5/29

Today was a much busier day at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital. I got to view three surgeries! Unfortunately, I am unable to share pictures I took from the surgeries since I do not have the client’s consent. However, it was super interesting to see the surgeries. One was an ACL surgery on a dog, one was a tumor removal on a different dog, and the third was on a cat in order to take a tissue sample from the nasal cavity to determine if it was cancerous. Later that day, a dog was rushed into the hospital for pleural effusion which means that he had fluid between his lungs and his chest. The dog was panting heavily. They began to drain the fluid immediately by sticking a needle into the chest and draining it out with a syringe. I was surprised by the amount of fluid that was removed. The veterinarian set up an ultrasound machine to look at the dogs heart since pleural effusion can be a result of a heart problem. As it turned out the heart wasn’t contracting properly. They set up an electrocardiogram to monitor the heart rate, but suddenly the dog began the crash. They began to do CPR but stopped when they heard from the owner to stop. I learned later there is only a 5-7% chance of a dog walking out with no complications after CPR is performed. It was a sad situation to observe, but I understood that situations like this happen in veterinary medicine. While today did not end on a necessarily happy note, I was glad to have had the experience.

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