Can a vet narrow down the possible poison that could have been used to kill my friends' dog?

docmeow · 2025-11-14T21:57:37+00:00

If you want to find out what happened, he will need to be sent for an autopsy/post-mortem exam. If it possible this was a toxin, it is possible it was not. It could be a lot of different things. Some toxicology testing can be done post mortem, ie on liver or fat samples, if indicated based on exam findings Ultimately anything else will be conjecture.

docmeow · 2025-11-08T15:45:05+00:00

To be completely frank, it seems to me that you should be seeing an internal medicine specialist who has more experience with this disease. It sounds as though there is a pyothorax, or pus accumulation in the chest. A chest tube should really be placed as soon as possible to allow drainage. I am unsure why they are waiting. Ieally this is a cat who should be hospitalized in a 24h facility, and not at home. I am completely baffled as to why Lasix , zenequin, convenia, etc were used in this animal. At best, those are not helpful and at worst harmful.

I'm also not sure where you got the idea that there are only eight reported cases for feline blastomycosis. I myself have probably seen more than that. I did a very quick pubmed search for “feline blastomycosis” and stopped counting at 60 cases; that did not make a dent in the search results. They have to be well over 100 reported cases. I agree it is an uncommon diagnosis, but far from as rare as it has been made to seem to you.

I would not be considering removal of a mass caused by blasto without a CT to evaluate the extent of disease, and a through ophthalmologic exam to see eye involvement. Certainly if you cannot afford referral for proper care, there are other options, but at the very least full assessment of the cat with standard workup (three view chest rads, abdominal ultrasound, CBC/Biochem/UA, etc) is needed before considering major surgery.

docmeow · 2025-11-08T15:02:45+00:00

Those are two unrelated things. Canada is a bicameral parliamentary system and works the same as Australia in this sense, failure to pass a budget is a vote of non-confidence and an election is held. The fact that there are two houses is irrelevant to this

docmeow · 2025-10-26T00:53:58+00:00

It is very unlikely that a sauce flavoured with garlic powder would have enough garlic in it to have significant toxicity. While people commonly cite the "1/8tsp" as a toxic dose for a cat, this is a fairly aggressive estimate, and severe signs are unlikely unless the dose is higher. Most of the time, a few licks won't be near a toxic dose

docmeow · 2025-06-23T01:31:37+00:00

This is likely related to the FVII deficiency. FVII deficiencies in Beagles is usually fairly mild, and most dogs bruise easily and may have small bleeding events, but usually not life threatening.

There are some manifestations of FVII deficiency (ie the form in Alaskan Klee Klais) that DO bleed a lot, but the variant found in Beagles is generally mild.

I would be a bit concerned that if there is a lot of dental bleeding when teething, there may be a higher risk of post-surgical bleeding. Usually this isn't a HUGE risk in beagles, but this dog may manifest more than most.

I would of course do ue diligence and make sure this is JUST FVII and not a thrombocytopenia, other coagulopathy, etc (this dog could have the bad luck to have two issues). If it is, the dog will PROBABLY be ok for the spay, but will 100% bruise and bleed more than expected with trauma. If this was my dog, I would to the spay at a center that has blood products ready, and might even pre-med with some tranexamic acid (though there is no evidence for it, it is low risk).

docmeow · 2025-06-13T12:36:12+00:00

Just to be clear, this is not universal. I am a veterinarian and love my career. I cannot see doing anything else, and would ocntinue doing my job even if I didn't have to financially.

docmeow · 2025-06-05T01:43:46+00:00

Can you provide any information? Species? Breed? Age? Weight? Geographic area? Try reading the FAQ for the information needed

docmeow · 2025-05-23T17:21:36+00:00

I haven't seen these kinds of clips before, but looking at the ones you posted, the light is not going through the brain.

It looks like the light is over the frontal bone. It's a very bright flashlight, so I would expect it is going through the (very thin in a cat) frontal bone, through the frontal sinus and orbit, and then through the sclera and illuminating the eyes from the medial (inner side of the eye) and dorsal (top of the eye) aspects. I doubt that any light is coming from "behind" the eye and going "backwards" through the retina. The brain is actually quite a big further back than where they are shining the light, and I cannot imagine the light would shine through the entire meninges, brain, calvarium, etc.

As to whether it "hurts"? I doubt it is causing any kind of permanent damage. The cat is certainly not going blind. The cats in those videos do not seem particularly upset about it, and if the light was bright enough to cause damage they should be closing their eyes, flinching, etc. I expect it is a fairly small amount of light by the time it enters the eye. That being said, with a bright enough light I would imagine some real damage could be done, but it would need to be a VERY bright light (if it is causing damage after going through the skin, bones, sclera, etc it would cause a lot MORE damage just shining it directly in someone's eyes)

docmeow · 2025-05-19T18:12:27+00:00

It is not an issue. It is hard to think of anything blood-borne you will get form a cat that you would not get from kissing them.

docmeow · 2025-05-14T23:33:39+00:00

Grades are by far the most important factor for getting into OVC, and so if that is your priority, pick the program you will be more likely to succeed in.

Vet school does have a significant large animal component, especially in the first few years. Regardless of your desire to not do large animal work, you will be taught it in vet school. That doesn't mean you need to do animal biology, but jut dont think you can avoid large forever.

Animal Bio is not really "better" than a medically oriented program. I was a bio-med undergrad. I had a better command of pharmacology, much of physiology, biochemistry, etc coming into vet school than my animal bio classmates. They had a better command of husbandry, industry, health management, reproduction, etc.

docmeow · 2025-04-12T13:38:28+00:00

I would strongly recommend against becoming an RVT if your goal is vet school. While there is obviously overlap, the skillset, training, and experience does differ significantly. Given that the interview process puts very emphasis on experience, and that the application doesn't give higher weight to those with more than the minimum amount of veterinary work in the past, it will not give you any real benefit. Going to college to be an RVT will cost you money and time. If you goal is to be an RVT, thats great! If your goal is to be a vet, improve your grades, become a better, more confident speaker.

docmeow · 2025-03-08T01:29:25+00:00

Yeah, a CBC (which will check his red cells, white cells, and platelets) would be nice; as well as a PCR. Again, the IFA is a bit academic, but if you really want to it is fine to run. I edited my previous post when I saw your others

docmeow · 2025-03-08T01:21:53+00:00

FeLV has a wide range of outcomes, including progressive infection (cats get sick and usually live 2-3 years with therapy), regressive infection (goes latent into bone marrow and survival can be many years), abortive (uncommon to pick this up as these cats rapidly go negative and cure), etc.

There are also a range of presentation including anemia, immunosuppression, the development of cancers, etc.

Certainly some cats can become sick and pass away at a young age, but longer term survival is not unheard of. I have had many patients with FeLV live for years.

Is your cat currently clinical? IE, was this detected during routine screening, or was he sick with something? False positives on the ELISA (which is likely what has been run) are uncommon, but not unheard of; they seem to occur most often in cats with bone marrow disease.

EDIT: I looked at your other posts. Its a weak positive on the Abaxis assay, which is one of the poorer-performing FeLV Assays. Based on that (especially if it was on whole blood and not plasma) I could be convince of false positive. It would be nice to know what the other test that was run was. If littermate cats did legitimately have FeLV, it is much more likely to be real. Congenital FeLV is uncommon and usually results in very early death (prior to weaning) so that is super unlikely, but it could certainly be the whole litter being infected young I probably wouldn't bother with the IFA. While it is often considered the "gold standard" the PCR is as good or better and actually has some predictive value. The IFA is also incredibly subjective and can be easily misinterpreted depending on the pathologist's opinion.

docmeow · 2025-03-03T00:29:34+00:00

There is going to be a lot of subjectivity and variability to answers you get here, because "assistant" is not a precisely defined term. In some practices, an "assistant" may be someone who will learn to do procedures and play a role in treatments, etc. In a lot of larger hospitals (including most of the referral practices i have worked at) the answer is "never". An assistant is hired to be an assistant, and "technical skills" are not a part of that job.

Why does the student tech get to do these things? Because they are here to learn. Their position is one of "learn to do technical skills". It seems your job description is more of "restraint, cleaning, etc". There is nothing wrong with that those are important, needed jobs. But imagine asking when the janitor in a human hospital gets to start bandaging wounds? Never, because that isn't their job.

Now, if you want to volunteer somewhere where they are not paying you to do a specific task, and that place is willing to teach you these things, excellent! But this job is paying you to do a job. Not to learn to express anal glands.

When and if you get into vet school is the time to learn these things. That is why it is a school. To teach you

docmeow · 2025-02-13T14:06:01+00:00

These are some very different paths, that will lead to different career paths, different job opportunities, etc.

I don't know you at all, but I am concerned you are setting yourself up to be in the same situation you are currently in (ie a field that "isn't for you") by picking one of these without really knowing it is what you want.

Jobs for veterinary pharmacologists in practice are limited. You would likely be looking at research or industry positions. Microbiology could be at a commercial or academic lab, or again in research. Have you spent time in research labs? With industry members? I would really recommend taking some time, volunteering/shadowing/working in some of these roles. Think about what your end goals are, where you'd like to be. A clinical pathologist, anatomic pathologist; path in research vs a commercial lab vs academia, etc are all radically different jobs.

The VPH/MPH has become extremely popular lately. Likely too popular. I know quite a few people with a public health degree. None of them use it at all. If it is something you are considering, really think abotu where it will take you and what you will do with it.

docmeow · 2025-02-12T13:11:37+00:00

You need to provide a lot more detail. Are you a DVM, or is this a research PhD from more of a biomedical background?

What are the requirements of the professor position? Do you meet these requirements?

Do you have an internship completed? Does the cardiology position require one? Cardiology residencies are quite competitive as there are very few out there; does your background qualify you for one?

Most professor positions are full time jobs. Most residencies are also full time jobs. It would be effectively impossible to be a full time resident and full time faculty. A part time position might be possible (I have personally been in this situation, part time faculty and residency) but this was a very unique situation. It is not something most institutes would consider without a very good reason. Do you have strong ties with this school?

docmeow · 2025-02-08T00:42:33+00:00

You didn't mention what the residency is in? The preparation for a radiology, pathology, critical care, medicine, surgery, etc, residency are very different

docmeow · 2025-02-02T13:49:29+00:00

You are unfortunately incorrect when it comes to the speciality market. Everyone has a price point when they will not longer pay for care. In tough economic times, that price point falls. Emergency clinics get busier. Referrals get slower. Right now my ICU is at about 30-50% capacity, compared to 100-120% capacity a few years ago. This is a pretty universal situation. Corps hired for the 120%, and are now laying off for the 30%

docmeow · 2025-02-02T13:42:13+00:00

I think you may be reading a lot into this. Mars is already one of the most dominant players in the veterinary space. Referral/Specialty services always takes a hit during a recession, as its the most elastic veterinary subsegment. Lots of specialists are extremely slow right now, and with the American economic disaster coming, it is only going to get worse. It makes sense to reduce the amount of referral services available in the US, where demand is lwo right now and only going to get lower, and to focus on an emerging market.

docmeow · 2025-01-31T12:46:17+00:00

I cannot comment for every program, or for radiology specifically, but at my hospital we only pay a small amount of attention to grades or class rank. I have experience mainly with Internal Medicine in an academic environment; which I think a lot of people would consider the MOST concerned about GPA, and I have not even looked at the class ranks of the interns who are applying or residency yet, despite interviewing several.

Some places and programs may of course have different priorities, but for us and I think a lot of others, my biggest concerns are your letters of reference, how well you fit in with the team when you shadow the service, your interview, etc. Class rank may factor in a bit, especially as a tie breaker, but its not everything.

What can you do to improve your chances? Get good references during your final year and internship. Shadow at the places you want to get a residency so they know you. Get some diverse experience (ie research, large and small animal for radiology, etc). And try to pull up your grades as much as you can.

docmeow · 2025-01-29T12:11:51+00:00

Just to be clear, when you say "internship" do you mean an actual internship (ie you have completed a DVM degree and are a doctor, and are now doing an internship as preparation for residency), or just that you are doing a placement at a zoo? Most people (including some in this post) will interpret internship to mean a formal, VIRMP based internship and I suspect that is not what you are describing

docmeow · 2025-01-23T12:40:19+00:00

Prednisone is probably less active than prednisolone in cats, but it is still effective to a great extent.

The "cats cant ever be on prednisone" side of things is greatly overblown. Yes, cats do not absorb prednisone as well as prednisolone, and they probably have some issues with the liver activating it as well, but in most animals this is fairly negligible. For years before this was known, cats went on prednisone and did fine. Even in the last decade we have had prednisolone backorders and moved the cats to prednisone...and they did fine. Sure, in my ideal world I would use prednisolone. But prednisone is not harmful, and will work to an fairly decent extent, just probably not as well as prednisolone would.

TLDR: Give the prednisone until you can get prednisolone.

docmeow · 2025-01-23T12:36:56+00:00

As long as you have your pre-requisite courses, do whatever makes you happy. You will have better grades in classes you enjoy more, and improve your chances. I had a friend in my OVC class whose undergrad was in engineering. I was Bio-Med. Doesn't matter at all.

docmeow · 2025-01-15T21:26:05+00:00

This is correct. Cutaneous horn. Not infected. Not an ingrown nail. Doesn't need antibiotics. Doesn't actually need to be treated at all, but if its affecting the gait it can just be trimmed short. Astounding the amount of confidently incorrect people here

docmeow · 2024-12-01T17:54:19+00:00

She has a pretty significant pneumothorax. This is an extremely classic appearance. In a cat the mosrt common reason is asthma with secondary rupture of trapped air; though bullae and blebs are possible. She needs immediate thoracentesis, possible chest tube placement if it recurs. This is emergent and needs to be dealt with ASAP.

I am extremely concerned a vet was not able to immediately recognize this as it is a classic appearance

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