common snapping turtle

This snapping turtle came in with several shell fractures. Several on the top shell (carapace) which I repaired by drilling holes in the edge of the shell on either side of the fracture and looping wire through the holes to hold the fracture in place....and one big on on her bottom shell (plastron). Here is a pic of her on her back (under anesthesia)

and a close-up of the fracture....the arrow is pointing to it and the black line is parallel to it so you can see how long it is. It extends from one edge of the plastron to the other so essentially, the 2 edges of the fracture are moveable and keep moving up and done (dorsal and ventral) as it's broken all the way through in that area.

I wanted to try a new technique where I drill screws into the shell and connect the screws with wire but there were a few problems

-the fracture pieces kept collapsing dorsally (into the turtle) even with the wire/screws so if i just did that, the pieces wouldn't stay aligned....they would "V" down into the turtle

-once the screws and wire were in place, i didn't want pressure on the screws or the fracture, and once the turtle was upright (sternal) she would be putting all of her weight on the screws since they would be sticking out a bit (they don't make stainless steel screws smaller than 1/2", ugh).

-the fracture edges were VERY hard to align even when manually holding them together--they didn't want to go into their "natural" position which would make repair difficult

SO after running around the center trying to think of an answer, i came up with this...i found a plastic lid from a heavy plastic jar and drilled holes in it, then placed the screws through the holes and into the holes I had drilled into the shell--this prevented the fracture edges from collapsing into her body...however, since the lid had to be very rigid, it was difficult to hold the fracture in place while placing the lid, so the fracture didn't align correctly BUT it's not collapsing into her body; it will heal---will just take longer.

the next problem was that i didn't want pressure on the lid at all or it might bump around the fracture.

so i took one of those pool noodles, cut it in half and glued some thick pieces around the lid...

and then glued a frisbee onto the pool noodles

she woke up very slow from anesthesia and I'm afraid may not make it. Manipulating the fracture so much (b/c it was so difficult to align) and having her on her back for ~30 min may have been too stressful for her....we'll see over the next few days.

I love my job:)

I love my job:) I'm working 12-14 hour days, examining, admitting and determining treatments for 70+ new patients each day, rechecking the bulk of my 50+ existing cases each day, answering the phone and talking to the public when we don't have a front desk volunteer, examining nursery animals as they become ill and dealing with whatever curve balls come my way. I'm constantly multitasking and doing things i've never done before.

For instance, here is one story for tonight.

This American Toad presented very sick–she was very lethargic and her whole body was swollen. When amphibians (frogs and toads in particular) get a swollen body, it’s termed “edema disease” which can be caused by a long list of diseases–kidney disease, liver disease, electrolyte imbalances, and pretty much anything that can make an amphibian sick can cause edema disease.

A radiograph (pictured) showed a large amount of a mineral substance (likely sand/grit/stones) in her stomach (the white blob in the middle of the xray).

This grit was obstructing her stomach, not allowing anything to pass. The only way to get it out is surgery. This toad was so sick that she would likely die during surgery, but she would definitely die if we didn’t get the obstruction out of her stomach soon.So she went to surgery. By cutting through her skin and muscle layers, I was able to see the stomach, cut it open, pull the grit out and sew her back up. She survived surgery but is still very sick and may die despite our best efforts.We aren’t sure why she got the obstruction. Toads live in an environment where sand and grit are abundant–why did she eat so much to get obstructed? She was kept as a pet (wild animals never make good pets) so there is the possibility that having a limited environment and diet, she accidentally ate sand looking for food, or her insects were covered in a large amount of dirt–or perhaps she has some gastrointestinal disease that caused her stomach motility to slow, allowing small amounts of sand to accumulate over time–we’ll never know what exactly caused it. We’re just hoping we got it out in time and she’ll pull through.

some cases of old...

thought these might be fun to post until i start my new job and have new cases to talk about:)

A small mature dog came in having been hit by a car. He was quite shocky so we immediately started IV fluids and pain medications. Owners approved xrays right away and here's what we found.

It's a bit hard to see in this small picture, but at the tip of the arrow are several fractures of the hip bones.

When animals are hit by cars, they can go into shock for several reasons. This guy was incredibly painful b/c of the fractures--this and the trauma in general can cause shock. He needed to stay in the hospital on IV fluids to help get him out of shock and continued pain medications to make him more comfortable. Also, many problems don't arise until several hours or even a day after the trauma--things like lung bruising may not be evident on the xrays until the next day so it's VERY important to keep these guys in hospital for treatment AND continued monitoring. Eventually (once he's more stable-->either at the regular vet or a referral center) he might need surgery to repair some of these fractures.

After discussing all of this with the owners, they explained they had no money. They knew how much xrays would cost when they approved it, but couldn't really afford that. I gave the owners the option of euthanizing which they refused. So they took him home were going to try to find a low-cost clinic in the morning. I tried to give him as much pain medication before he left as possible, but there was a good chance he would die at home. very sad. and my hands were tied.

A 20 lb puppy came in for 'possibly' eating a bottle cap. The owner saw the bottle cap on the floor and a few minutes later, it was gone--no where to be found. The puppy was acting completely normal when it came in. We took some xrays...below...

Definitely a bottle cap in the stomach- and compared to the size of the puppy, it's pretty big! Would likely obstruct the small intestine if we let it stay there.

So I gave the owner two options: 1) induce vomiting--risks include the sharp edges of the bottle cap scraping the esophagus on the way up-->causing scar tissue when it heals--> causing a stricture--> causing swallowing problems-->causing aspiration pneumonia +/- death...a little extreme and not a huge risk, but it's happened before. OR 2) surgery--go into the abdomen, cut into the stomach and take it out, risks include normal surgical risks (death, bleeding, infection, pain, etc) and surgery is much much more expensive (we're talking ~$300 for vomiting and $2000 for sugery...). So the owner chose to induce vomiting and voila!

The bottle cap came up along with huge amounts of dog food she just ate. Since it came up coated in partially digested food, likely no scratching of the esophagus but I sent home a medication that would help an scratches heal if they did occur.

what i should have done is sat the owner down for a serious intervention about his choice in beer-Labatt's blue? c'mon! even illinois has some decent local brews.

pft.

interesting article

this article talks about how veterinarians are 4x as likely as the average person and twice as likely compared to other health professionals, to commit suicide.

http://www.myevt.com/columns/8/doctor-heal-thyself-stress-veterinary-professional

i just thought it was an interesting factoid--I think people usually think that being a veterinarian is less stressful than being an MD, but that may not be the case. Or perhaps the profession attracks those who are more likely? in any case, I have a lot more respect for private practitioners having been on. what a task.

here we go...

Sorry for taking so long to post, but I'm vowing to get back on track;)

MANY changes have recently happened in my life.

I was very unhappy at my job in Chicago. Several other factors also went into the decision to resign, so I did. It's not as easy as it sounds. After 2 weeks of my bosses being extremely mad at me and trying to fire me sooner than the 60 days notice I gave, we finally came to the agreement that I would only work until April 24th (30 days) but would have to work overnights the remaining time as they didn't want me working during the day and establishing client relationships as I was leaving. Add ~50x more drama and you have the scenario of my last month at the clinic. oi.

so then i was jobless. I did not have another job lined up. I had enough savings that I could likely not work the entire summer, so i planned to move back to madison and apply for part-time jobs, but more importantly, take some time off. Once Jeremy graduated in the fall, we'd move to where ever he got a job.

The week after I finished working at the clinic, a friend (Jeremy's roommate, Mike) collapsed while jogging, and after 3 days on life support was declared brain dead. I drove up to Madison late on a Thursday night when I got the news. Also that night, I got a call from the MN Wildlife Rehabilitation Center offering me a job as a wildlife veterinarian (my DREAM job!) to say the least, Jeremy and I were in no state-of-mind to make such a big decision so I got a week to let them know if I'd accept or not.

We spent Friday in the hospital and the weekend with Mike's family and friends. It was completely out of the blue and everyone was shocked. A very, very sad and difficult weekend, but it helped to spend it with Mike's family and friends. The only other bright spot in the weekend was that all of Mike's organs were able to be donated and save the lives of others.

***Make sure to talk to your loved ones about organ donation now--so they know your wishes-->which I'm hoping are TO donate-why wouldn't you? you're dead--you're not going to care where your kidneys or liver ends up!***

ok, done with that soap box. Seriously though--I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why people wouldn't donate their organs (assuming their organs are eligible for donation) and I can't think of one good excuse--so if you have one, try me and we can have a discussion:)

so after talking with Jeremy, I accepted the position. I'm going to be a wildlife veterinarian at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic of Minnesota!!! I'm SO excited!! Jeremy will be looking for a job in the cities (where i'll be working) so he can move up there when he graduates in the fall. yay:)

http://www.wrcmn.org/

I start may 31st so i'm packing up my apt in chicago as fast as possible and moving to madison for a few weeks (before I move FARTHER away from Jeremy!) before going to st. paul.

here are some pics of my animals:)

this is Murderface

that's Brutus towards the top and Goldberg towards they bottom. They are in their playpen.

Molly is all curled-up, sleeping in my bed:)

All the boys sleeping in their hammock!

Molly is often entertained by the rats.

Brutus eating some foods...

forever and a day

The clinic has slowed down a lot....they've cut the technicians hours b/c it's so slow...the tech's asked if the doctor's hours got cut and i laughed a lot, explaining that if i worked out the number of hours i actually worked with my salary, i make the same as them. cut our hours, ha! i wish.

I travel so much (madison or green bay) and my hours are NEVER consistent (from overnightst to days to afternoons to middle of the night 6 hour stints to godonlyknowswhat next schedule...)that I don't have time to volunteer at shelters (although I do try and volunteer at the wildlife center--see above picture of me and opossum:) or do any other extracurriculars (i'd LOVE to act again, or take more sign language classes, or mechanics classes...) which doesn't help my overall mood. BUT i was in madison a few weekends ago when a friend (who i graduated with) called to see if i wanted to help out with a rescue. >130 rabbits (plus cats, dogs, etc) were confiscated from a house based on animal cruelty charges--holy wow. I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I spent one of my precious days off driving 1.5 hours one way to the site and examined >70 rabbits (took over 6 hours-wow!) i wanted to stay and help with all 137 of them, but i had to drive back to chicago that night and there are only so many hours in a day...here is the news story...

http://www.channel3000.com/news/21611571/detail.html?ref=jsonline

It was a great experience and I was glad to be needed.

The only other new news is that I got some rats:) I've been trying to wait for rats to be relinquished at the clinic, but none have and i've been here for almost 6 months. So one day i said "i want to get some rats" and i went out and got some rats from a local shelter:)

The shelter had some young boys. I've never had young rats so I got two of them! After many weeks of debating, i have decided on:

Rube Murderface (it's from a tv series)

And William Goldberg

While I was there, I saw a 1.5 year old male (lifespan is 2-4 years, so he's already old!) named Brutus:) I felt bad that he might be spending his last months in a shelter so took him too:)

He's a sweet heart and actually likes to be pet--and miraculously- they ALL GET ALONG!!! so yippee for one HUGE RAT TUBE-TASTIC PLAYLAND OF AWESOMENESS!

other than that, not much new..jeremy is doing well (but far away in madison:( )...i really dislike my job but don't really have another choice so we'll see how long until i hit my limit....but in the meantime, if you can see it, here is the smallest patient i've treated so far--4 grams! a pygmy chameleon!!

more cases

(me spaying a bunny:)
Sorry it's been so long since a post. Here are some more cases:

Here is a chameleon. Many male reptiles have reproductive organs completely separate from the urinary system--two structures (phallus) called hemipenes. These hemipenes can prolapse, or come out abnormally (and the animal can't retract them back in).


Here, the chameleon's tail is to the right and he is being held upside down. His hemipenes are prolapsed (two red structures).

Initial treatment is to push them back in and suture the openings closed. If they reprolapse when you take the sutures out, they might have to have them amputated--which we can do b/c they don't contain any part of the urinary system. So, we need to figure out what caused them to prolapse in the first place and correct it or they will prolapse again (parasites, husbandry, hormonal causes, etc)

This bird has an abnormal beak (obviously...)

several things can cause this such as congenital deformity (genetics--had since birth) or liver disease, and can be caused simply from an all seed diet (seed to birds is like junk food--they need a balanced diet consisting of veggies and commercial pellets).


And of course i couldn't end a blog w/o showing a picture of pus (you've been warned)

here is a turtle who has an abscess in his ear (hard to see, but it's the swelling on the right side of his head). Turtles often get these because they lack vitamin A (b/c owners don't feed them properly--a lot of exotic health problems are because we don't properly care for them, if you haven't figured that out yet:)\

here is the doctor squeezing the pus out of the ear...

and here is the pus when it was out:) don't you wish you had my job?

what are YOU looking at??