Author: keely_murphy

My last day at the Triangle Vet Referral hospital was unfortunately not as busy as I would have hoped. However, I still got to see many things. I saw some more ultrasounds one was on a dog named Bailey and was used to locate the liver and the gallbladder. Once the organs were located, samples of liver tissue and fluid from the gallbladder were obtained using a needle. This process had to be done very carefully so that the needle would not cause any internal leakage and damage. Luckily, the procedure seemed to go smoothly. I also helped with dog physical therapy again which I have enjoyed in my two weeks since it is hands on experience with animals. Overall, I really enjoyed my two weeks at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital and I hope that I can shadow there again.

Today was a pretty quiet day at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital. However I still got to see a lot. Once again, I helped out with dog physical therapy and assisted the vet technician in guiding dogs through different exercises. One of the dogs was a pit bull named Bella. She had had surgery on her back leg, but you could barely tell because she was just as active and hyper as any other dog. I also got to see a lot of ultrasounds today, which are pictured below. Ultrasounds are very important in order to determine or rule out something that may be affecting the animal. One of the ultrasounds that I got to see was on a dog who had some foreign objects in her stomach which would signify further exploration in order to remove any of the foreign objects.

They had a very busy morning at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital today. From four emergency cases at one time to two surgeries (a picture of one surgery set up is below), there was a lot going on. Luckily, three out of the four emergency cases were not too severe and the patients were able to go home without any complications. One case was however more severe where a Maltese (a breed of dog) was rushed in without a heartbeat. The veterinarians worked fast with CPR and were able to get his heart beating. However, the dog already had a lot of medical issues since it was 13 years old and the owners decided that it would be best to euthanize the dog. Seeing that emergency case was a roller coaster of an experience and even though there wasn’t a happy ending for that dog,  I knew that he had lived a long happy life and this experience was an important one to have to get a full understanding of what it takes to become a veterinarian.

Today was a pretty quiet day at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital. However, there was still a lot to see. I got the opportunity to sit in on some ultrasounds, which are pictured below. In tv shows, ultrasounds are most commonly seen to be used on women who are pregnant to monitor the fetus. In veterinary medicine, they are more commonly used to monitor the organs within an animal and to check to see if there are any abnormalities without the use of surgery or another invasive maneuver. I also got another chance to help with dog physical therapy, which is also pictured below. I assisted the vet technician in guiding the dogs through exercises that helps them strengthen their muscles after surgery.

I got the chance to observe two more surgeries today at the Triangle Vet Referral Hospital. The first was on a dog who needed a plate and screws removed from one of his forelimbs that were previously placed there to fix a broken bone. This surgery is taking place in the picture below. They had to be remove the plate since it was not helping heal the bone. The dog was first put under anesthesia and hooked up to a monitor that monitored his vitals. They also shaved the leg, which was the area being cut into. In some cases, the preparations for the surgery take longer than the actual surgery. Once everything was prepped,  surgeon cut into the dog’s leg, removed the plate and sutured the leg back up. The second surgery was on a cat in order to remove a tumor that was located on his lip. The tumor had to be cut out and there was a lot of stitching that had to happen since his skin had to be stretched  to cover the gap that cutting the tumor out created. Many stitches later, the surgery was finally completed. The cat’s face looked somewhat normal and better than I expected minus all the stitches, especially considering a chunk of his face had to be removed because of the tumor. Overall, both surgeries were very interesting to observe and I am so glad to have this opportunity to observe these surgeries.

Today was another quiet day, but I still got a chance to see a couple interesting procedures and events occur. The most interesting procedure that I viewed was on a dog with gastrointestinal problems. The veterinarians believed that he had eaten some foreign object that he shouldn’t have as dogs sometimes do. However, they did not have to surgically remove anything. They had to put him under anesthesia (the image of the machine is pictured below) and they used a camera on a long tube to insert into his mouth and go through his digestive system. The camera tube device, called an endoscope, was connected to a television monitor that showed the camera’s view. As the endoscope snaked through the dog’s digestive system, I got to observe the inside of the organs involved in digestion. When they reached the duodenum, which is the part of the digestive system right before the small intestine, the observed the aggravated tissue. It was red and covered in small white bumps, which looked similar to how a sore throat looks. Using a small tool in the end of the endoscope, they took some samples of the tissue in the duodenum. They also used the same tool to take samples of healthy tissue in the stomach. While they could not find any large foreign object, they found a small unknown object that they decided to remove. After many attempts to grab it with the tool, they were finally able to remove it. It appeared to be a small piece of plastic that the dog had eaten. I really enjoyed seeing this procedure since it gave an opportunity to see the inside of an animal without needing surgery and it was an unforgettable experience to have.

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.