Write@Home
Winter 2015

Pets

doberman with eyes closed - vet gently holding face

An emergency is a situation when the owner has to make a quick decision to bring the pet to the Animal Hospital. The owner has to have a basic understanding about common veterinary emergencies in pets, in that way they know when it’s the right moment to bring the pet to the hospital.

In the animal hospital where I work, we treated an emergency in a 5-year-old black Doberman Pinscher. The reason was because the dog was bitten by another dog in a park while the owner was walking him. Max is a not a neutered dog so maybe that was the reason why the dogs fought at the moment of contact with each other.

The patient presented with anxiety and aggression, so we immediately put a muzzle on him, and we started with the clinical exam. Max’s ear was bleeding with a big incision. The next step was talking with the owner and explaining that Max needed a surgery urgently to repair the ear and stop the bleeding.

Max was under general anesthesia, and we repaired the ear. The surgery took around 1 and half hours. Everything was perfect but unfortunately Max lost approximately 40% of his ear. We sent him home with a cone, pain medication and antibiotics.

Bite and fight wounds are serious and require immediate veterinary intervention. Max was in the hospital immediately after his accident and fortunately we did a great job and he recovered well. The owner was happy. He doesn’t have the same aesthetic of his ear, but he can listen well.