You’re like the fucking angel of death. [x]
THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I’VE SEEN EVER
Romina / 21 / Sydney, Australia
Studying Animal Science / Striving to become a dog behaviourist
Um, I can't think of anything to say that'll make you think I'm cool, super witty, and hilarious
so...that's it
An elderly three-legged dog came in to have a small wart removed from her eyelid.
Last time she was at our clinic was 10 years ago, when she was estimated to be about 1-2 years old. She had been adopted from a rural shelter, with a massive growth engulfing her entire leg. Her adopters brought her to us, and our vet amputated the leg and shoulder. He sent a sample out for biopsy, and the report said it was a lipoma!
“World War I photograph of an injured horse in the process of being secured to the portable operating table, “The Simplicity Equine,” which was being used by the US Army Signal Corps. WWI was the last major war in which horses were utilized. Although their scale of recruitment was relatively small, they had to endure the more advanced fire power deployed in the war. Advances in medicine and surgery resulted in more available treatment options.”
sebs:
So today I had to remove a HUGE abscess on a canary… I was about to close him up when he got into cardiac arrest
:( Poor guy, he couldn’t even eat or drink water properly, ‘cuz that thing was SO heavy that he had to lean his head to the right all the time :(
New technique for micro-surgery
Sound Scalpel - Invisible ‘knife’ uses sound to sliceEngineers made a lens coated with carbon nanotubes that converts light to sound (with the help of a rubbery layer) and the high-pressure focused sound waves allows 150-micrometer holes to be drilled in small objects. The image here shows holes drilled inside of an artificial kidney stone.
This new and improved technique opens up a whole new world at this small of a scale. Surgery could be painless as the precision of this lens would allow the surgeon to avoid nerve fibers. An invisible scalpel if you will.
For all of you who are curious, the carbon nanotubes convert the light to sound by first absorbing the light from a laser and converting the heat to the rubbery layer (polydimethylsiloxane) and that layer expands creating the sound wave. Pretty cool!
Snake surgery by Lori Konar on Flickr.
This is a Burmese python that has just woken up from surgery. She still has her endotracheal tube in.
A canine mammary mass removal
Removal of a testicular tumor from a cryptorchid dog. Tumors are more likely in cryptorchid (undescended) testicles, so neutering is even more important for these guys!
And THIS, my dear friends, is why you listen to your vet when they tell you to keep your recently spayed cat as calm and still as possible.
My girlfriend recently got a cornea transplant. Here is a high res image of the stitches in her eye
disgusting
Disgusting? You mean amazing? Think of the medical marvel this is.
this was on the news yesterday! so cool omg
This is seriously amazing. Like, holy crap.
Ophthalmology is so cool so cool god I want to do surgery with a microscope and 10-0 *flail*
Mammary gland tumor in a bitch ( can’t remember her age and etc. I took these pictures long ago - the tumor was so big I wanted to share)
Eye enucleation in a feline patient suffering from glaucoma.
Aggressive behavior in animals is sometimes caused by a painful condition. This cat was so aggressive that her owners had use a feral trap in their house just to get her to us! Any time they tried to even approach their pet, she’d attack viciously. Her behavior in the clinic was just as bad as at home.
During her spay our vet discovered this HUGE ovarian cyst — a condition that is known to be quite painful in humans — and removed it along with the rest of the reproductive organs. Her recovery was uneventful, but she returned in a few days for a recheck (dx: worrywart owner ^_~), and to our shock she was THE sweetest, mild-mannered little kitty you could imagine. Purred and head-butted us during the entire examination, even the temp check.
She had just been in such excruciating pain and as soon as that pain was relieved, her true temperament showed through. Needless to say, the owners were super grateful for the change! :)
Polite discussions only please. Ask me here or educate yourself here.
Declawing is NOT that bad. CHILL. If it was completely awful, a lot of vets would refuse to do it. Just like vets will refuse to dock and crop dogs if they don’t want to do it. Almost all our cats have been declawed, and they never suffered because of it. -.-‘
I’m sure you could have your fingertips chopped off and not suffer too, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that should be done. Not only are you getting the cat’s digits stunted, but you’re removing their main method of defense and a tool they use for interacting with their environment.
There is no justifiable reason for mutilating an animal like that. People who get their cats declawed are irresponsible pet owners and should not be allowed to have cats. The operation should be illegal, unless as OP said, it is for a medical reason that would benefit the cat.
It’s not irresponsible, so shut up. Our cat is an indoor cat, therefore she had no use of her claws. I did not make the decision, my parents did. I most like would never declaw my own cat. Now, continue on raging about how horrid I am, while my cat reacts just fine to no claws and still loves me.
OP here, figured I should inform you politely that you are incorrect. Would you like to know why vets still do it?
Because declawing alone in the USA brings in 4 billion dollars a year. Many of them make almost half of their income from declawing alone. And people are awful. They’ll do anything for a dollar.
I also regret to inform you, but despite being an indoor cat, your cat still needs claws. Cats use their claws for everything. Including walking.. Which is pretty important to animals with legs. Did you know your cat does not walk the same as s/he used to? Because she does not have the ends of her toes. Which she used to walk on (cats are digitigrade), but now cannot because she’s had 10 (or 18) amputations. They use their claws to communicate, to balance, to stretch (which is really needed now that her walking is permanently altered), exercise, groom themselves, to do quite literally everything cats do.
Not to mention, if your kitty did escape.. Which cats do.. She’d be done for.
And the worst part of it all? It doesn’t benefit the cat at all. Only the humans. And I’d say that’s pretty irresponsible and selfish.
Declawing is a serious surgery. I know that this has been stated many times (in other posts) but it’s not just the claw that’s being removed, it’s the entire last bone in the toe / digit.
Look at your own hands. Everything past that last joint is what you’re taking off your cat. Anyone who’s had a bandage on their finger (spanning across a joint) knows how useless that finger becomes. The thing is, we still have 4 other fingers on that hand to use (and the other fully-functioning hand). Now imagine bandaging all your fingers at that last joint. Sure, you can still use your hands / fingers but it’s not the same. You’ve lost a lot of mobility / dexterity. The same happens to your cat. That last bone isn’t just a claw. It’s used to maintain balance, to walk, run, jump.
The last bone (P3) in a cat’s paw lies deep to the soft “squishy” digital pad. Without its P3s your cat has to walk on its knuckles. This continual, abnormal pressure not only causes pain to the foot but also affects their posture leading to back pain. You can also get a number of other post-op problems including haemorrhage, infection, lameness, P2 protrusion (where P2 eventually pokes out of the foot), and intermittent lameness (from both the pain and loss of function).
“But with spays and neuters we’re removing something from them too.. how’s this different?”
Other than the fact that this surgery has completely changed the way they move, putting pressure on structures that can’t support it and that testicles / ovaries are not required for basic activities.. the blood supply to their toes is more developed than the blood vessels supplying their immature sex organs (if desexing is performed before sexual maturity which is why complication increase with age for neuters).
Oh and don’t forget those phantom pains some human amputees experience. Cat physiology isn’t all that different to ours so I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of them experience this too. This pain would be in addition to the actual pain of using their disfigured paws. And nerve cells are bratty little things.. Piss it off by amputating it and you can get little tumourous balls of pain (traumatic neuromas). These already hurt (documented cases in dogs with docked tails).. but now the cat needs to put pressure on them in order to get from one place to another.
“But but their behaviour hasn’t changed at all! They’re not in pain. They’re still the same happy cats we’ve always had.”
Animals, especially cats, hide their pain. Despite being domesticated for thousands of years they’re still hunters and in order to survive they mask pain / sickness for as long as possible. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz. And depending on when the surgery was done you may not notice a change in behaviour. You might attribute it to your rebellious kitten “maturing” into a calmer adult cat, when in actual fact it’s the pain that’s preventing your cat from doing cat things.
With information just a click away there is really no excuse for ignorance. There are options out there (eg soft paws). And if you introduce nail trimming at a young age, it’ll be super easy, quick, and stress-free.
“Well ok.. If it’s so bad why do vets keep doing it?”
While animals are our patients, our clients are the owners. And as bad as this sounds a veterinary clinic is a business. There are lots of bills to pay. Contrary to popular belief vets don’t make very much. (But that’s a whole ‘nother thing.) Turning away a client doesn’t simply mean a loss in revenue for that particular procedure. It includes all future vet appointments, all future pets, all possible referals. Personally I don’t think I could put a cat through that kind of lifelong pain (and many of the vets who do struggle with their decision) but then again I’m still a student. I haven’t gotten to the stage where I need to pay back my $250,000 loan yet. Once I graduate.. will I be able to turn away a client who, even after being told the risks and complications, is still adamantly pushing for the procedure? I don’t know. I’d like to think I can / will but I don’t know. And I’ll only be able to make this decision if I’m a partner at or own the clinic. If I’m working for a vet who does offer this service then I would be risking my job when I turn away the declaw client. Don’t get me wrong. It would be great if veterinary bodies around the world banned this altogether but until they do there will always be “the other vet” who will perform the procedure.
/Rant.. phew @_@
vetstudent-microbiologymaniac:
Tough surgery today. Knee joint dislocation, patella and femur fracture and damaged cartilage on the left hind leg of a 4 months old female husky, fixed with an intramedullary rod and and metal wire ( pictures 1 and 2).
The last picture shows the wound sutured by me, my first suture on a live animal :-)
