The Undercover Vet: An eternal flame

One of my colleagues, Kevin, was an experienced vet who once had an interesting tale to tell. One day when Kevin was working, an owner rushed in with her Pekingese dog. This dog was a 13 year old female dog that had a long standing heart problem. The heart valves of this dog were not operating well. Normally, heart valves allow the blood to circulate inside the heart in one direction. This allows the blood to flow well and the heart to be able to efficiently pump the blood around the body.

This dog was diagnosed with this heart problem for a few years and was on the appropriate medication for the condition. Unfortunately, this type of condition is progressive, meaning that it will get worse with time despite medication. The drugs that were used had the effect of slowing the deterioration in the heart and minimising any problems associated with a faulty heart. The dog had been stable for many years but the owner was aware that at some point, the dog may rapidly worsen and pass away.

One day when Kevin was in the clinic, the dog was rushed in as an emergency. The dog had collapsed and stopped breathing for at least 10 minutes before being brought into the veterinary surgery. The owner was in hysterics and crying loudly. On examination, the dog was found to be dead - no heart beat or breathing. The owner was understandably in a complete state of shock but wanted Kevin to do everything possible to try and resuscitate her little baby.

Because this dog had been dead for at least 10 minutes, the prognosis really was hopeless for this poor little girl. Despite this and as a result of the owner's insistence, Kevin decided to proceed with resuscitation of this dead dog. He rushed the dog into the operating theatre and gave the dog oxygen into the airways and fluid into vein to try and maintain the blood pressure. The nurse performed fast chest compressions to try and help the blood circulate around the body. Kevin also administered the appropriate drugs to try and stimulate the dog back into life.

None of Kevin's attempts as a faith healer, were having any effect at all and so Kevin decided to try and shock the heart back into action. There was a new defibrillator in the clinic and Kevin thought this was the patient to try it out on. A defibrillator is a machine that delivers an electric shock to the heart to try and stimulate the heart into action. A defibrillator consists of 2 handles with metal plates that are pressed onto the patient's chest. In all honesty, these devices aren't that useful in veterinary medicine unless used during surgery when the heart can stop suddenly and then be immediately energized. Also they are often used for certain abnormal rhythms of the heart, which are more commonly encountered in humans than animals.

Defibrillators are powerful machines sending strong electric shocks/pulses through the body. When the shock is being given, it is very important for others to stand away from the person administering the electric pulse and for there to be no metal in contact once the shock is given. So Kevin charged up the machine, shouted "Clear" and administered the first shock - unsurprisingly, the dog was still dead; no pulse, no heart beat and no breathing.

Undeterred, Kevin decided to administer another shock. This time however, once the shock was given, the dog's fur caught fire and began to smoke!! This dog's coat was burning with a small flame and setting off the smoke alarm!! Maybe this was Kevin's way of warming up the body or sending smoke signals to other dogs to let them know that this dog was well and truly dead!

Kevin and the nurse threw a wet towel on the dog to put out the fire and informed the owner that resuscitation was unsuccessful. The owner decided to cremate the dog's body and have the ashes buried. I suppose that if Kevin had continued trying to defibrillate this dog, the owner may have saved money on having to pay for a cremation service!