Ibuprofen can be a really good thing. For people, that is. But when dogs get into it, bad things happen. At 1/2 mg/kg it is toxic. The more the dog ingests and absorbs, the worse it gets. One of the animals at the ER tonight was in for his last day of intensive care. He had gotten one pill, and by the time the owner got him to the ER and they induced vomiting (about 45 minutes after consumption), he had already absorbed it. Thus he was in for three days of monitoring and intensive care. He was throwing up blood at one point, but overall he recovered really darn well, with none of the very intense neurological symptoms or the renal failure that can occur without proper treatment. So he got to go home this evening, along with medication for a UTI, which they found during his stay.
Our second ibuprofen dog of the night was a much larger dog. The owner called in a panic, saying an entire bottle got dropped on the floor, and they didn't know how much the dog did or didn't get. As the dog arrived and phone calls were made, it was revealed that the dog had done this over 2 hours ago, that the owners (based on advice from a "dog expert" friend) had fed it a large amount of hydrogen peroxide and... salt(?), to try to induce vomiting, and had only conceded to bring it in when these failed. They were extremely concerned about how much money the trip would take, and even after having all the consequences explained to them, they decided after being at the office for an hour that the dog didn't actually ingest any and they were going to take their chances at home without treatment.
Other interesting cases included two minor surgeries (one a badly cut leg/pad that had to be sutured, and one a re-stitching of a surgery site that had been damaged); a dog in congestive heart failure, a cat with a hugely swollen head and Horner's Syndrome, a beagle who had fallen over in a complete trance in the middle of running through the woods, and a hit by car who was doing really well.
I also got some homework done in the calm periods, which was definitely needed!
Oh, and students miraculously started signing up for the goat farm yesterday, as well as the SPCA spay and neuter clinics, and our trip to a local neurology hospital. Definitely lifted my spirits to see that!
~Melissa
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