Emergency Vet Is this normal?
 

My niece recently had to take her wolf mix pup to the emergency vet. She let her out is the backyard, and when she checked on her she was laying in the grass. She called her and she didn't even seem to hear her so she went to get her and found her side was bleeding and she "wasn't acting right". This was probably around 8:30pm or so she called me and I gave her the number for the closest vet to her that had emergency services.

Her mom text me an update later that night. Saying the vet said he thought the had a mean neighbor (meaning someone shot her), but she may have been impaled on a piece of chain link fence or something. He gave her an antibiotic, and a shot for pain, and started her on oxygen, and said he would run tests in the morning to see if there was any internal problems.

The dog is home now, and seems to be doing really well. She was shot with a pellet gun and the pellet was lodged near her spine. He left it in because it was too close to the spine and he was afraid it would do more damage taking it out. It had hit one of her lungs and collapsed it.

I've never actually had to go to an emergency vet before, but waiting until morning to run the tests seems like it could very easily had killed the dog had it been any worse. Is it normal or just a horrible vet?

i am not sure exactly what your questions is, are you asking if we think the treatment is normal. That is hard to say since we are not vets and were not there, but I would tend to go along with there decision since they often face more trama that your general day time vet. Also their fees are higher and I sometimes think overtreat so if they did not want to do more surgery I would think that was a sign the dog did not really need it.

It's a shame someone would shoot a puppy, but I also think some people will probably not be to keen on having a wolf mix as a neighbor I know I would not be, but I would also not try to get rid of it that way either. I hope they can find out who did it.

How awful that someone shot your niece's dog! I'm glad to hear she is doing well now.

I would not be happy with an ER vet who waited until morning to determine what was wrong.

I guess I am still confused, I assumed they did the tests like x rays or an ultrasound that evening, is that not what happend, if not who did the tests and decided not to remove the bullet

Hope she will be okay. People can be so cruel.

That is odd but Im not that vet so I dont know why he did not do tests unless maybe she came in in shock and they didnt want to take any risks

Having spent one too many nights at the Emergency vet...so by experience only, I think that the vet more than likely needed to stabilize the dog first, some tests require sedation etc., I'm guessing that vitals etc., presented within acceptable limits of allowing them time to stabilize, monitor, prepare etc., had the dog gone in to a state of decline things probably would have moved along much faster. Remember each case is different, circumstances usually dictate order of procedures, I think!

Also, many times words get lost in translation to us distressed owners, she may not recall all that was explained to her at that time so her relay of info. may be "off".

I am so glad that everything worked out though, its hard to believe people can be so callous toward animals, I hope he is up and about quickly!

Wild animals, Yorkies, cats, and exotics can get very stressed when getting treated by a vet. Very important to at least get the animal stabilized, then go from there.

It all depends on the injury or illness, the animal's attitude and personality, breed, age, etc. as to how well they accept treatment. Just the act of drawing blood, moving the animal around and restraining it for xrays and such can stress their system and cause them to crash after the animal went through being injured then whatever the vet had to do to get him stable. So knowing when to stop and give the animal time to recover from the initial shock of injury and treatment is a sign of a good vet.

My thoughts are running along with KJC's and some of the others. Dogs like people can die from shock. It is important to get them stabilized and often that means IVs and some meds before more testing can be done.

People are sick.

Sorry this happened.

I've left the ER vet and was told to go to my vet first thing in the morning.

I think most emergency vets would run tests to diagnose and treat an uncondition as soon as they figured the animal was stable and that might have meant waiting for a deflated lung to inflate, O2 levels to increase or something, once the wound was treated and closed.

They did the tests (I assumed an xray not totally sure) the next morning not the night she brought her in.

It just kind of freaked me out that he waited so long, I can't imagine a person waiting like that, but I've never really seem anyone hurt too bad either, so I guess it makes a little more sense with what you guys are saying.

In order to treat an animal or a human properly a diagnosis is needed. Starting an IV and putting the dog on O2 would be basic standard procedure. If the dog was not responding normally and there was an apparent wound, x rays would be standard and should be done as soon as possible. An emergency vet should have a portable x-ray machine that would not disturb the dog's stabilization at all and would have certainly helped the doctor to obtain the very needed diagnosis. There is no excuse for not doing an x-ray on an injured dog in an emergency situation, especially with the possibility of a gun shot wound. What if there had been internal bleeding? A collapsed lung is not to be left over night either. With so many unknown possibilities in this situation, an unobserved injury, there are many tests that could have been done. Just starting an IV gives the the opportunity to obtain blood for testing. It seems they did the very basic things that could be done.

Maybe they were under staffed and unprepared to deal with the situation. Maybe another emergency was going on at the same time. What ever the reason was they did take a big risk in leaving an internal injury undiagnosed until morning and this is not what an emergency room is for. It sounds like they were waiting for someone who knew what they were doing to show up.

I hope the owner reported the gunshot to the police. It is illegal to shoot any domestic animal with a pellet gun. Who ever did it should be charged and be responsible for the vet bills.

If it were me I would take the dog to a specialist to look at that pellet by the spine. I would certainly want a second opinion of the whole situation.

Having worked a few years in a 24 hr animal ER, nothing this vet did sounds out of line to me.

Yes, many times surgeries are put off until a specialist is called in the morning, if it is determined that the animal is stabile and can survive.

Most Animal ERs are not 'fully' staffed overnight. Occassionally vets/specialists are called for advise or called in for surgeries that cannot wait. There are specialties in Vet Medicine, one is Emergency medicine. One thing you don't want is to have all your vets tied up in surgeries that could have waited till morning when you have more emergencies on their way in.

Many Animal ER's do not have all of the most up to date equipment. Even if they did, having everything needed does not save all animals, even when their conditions are not as life-threatening as others. Stress is a major factor.

When an animal is hurt, they go into fight or flight mentality. People do too. The difference is, you can tell a person, hey, we're here to help you, you're going to be okay. They will understand you, in most cases. Animals don't understand, their bodies and minds stay geared up. They don't understand that the vet and all the strangers around them are trying to help them, especially when they are poking and prodding and sticking needles in them.

And they don't do this with people? Last month my DD's feeding tube started leaking. The feeding tube is the only way she gets nourishment and her medications to control her seizures. She got to the ER on a Friday afternoon. The doc determined she needed to be put under anesthesia to have her tube replaced. This surgery was put off until Monday(?). An IV was not started on her till the next day, so she had no 'food' or meds for close to 24 hours. She was admitted to the hospital for 4 days before the tube replacement, so she needed to be weened back onto her normal daily rations, which I did at home. By the time I found my way back to the waiting room, the surgery was done! This couldn't have been done on Friday?

If a clinic calls it's self and "emergency" clinic it had darn well better be equipped to preform as an emergency clinic. Sticking in an IV and injecting pain medication is not stabilizing a patient. You cannot stabilize a patient that has not even been diagnosed. Your relative's situation has noting to do with an injured dog that "could have been impaled" "could have been shot" and has basically unknown injuries. You go to a 24 hour emergency clinic to receive 24 hour emergency care. Leaving a dog with an undiagnosed collapsed lung and undetermined internal bleeding until morning is neglect at the very least. A 24 hour emergency vet clinic charges more than twice as much money than a regular clinic because they are supposed to be staffed and equipped to handle emergencies at any time of day. The care that dog got is deplorable and they have no right to call themselves anything that resembles a place that renders emergency care to animals. It is unfortunate that such places are allowed to identify themselves as such.

I can't say how many animals are brought into any ER on any given day where the owners have no clue what happened to their pet and the pet cannot talk to tell the vet where it hurts.

Many times a final diagnosis is not determined until the following day or even later. If the vets wait for a diagnosis, many animals would be lost. Pets in an ER are triaged, and the more severe cases are treated in that order.

ABC's (airway, breathing, circulation). Internal bleeding will usually show as swelling in the abdomen, and pale gum color. With a GSW (gun shot (pellets) wound) or IFO (Impalement with a Foreign Object), alot of times sounds worse than it is. Depending on the sharpness and speed of the object doing the penetration, not every organ in the body is necessarily affected. Organs have the ability to move out of the way of incoming foreign invaders, and small internal wounds can heal on their own, the blood will clot given time. Fluids and an abdominal wrap are supportive care. The fluids can treat shock and repressurize the circulatory system from blood loss, the abdominal wrap prevents extensive blood loss by stopping the abdomen from expanding further. Like using the dog's own body as a pressure bandage.

If a vet cuts open a dog without first trying to control some of the bleeding from multiple injuries in this manner, the dog will more than likely bleed out. If the liver is wounded, that may require surgical intervention, if the dog is still showing signs of internal bleeding.

A collapsed lung will be found on the initial exam, can be reinflated and monitored. If it continues to collapse, over a period of some time, it may need surgical repair. I've seen a dog (Hit by Car) whose lung was reinflated 4 times before it held. That was not his only problem, but at the time surgery was too risky due to his other injuries.

I also was working one night when a dog came in with symptoms af HGE. All tests pointed to HGE, and initial treatment for HGE was started. After an hour, the dog was not improving as expected. The vet said something else had to be going on. He suspected rat poisoning. Toxicology tests take time, and the dog would have been dead before the results were back. The treatment was a high dose of Vitamin K, IV. But, if it was not rat poisoning, the Vit K alone would kill him. I'm sure with his experience, he knew what to do. But he asked me what I thought. At the rate this dog was losing blood out of his butt, he would die if we did nothing and continued to treat for HGE. I told him I thought he should give him the Vit K. He did, and the dog began to improve. The owner had no idea how the dog could have gotten into rat poison.

Just saying, yes, alot of treatment goes on without knowing absolutely what is wrong with an animal. Mainly it's about getting an animal stabilized, trying to control symptoms, and making decisions based on the dog's responses to what is done, and keeping the animal stabilized. Anything that is not immediately life-threatening is put off until the animal is in a better condition to handle further treatment, if in fact it is needed.

The dog's collapsed lung was not diagnosed upon initial examination. Entry wound was not examined for a possible bullet or other foreign object that could have been causing internal bleeding. The dog was l left on an IV, pain medication and O2 until morning. Unacceptable. That is not stabilization. No one cuts into a body without the necessary tests being done to determine the point of entry and any foreign objects inside the body. This animal had an obvious undetermined entry point of a foreign object that was left unattended. Lungs by the way are part of the respiratory system and kind of important. Could sustain permanent injury by being left for hours without being attend to. It would be a law suit for for sure in a human ED and some severe dressing down of the attending physician.
This poor dog was not given emergency care and the owner is quite blessed to still have the animal. They should not be charged for emergency treatment.

Airway, breathing and circulation are standard exam points of an emergency patient. O2 and IV fluids are standard procedure for a trauma patient Upon arrival at an "emergency" facility care should go far beyond that. Any human left in that condition until morning is unthinkable. If vets you know treat their trauma patients in such a casual way it is way below the standard of care. Arrive at emergency facility and wait for further tests until morning??? Unthinkable.

Not the treatment I would have wanted for my dog! but here is what the OP posted:

My niece recently had to take her wolf mix pup to the emergency vet. She let her out is the backyard, and when she checked on her she was laying in the grass. She called her and she didn't even seem to hear her so she went to get her and found her side was bleeding and she "wasn't acting right". This was probably around 8:30pm or so she called me and I gave her the number for the closest vet to her that had emergency services

The bolded part made me think that this was just a "general vet" that had emergency hours. So I don't think was very skilled in emergency vet care. Certainly I did not get the impression, this person went to a fully equipped emergency hospital.

I would like to also support the idea that this dog/wolf hybrid get seen by a specialist and soon. Leaving a pellet in so close to the spine, has to have attendent risks to it. I would want an "expert" opinion on the pros and cons of this, as well as the risks etc for surgical removal.

Actually, the OP's post is just heresay from the neice's mom, and if she's not in the field of medicine, sometimes vets only relay what they think is important to the person they're talking to, and how much that person will understand. I can't say how many times I've interupted a vet in the middle of a discussion to say "This person is in the health field" and they tone it up a bit and will discuss the more technical side of the treatment that has been done or he's planning to do on their pet.

The owner would have to request the records from the pet's file to see what was done and make a decision from there.

Sometimes dogs are sent home too early due to financial problems. Many vets expect payment up front for emergency services and the treatment the dog gets is based on the ability to pay. Anyway, I hope the pup recovers from his injuries.

A dog came into the humane society having bb pellts all over its body.

If I remember correctly this was years ago the vet volunteering there plucked most of them out with like long tweezers and said to wait a couple days to wash the dog for scabs to cover and to just dab tge wound with idodine I think it was.

Anyways days later the dog was actually shaced as it was so matted and twice as many bb holes were found.

Apparently the bbs traveled inside all over and numerous surgical procedures were done to remove them.

Its sad that often $ dictate the quality of treatment, or how overwhelmed the vet is at the time.

Did your neice take him back in to have it removed?

I dont know if they always travel, but my uncle has a bb in his wrist from childhood that's never been removed and he has bever taken the time to have a Dr remove it, so many its selective as to the placenent of it.

The old BB guns were bad enough in their time but some of the air guns and others on the market today can cause horrible damage to animals and humans.
I would certainly take the poor dog to a specialist to have the retained pellet looked at more closely.

No she didn't. I think shes more afraid of having it removed than of leaving it in. I rather doubt she'll take it to a specailist either... I'm kind of surprised she managed to pay for the original vet bills. Shes one of those impulse puppy people. Saw a free puppy and jumped on it :/ The only way I could help is to dip into our emergency vet account, but then what would I do if something happened to Yumi you know?