dog detects low blood sugars in owner

A client came in yesterday with his little chihuahua for vaccination and he told me that this dog was pretty special because it warns him that he has low blood sugars (hypoglycemia) which is a very useful thing if you are diabetic. He told me that the dog regularly smells him and if the dog thinks he is low, the dog taps the owner on the foot and growls at him until he goes and eats some jelly beans. I think this is amazing, he never taught the dog this. The dog just fiqured this out. My Wife is diabetic but our two dogs have no idea about her low blood sugars. What gave this dog the ability to do this? The only difference I can see is that the dog is the only and constant companion for this man and they have developed a very special bond, still this dog must have a special insight or intelligence to have worked this out. Meeting people and pets like above pair really make my day as a vet.

Dog bite wound, after hours treatment.

Our Dog fight dog went home today finally after 8 days at the vet surgery. It was a very happy moment, as there was many days that I thought the dog may not make it. He still has a large wound, but I am confidant that it will heal. This dog I thought was very special, a happy little sheltie that was a very good patient. All the staff had become attached to this little dog over the week, but we where all very pleased to see him going home. Sending home a recovered dog is a great joy in being a vet.

Again it was a very busy day with non stop consultations, followed by 7 surgeries, then non stop consults. Finally everything was ready to go home and I was about to walk out the door when in walked a lady with a cat in her arms, saying can we please treat the cat. We explained that we were closed and there would be an after hours fee. Then she started to cry and told us she had just been in a car accident and her fiancee had died, and now this cat was all she had, she only had $50 dollars cash. So we compromised and examined the cat. It had a very swollen paw most likely from a cat fight. The cat was a 2 year old entire male cat, never vaccinnated, never been to a vet before.
I gave it a shot of antibiotics and told her to come back tommorrow with more money and to get some more tablets. She was most grateful. but I had mixed feeling now I was late home to my family yet again and I think why do the clients with no money, turn up at the wrong times with very sick animals in desperate needs, compared to the good clients that make appointments, always have the money and bring their animals down when ever the treatment is needed. These are the people that really deserve our attention. I think it takes discipline to balance your life and sometimes say no to people.

way too much for a one man practice

Another day of drama at the vet. The sheltie dog bite wound was sent to the AEC over the weekend, they did a great job of looking after the sheltie but still felt that he need extra surgery and recomended that he go to the specialist center, but they quoted between $3000- 6000 for the surgery. that was not an option for the owner so they brought the dog back to our surgery, we already had a busy day of surgey with 5 planned surgeries, little did I know what was ahead. After finishing the routine surgery we started debriding the sheltie, but it was already late in the afternoon and we then had a cat with a broken leg, two dogs from the same house with broken nails, a fitting dog, a whelping dog. way too much for a one man Practice, but it is so hard to turn people away when they are desperate for help. I left the surgery about 8.00pm. thankfully Ihave the day off tommorow.

Parvo Puppy

Another Day, Another Drama, Again at about 5.30pm in comes a vomiting puppy, The owners had only purchased the puppy three days ago from the local pet store. It was a replacement puppy after the last puppy had to be euthanasied because of advanced hip dyplasia. We did a parvovirus test and it came back positive, well the owners where now in tears, they had already become attached to the puppy but could not think of outlaying at least another $500 to start treating the Parvo virus. We rang the pet store owner who could not believe that it was parvo virus despite the positive test. After much discussion he decided he refund the money and ask us to euthanize the puppy, after more tears and more phone calls there was a change of heart and he said he would take the puppy back to his own vet who doubted the parvo virus test. we left about 7.30pm. Two hours of heart break, being a vet is often about understanding the emotions of the human animal bond and balancing that with rational, economic thoughts.
PS the dog fight dog is doing okay, but late this afternoon he started to vomit and his temp was 41.0c

Dog bite wound

A owner walked into the surgery this late this afternoon, saying that thier dog had been biten by another dog. The dog was a Sheltie with very long thick hair, I had a quick look and I could see some abdominal fat hanging out, I knew it would need surgery straight away but thought it would be simple stich up. We admited him to hospital and got ready for surgery. After placing the dog on i/v fluids and anesthetizing the dog, we started to clip the hair back to find the spleen was showing through the skin and the wounds where quite intensive. I thought the surgery would be out of my depth, so I spoke to the owner and recomended he go the after hours emergency clinic, but he could not afford that option, Would I please attempt the surgery. So we opened up the dog to find extensive damage to the abdominal muscle and several broken ribs if was very difficult to piece it all back together, I placed two drains into the wounds and gave extensive antibiotics and pain relief. I spoke to Emergency center and they told me cases like this have a poor survival rate, that is 30% will die. After waiting for the dog to wake, we left the surgery at about 8.30pm. Another long 12 hour day in the life of a Vet.

Convenia injection revolutionizies vet treatment

Today I saw a difficult cat that was lame in his front right leg, he had been playing roughly with the other cat in the house and there was a tooth mark on the front right leg, So I suspected that it was a cat fight wound. In the past that would mean giving the cat one injection and then giving the owner 14 tablets to give the cat one tablet twice a day for 7 days. This can be quite difficult as cat get wary of people shoving tablet down their throat. Now with Convenia, it is one simple injection that lasts two weeks. I think that this is one of best advance in Vet science for years, It makes everybody vet, client and patient alot happier. Cheers Pfizer.bit.ly/12sUFo