The dog was adopted from a shelter on Jan 23, 2000 and so the lady owner declared that to be his birthday. He was probably 4 months old. 17 years flew by. He had greater difficulty getting up to go to the bathroom but the owner persevered in lifting him up to walk to the bathroom.
"Lately, his front toes curled inwards," the owner told me. "He barks at night and I had to calm him down."
The 4 cm x 3 cm oval left hip sore was weeping.
The treatment was to close the wound as it appeared fresh. The caudal edges were black and the pink muscles could be seen.
"Anaesthesia using gas is the safest," I said. "No injectables."
The owner signed the anaesthesia consent form with apprehension that the dog would die on the operating table.
.
The dog was weak and did not struggle when put on the nose cone to smell the gas.
"For very old dogs," I taught my assistant who had little experience in very old dog anaesthesia
and needed to be mentored.
Do not monitor his depth of anaesthesia as a young dog," I elaborated. "A young dog needs a longer time to be anaesthesized and is unlikely to die. For this oldie, the time taken is less than half. If you monitor as if he was a young dog, he might be dead.
A Z-plasty was done to close up the hole. All was OK and the dog went home.
The challenges of barking and needing to be carried or slung to go to the bathroom are stressful.
BLOOD TEST
Total white cell count *30.5 (6-17)
N *97.6% (60-70%) Absolute 29.8
L 1.6% Absolute 0.49
M 0.8% Absolute 0.24
E and B normal
Red cell count *4.7 (5.5-8.5)
Haemoglobin *10.3 (12 - 18)
Haematocrit PCV *0.30 (0.37 - 0.55)
Platelets 409 (200-500)
ALT 79 (less than 59)<59 br="">
AST 85 (less than 81)<81 p="">
Bacteraemia and anaemia. Advised antibiotics and anaemia treatment.
