Oscar’s Intensive Eight Days
Beloved 14-year-old Labrador Retriever Oscar was rushed to us as an emergency admission as he needed to be resuscitated before spending eight days in intensive care as he became critically ill with pneumonia and septic shock.
Two of our Internal Medicine Residents Fang Yu Foo and Victoria Neale led Oscar’s care, handling his recovery and organising his rehabilitation.
Fang explained: “Oscar was a challenge to manage initially, because he arrived in such a critical state. He arrived with dyspnoea (increased breathing rate), tachycardia (high heart rate), hypotension (low blood pressure), fever (temperature of 40.5C), hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose) and hypoxia (reduced level of tissue oxygen). He was instantly admitted for emergency stabilisation. We initiated oxygen supplementation, intravenous fluid therapy, vasopressor constant rate infusion (treatment to increase blood pressure), antibiotics and glucose (sugar) constant rate infusion.”
He continued “Once he was stabilised, Oscar was transferred to our intensive care unit for 24-hour care and observation. After the first 12 hours, Oscar remained recumbent and did not show any interest in food. A urinary catheter was placed to enable urination without him needing to walk outside and a nasoesophageal feeding tube (down the nose) was also placed to enable feeding.”
After three days of hospitalisation, Oscar’s demeanour gradually improved and he no longer required his oxygen supplementation. Oscar’s improvement gave Fang and Vicky the chance to tackle some of his other problems.
Vicky said: “Oscar also suffers from severe osteoarthritis due to his old age, which is why he was very reluctant to walk by himself. He was, therefore, fitted with a ‘Help Em Up’ dog harness and began a course of physiotherapy to help with his rehabilitation.”
His owner said: “We really can’t praise AMVS enough. Without a shadow of doubt, Oscar would have died without the treatment he received. He will be 15 soon, so we are grateful for every extra day we have been given with him. Many thank you’s cannot possibly convey the depth of our gratitude for your superb care and kindness. It is only thanks to the skill, dedication and compassion of your amazing team that he has recovered sufficiently to continue his assisted rehabilitation at home. We will cherish every one of the extra moments you have given us with our dear ‘tough teddy bear’ and cannot begin to thank you all for your amazing care. Oscar is going from strength to strength every day. Walks are slower and shorter than they were but he enjoys every minute of them.”
Following eight days of supportive treatment Oscar was eating, drinking, toileting and was generally very happy so was discharged for continuing care at home. At his latest re-check, he was still well.
