So it turns out that Monday mornings at the polyclinic are the most hectic of the week. As we pulled up to the polyclinic this morning the first thing we saw was a German Shepherd in the back of a truck. This was by far the biggest German shepherd I've ever seen. Dr. Abi estimated it weighed about 60 kg (132 lbs) and it needed to be x-rayed because it could not move it's back limbs. It took six people to carry him onto the table to be scanned. He was eleven years old and was suffering some spinal injury. When the physical examination was done it turns out that he still had feeling in one of the hind limbs but not the other which normally would not completely impair the ability to walk but because this dog was so large it could not support its own weight. There was not much that could be done at the clinic because treatment would've been more effective only directly after damage to the spinal cord and the dog had been in this condition for three days. I asked Dr. Abi if they would euthanize the dog because of the injury and she looked at me with surprise and said of course not, the owners would take care of the dog until it died naturally. It is not until later that I learned that it can be seen as a sin to let anything (humans, dogs, etc) to die if it can live even if it is in poor condition. Dr. Sam referred to this as everything's right to live.
It took a lot of manpower to get this guy in place.
The next case I saw was an X-ray of a puppy's fore limb. This is by far one of the worst breaks I have seen like this in the forelimb. Because the pup is so young the pins are not necessary for it to heal instead they will just cast it into place and check on it in a few weeks to determine if further treatment will need to be done.
The break went through both the radius and ulna.
Today was an interesting day for cow treatment. Someone had brought in a cow that had a baby two days ago and unfortunately her calf died but it put her at an even larger disadvantage because her udder had become extremely large. Without milking the udder can start to get infected. The people who brought the cow in did not even own her instead all the doctors tried to call the owner in order to start treatment. I also saw a buffalo today. Buffalos are less common than cows but are more valuable. The milk that they produce contains 7-8% fat whereas its 3-4% in regular cows making the buffalo milk more valuable for trade. The buffalo has much thicker skin than a cow and very little hair making the animal very sensitive to any kind of touch; it also does not have any sweat glands making the heat harder on its body and skin this means that care for the animal can be extensive. During artificial insemination (which is more stressful for the buffalo due to the sensitivity) several of us had to smack the sides of the buffalo to distract it from the arm and sperm being inserted into its cervix. The insemination took much longer and she ended up projectile pooping all over the doctors shoes. It took almost twice as long to get the procedure over compared to insemination in dairy cows. Due to the thick skin of the buffalo veins are harder to find and are easily lost due to the discomfort of the animal.
The cow with the enormous utter.
The smacking of the buffalo!
Get this, I actually went to the private clinic today!! It is called pet forum and it is very nice. It is much smaller than the polyclinic but that is because it is usually just for dogs and cats. It had a boarding facility for dogs, an up to date x-ray facility, and a snazzy examination room. The level of care at the private clinic is definitely higher. They do not reuse any of the needles or IV tubes like we do at the polyclinic and there really weren't any extreme cases. The private clinic sees a maximum of 15 cases per day (the poly clinic sees at least 20 cases just in the morning of everyday). The owners are a lot more concerned at the private clinic as well. For instance one woman made several phone calls to gather every detail of her dogs fecal matter in the past few days. Most all the dogs we saw were up to date on their vaccines and were not skiddish at all. The dogs that came in got treated with the utmost care. Even if they just came in for vaccination they would get a thorough eye, ear, and skin examination and a lot of them received ear cleanings. I was only able to see four dogs while I was in there today but Dr. Prasanna Kumar told me that I could possibly observe a surgery tomorrow! Dr. Kumar is very passionate about what he does and performs all the complex surgeries at the polyclinic. I look forward to seeing new cases tomorrow!
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