Scalpel!

Every great surgeon needs an attentive assistant! Looks like Kyara Moran from Cornell University has just the right team! 

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Comparison of Perioperative Analgesics During Cat Spays

Spays, or ovariohysterectomies, are a pretty routine procedure for veterinarians and veterinary students alike. My Vet Candy released a study that compared the results of using different analgesics at the surgery site, which included the incision line, the ovarian pedicles, and the uterus. Check out the rest of the article here!

An Incidental Finding

Adam Eggleston
University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

This case involves my own dog ‘Eimeria’.

She was my group’s second sophomore surgery canine which was performed in March of 2016. I was on anesthesia while two of my classmates who were in the role of surgeon and assistant performed the spay. After the routine spay, I decided to adopt the stray and named her Eimeria.

In December 2016 while getting ready for my Zoo medicine rotation, Eimeria began vomiting, urinating, defecating, and became laterally recumbent. I brought her into our ECC where she began to have hemorrhagic diarrhea. An AFAST was performed which showed a large, anechoic cystic structure in the right cranial abdomen with the right kidney not being visible. An ultrasound was performed indicating severe thickening of the gall bladder wall and a large fluid filled structure in the region of the right kidney, hydronephrosis was suspected.

One month later and I was able to watch a nephrectomy being performed on Eimeria. Her right kidney and a ureter with one of the best strangle knots I have ever seen, are currently sitting in a jar of formalin on my shelf. It turns out that Eimeria’s unknown anaphylactoid reaction was a blessing in disguise which allowed the incidental finding of severe hydronephrosis due to a ligated ureter.

Hunter's Story

Honorable Mention, Experiences
Stephanie Halley, Michigan State University

It started with an “alternate” letter to Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.  I was so close, yet so far from vet school I could taste it.  To beef up my application, I wanted more clinical experience and spent a year working at Clare Animal Hospital.  Before work on a snowy in December of 2010 my dog, a 13 year old golden retriever named Hunter, became weak, tired, and had tacky gums.  I took him to work where my boss, Dr. Paul McNeilly, palpated his abdomen and said it didn’t look too promising.  We shaved him for an ultrasound to get a better look at what was going on.  The diagnosis: splenic hemangiosarcoma.  The prognosis was grave and Dr. McNeilly didn’t anticipate him lasting too much longer.  The reason he was so pale and weak was because he was bleeding internally.

I had fully accepted his fate, vowed to make Hunter comfortable in my home, and was overwhelmed with haunting thoughts that if I had gotten into vet school I may have been able to help him sooner.  Days later I received a letter from Michigan State.  On my second application I was accepted but the feeling was bittersweet with my dog still sick.  Five months later, in May of 2011, Hunter was still alive and in good spirits.  The doctors at the practice couldn’t believe it and thought he might be strong enough for surgery if the mass hadn’t metastasized.  After taking radiographs, checking his blood, and getting a second look with the ultrasound Dr. McNeilly made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse and set the stage for my veterinary career.

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