Twenty dogs and 29 cats were identified with urethral rupture. Males predominated in both groups. The most common cause of urethral rupture in dogs was vehicular trauma, and in cats it was trauma associated with urethral obstruction and catheterization. Clinicopathological findings, type of surgical correction, time to surgery, type of urinary diversion, and duration of urinary diversion were not statistically associated with the outcome. In this study, the presence of multiple traumatic injuries was associated with a poor outcome.

Peripheral nerve blocks are becoming increasingly popular for perioperative use as anesthetics and analgesics in small animals. This prospective study was performed to investigate the duration of motor and sensory blockade following use of bupivacaine for ultrasound-guided femoral and sciatic nerve blocks in dogs and to measure the plasma concentrations of bupivacaine that result from these procedures. Six dogs were anesthetized twice using a randomized cross-over design. At the first anesthetic, dogs were assigned to receive either an ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block or sciatic nerve block with 0.15 mL kg-1 of bupivacaine 0.5%. Two months later, the other nerve block was performed during a second anesthetic. At 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 minutes after injection, arterial blood samples were collected for laboratory measurement of bupivacaine. After 60 minutes, dogs were recovered from anesthesia. Starting at two hours post-injection, video-recordings of the dogs were made every two hours for 24 hours. The videos were randomized and the degree of motor and sensory blockade was evaluated using a three-point scoring system (0 = no effect, 1 = mild effect, 2 = complete blockade) by two blinded assessors. The median (range) times to full recovery from motor blockade were 11 (6–14) hours (femoral) and 12 (4–18) hours (sciatic), and 15 (10–18) hours (femoral) and 10 (4–12) hours (sciatic) for sensory blockade. There were no differences in the median times to functional recovery for the two techniques. Plasma concentrations of bupivacaine were no different following the blocks and were less than 0.78 μg mL-1 at all times. These results suggest that these ultrasound-guided nerve blocks do not result in potentially toxic systemic levels of local anesthetic and that their duration of action is useful for providing anesthesia and analgesia for pelvic limb procedures.

Objective: To compare intraosseous catheter placement difficulty, success rates, and flow rates at four different locations in canine cadavers.Design: Prospective study.Setting: Private referral center.Animals: Eleven fresh canine cadavers.Interventions: With owner consent, animals presenting for euthanasia were recruited. Animals received heparin (1,000 IU/kg IV) at least 5 min prior to euthanasia. After euthanasia, EZIO intraosseous catheters were placed into the ilial wing, proximal medial tibia, proximal lateral humerus, and distal lateral femur on one side of the animal. Time to catheter placement and catheter difficulty were scored for each placement site. Sterile saline was infused into each location simultaneously over 5 min, first via gravity then using 300 mmHg pressure. Animals were repositioned onto the contra-lateral side and the experiment repeated.Measurements and Main Results: Placement was successful in 16/22 ilial, 18/22 tibial, and 22/22 femoral and humoral attempts. A post-hoc analysis revealed the ileum had a significantly greater difficulty score when compared to the femur and humerus (p ≤ 0.0001). The femur had a statistically significant faster placement time when compared to the ileum (p ≤ 0.05). Gravity infusion rates were statistically lower in the tibia when compared to humerus (p ≤ 0.01) and between the tibia when compared to the femur (p ≤0.001). Additionally, pressurized infusion rates were statistically lower in the tibia compared to the humerus (p ≤ 0.0001), the femur (p ≤ 0.0001), and the ileum (p ≤ 0.01).Conclusions: The femur and humerus had high success rate for IO catheter placement and low placement time and difficulty scores. Pressurized intraosseous flow rates were highest in the humerus and femur. Contrary to human literature, success rates for catheter placement in the humerus and femur were higher than at other sites, suggesting the humerus and femur may be preferred sites for intraosseous catheter placement in the dog. Further investigation through a larger sample size is required to confirm these findings.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate outcomes in cats undergoing subtotal colectomy for the treatment of idiopathic megacolon and to determine whether removal versus nonremoval of the ileocecocolic junction (ICJ) was associated with differences in outcome. ANIMALS 166 client-owned cats. PROCEDURES For this retrospective cohort study, medical records databases of 18 participating veterinary hospitals were searched to identify records of cats with idiopathic megacolon treated by subtotal colectomy from January 2000 to December 2018. Data collection included perioperative and surgical variables, complications, outcome, and owner perception of the procedure. Data were analyzed for associations with outcomes of interest, and Kaplan-Meier survival time analysis was performed. RESULTS Major perioperative complications occurred in 9.9% (15/151) of cats, and 14% (12/87) of cats died as a direct result of treatment or complications of megacolon. The median survival time was not reached. Cats with (vs without) a body condition score < 4/9 (hazard ratio [HR], 5.97), preexisting heart disease (HR, 3.21), major perioperative complications (HR, 27.8), or long-term postoperative liquid feces (HR, 10.4) had greater hazard of shorter survival time. Constipation recurrence occurred in 32% (24/74) of cats at a median time of 344 days and was not associated with retention versus removal of the ICJ; however, ICJ removal was associated with long-term liquid feces (OR, 3.45), and a fair or poor outcome on owner assessment (OR, 3.6). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that subtotal colectomy was associated with long survival times and a high rate of owner satisfaction. Removal of the ICJ was associated with less favorable outcomes in cats of the present study.

Apart from performing an ovariohysterectomy or an ovariectomy, gastrointestinal surgery is the most common type of abdominal surgery that veterinary surgeons perform. It is the most common emergency surgery that most veterinary surgeons perform. The focus of this article is on tips and tricks that can help you perform gastrointestinal surgery; it assumes knowledge of indications as well as how to perform basic procedures. A routine abdominal exploration is the foundation of gastrointestinal surgery; the novice surgeon should identify all lesions present in the abdomen then prioritise them in order of importance and degree of complexity. This practice will allow the surgeon to perform the most important surgical procedures first and minimise unnecessary procedures.