol dictates that you do NOT recap your needle using your other hand. Rather it's a one-handed sort of scoop of the needle into the cap which you then press against something to secure it.
I'm ashamed to admit I have used both hands (one to hold the needle, the other to hold the cap and then voila! the two are joined). The danger? That you miss the cap and skewer the pad of your finger. And have I ever done this? Of course. The caps are an opaque color and you think you're headed into it and then YEEEEEOW! Your finger's on fire and spouting blood like it's been actually cut off. Really it is amazing to me that the pets don't bleed like this when they are stuck. Maybe I'll learn why.
The good news is that I have only stuck myself with lactated Ringers needles and not with something that should absolutely not be poked into my body. The stakes are raised now.
I must reform. And throw away the Bandaids in favor of better prevention.
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