Throat Issues

Abscess? A couple of weeks ago, a pretty pointer came in. She was accompanied by her owner, who just happened to be an ENT (Ear-Nose-Throat specialist, for humans). She apparently was coughing and choking once in a while, and so they thought she had something in her throat. Dr. M. was on duty, and gave her propofol to sleep while her throat got checked out. They were looking, and lo-and-behold, there was some kind of abscess or something! She thought it was some kind of inflamed salivary gland or something, possibly an abscess. When she tried to put in the endotracheal tube to give the dog some extra oxygen, it probably popped or something, because the dog later coughed and a whole bunch of lovely pus/blood mixture came up. It was quite... er... interesting! The dog ended up being okay, though. The owner said humans don't get these, though. Isn't it ironic how he was an ENT?

Grass Hmm... what a coincidence! Another pet had throat issues. This time, it was a nice cat. We made him sleep with propofol too, and the doctor was peeking in, and found a lovely piece of green grass stuck in there. Thankfully, it was easy to get out with some carmalt forceps, so we were all thrilled. Happy endings! I'm sure the cat was relieved to not have any more random objects in his throat.

Whoa.. vomiting up a STOMACH?? This was another mystery. When I left work, nothing new was going on. So, two cats from the same family came, and the owner said that the cats were vomiting, and looked like they have vomited up part of the stomach. We didn't know which cat, but the owner had brought the piece of tissue in, and it definitely looked like a piece of stomach! I remember from dissecting pigs. Of course, cat stomachs are a bit different.... Anyways, while I was there, we never found out which cat it was from, or how it happened. It doesn't seem likely to me that it was part of their own stomach. While I was there, they gave the cats supportive care, but they both seemed okay. The piece seemed too clean-cut to be from the stomach itself, it seemed more like if it was bitten off of something else. Very odd. I wonder if I'll find out next week what happened?