Day 18: Ear (Yeast) Infection, Teeth Cleanings Are Important, and Herpes Keratitis

               We hardly had any appointments today, not even tech appointments; it picked up a little once the afternoon hit, but even so, today was one of the slowest days we have had since I started.  I walked a couple of the stray dogs in the morning, and helped the doctors with the few appointments we did have.  There were three larger appointments we had today, the first with a Cocker Spaniel named Toby with an ear infection, the second with a Domestic Long-Haired cat named Tequila Rose who had blood and eating issues, and the third with a Domestic Short-Haired cat named Schwarzenegger who had a severe eye infection.

One of the strays I walked this morning; he's a very sweet and happy guy, so hopefully he'll have no trouble finding a home.

                Toby came in to get his ears checked because his owner said he had been shaking his head a lot the past couple of days, and his ears had an odor coming from them—a sure sign of a yeast infection.  Sure enough, that’s what he had.  After Jen stained a slide (half with some goop from his left ear and the other half with some goop from his right ear) and we looked at it, his right ear was filled with yeast bacteria and his left ear had a lot of rod (bacillus) bacteria (which is another kind of ear infection).  We massaged some Mometamax into his ears (which fights bacterial infections, fungal infections, and inflammation), and Dr. Amanda gave the owner some other antibiotics for the infection as well as some Mometamax to massage into Toby’s ears daily.

Toby, the happy cocker spaniel.

Toby when he wasn't shaking and I was able to get a clear picture of him~ 

                Tequila Rose’s owner brought her in because she said Tequila Rose hadn’t been eating for a couple of days, and she was extremely dehydrated.  When Dr. Karen was checking her over and running blood tests (it was really hard to get blood from her—little to no blood was coming out of her vein into the syringe, and her veins kept blowing up like crazy; most likely because she was so dehydrated), we found out that she had really bad teeth and was in dire need for a dental.  While having bad teeth may seem unimportant, it was actually a key factor in determining what was wrong with Tequila Rose.  If the blood work came back normal (which it did), than the fact that she had bad teeth would have been the cause of her lethargy and dehydration.  If teeth get bad enough, then her mouth will hurt and she won’t want to eat.  In addition, bacteria could get under her teeth and then get into her bloodstream, which could cause an illness or infection.  Since her blood work and every other test came back fine, her not feeling well was most likely caused by a sore mouth and possibly a slight bacterial infection.  I gave her some sub-q fluids to help rehydrate her and Dr. Karen told her owner that she really needed to schedule a dental for her cat.

The blown vein (the jugular) on Tequila Rose's neck.  This picture doesn't really do the vein justice; her neck was very red (from the blood) and a huge bump formed where the blown vein was.  The blown veins in her legs were a less severe version of the jugular, the poor girl.

The Domestic Short-Hair, Tequila Rose.

                As I mentioned earlier, Schwarzenegger had a bad eye infection.  At first Dr. Todd thought the infection was Eosinophilic Keratoconjunctivitis (thickening and a bit of discharge on the conjunctiva [the membrane that covers the eye]; cause unknown), whereas Dr. Karen thought it might be Herpes Keratitis (activation of the herpes simplex virus on the cornea, which causes an ulcer as well as severe pain and inflammation).  After further observation and some book research, they came to the conclusion that it was most likely Herpes Keratitis.  Dr. Karen stained Schwarzenegger’s eye with some drops and gave him some numbing drops, moved his third eyelid to the side (he had it covering his eye since it was so hurt) and then looked at his eye through an Ophthalmoscopes Ophthalmoscopesophthalmoscope to check the eye better.  When she was done she showed me how to work the ophthalmoscope, and then let me look through it to see his eye.  It was pretty cool; I was able to see all the blood vessels and his infected cornea better, which as I said was extremely inflamed with an ulcer. Dr. Karen said that a cat will usually have an upper respiratory infection as a kitten; the infection will usually stay with them as they age, and then the infection will sometimes show up again as this virus when they are an adult (like chicken pox and shingles in humans).  She gave the cat some Proparacaine Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution (0.5%) drops and some Enisyl-F Lysine Treats to help fight the infection (the treats are specific to help reduce the severity and duration of the Herpes Keratitis virus).

Schwarzenegger's infected eye.  The third eyelid is currently covering it, but the inflammation and corneal ulcer can still be seen.

Dr. Karen staining the eye (the staining drops' color is the greenish color seen on the tissue) and giving the numbing drops.