Day 28: Umbilical Hernia

                Today was another really slow day, with nothing much other than a few nail trims and/or blood draws for wellness tests.  When I walked in this morning we didn’t even have a single patient in the recovery room or dog ward!  However, in addition to those few appointments during the day, we had an interesting case.  Lauren and I were going to give Bellatrix, a stray German Shepard that came in sometime last night (the adoptive agency that was taking her had named her), a bath because she was very smelly.  As Lauren and Annette were taking her out of her run holding, Annette noticed a thick red substance hanging from her abdominal area: Bellatrix had an umbilical hernia.  An umbilical hernia is when part of the intestine comes out of the body through an opening in the abdominal muscles, usually where the navel is/would be.  We took her temperature as well, and it was a whopping 105 degrees F.  But even with such a high temperature, she was still pretty alert and wasn’t really acting like she was sick.  While Dr. Todd was calling the adoption agency to see if they would pay for the surgery and what the agencies’ options were, I shaved her abdomen area where the hernia was and where the surgery would be taking place while Lauren and Nancy held her for me.  I have never shaved an animal before, and I have to admit I was mentally freaking out the entire time because I was so worried I was going to accidently cut her.  I shaved her slower than a normal Tech and Veterinarian would have, but I was able to do the job okay and Lauren told me that even though I moved slowly (logically though, since it was my first time shaving an animal), I did a perfectly fine job.  It ended up I did give her a tiny cut near where the hernia was, which I felt terrible about when I saw it, but luckily it was a tiny cut and Bellatrix didn’t even seem to realize I had done that.  Bellatrix was very sweet and calm throughout the entire process, and didn’t fuss once.  She kept giving Lauren kisses while I was shaving her, and when Lauren and I switched places, I apologized to her for giving her the cut and she gave me some kisses too, which made me feel a little better about it.  Dr. Todd still hadn’t come back from the phone yet (it had been about ten minutes), so I was starting to get really worried about what was going to happen with Bellatrix; however within the next minute he came back and said he couldn’t get a hold of the proper person at the agency, so they were going to call him back within the next couple of minutes.   He took some gauze and wrappings and gently wrapped the intestine that was coming out to her body to hold the area until the agency called back.  About a minute after he finished, the agency called back, and when he came back he came back with the news that Bellatrix was going to be euthanized.  I was really shocked and actually teared up a little when he said that, because I didn’t understand why; the surgery wasn’t too difficult and she was a very sweet dog—she probably wouldn’t have any trouble finding a wonderful home.  The Techs didn’t really understand either, and Dr. Todd explained that she had other problems and issues (like distemper [a virus similar to measles in people]) that we weren’t aware of (in addition to the high temperature and umbilical hernia), so after talking things over with the agency they just thought it would be better for Bellatrix in the future if she was euthanized since she had so many problems and issues, especially already at such a young age.  It was a really sad moment (as most euthanasias usually are), and was kind of a downer on the rest of my day.  However, even though it was a sad moment to witness, I do realize that it was probably the best option for her since she did have so many issues.

Bellatrix, the sweet German Shepard.

The umbilical hernia.

Another view of the umbilical hernia.