Blog Archives
In The Field – Cat’s Head Trapped in Tiny Hole in Metal Shop Door
Posted by Dr. Ostermann
On the morning of June 24, 2014, I arrived to the shelter and before I could even put my things down, I was immediately notified that the Animal Services Officers would be needing my assistance in the field. A cat, presumably feral, had gotten its head trapped in a very small hole in a large metal door on the side of a metal shop in San Jose.
I gathered my equipment and headed out into the field with an officer.
The officer transported me to a warehouse-like building that was the metal shop. There were many large (and loud!) pieces of equipment within the building, and one wall had a several thick metal doors that were essentially continuous with the walls of the building. The doors had small holes in them that were about 1″ to 1.5″ in diameter, but there was one door that had a slightly larger hole. This was the hole that a cat decided to escape through. Unfortunately, it failed.
When I arrived, the original officer to respond to the scene was present and showed me to the location within the warehouse where the cat was located.
The cat was definitely stuck and was in an awkward position, groaning and periodically flailing trying to get free.

Inside the metal shop, the cat was found stuck in a small hole in the metal door. The towel and carrier were brought by the officers.
We moved outside and around the building to gauge how the cat looked on the other side. Unfortunately, he looked even worse on the other side. His head was wedged very tightly within the hole, and he had blood in his mouth. A streak of dried blood also ran down the door, and a small spot of blood resided on the ledge below his head.
Posted in In The Field with the Officers, Shelter Vet Tails
Tags: Abrasion, Abscess, Adoptable, Adoption, Animal Control, Animal Control Officer, Animal Service Officer, Animal Shelter, Animal Shelter Veterinarian, ASO, Before & After, Before and After, Bleeding, Blood, Cat, Cat Bite, Cat Bite Abscess, Cat Trapped, Cut, Dispatch, Doctor, DVM, Emergency, Favorite, Feral, Feral Cat, Happy, Happy Ending, Head Stuck, Head Trapped, Head Trauma, Hole, Laceration, Medical Staff, Metal Shop, Officer, Patient, Rescue, San Jose, San Jose Animal Care & Services, San Jose Animal Care Center, Shelter, Shelter Medicine, Shelter Vet Tails, Shelter Veterinarian, Story, Stuck, Success, Sweetheart, Tails of a Shelter Vet, Trapped, Trauma, Treated, Treatment, Upper Respiratory Infection, URI, Vet, Veterinarian, Wounds
Spud – Dog With Spinal Injury After Hit By Car Traced To Owner Within Hours
Posted by Dr. Ostermann
While no two animal shelters are alike, they often involve a lot of teamwork. A huge component at one of the animal shelters I work for is the role of Animal Control Officers, or ACOs, as they are often called. ACOs have many roles, one of which involves responding to calls from the public regarding animal related issues such as bites, loose animals and animals that have been hit by a car (otherwise known as “HBC”) to name a few.
One morning an officer responded to a call from a person who was bit after trying to help a HBC dog. The officer completed a bite report at the scene and brought the dog in to the shelter for immediate veterinary evaluation.
When “Spud” arrived at the shelter, he was evaluated and found to have suffered an injury to his spinal cord as he was completely unable to use his back legs and didn’t show any signs of sensing pain in those legs either. He was in a tremendous amount of pain but was otherwise stable from our evaluation. We offered Spud relief from his pain with a medication while we discussed what to do.
Posted in Shelter Vet Tails
Tags: ACO, Animal Control Officer, Animal Shelter, Broken Back, Broken Spine, Chip, Collar, Contact, Euthanasia, HBC, Hit By Car, Microchip, Officer, Owner, Pain, Shelter, Shelter Vet Tails, Shelter Veterinarian, Spinal Cord Trauma, Spinal Injury, Spud, Suffering, Tag, Tags, Tails of a Shelter Vet, Teamwork, Vet, Veterinarian