Week 8 Dutch's Tumor

This week was interesting and very informational. We had many appointments most were there for their daily checks ups and shots renewal. A few that stand out was Bonnie the mini aussie who was nervous during the appointment but still allowed us to take blood and other vitals. Then we had Oscar who came in Tuesday for teeth cleaning. The results were pulling nine teeth out of twenty. After the cleaning Oscar woke up quicker than most dogs that I have seen. His reaction to waking up was funny since he had his tongue sticking a little bit out. Then we had a patient that came in Tuesday who had a massive tumor located on her right hind leg. 

After Oscar's cleaning, I help clean some of the equipment and prep for Dutch's tumor removal. I didn't get to see the full surgery. Though I did learn by Dr. Dugun how they took the tumor out. Which the Doctor made an incision in the middle of the tumor, and scooped it out into a big tray and a dog dish. The tumor weight up to 8 lbs and a draining tube was inserted into Dutch so all the build-up fluid can pour out.  Dutch is currently still recovering from the surgery but she is doing smoothly dispute her age.  Dr. Dugun said that she will be going home soon. 

Before tumor removed

Tumor that was removed from Dutch

The tube that was used to drain fluid

Week 7 - Hookworm findings

Hookworm is an internal parasite that can be found in many animals. At my internship, I was able to see under their microscope what a hookworm looks like. It looks like a worm dipped in slime and it was still active when the sample was taken. Meaning it was moving around inside the glass lens. I did a little bit of research on Hookworms and the main cause is by animals either eating the larva of the worm. Or they don't clean themselves and keep their area sanitized. The scientific name for hookworm is Ancylostoma duodenale. Luckily hookworms are easy to treat and the dog that had it just need to take a dewormer for a few days. 

Another thing that happened on Tuesday was a tooth cleaning on one of our employee's dog. His name was Gonzo, an Italian greyhound mix. He was anxious and very nervous during the whole procedure. But didn't lash out or turn aggressive on us. After sedation, we clean his teeth and nothing out of the ordinary was seen and there was no blood during the cleaning.  One thing that did happen was how Gonzo heart rate and pressure were dropping and rising randomly so the dog needs more oxygen. At times Tracy had to stop to get an accurate heartbeat and pressure from Gonzo. Tracy was careful with Gonzo and made sure that he was not given too much oxygen or too low. 

Picture of Hookworm found in one of our patients

Week 6 - Teeth cleaning and X-rays

This week was more interesting than the last one. I was able to observe a tooth cleaning for the second time at the clinic. The condition of the teeth seemed to be in poor health and at least 20 teeth had to be removed from the west high land terrier. Tracy and Dr. Dugan told me that it's not uncommon for small dogs to have the worst teeth condition. The most interesting looking teeth were three merged together and there was only one root. The terrier recovered well and but did had a reaction halfway through the cleaning and Tracy our vet tech assassinated the dog through the whole ordeal. Other than that hiccup the cleaning went well. During this day I saw a cat who appeared to be losing weight and not eating much so IV's needed it to feed it and hopefully mention weight. It is currently unknown of what has caused this but Dr. Stamps ruled out that it might be a cat version of anorexia 

On Wednesday I help Dr. Dugan and one of the new vet techs carry a large golden retriever mix on the x-ray table. The sedation that was used was very powerful since the dog was asleep in less than a minute. The reason it needs to be x-ray was that the owner thinks that it may have broken their right hind leg. Since it was walking funny when the owner noticed. Once the x-ray was taken Sarah showed me how the front of the middle of the hind leg was shifting back and forth. She told me how it was not supposed to do that it needs surgery to fix it. 

Cat that has difficulty eating so IV's were used