Today was my first day in the polyclinic with Dr. Prasanna Kumar. His teaching style is wonderful, he is open to suggestions, does thorough examinations, and genuinely cares about the future outlook of the animal. The first cases we saw were six police dogs. They were all labs and most of them looked pretty healthy with the exception of one. He had swelling on the side of his face which indicated a molar infection. He was treated for his teeth and all the police dogs were sent on their way. The next several cases I had seen done before but Dr. Prasanna Kumar approached them differently. For a casting, he made sure the the dog was anesthetized and set up with a good pain management system; usually we just held the dog down causing unnecessary stress to the animal. The next case was that of a kid (young goat) who was not urinating or eating. Upon examination it took several minutes to locate the penis and when it was found it turned out that the goat had stones. Stones only happen in a small part of the penis for goats, if you cut that part off stones will no longer develop. A small dog came in with a hot spot which is a bacterial infection that comes within a day it was given some antibiotics. I also saw a "horse" today (Dr. Prasanna said I cannot call something that small a horse), he was used for racing. The owner showed me a video of there last race this morning and the horse was pulling the owner on a small wooden cart (very cool).
Where's the penis?
Hot spot
The racehorse
Next on the agenda: surgery! If you have been reading you should recall the boxer, Nano with the huge tumor on his back, well today we got to remove it!! To get ready for surgery a pre-anesthetic was given and the area around the tumor was shaved. The surgery area was very small and was covered with newspaper. Dr. Prasanna told me that all surgeries at the polyclinic are risky due to the lack of equipment, lack of people, and lack of sterile areas. When the surgery started Dr. Prasanna made a long superficial incision on one side of the tumor and then took his hands and tore it apart. The sound is similar to pulling orange slices apart but much louder. He told me that at a fancier clinic or hospital the procedure would be done with more detail and finesse but again due to the lack of resources he had to do what was effective. During surgery there was not actually that much blood. Dr. Prasanna told me not ever to worry if the blood is coming from the tumor but be worried if it starts coming out of the body. The surgery lasted about half an hour and I was loving every bit of it! At one point Dr. Prasanna turned to me when it got really bloody and asked if I was okay and I responded with the biggest grin and shook my head yes. When the surgery was over it took some time to get Nano up and walking. I asked Dr. Prasanna if we were going to test if it was cancer or not and he said no. He believed that due to the sheer size of it that it was malignant but Nano was 11 years old and there is no point in stressing the owners out over treatment they probably couldn't afford.
Nano and His Tumor for the last time!
At the private clinic it was very slow. The only interesting case was a pug mix with jaundice. The lymph nodes were very swollen and the dog was dehydrated. Jaundice can come in three types and is highly individualized. This dog (JuJu) will be treated by getting fluids twice for three days until they find out the cause tomorrow.
JuJu
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