What Our Medical Team Can Do! The Stories of Jude & Daniel

At Cincinnati Animal CARE, we are incredibly proud of the accomplishments our medical team is able to complete in-house. Our highly skilled team of medical care staff are able to do things most county shelters cannot. As a finale to our Medical March blogs, our Medical Director Amanda Gilbert has chosen two dogs whose stories we want to share. Read on to learn about Jude (still available for adoption at the time of publishing) and Daniel. 

Jude

Unknown exactly what happened but all signs point to a toxicity that causes an acute kidney injury (AKI). Most commonly seen renal toxicities in dogs are; grapes, ibuprofen, Tylenol, and overdoses of canine anti-inflammatory medications. This caused a  secondary condition called hypernatremia (increased salt level in the blood) which is very tricky to treat and can cause cerebral edema. Because he was neurologically inappropriate (essentially comatose) from intake, Jude was already well behind the ideal time for starting treatment. He was severely dehydrated, unresponsive, hypothermic and vomiting worms. Bloodwork the next morning showed us what we were dealing with and a plan was made. These cases take multiple days / weeks and TONS of nursing care. A feeding tube was placed to provide nutrition, a long line was placed in his neck in order to repeat blood work often and changes his types of fluids based on multiple factors constantly throughout the day and night. His brain injury was treated with medications and eventually rehab to help him walk and eat again on his own. It was almost two full weeks before he took his first steps with assistance. It would take many more for his brain to recover to a normal state. His kidneys have also made a huge recovery, although they show a few residual signs on lab work, he shows no effects of this. He does continue to take supplements to help him feel his best and ongoing testing is being done to assess just how much care he may or may not need long term.

Daniel

Puppy came in with GI signs and lethargy. Small amounts of bruising on skin were noticed during the exam and a test was run to check his RBC levels. They were very low for a puppy and although we had no history or ability to prove this was from a toxicity, it was the most reasonable (and carried the best prognosis) so we were hopeful. This type of toxicity is most commonly caused by rodenticides ingested by curious puppies making them unable to clot their blood. It takes around a week for it to cause uncontrolled bleeding, also making it hard to prove with 100% certainty. It takes over a day to get bleeding tests back, they were sent out (and came back prolonged supportive the diagnosis)  but he would need treatment before any results would be back. He was sick enough to need a blood transfusion which we were able to do at the shelter (we had Rocko blood in fridge). And begin treatment with vitamin K which helps reverse the anticoagulant effect caused by this type of toxicity. was on fluids for one night post transfusion and the next day was acting much more like a puppy. He continued taking Vitamin K by mouth every day for a month and his blood was re-tested for its ability to clot- this time it was normal and he required no further treatment.

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