This is something I was discussing with Hayley Walters recently and she had said that the number of times she has seen vets dispense a buster collar for an animal interfering with its wound post-op, rather than assessing them for analgesia is huge. It made me think that actually, if we assessed their pain, then we might opt for the metacam before reaching for the buster collars? The buster collar doesn’t stop the animal being in discomfort, it just puts owners minds at rest that the animal cannot interfere with the wound… Its an interesting thought…
Great comments Sophie.. I think its a really important topic and we just need to keep hammering it home to all staff as anyone really should be able to carry out pain scoring.. It could also be a useful tool for some owners, but that might be a step too far!!
I once remember taking over a case from a colleague who had been pain scoring overnight. When I asked where the patient was painful, they weren’t able to tell me, but had been carrying out pain scoring? I think there are multiple challenges to us getting this right. Hopefully, this is something that will continue to improve over time…
Hey, that’s really interesting.. I made the same comments about taking over a patient’s care and interpreting their level of pain differently. When I was working in practice, I would ask the person to pain score at hand over so you have a benchmark of how they were approaching the patients pain levels. I guess this can take up more time, but is better for the patient.. One of my colleagues thinks that we should pain score patients as part of taking vital parameters when a patient is being examined.. What are your thoughts on that?
I used to use this calculation when I worked at Vetsnow in Glasgow. I think it is just a more accurate calculation if I remember correctly. I can check with a colleague.. I remember thinking the calculation was complicated, but there’s actually a really simple way of doing it like bodyweight x bodyweight x something else.
I think as long as you continue to use the same method of calculation then either way is fine, but alternating between could result in over/underloading of fluids..
From what I can remember (its been a little while). The lactate is significant because the lactate indicates a degree of anaerobic metabolism. It will contribute to the acidosis, but I would consider looking at more obvious issues like a hypovolaemic episode? and the correction of that…
It is likely to be a metabolic acidosis with a compensatory respiratory alkalosis…
I am not sure what is going on here as I am not familiar with looking at contrast urethrograms… if this is abnormal could you post a more normal study to help compare?
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