As you’ve read about in some of my other cool cases, Emergency Veterinary work is never boring. Today let’s tackle a case that was a real doozy. I met Buddy (name changed for privacy) and his multiple humans after hours on a hot summer day…….
I was finally home after finishing another crazy day at the Animal Hospital. Most days were crazy busy, but the summer months are especially busy. My days are a minimum of 11 hours from the time I step into the clinic to the time I walk out the door. That doesn’t take into account the work done after hours at home (ordering, accounting, research, etc). That day was about to become a VERY long and interesting day.
Buddy’s owner called me on the emergency line not long after I arrived at home. She stated that he had been outside a few hours ago running around the many acres on their property. When she went outside she found a blood trail and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until she followed it to him. He was lying in a pool of blood and was not acting right. I asked her a couple quick questions with the most important one being “What color are his gums?” When she stated that his gums were pretty white, it further proved that he needed to be seen immediately. I asked them to rush him over to the Animal Hospital.
Buddy arrived with a very tall, thin and antsy male owner and two rather large female owners. One of the ladies was trying to explain the events of the evening while organizing all of the things she was carrying around in her bra……her phone, her money, etc. The gentleman was trying to hold Buddy up on my exam table, but with his antsiness and Buddy’s nervousness, it was not going well.
My husband, the practice manager, who acts as my assistant after hours stepped in to try to help me hold Buddy. The male owner stated that there was blood spraying from Buddy’s leg prior to them putting a bandage on before coming in that evening. With Buddy now gently but effectively restrained, I set to work doing a quick but thorough examination. His gums truly were quite pale and his heart rate had increased, showing his body was working hard to circulate the remaining blood he had. I next started removing the bandage. Boy, was he right. The second the bandage came off blood started spraying from the wound in his lower hind leg.
The two female owners promptly became very worked up with the spraying blood, and the male owner took one look and fainted. Yes, fainted. This caused Buddy to become agitated and he started jumping around, with arterial blood spraying everywhere. My exam rooms were small, with not a lot of extra room between the exam table and the door to the room. Buddy’s male owner fell straight backward into the door, and was laying in a pile on the floor. This, of course, caused the worked up women to completely panic. And, then there’s me - just trying to control the spray of blood in this room, while trying to calm everyone involved so that I can help this poor dog.
After a minute of trying to calm the two women, my husband ran around to the other side of the exam room door to try to gently move the man to the lobby where there would be more room. Wouldn’t you know that as the gentleman fainted, he broke the exam room door and it was now jammed! We now had two panicking women, one fainted man, a jammed and broken exam room door, and a bleeding dog. After a minute of jiggling the door, we managed to get it open enough to gently move the man to the lobby where I asked the women to sit with him as he was coming around from his fainting episode. Now, I needed to get Buddy to the surgery room, and I needed to get him there quickly.
I was concerned about fully anesthetizing this dog that may be going into shock due to all of the blood loss, so my first thought was to try to use local anesthesia in the area to numb the wound, allowing me to probe in it for the spraying vessel. That plan failed. Although this dog had lost a fair amount of blood, he was still quite strong and resistant to my plan.
A short time later we located the vessel! Hooray! Once both ends were ligated and the wound was flushed with a lot of saline we were able to close the wound, bandage his leg, and wake him up. Blood flow to the area in the leg would be taken up by his collateral circulation in the area. When I emerged from the surgery room a short time later while my assistant monitored Buddy as he recovered, I found the trio of owners patiently waiting on my exam room benches. The male owner was awake from his fainting episode, and the two women had calmed considerably. They were all happy to hear that Buddy was waking up after a successful surgery.
Before they took Buddy home that evening I gave them strict instructions to keep him quiet for the next 10-14 days while not only his wound healed, but also while his body worked hard to make more red blood cells to account for all of those he lost from his injury. I wanted to see him back in 14 days to remove his sutures, but earlier if there were any concerns.
You might think this was the end of my night! Remember the door that broke when the gentleman fainted? Yes, we not only do surgery on dogs and cats at the Animal Hospital, we also do surgery on doors after hours. With no stores open at this late hour, we got very creative with wood glue, clamps, etc! It may be 10PM now, but I had appointments starting at 7AM the following morning. Not only did Buddy go home good as new that evening, but I’m happy to report that the door could have passed for “almost” new by the time we left as well.
Buddy went home and recovered well, and at his 2 week recheck and suture removal appointment, you never would have known the trauma WE ALL went through that fateful evening.
I was finally home after finishing another crazy day at the Animal Hospital. Most days were crazy busy, but the summer months are especially busy. My days are a minimum of 11 hours from the time I step into the clinic to the time I walk out the door. That doesn’t take into account the work done after hours at home (ordering, accounting, research, etc). That day was about to become a VERY long and interesting day.
Buddy’s owner called me on the emergency line not long after I arrived at home. She stated that he had been outside a few hours ago running around the many acres on their property. When she went outside she found a blood trail and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until she followed it to him. He was lying in a pool of blood and was not acting right. I asked her a couple quick questions with the most important one being “What color are his gums?” When she stated that his gums were pretty white, it further proved that he needed to be seen immediately. I asked them to rush him over to the Animal Hospital.
Buddy arrived with a very tall, thin and antsy male owner and two rather large female owners. One of the ladies was trying to explain the events of the evening while organizing all of the things she was carrying around in her bra……her phone, her money, etc. The gentleman was trying to hold Buddy up on my exam table, but with his antsiness and Buddy’s nervousness, it was not going well.
My husband, the practice manager, who acts as my assistant after hours stepped in to try to help me hold Buddy. The male owner stated that there was blood spraying from Buddy’s leg prior to them putting a bandage on before coming in that evening. With Buddy now gently but effectively restrained, I set to work doing a quick but thorough examination. His gums truly were quite pale and his heart rate had increased, showing his body was working hard to circulate the remaining blood he had. I next started removing the bandage. Boy, was he right. The second the bandage came off blood started spraying from the wound in his lower hind leg.
The two female owners promptly became very worked up with the spraying blood, and the male owner took one look and fainted. Yes, fainted. This caused Buddy to become agitated and he started jumping around, with arterial blood spraying everywhere. My exam rooms were small, with not a lot of extra room between the exam table and the door to the room. Buddy’s male owner fell straight backward into the door, and was laying in a pile on the floor. This, of course, caused the worked up women to completely panic. And, then there’s me - just trying to control the spray of blood in this room, while trying to calm everyone involved so that I can help this poor dog.
After a minute of trying to calm the two women, my husband ran around to the other side of the exam room door to try to gently move the man to the lobby where there would be more room. Wouldn’t you know that as the gentleman fainted, he broke the exam room door and it was now jammed! We now had two panicking women, one fainted man, a jammed and broken exam room door, and a bleeding dog. After a minute of jiggling the door, we managed to get it open enough to gently move the man to the lobby where I asked the women to sit with him as he was coming around from his fainting episode. Now, I needed to get Buddy to the surgery room, and I needed to get him there quickly.
I was concerned about fully anesthetizing this dog that may be going into shock due to all of the blood loss, so my first thought was to try to use local anesthesia in the area to numb the wound, allowing me to probe in it for the spraying vessel. That plan failed. Although this dog had lost a fair amount of blood, he was still quite strong and resistant to my plan.
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| Courtesy DVM 360 |
I knew that we needed more help and needed it quickly, so I sent an urgent text to all of my assistants asking whoever was closest to get there as quickly as possible. Thankfully, one of my assistants who lived in town was available and was there within minutes. We proceeded to quickly and safely anesthetize Buddy so that we could fully explore this small wound and find the vessel in question. Now, when a vessel is cut in two, it doesn’t stay in place in the wound. Our vessels are under a small amount of tension in our bodies. So, when this vessel was torn, both ends contracted back into their respective sides of the wound, making it very difficult to locate. This combined with the fact that the wound was constantly filling with a large amount of blood made this quite the task!
Before they took Buddy home that evening I gave them strict instructions to keep him quiet for the next 10-14 days while not only his wound healed, but also while his body worked hard to make more red blood cells to account for all of those he lost from his injury. I wanted to see him back in 14 days to remove his sutures, but earlier if there were any concerns.
You might think this was the end of my night! Remember the door that broke when the gentleman fainted? Yes, we not only do surgery on dogs and cats at the Animal Hospital, we also do surgery on doors after hours. With no stores open at this late hour, we got very creative with wood glue, clamps, etc! It may be 10PM now, but I had appointments starting at 7AM the following morning. Not only did Buddy go home good as new that evening, but I’m happy to report that the door could have passed for “almost” new by the time we left as well.
Buddy went home and recovered well, and at his 2 week recheck and suture removal appointment, you never would have known the trauma WE ALL went through that fateful evening.
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