Joey’s Pet of the Week – Tobey’s Traffic Troubles

By Scott Lackenby | Dated October 23, 2014

Hi everyone! How are you all? How nice is the sun today?!? Being a feline I am partial to a sunny day. There is nothing better than lounging around in the sun. The warm weather also brings out the lizards and I love chasing them!

Did you check out my post on Tuesday about dog training? If not, be sure to go and have a look. I’ll be bringing you helpful tips every Tuesday. And how great was Nurse Emma’s video on applying Frontline?!? I was particularly happy that I didn’t have to be the model for it. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be used for the video on how to apply Frontline Spray…..

Sadly I didn’t make it to Nurse Hollie’s wedding on Saturday. I couldn’t find a locum clinic cat to fill my shoes for the day, and GVH would clearly fall apart if I wasn’t there to help out. I really am an indispensable Pymble Vet clinic cat!! But I’ve seen some pictures and been told all about it, and it sounds like it was a beautiful ceremony and a super fun reception. Nurse Hollie looked absolutely stunning, as you will see from the pics, as did all of my humans. Nurse Hollie and her now husband Mark are off to Bali next week for a friends wedding and then they are planning a honeymoon in South Africa next year. Congratulation again to Nurse Hollie and Mark!!

My star this week is a lucky little Pup. Tobey, a 10year old Cavalier cross Shih Tzu, was rushed into GVH after he was hit by a car. Tobey saw a dog across the road and unfortunately ran after it before he checked both ways. Tobey wasn’t in a good way when he came in. He had blood coming from his mouth, his right eye was proptosed, the eye equivalent of a dislocation, he was bruised and in shock. Dr Genevieve Zhang got to work on stabilising Tobey and also gave him a good check over to assess his injuries. There were no obvious fractures to his face or his legs, but his oxygen levels were low and he his heart rate was irregular. Dr Gen started him on some IV fluids, which helps to support the organs when we are in shock, and also on some oxygen via a face mask. Once Tobey had settled, Dr Gen discovered that Tobey has a heart murmur which meant we would have to be careful with giving him IV fluids. Xrays showed that there were no major bone breaks but he did have a fracture of his cheek bone. An ultrasound showed there was no free fluid in Tobey’s abdomen, a really good sign, and his bladder was intact, also a good sign! But Tobey did have an abdominal hernia which would need to be repaired. The plan was to keep him stable overnight and then for him to have surgery to see if we could put his eye back in place, and if that didn’t work, he would need to have the eye removed, and to repair his hernia. The next day Dr Helen Burns and Dr Sam Lackenby took over Tobey’s care and his bloods showed he was loosing blood, likely from the hernia and bruising he had. We would need to closely monitor Tobey’s PCV, which tells us the number of red blood cells in the body, and if his levels didn’t improve, he would also need a blood transfusion. Dr Sam performed surgery and she was unable to save Tobey’s eye. During the hernia repair, Dr Helen discovered that Tobey has extensive bruising to his abdominal cavity, including his bladder and urinary tract. Dr Sam inserted a urinary catheter to give Tobey’s bladder and urinary tract a rest while the bruising healed. Despite all of this, Tobey recovered well from surgery. Clearly he is a tough cookie! With lots of TLC and LOTS of pain killers, Tobey was even starting to eat the night after surgery and the day after that he was walking! Dr Helen and Dr Gen were so impressed with Tobey’s improvement that they let him go home after 2days with a pain killers, antibiotics and instructions for lots of rest. We will need to repeat his blood tests to make sure they are improving, but so far so good! As you’ll see from the pictures in my album, Tobey is a much loved family member, especially by his 2legged brother….

Well, I’d better go and get in some more sunshine while I can. I hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll catch you all tomorrow. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo