My last day on anesthesia was a good one! I felt comfortable, was on top of things, and my patient did great under anesthesia! She's a 6 month old pug who has a SEVERE vertebral malformation, and when I say SEVERE, I mean SEVERE. I tried to copy and paste a shot from the MRI or her x-rays, but it didn't work. But just imagine this: if your spine literally made a 90 degree angle, like the shape of a step. OUCH. Anyway, I didn't hear the final word from the neurologists, but there may be a chance this malformation can be surgically treated. Don't know. I even googled around trying to find a photo, even a human one just to get the point across, but I couldn't find one. But I did stumble across a strange website that chronicles malformations in the cat like a cyclops kitten and a two headed kitten. Although these sorts of things are definitely possible and do occur I am not sure if any of the photos are doctored. But they can occur---I've seen some freaky stuff in my neurology courses. Back to pugs...these dogs are brachycephalic, meaning their faces are squashed; other examples of brachycephalics are the boxers and the bulldogs. Of course, humans have bred these dogs to be this way, and have created anatomic abnormalities that are now built into these breeds. As a result they inherently have difficulty breathing (the snorting, for example) relative to other breeds and have slightly different needs in terms of anesthesia.
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