Day 10: Cysts, Ticks, Worms, Bladder Stone Surgery, and Fat Animal Pointers

                A few minutes after I arrived today, a regular client of the Veterinary hospital came in with one of her parakeet, named Captain Jack Sparrow.  Capt. Jack Sparrow wasn’t really moving, which meant he really must have been sick.  The owner didn’t understand why he was like this, because he was perfectly fine the night before; she said he was talking, eating fine, climbing and moving in his cage, antagonizing her dogs like he always does, etc., and then when she woke up this morning, he wasn’t talking or eating, and his head was down and he wasn’t really moving at all.  Dr. Kris took a look at him, but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  The owner decided to euthanize him because he seemed so sick.  Dr. Kris gave the bird some anesthesia so he wouldn’t feel the needle, but he must have died either right before being given the anesthesia or while receiving it, because Dr. Kris began listening for his heartbeat after a minute or so and she couldn’t hear one; she also couldn’t feel a pulse.  His owner took him into one of the patient rooms to say her  goodbyes, and when she was done we wrapped him, filled out his identification card, and placed him in the freezer out back so he could be picked up for a cremation. 

Captain Jack Sparrow.

Captain jack Sparrow getting anesthesia for the euthanasia catheter he was going to receive.

                After Capt. Jack Sparrow, a St. Bernard mix came in who had four large cysts on his behind area.  Three of the cysts were still under the skin, and one of them had burst.  Dr. Mark took him into surgery and removed the cysts so they wouldn’t hurt or affect the dog anymore.  Dr. Roberta also had a patient (a collie) today who came in with the same type of cysts, and she told me that these cysts are harmless but irritable to the dog.  They were all smaller, subcutaneous cysts (cysts under the skin), but Dr. Roberta told me that these types of subcutaneous cysts are like pimples; dirt and pus and such gets trapped under the skin, and when they are squeezed, a cottage cheese-like substance comes out.  Sure enough, she squeezed the ruptured cysts and a lot of this cottage-cheese like substance came out.  She then put ointment on the cysts and gave some ointment to the owner to apply once a day so the cysts would heal.  Dr. Roberta also had a cat, named Iarpinian, as a patient today who had ticks by his tail area.  He also had tapeworm segments by his anus area from fleas that he used to have (if a cat ingests fleas while cleaning itself and the fleas lay eggs, tape worms can hatch with the flea eggs.  Segments can drop off of the tapeworm while it grows, and can be passed with fecal matter), so she gave the cat some flea and worm prevention antibiotics.

The St. Bernard mix.

Two of the cysts on the St. Bernard mix.  As the picture shows, the one on the right of the picture is ruptured.

The St. Bernard mix after surgery.

Dr. Roberta squeezing a cyst on the collie.

The cat Iarpinian.

The ticks that were on Iarpinian; the largest tick actually still has a small piece of flesh in its mouth, which id the pink/red dot next to the large tick in the picture.

                A 22-lb cat named Simba needed bladder stone surgery and a dental today.  Dr. Mark performed the surgery, and he had a difficult time at first because the cat had a LOT of fat that Dr. Mark had to go through and deal with during the surgery.   There were only a few stones that the cat had: some really tiny ones, and then a few that were the size of BB’s with spikes.  After sewing up the bladder and the external rectus sheath (the tissue before the rectus abdominis muscle), he began to sew the layers of fat together, which took him a little while.  He told me they never remove fat unless they absolutely have to, because it could cause all sorts of problems inside the animal’s body.  In addition, he told me for future reference to be extremely careful when sewing the external rectus sheath with so much fat; he said that because there is so much fat, it could cause you to accidently miss the tissue and sew together fat instead.  This would be really bad because then the animal wouldn’t heal properly and have to come back in for another surgery, which of course they don’t want to happen.  So, he said to just remember that for future reference for when I become a Veterinarian.

Simba.  As the picture shows, he is quite large for a cat.

Dr. Mark Pulling apart and cutting through all the layers of fat in Simba.

Simba's bladder that Dr. Mark had pulled up so he could access it through the fat.  The white bubble next to the bladder is a large bubble of fat that was attached to the bladder.

The three BB-sized bladder stones with spikes.

Pat and Dr. mark flushing out Simba's urinary tract to make sure no stones were still in the bladder, and to make sure no undetected stones were blocking the tract.

Dr. Mark sewing the incision in Simba back together.