On the second day on the job as a vet, Madison and I visited the Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital in Durham. I got there promptly at 8 and was fortunate enough to be able to watch the amputation of a cat’s leg while Madison was making the drive to the Durham location from the location in Holly Springs. The cat was getting its leg amputated because it had a sarcoma on its leg, making amputation the best option as it relieves the pain the animal is feeling faster and ensures that it will not spread. After that, Madison and I shadowed one of the head surgeons on the surgery team and got to meet a very lovely bulldog who goes by the name “Petunia”. Petunia was in because she has trouble breathing due to her pushed in face that creates the blocking of the airway because of the two large soft palette that is blocking the airway. Therefore, Petunia was booked into surgery for a plastic surgery on her nose to create larger holes for her to obtain oxygen through and a surgery to remove part of her soft palette. Then, Madison and I shadowed a patient who had injured her knee because she was a very active dog. We learned that knee injuries are the most common leg injury that the hospital sees because of how an animal is built. This is because an animal stands on all fours, meaning that if they tear the joints that are keeping the knee in place, the femur or tibia can actually shift positions. The surgeries that were presented as options to correct this issue was a surgery where if the table slant of the angle of the femur is too slanted, the surgeon will cut out a piece of the femur and put a plate in place with screws that keep the femur from moving like it was before. Another surgery that was presented if the angle was less than 20 degrees was that they would drill a hole into the Tibia and then stretch a suture to the front of the femur in order to keep it in place. The hope with this surgery is that over time, as the suture stretches since it will inevitably, scar tissue will form around the suture, keeping the knee in the correct position. At the end of the appointment, the dog was scheduled for surgery first thing tomorrow morning!
Our day did not end there, however, as we soon moved into the ER and Radiology wing of the hospital. In the ER wing of the hospital, we encountered one of the most ferocious chihuahuas that I have ever come across. I even helped put the muzzle of the biting and growling dog! In addition, we were also presented with a dog who showed lameness when he was walking, and the doctors asked us if we could identify which leg was lame. Some pointers and tips that were given in aiding our diagnosis were that usually if a dog is lame, they will bob their head up when they put pressure on that leg and they will walk lighter on that paw. Therefore, we were able to make the correct diagnosis of the front left! In this case, the dog was lame because of some problems with his back where discs were pushing against each other, causing his leg to have spasms at times. As we transitioned to the Radiology wing of the hospital, we studied multiple ultrasounds where we learned to identify internal organs such as the kidney and the liver. The kidney was the easiest for me to find as it much resembled that of a bean shape. Overall, it was a very fun and educational day!