Blog Archives
Lab Mix with Degloving Injury Gets Second Chance with Three Legs
When Chance first came into the San Jose Animal Care Center (SJACC), it was evident that his left hind leg was badly injured, reportedly after he was hit by a car. Chance had suffered a degloving injury, which means that the skin was missing from his leg, leaving the bones in that area exposed. To make things worse, the bones in the affected area of Chance’s leg were not attached and connected like they should be. The injury was gruesome, but Chance was otherwise in good health and spirits.
Veterinarians at SJACC made sure Chance was comfortable by giving him pain medications along with antibiotics to fight infection. The vets bandaged and splinted Chance’s leg and changed it daily while waiting for an owner to come to the shelter and claim him. The wet-to-dry bandages also served to clean out the wound from dirt, debris, and dead tissue, allowing fresh tissue to take over.
Chance – Leg Wound After Repeated Wet-to-Dry Bandages Following Injury from Hit-by-Car Incident.
San Jose Shelter Pushes Forward and Strives to Save More Kittens Each Year
Less than 1-Pound Kitten with URI
The summer is when kitten season is in full swing. Because cats are such prolific reproducers, animal shelters tend to become overrun with kittens during the summer months (or, more accurately, most of the year in California animal shelters). With such a high influx of kittens, it is often hard for shelters to keep up with them and the care they require.
Many shelters euthanize kittens under two pounds upon entering the shelter, even if they are healthy. You can imagine what the fate is for kittens that are not healthy. The San Jose Animal Care Center (SJACC) does not follow this practice. Rather, the SJACC has worked hard to save a higher percentage of kittens each and every year and has gradually decreased the weight at which the shelter’s veterinarians feel it is safe to perform surgery (using special protocols for these fragile mini-kitties) and adopt out kittens. As of 2014, the minimum weight kittens must be for surgery to be performed at SJACC is 1.3 pounds.
In The Field – Cat’s Head Trapped in Tiny Hole in Metal Shop Door
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.
On the outside of the metal shop.
Sandy – Surrendered by Owner for Euthanasia, Saved by Shelter Vets
Owners have the ability to surrender their animals to animal shelters for any reason. Some people surrender their animals for euthanasia. This means that they want or approve that their animal be euthanized. However, by surrendering their animal, owners give the shelter the right to assess the animal’s condition and choose not to euthanize, but instead to find rescue for the animal or to treat and put the animal up for adoption.
A chihuahua mix, who we’ll call Sandy, was surrendered to the San Jose Animal Care Center because she was not doing well. She was neither eating nor drinking and seemed quite lethargic. The owners also noted that she had abnormal urine.
Sandy’s owners surrendered her to us for euthanasia. She was brought into the medical clinic in order for me to examine her. Within no time, I was able to surmise that the owners were mistaking brown discharge dripping from Sandy’s vulva for urine. This was a key observation in determining that, as a middle-aged intact female, Sandy had a pyometra, otherwise known as a pus-filled uterus.
Broozer – Dog and Owner Attacked by Another Dog, Now Reunited
Meet Broozer! Broozer and his owner were attacked by another dog. While his owner ended up in the hospital, Broozer ended up at the San Jose Animal Care Center as an emergency.
Broozer
Despite sustaining a open fracture to the tibia on his left hind leg along with some other, more superficial injuries, Broozer was super sweet to us when he showed up. He allowed us to give him pain medicine and splint his broken leg without any resistance.
Blocked Cat Reunited With Owner After Emergency Intervention
A few weeks ago, a cat came to me in the morning as a transfer from the emergency clinic that handles our after-hours medical care. The cat was a male, black cat that was blocked (unable to urinate), in very poor condition in the emergency clinic, and remained in very poor condition upon coming into our care at the San Jose Animal Care Center.
Most cats that come to the emergency clinic in this kind of poor condition without any identification are at risk of being euthanized. This cat, however, had a microchip, so the emergency clinic received authorization to spend more than our normal limit per animal on this cat, because we had reason to believe this cat had a home!
Tails of a Shelter Vet 