Unbelievable Survivals: 70 Patients Defied All Odds Against Grim Medical Diagnoses
Monday rolls around and he brings her to the main clinic so that the vet student can practice fracture fixation before pup is euthanized. Vet student (me) says in tearful voice “If I fix her properly do I still have to put her to sleep? ” Answer was “Nah, but if you do that you have to find her a home.” Her name is “Bits”. Another vet student got the other hit by car stray dog to practice on, the nurses named her “Pieces” +1 for dark humor by nurses.
So I anesthetize her, prep the left leg planning for an IM pin. Start making the initial skin incision, and she doesn’t bleed. Pretty sure that was A Bad Sign, so I chose to wake her up from anesthesia, give a blood transfusion and try again the next day. In the interim I do diagnostics and this little munchkin has (in addition to both back legs crushed and belly wound) hookworms, roundworms, whip worms, coccidia, demodectic AND sarcoptic manges. I look at her and asked her “how the f**k are you still here, seriously?” She just looked at me and did little puppy grunts.
Next day her crit was holding steady so I move forward with surgery plan. Single IM pin in the femur, and I had to manually flex the knee to RIP through the scar tissue and return it to normal position.
She recovers well (held her in my arms). I put her in the cage and set off down the hall to see some walk in rooms in the meantime. Two hours later and I check up on her. Vitals great, in good spirits, but that d**n leg is sitting backwards at the knee AGAIN. In puzzlement, I ask my mentor what I should do. He tells me to flex the knee manually again. I asked if that was safe, to sedate her again so soon. He told me to do it without sedation.
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