A Tough Case

So I am just getting off a long week at work, I worked 2 extra 13 hour days...Yuck...We had the worst chocolate toxicity I have ever seen...He was a small, 20 poundish lab mix who had eaten 3 times his toxic dose of dark chocolate. He had been to his regular vet and vomited the chocolate and was given activated charcoal (which helps to bind the toxins) He came in a little agitated and just got worse by the minute. His temperature, which had been normal at 101.5, suddenly went up to 105. He was trembling so hard we couldn't get an iv catheter in him. We gave some valium iv quickly twice with no effects. We then gave him a couple other medications intramusclularly because he was trembling so hard we almost couldn't touch him. (these type of toxicities cause extreme sensitivity to sound/touch) This poor dog was just getting worse despite what we did. We finally had to set up the gas anesthesia to mask him to sleep because he was so out of control. When he finally fell asleep enough to really touch him, his temperature had skyrocketed to 107! Danger territory! When a temperature climbs this high they are at real risk of some serious problems. They can basically cook their insides, including their brain...Which obviously, can lead to death. We hoped that wouldn't be this dog...


The toxic effects from chocolate can last for a bit, so we needed to keep him sedated long enough for it to work through his system. We tried several iv medications to try and keep him just sleepy enough to not tremble, nothing was working...He was either awake and trembling, or not breathing. Neither option was really a good one! We had to intubate and ventilate him for a while.


Our criticalist finally came in to help with the case, as it was an extremely frustrating case. We ended up putting him on light gas anethesia to keep him out plus a Valium and a Fentanyl CRI. (continuous rate infusion) This dog ended up being on a ventilator for several hours and fully sedated for about 14 hours before they could take him off the gas anesthesia completely. a nurse had to sit with him all night. (obviously you can't leave a sedated dog alone) Then over the course of the next 12 hours they slowly weaned him off of his CRI's to wake him up. When I went into work yesterday afternoon, he was just on oxygen, and doing much better.



WOW...We really didn't know if he would make it he was so sick. He could have had long term damage from the fever...He visited with his owners and acted like his normal self. He was going home this morning...To a tune of $3000, now that was one expensive Easter bunny!



On another note, we are leaving for our vacation in less than a week! Mike and I are going on our first cruise! We will be visiting the islands of St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. It took a lot of convincing on my part for Mike to agree to go, but I think even he is looking forward to it!



In closing, I thought I would add some cute pictures of Kyler's 2007 litter of puppies, looking at them is getting me excited about her litter this summer! I can't wait!

This picture of Kyler and the pups was taken when they were 10 days old. The other picture is of the light blue boy, now named Roscoe, who lives in New York. He decided that watching TV was a grand plan while the other puppies played in the living room. He was watching Dragon Tales, which is one of Jaida's favorite PBS shows...