The deaf Saint Bernard, Charlie. Normally he would have been up barking like crazy and trying to jump the gate, but I was able to get a picture of him while he was taking a nap.
The afternoon today, however, had a
few firsts for me; my first time seeing a torn ACL and ACL surgery, my first
time trimming nails on a conscious dog, and my first time measuring out and
giving medicine to an animal by myself.
The ACL surgery (or what we thought was an ACL surgery) was on the back
right leg of a Pitbull named Roxy, and this surgery was an interesting one
because rather than the ACL (anterior
cruciate ligament) tearing in the knee joint, the CCL (caudal [posterior]
cruciate ligament) tore instead; Dr. Mark said that it’s a very rare occurrence
for the CCL to tear. During the surgery,
he placed extracapsular (outside the capsular ligament of a joint) sutures from
the patellar tendon (tendon that crosses over the kneecap) to the caudal tibia
(the groove in the kneecap where the CCL and ACL cross) and fibular head (the
top of the bone that runs between the knee and the ankle). Doing this would make the tenants slip less, so
in addition to helping the torn ligament heal, it would also help prevent it
from happening again. After placing the
suture and sewing the incision up, he removed a small mass cell growth on the
inside thigh of the back left leg. The
mass cell was very tiny and not much of a lump at all; when I first saw it, I
thought it was just a small discoloration on Roxy’s skin. However, it was, in fact, a mass cell; Dr.
Mark told me that while most mass cells are bigger and you can usually tell
right away that it’s a mass cell, some of them come in weird shapes and sizes
and an eye always has to be kept on the lookout for them. This procedure was the same as the others:
cut a large (relative to the size of the growth) diamond shape in the skin around
the growth, remove that part of the skin and place it in a jar to be sent out
for testing, and stitch up the skin.
After this was done, Roxy was all set to be moved to the recovery ward
to be woken up.
This picture shows the anatomy of a knee (even though it's a human knee, it's pretty similar anatomy in dogs). As it can be seen, the CCl/PCL is crossed directly behind the ACL, partially why it's a rare occurance to tear and a tricky tear to fix.
Cutting away tissue to get to the tibia and torn ligament.
Dr. Mark feeling around to see what he has to work with. The femur can be seen sticking out next to his finger.
Moving the leg up and down to see how the kneecap and torn CCL move.
The drill and small drill screws he'll use to make a hole in the fibular head so he can loop the extracapsular sutures through and connect everything.
Drilling the hole into the fibular head.
Connecting everything (the patellar tendon, caudal tibia, and fibular head) together.
Suturing the incision up.
The area circled in black is the small mass cell that needed removing.
Making the diamond-shape cut in the skin around the mass cell.
Cutting/pulling the skin area with the mass cell off.
The last couple of things that I was able to do before I left today was
trim nails on a conscious dog for the first time, and give a kitten its
medicine. These were some big deals for
me when it comes to my hands-on experience, because caution has to be taken
when doing them, especially when doing them for the first couple of times. Since I’ve never trimmed nails on a conscious
dog before, I had to be really careful about the dog (Sandy, a Dachshund) moving
and pulling her legs while at the same time, being careful to not cut too far
down, which would cause her to bleed and feel pain. I was a little slower than the other techs
are when they trim nails (which is understandable), but I didn’t cause her to
bleed and the techs told me I did a very nice job. That, of course, made me feel really good
about this task! It also made me feel a
bit better about trimming nails. I still
don’t like nail trims (the anticipation of waiting for the dog or cat to start
freaking out is what freaks me out—I hate anticipation), but I think with each
nail trim I help with (or actually do myself, now), I’m starting to feel
slightly better about them. After I
trimmed Sandy’s nails, Nancy asked me if I wanted to give medicine to a stray
kitten (whom I call Cream Soda). The medicine the kitten was on
was Doxycycline V.A.L syrup, which fights upper respiratory infections. The dosage was 0.13 cc’s of the medicine, so
I correctly measured out the medicine (while also getting rid of the air bubbles
that came into the syringe with the medicine), and then gave the kitten her
medicine. Again, this was a happy first
step for me because each week I’m being allowed to help more and more with
medical tasks. The fact that I
understand the medicinal dosages and am starting to better understand the
medicines, in addition to the fact that I’m now starting to be able to give the
medicine myself, makes me very happy. It
also makes me feel much more helpful for the Veterinarians and techs, in
addition to feeling much more helpful to the animals themselves.
Cream Soda, who has the upper respiratory infection. Her eyes are red, swollen, and squinty becasue upper respiratory infections also affect the eyes (therefore, the eyes are a key symptom of an upper respiratory infection).
The Doxycycline V.A.L syrup.
The syringe (after I gave the medicine, hence the brown). This specific syringe is meant for small amimals, and it's measured in the tiny amounts of tenths of a cc (same as tenths of a mL).
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