Good case, bad case

Yesterday morning we were overwhelmed with emergencies and sick pets.  Therefore, I have a little show and tell for you.

This little one decided to try and eat a fish hook.

 Fortunately, most fish hooks don't make it beyond the mouth.  Not so fortunately, most fish hooks are barbed, which I presume make them good for fishing, but not so good for puppies.  This means that you can't just pull them back out the way that they came.  Well, I guess you could but it's way worse than the way I actually get them out!

This requires a short acting or reversible anesthetic and then pushing the hook on through the way it was originally headed.

Once you get all the barbs pushed through you can cut it and remove it in two parts.  Or three, if you cut too soon.

This kid was up and acting like a crazy puppy again before noon.

The next dog was an 8 year old intact female coonhound with a suspicious vaginal discharge and a white blood cell count through the roof.  Surgery confirmed the diagnosis of a pyometra.  In fact, with this being an 85 lb dog it was a pretty spectacular example.

What I hadn't counted on is this dog also had a tumor associated with the reproductive tract.  You can't see it very well in the picture but part of it (the part I could get out) is near my hand.  Not only was this tumor attached to body wall and some other structures, it was so necrotic and friable (decayed and crumbly) that it was already leaking blood and fluids into the abdomen.  And every time we handled it little pieces were breaking off that could potentially seed the abdomen with infection and cancer.  So, even if by some miracle I was able to successfully remove it I didn't think the dog had a very prognosis.  The owner elected to go ahead euthanize her on the table.  I'm not sure if this dog was just really unlucky or if the presence of what I think was an ovarian tumor predisposed her to a pyometra.  Either way the take home message is spay your dog.

This picture is actually from today but it cracks me up.  This guy is waking up from a neuter and looks pretty hungover!