Green Eggs and Ham

When Traci Torres called to have her chicken seen, the receptionists were surprised that Dr. Heacock would be willing to see a "farm" animal. But going back 25 years, exotic bird medicine was largely based on chicken medicine-parrots were simply green chickens with large beaks. In fact, Ms. Torres' chicken was wearing a bit of the green-hers was a special breed called a Orichana, distinguished by their green legs. Their eggs are also green. But instead of being called Sam, I am, this was Buster, named so because of her "busted" beak. Owned since she was hatched, Buster's lower beak started twisting to the left as a young chick. Now at 12 weeks of age, the bird's upper and lower beak no longer met. Although Ms. Torres was giving her 11 young birds an excellent diet of starter chicken mash, the only thing Buster could get into its mouth was bits of English muffins. Left at the bottom of the pecking order, this insufficient nutrition was exacerbating the congenital deformity. Although exotic bird medicine has come a long way, one still has to occasionally think outside the coop. Since Ms. Torres turned out to be a baker, Dr. Heacock instructed her to bake bread using starter mash instead of flour. After a beak trim and this improved nutrition, green eggs will soon be on the blue plate special.

Green Dregs and Hamsters

Julie Geyer found Hampy the hamster wandering around dazed in the hallway, covered in an unidentifiable light green substance. When Hampy presented to Dr. Heacock, he found the cheek pouches completely filled with the same creamy mystery substance. Although Ms. Geyer said Hampy was fed only seeds, her young daughter reminded her about the yogurt drops-green, yellow, blue and pink. Then Ms. Geyer remembered the emptied bag beside the cage. Mystery solved-Hampy had broken out of his cage, gorged himself on his treats, jumped off the counter and went to hide them. He likely exhausted himself trying to get them out of his cheek pouches. With fluids given and hand feeding with mushy pellets and baby food, Hampy was fine the next day.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

On Labor Day weekend the Laikas family brought their mixed breed dog, Sosa, in to see Dr. Nancy Shaw. Their complaint was that Sosa had her "usual" skin infection with a "rash" on her belly, legs and ears. Sosa had a history of seasonal skin problems, but her skin had never appeared this inflamed. Sosa's physical examination revealed that her skin was bruised rather than inflamed. Hers gums were spontaneously oozing blood. A rapid in-hospital complete blood count showed that Sosa had a very low platelet count. The platelets in blood are vital for adequate clotting; when they are severely reduced in number spontaneous bleeding can occur.

There are numerous causes for a low platelet count. The main underlying cause is either a decrease in platelet production from the bone marrow or an increase in the rate of their destruction. Several infectious, cancerous and immune-mediated diseases can cause this reduced production or accelerated destruction of platelets. Blood tests for tick-borne diseases including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever were negative. An anti-nuclear antibody test, which is a marker for systemic lupus, was also negative.

By ruling out other causes, Sosa's low platelet count was attributed to an idiopathic immune-mediated process. This means that Sosa's own immune system was destroying her platelets for an unknown reason. To reduce this destructive process, Sosa was placed on a high dose of Prednisone, an oral cortisone drug. The Liakas family faithfully administered the medication and carefully watched her over that long weekend. Within days, Sosa's bruises were disappearing and her platelet count was rising. Her condition continues to improve as she is slowly weaned from her medication.

In the future, the Liakas family will wait for us to "say it isn't Sosa" and go to bat for her, before assuming Sosa has her same old skin infection.

She's got a chip on her shoulder

Mrs. Armbrust of Madison was thrilled to find a sweet stray tiger kitten. She called St. Hubert's several times-they had no lost cat reports. Mrs. Armbrust brought the kitten in for vaccines one week later. Dr. Day scanned the kitten and found that a microchip had been implanted under the skin. The number was reported to the American Kennel Club Companion Animal Recovery Center. Within ten minutes, Dr. Day was able to notify another MVH client, Ms. Germain that her kitten Chick Pea had been found. Ms. Germain welcomed home her prodigal pet and thanked Dr. Day and Mrs. Armbrust. Microchips can be painlessly implanted during any office visit. Nationally, 2.1 million pets have received microchips, resulting in 182,721 pets being returned to their grateful owners.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking

Mr. and Mrs. Clark's seemingly healthy six-year-old cat had a sudden onset of rapid breathing and hind leg paralysis. Extensive testing, including an ultrasound of the heart, confirmed that Pepper had cardiomyopathy, a common heart condition of cats. One of the dangers of this condition is that blood clots form in the heart chambers, which can be released into the bloodstream. In this case, the clot lodged where the aorta splits to supply the hind legs with blood. This blockage causes paralysis of the hind legs. Understanding that this condition is rarely reversed, Dr. Heacock put Pepper on an intensive drug protocol including short term Heparin and Nitroglycerin and long term Enalapril and Lasix. When Pepper was put on a low salt diet he didn't let this take the spice out of his life-to everyone's amazement, in one week he was jumping onto his favorite napping perch. A subsequent ultrasound showed more clots it his heart, which were cleared with medication. After Pepper's second bout of paralysis eight months later, he was put onto periodic Heparin. Back on his feet, he's counting how many lives he has left.

Hold the Mayo

Returning home from a visit to Dr. Bostek-Brady with her cat Mitsy, Ms. Seery decided it was time for lunch. Bart, her 13 year old cat, climbed up onto the kitchen counter to "help". Bart and a jar of relish soon tumbled to the floor, and like all good cats, Bart landed on his feet but the relish jar landed on his tail. Although Ms. Seery didn't relish the thought of a return trip to the hospital, she and Bart were soon on their way.

Dr. McHugh quickly realized that the 1.5-inch split in Bart's tail would need to be sutured. Because Bart arrived at the hospital when the wound was so new and because of his excellent demeanor, this was done with only a local anesthetic. Soon Bart was on his way home. No longer in a pickle, Bart mustard his strength to ketchup on his missed meal.

Keep Out of Reach of. . .

Late on Saturday afternoon, Ms. Steffan was packing for a trip to Ireland. She rounded up all of the medication that her dog Brooks, a 5 year old Bernese Mountain Dog would need while in the kennel. This was no small task given her dog's multiple medical problems. Sometime during the final two hours of packing, Brooks helped herself to the "stash" and ate 7 days worth of two seizure medications, 42 days worth of incontinence pills, 21 days worth of antibiotics for a urinary tract infection and all of the plastic medicine bottles. Ms. Steffan's mother rushed Brooks to MVH and technicians Bill Simone and Gina Eisenhower assessed the situation and immediately induced vomiting. Dr McHugh realized Brooks' dilated eyes and staggering gate indicated that some of the anti-seizure medication had already reached her brain. Because no one knew how long the medications were in her body, Dr. McHugh prepared her owners for the worst-case scenario and transferred Brooks to the Emergency Clinic for further treatment and monitoring Saturday night and Sunday. Happily, thanks to everyone's quick action, by Monday morning, Brooks was back to her old self. Her myriad of pills are now kept in a very, very safe place.

The Night of the Iguana

Make that The Day of the Iguanas with Dr. Erdman's recent exotic surgeries. A large urinary bladder stone was diagnosed in a 4-year-old iguana named Igor. After pre-surgical evaluation with blood tests and X-rays, Dr. Erdman removed the plum sized cystic calculus. A stone that large would be impressive in a human, let alone in a 3-pound Green Iguana.

Another female iguana presented to the hospital suffering from a period of decreased appetite and lethargy. After having a full workup, it was determined that Toby was gearing up for her seasonal period of egg laying. Due to the possible serious consequences of egg retention, she was scheduled for an ovarioectomy (spay). During the surgery, Dr. Erdman removed both ovaries containing a total of 40 large marble-sized immature eggs. With the scales tipped in their favor, both lizards recovered without incident and were returned to their grateful owners.

The Hunchback of Chatham

Misha, a Samoyed owned by Rev. and Rev. Beardon, had a benign fatty tumor between the shoulder blades for over 5 years. The Beardons were trying to avoid surgery on their 13-year-old dog. But when Misha's lipoma reached 12 inches across, it would flop from side to side causing him to fall over. With extensive dissection, Dr. Beaumont surgically removed the 5-pound mass. Misha is much more spirited with such a weight lifted from his shoulders.

CheckMate

Mr. Boardman brought in his golden retriever, Maverick, for eating a plastic Easter egg. When x-rays instead showed the perfect outline of a pawn, the owner said, "So there's the missing piece from my father's chess set!". Not wanting Maverick to be the pawn in family tensions, Dr. Heacock surgically removed the pewter game piece from the intestines. With his checkered past behind him, Maverick no longer feels rooked when fed only dog food.

When you hear hoof beats. . .

Things aren't always what they seem. Fluffy, a Bichon Frise, owned by Mrs. Thompkin, was brought to Dr. Bostek-Brady with an ear infection. This common problem was routinely treated by flushing and medicating the ears. Just three hours later, Fluffy was brought back to the hospital with dramatic signs. Fluffy was completely incoordinated, along with having a head tilt and a high fever of 105.2°. Although Fluffy's eardrums were intact, Mrs. Thompkin was understandably suspicious that the ear treatment had caused the signs. Concern for Fluffy grew as his neurologic signs progressed to seizure activity. Bloodwork proved to be normal. Just before hospital hours ended, Mrs. Thompkin's daughter came home to find that sometime during the three hours following the office visit, Fluffy had eaten an entire pan of homemade fudge brownies. Chocolate is very toxic to animals–large amounts can cause neurologic signs, with the potential of heart arrhythmias and death. A dog of Fluffy's ten-pound size needs to eat just one ounce of dark chocolate or four ounces of milk chocolate to cause cardiac or neurologic signs. Doubling these amounts can cause death. At the news of the missing brownies, Fluffy had his stomach pumped, revealing large amounts of chocolate still in the stomach.

With the offending cause removed, administration of activated charcoal to neutralize any remnants and supportive intravenous fluids given, Fluffy rapidly returned to normal.

All veterinarians are familiar with a phrase from their school days: "When you hear hoof beats, don't look for zebras". But sometimes you really do need to look for zebras instead of horses.

Canine Gender Benders

Mrs. Bonczo wondered why her German Shepherd Koda was adopting Beanie Babies while Ms. Blair found her terrier Tyler had a penchant for pink bows and White Dalmatians perfume. Both were male dogs that presented for routine cryptorchid castrations. Cryptorchidism, where the testicles have not descended, is a fairly common finding. Surgery proved to be quite uncommon though. Dr. Heacock found both dogs to be pseudohemaphrodites. A complete uterus was present alongside the vas deferens running up to normal testicles in the usual location for the ovaries. Upon removal of all the spare parts, both pets are at peace with their inner dog, no longer barking up the wrong tree.

Dogs Eat the Darndest Things

Even though it was the dead of winter, Nick, a retriever owned by Mr. Hersperger, got a hankering for a summer barbecue–so he ate the wire grill brush he dug up in the backyard. Not surprisingly, Xrays showed a tangled mass of wire bristles in the stomach. Dr. Beaumont removed most of the bristles surgically, but finding every one proved to be the proverbial "needle in the haystack" quest. Post-operative Xrays showed a small plug of bristles; endoscopy failed to retrieve the wire. Daily Xrays showed the progression of the wire until Nick's stool had that certain sparkle. Nick's gourmet excursions are now limited to his dog food bowl.

Just to prove that employment at MVH does not confer veterinary common sense to our pets, office manager Suzan Napolitano found her "Molson Golden" retriever to be having intermittent intestinal distress. Bloodwork, Xrays and ultrasound were all inconclusive so exploratory surgery was scheduled. Turns out Molson had gone on a panty raid–Dr. Hutchinson found a pair of pantyhose running from the stomach to the large intestines. Molson, previously banished from the bedrooms for eating socks, apparently has an accomplice in Chloe the cat, who drags delicacies into the den for Molson's gastronomic pleasure.

Chillie gets wired

Chillie the chinchilla apparently is quite opinionated about the music that his owner, Lynn Ambrosia, plays.One night he pulled the CD wire into his cage and chewed it apart. Xrays of Chillie showed his stomach and intestine to be completely crammed with copper wire. A bigger worry than the sharp points was the fact that copper can cause fatal liver toxicity. With quick networking, Dr. Heacock arranged for the owner to pick up the antidote D-penicillamine from Overlook Hospital and have Liberty Drug compound it into a tasty banana liquid. A furball laxative and high fiber diet allowed the wire to pass. No worse for wear, Chillie now demands Chilean panpipes on CD.

The Loon Ranger

Uncommon in this area, let alone stranded on Route 78, a common loon was brought to MVH. Loons cannot fly from land–they need a running start on water. After wound treatment, technicians Mary Browne and Bill Simone released the loon in The Great Swamp where it promptly dove after a fast food snack of fish.

Gillooly gets in shape

Technician Adele Hickerson was being kidded that her guinea pig Gillooly was becoming pear-shaped (you remember Gillooly, Tonya's boyfriend, nemesis to Nancy Kerrigan's knees). When an abdominal mass was felt, an ultrasound study was performed showing large ovarian cysts. Gillooly went to surgery where Dr. Heacock found golf ball-sized ovarian cysts along with a diseased uterus. Biopsies revealed endometritis and a tumor of the ovary, fortunately benign. Gillooly recovered quickly from surgery and is happy to have her girlish figure back again.

Bear Belly Blues

Mrs. Schroeder knew there was a problem when her German shorthair pointer wouldn't eat. Xrays were taken of Hannah's abdomen showing a stomach full of thin squiggly white lines. This evidence of metal in the stomach meant a Friday evening emergency surgery. Dr. Heacock was surprised to find Hannah's stomach packed with tiny pinecones, cinnamon sticks, plastic poinsettias, gold ribbon and the wire and plastic branches of an artificial Christmas tree–enough to fill a large litter box. It turns out Hannah had eaten Mrs. Schroeder's prize antique Christmas teddy bear. Dr. Heacock thanked Mrs. Schroeder for the lovely potpourri scent her holiday bear lent to this usually putrescent surgery.

Is that a frog in my gimlet?

When a frog with a mangled front leg was presented, it was directed to our doctor, the cold-blooded Greg Erdman. Amputation being the only choice, safe anesthesia became the issue. That proved to be through the skin by submerging the frog in a bath of vodka. Oxygen was bubbled into the Smirnoff. Surgery was a success and the frog is now hopping tripod style in The Great Swamp.

Hedging your bets

Mr. and Mrs. Codey were skeptical that anything could be diagnosed on their son's hedgehog–a pet that rolls up upon examination (they were the croquet balls of Alice in Wonderland for good reason). Dr. Heacock found mites causing loss of quills and pneumonia causing raspy breathing. After treatment, Chloe was soon running laps around the back yard.