Centesis and centesis... centesi?

Hurry hurry hurry! Must publish notes ASAP.... Some of this is from a couple of weeks ago, but, well.... it oculd be worse.

Thoracic Centesis: A cat was in the recovery pod with oxygen when I came in. That usually signifies something serious, and the cat had a "pleural effusion", a.k.a. fluid in the chest. So, we had to find out what was going on with that poor cat. I got to watch, because Dr. G. was amazing and let me "help" (although there wasn't much for me to do, it was a fascinating procedure). This was done in radiology, and the ultrasound probe was used to find the fluid during the procedure. The fur was shaved, and it was sterilized with disinfectant and alcohol prior to the procedure. A small needle was inserted into the chest cavity, and the doctor poked around until she was able to begin sucking up some of the fluid. Soon, she pulled out ~20 mL of fluid, which is a lot. There is not supposed to be any fluid in the chest. They sent it for analysis in the lab, but sadly the cat died the next day. It was a big deal... a tumor in the chest, I believe.

Abdominocentesis: Here is another cat-poking issue. A nurse brought a cat back from the room, and she was trying to hurry to get a doctor. It was quite a big deal, because the cat had an acute swollen belly. The owners had sat in the waiting room for 1/2 hour or so, because no one knew this may be an emergency. They said that the cat had come in the previous night with a swollen belly, but otherwise appeared fine, so they weren't very concerned. But when the doctor started gently probing the belly in the back, the cat was moaning in pain. She was a female, so it wasn't likely that she was blocked (urinary obstruction), but it was possible. They didn't feel a huge bladder, however. So they took her quickly to the ultrasound, and discovered by using that and x-ray that she had a lot of fluid in her abdomen. This also is not supposed to be "just floating" around in her belly, so it was a problem, possibly an emergency. We quickly drew blood and ran a stat electrolyte test, and some were elevated which gave the doctors some clues. Then they did an abdominocentesis on the poor kitty, shaving, sterilizing, and drawing fluid out of the belly. It wasn't as easy to aspirate as the thoracic centesis for the chest was, but they found enough of the pale-yellow fluid to suggest that it was urine. That, along with the blood tests, led them to think that it was a ruptured bladder, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. That was easy to fix in surgery, and generally the pets have a good prognosis. So when I left for the day, the kitty was in surgery. I think it will go well; I know for sure she's in great hands! The two doctors working on her, Dr. G. and Dr. M., are amazing. I'm sure she'll feel much better after this!