When I
first walked in today, a Maltese mix named Molly was in the middle of giving
birth. She had started labor at around
2:00 a.m. (she was pregnant with four puppies), and the first puppy was stuck
in the birth canal for about four hours.
Her family brought her into the hospital around six, where Dr. Mark
surgically removed the puppy. It was, of
course, dead. Within the next two hours,
she had given birth to two of the puppies, and the third and final one was on
its way when I got to the hospital, the second one n=being born about twenty
minutes before I arrived. The last puppy
was born about ten minutes after I arrived, and Pat helped the mom finish
pushing the puppy out and then took the puppy to clean the puppy off and cut
the placenta (the doctors don’t let the moms chew the placenta because most of
the animals get nervous when they are in the vet hospital, and sometimes the
birthing moms will chew [since they’re nervous] and they can chew through the
placenta and actually chew on the baby.
So they don’t let the moms bite the placenta or clean the baby right
after being born). Pat cleaned the sac
off of the puppy sac, took a bulb syringe and sucked any fluid out of the
puppy’s nose and mouth, and Dr. Roberta then tied of the placenta and cut
it. Pat then finished cleaning off the
puppy, made sure all the fluid was out of the nose and mouth, and then gave the
puppy back to its mom so it could be fed and taken care of. It was an amazing moment of life to see, and
an amazing way to start my day.
Pat drying off the puppy right after helping the mom get the puppy out.
Using the bulb syringe to get any fluid out of the nose and mouth.
The amnionic sac and placenta.
The puppy (a girl).
Dr. Roberta tying off and cutting the placenta.
An X-ray of the mom before she gave birth. As it can be seen, she is carrying three puppies (this was taken after Dr. Mark had surgically removed the one that was stuck in the birth canal; the doctors wanted to see how many puppies she still had left to deliver).
Cleaning her puppies.
Happy mom with her puppies!
There
was also a poodle mix today who had an ear hematoma (hema=blood, oma=swelling);
her ear was thick and soft, almost like a pillow. Ear hematomas are caused by ear
infections. When dogs have ear
infections, they shake their head and paw at their ears a lot. All of the violent shaking can cause
capillaries in their ear to burst, and this causes their ear to fill up with
blood (hence why their ears become thick and soft like pillows). Dr. Roberta said that they sometimes put the
ear up on the head and then wrap it like that to the head, so that way when the
dog shakes its head, the ear won’t shake and therefore the capillaries won’t
burst. In the case of this poodle, if he
continues to shake his head, his ear will continue to fill up. This will be a continuous filling up and
draining cycle until the infection is healed.
Dr. Roberta drained the blood and then placed some anti-inflammation medication
inside his ear. She also prescribed him
a steroid to help ease the inflammation and help his ear heal. She said they try to avoid surgery because it’s
complicated to do.
The poodle's ear.
Another view of the poodle's ear. As it can be seen from this angly, the ear is large and spongey, like a pillow.
Drawing the blood out of the ear.
The blood being collected.
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