Fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity (around the organs) is called "ascites". The old-timey name for it was "dropsy". Right-sided heart failure can certainly cause it. There are other things that can cause it, as well. Cancerous growths in the abdomen can secrete fluid. The first sign of my mother's ovarian cancer was the fluid […]
Category Archives: Internal Medicine
This is Big Jake. "When he lays around the house, he really lays around the house." [rim-shot!] His 147 pounds are covering my exam table and slopping off the edge. Five days ago he came in because he had been panting in the early morning. He seemed to feel better by the time they came […]
Here’s a portrait of a nice, healthy kidney, but that’s not the kind we’re talking about. We are talking about pets with kidney failure. Does that mean "it’s over"? Maybe yes, maybe no. Kidney failure (or renal failure, as we scientific types like to say) can be acute or chronic. "Renal failure" means that the […]
Warning: gross pictures at the bottom I’ve posted on pyometra before, and also on why you should spay your dog while she’s young and healthy. Today we had a really spectacular case, though. This beautiful German Shepherd is only 2 years old, and had what appeared to be a normal heat cycle three weeks ago. […]
This is Toby with a blow-by oxygen tube in front of his face. Toby is 14 years old. As often happens, in the earlier stages of his disease a lot of his clinical signs were chalked up to "just getting older". When he began having difficulty breathing, his mom sought help. This is a lady […]
Percardiocentesis – a big word. You’ll know what it means by the end of the post. The phone rings at 6:00 AM. "I didn’t mean to wake you". [How could I answer the phone if I weren’t awake?] It turns out that Coco had had a tough night. So had her folks. I had seen […]
An idosyncratic reaction is a reaction that is peculiar to one individual (or at least to a very small minority of patients). Some reactions might be called an "intolerance". Everybody else can take this medicine, but it always makes me sick. For example, the orthopedic surgeon gave me a sample of an anti-inflammatory medicine when […]
It’s 6:30 PM and I’m waiting for someone from Monette, Arkansas (who didn’t even call until after 5:30, and yes, we close at 5:00 today, thank you). They think their puppy may have Parvovirus. I think so, too. It was "just fine yesterday", meaning a sudden onset of illness. It’s a puppy less than one […]
I got the call at 7:00 AM Saturday. "I’ve been up all night with Fluffy. She’s been vomiting and had a lot of fluid from the other end." With vomiting, I assumed she meant the dog had diarrhea. Fluffy arrived wearing a diaper. "How many times did she have diarrhea?" "I don’t think it’s coming […]
We talked yesterday about big, flabby, weak, stretched out of shape hearts. These hearts can’t pump blood very efficiently. The body demands that a certain amount of blood get pumped around every minute on a regular basis — that’s Cardiac Output. If the heart can’t pump strongly enough to get that done with a normal […]