What's ur weird (good) case?

Re: What's ur weird (good) case?

Maya J — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:47:06 GMT

As a practice, we seem to attract bizarre cases.

we had a 10yo male neutered labrador turn up for an appointment (6pm ish in the evening of course) with a history of being 'under the weather' which translated in this case to hemoabdomen. However following an ultrasound scan -and i admit i am no ultrasonographer- i could not find a source of the bleed - spleen ok, liver happy etc, so we opened the dog up following various fluids etc. we discovered a bleeding mass behind the kidney with a ureter passing through it. after giving the owner a very guarded prognosis of this being anything nice and of us even being able to remove it, my boss peeled the mass off its aorta and dissected out the ureter somehow. lab report came back as a phaeochromocytoma and following a blood transfusion or two the dog is still going strong some 8 months later!! crazy.

as a practice, we have also had a dog with dysautonomia (one of the few i think that have been in the uk). there have been a few other randoms, but those were the most bizarre. i have started to expect the unexpected!

Maya

Re: What's ur weird (good) case?

Vikki Moran — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:39:14 GMT

see my post on the penile injury! that's the most interesting recent case! (belongs to a pub landlord so here's hoping it all goes well!)

prior to that i would say some of the most interesting cases I have seen include:

12 yo collie bitch with a history of pruritus, alopecia and self trauma to the tail and hindlimbs. she had had numerous skin scrapings, biopsies etc.. dermatology referrals and nothing had been identified as a cause. after approximately 18 months i saw the dog and noticed that she was beginning to show signs of hindlimb neuropathy, mild proprioceptive defecits, just detectable ataxia etc... i sent her away with a repeat for preds, had a cup of coffee and then a flash of caffeine induced inspiration! - neuropathic pain might cause self trauma! so we put her on low dose codeine. 6 months on and she's not traumatising herself any more, and the hair has regrown. of course the neuro issues are still present in terms of ataxia, but she's comfortable and the owners are happy.

I just saw a post op check for a colleague who diagnosed a 6 month old CKCS with a diaphragmatic hernia. this one went for referral for surgery. the stomach and spleen had herniated into the chest cavity. The referral centre suggested that the pup had possibly had it's stomach herniated for some time as the owners reported it was smaller than littermates. the radiographs are pretty impressive anyway!

Re: What's ur weird case?

Charlotte Marshall — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:16:21 GMT

I got called out to the side of a road to see a rottweiler which had been hit by an articulated lorry and was trapped underneath. I arrived preparing to draw up the euthatal just as they jacked up the rear of the lorry. The dog had hit and broken the front number plate and gone under the middle of the truck and ended up trapped under the rear axle. The dog walked out from under the lorry once it was jacked up with only bruising and a bit shocked- amazing!

Re: What's ur weird case?

Martin Jones — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:36:06 GMT

[quote user="Jacquin Mitchell"]

I once had to suture up a chicken that had been attacked by a rabbit.

[/quote]

I had to suture up a dog (mine) that had been attacked by a chicken (also mine)

Martin

ps I do remember, as a newly qualified idiot, seeing a dog that had gone head-on with a car. The whole of its frontal bone was adrift uner the skin, and moving freely. I phoned the local referral guy in a panic, having first put the absolute sh*ts up the owner, to be told to........ just leave it alone. I did, and yes it was fine, but I'll never forget the sight of the dog's head, for the next three weeks, inflating and deflating with each breath. Truly surreal, to watch an apparently happy dog walking along with the top of its head 'pulsing'. Best thing about the case? The owner ran an off-licence and was ever so grateful....

Re: What's ur weird case?

Jacquin Mitchell — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:24:43 GMT

I once had to suture up a chicken that had been attacked by a rabbit.

Jacq

Re: What's ur weird case?

Julian Earl — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:29:40 GMT

Are all these cases going to be cats?

Mine was a young cat having been hit by a car. Initial assessment showed a 1cm skin wound with some associated swelling in the inguinal region and lameness in that hip. Surgical investigation of the wound revealed a wound in the abdominal muscle several cm long with a lot of brown/necrotic macerated fat being extruded. Debridement of this tissue necessitated further exploration of the abdomen, revelaing, firstly, a spleen ripped in two but with negligible haemorrhage.

However, the most remarkable finding was the left kidney floating free of any attachments - about as easy a nephrectomy as one could hope to do! How the cat had not bled to death within seconds of having his renal artery/vein torn is quite amazing.

Oh, the hip? That was a mere dislocation that necessitated a femoral head excision several weeks later.

Re: What's ur weird case?

Utlendigur — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:04:28 GMT

Young Burmese cat (2-3yrs old) presented with cruciate rupture - assumed traumatic and repaired. Few months later the other cruciate went. Xrays showed changes in stifles, elbows, hocks etc suspicious for immune mediated polyarthritis. Also had raised renal parameters and corneal oedema. Various other tests including joint taps. Started on preds with poor prognosis eg may go into renal failure (although I was hoping it could be glomerulonephritis due to immune complex deposition), would have shortened lifespan, damaged joints etc. He is now 16yrs old - albeit with lumpy joints, crooked legs and a hell of a character! About 7mnths ago he developed a massive peri-renal pseudocyst (had been showing signs of clinical renal insufficiency + been on fortekor for a year or two) which was drained under ultrasound - again poor prognosis given, really didn't expect him last more than a few weeks. Since then we've been draining the cyst monthly and he's still going, although unfortunately I think he is now on a downhill slide as he didn't seem his usual demanding self when in last week. When he does go there will be a large cat-shaped hole in a lot of people's lives...