Vet shaved his ruff

BarbV said:
Devil's advocate.....

Even if they had asked what would your answer have been? Yes, I'm sure.

Yeah, it sucks.

So question to the vets.....is it really necessary to shave to insert an IV or draw blood? Or does this just make it easier for the Vet Techs.....?
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I have shaved 1 neck in my life to draw blood. It was a cat and she was in shock for some unknown reason. No blood pressure what so ever and dying. I already had a cath in(got it in before her blood pressure started bottoming out) and I was trying to figure out what was wrong and needed blood but could not find a vein. It was a good thing I did because that is when I found the bot fly(hole in her neck) that the over the conuter Hartz flea medication killed. When bot fly larve die they release powerful toxins. Removed the larve and the cat started recovering immediately. I would also shave a neck if I was putting in a central line, juglar cath. You want that sterile in placement.

For routine blood draw on a non dying animal, no I would never shave a neck, ever. If you are skilled at it you don't need to.

Justice is one of the hardest dogs in the world to draw blood from a jugular vien. I used to joke that the test for hiring techs was if they could draw blood from Justice there were hired.

It is a good idea to shave a small area and prep the area when placing an IV cath for sterility sake. Think about it as the IV goes in though the hair it touches the fur and then ends up in the blood. I have placed them without shaving for show animals but it would not be for a cath that would stay in for more than an hour or 2(something other than a surgery cath).

But and here is the big but it is not neccasary to shave the entire legs and feathers like a poodle! Small square is need only. Huge pet peeve, shaving off feathers.:mad:
 
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That's to bad, but maybe the vet had a hard time finding the vein. I had to have some bloodwork done about 3 months ago and they drew from a jugular, but no shaving had to be done.
 
The nurse said the locum vet always uses the jugular first, but my regular vet uses the leg and the specialist does too when Deska gets his annual xrays so there is no problem finding the vein there, esp as it was only for blood tests. The locum vet is quite young - I don't know whether that means she is not confident with getting blood elsewhere. Or maybe she hasn't learnt how long-haired dog owners feel about their dog's coats - she will next time I see her.

I'll give the gel a try tonight - I'm sure Deska is going to love that!
 
Justicemom said:
I have shaved 1 neck in my life to draw blood. It was a cat and she was in shock for some unknown reason. No blood pressure what so ever and dying. I already had a cath in(got it in before her blood pressure started bottoming out) and I was trying to figure out what was wrong and needed blood but could not find a vein. It was a good thing I did because that is when I found the bot fly(hole in her neck) that the over the conuter Hartz flea medication killed. When bot fly larve die they release powerful toxins. Removed the larve and the cat started recovering immediately. I would also shave a neck if I was putting in a central line, juglar cath. You want that sterile in placement.

For routine blood draw on a non dying animal, no I would never shave a neck, ever. If you are skilled at it you don't need to.

Justice is one of the hardest dogs in the world to draw blood from a jugular vien. I used to joke that the test for hiring techs was if they could draw blood from Justice there were hired.

It is a good idea to shave a small area and prep the area when placing an IV cath for sterility sake. Think about it as the IV goes in though the hair it touches the fur and then ends up in the blood. I have placed them without shaving for show animals but it would not be for a cath that would stay in for more than an hour or 2(something other than a surgery cath).

But and here is the big but it is not neccasary to shave the entire legs and feathers like a poodle! Small square is need only. Huge pet peeve, shaving off feathers.:mad:
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When Greyson was hospitalized, they shaved off the feathers on his leg for the IV and I was very unhappy, and I asked them if that had really been necessary. The tech looked annoyed with me and said it is absolutely necessary to shave the whole leg for the IV for sterility. I'm very unhappy to hear that that isn't true :mad:
 
insideout said:
When Greyson was hospitalized, they shaved off the feathers on his leg for the IV and I was very unhappy, and I asked them if that had really been necessary. The tech looked annoyed with me and said it is absolutely necessary to shave the whole leg for the IV for sterility. I'm very unhappy to hear that that isn't true :mad:
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They do it because the hair gets stuck in the tape and they can't figure out that if you smooth the hair up so it lays flat before you place the cath and tape that it will come out just fine. But no they tape willy nilly however the hair lies and get hair stuck behind 3 layers of tape that you couldn't possible get out unless you cut the coat anyway. So they figue why not shave it.:rolleyes2::mad:

Any tech that has worked for me learned how to deal with the hair properly.
 
insideout said:
When Greyson was hospitalized, they shaved off the feathers on his leg for the IV and I was very unhappy, and I asked them if that had really been necessary. The tech looked annoyed with me and said it is absolutely necessary to shave the whole leg for the IV for sterility. I'm very unhappy to hear that that isn't true :mad:
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I was told the same thing. It made me feel dumb like I cared more about the way Bentley looked than his health. Not true--but I'd like to have both :smile2:
 
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