It was around 1 A.M. and I was fast asleep. My cell phone rings to the tune of Darth Vader’s theme in Empire Strikes Back. The hospital is calling, and I’m the vet tech who’s on-call that night for emergency procedures.
I arrive at the hospital 15 minutes after getting the call. The internal medicine doctor who’s on call with me arrives 15 minutes later.
The 24 hour emergency staff has already performed the physical exam, x-rays and blood work. The owner’s of ‘Lunar’, a sweet three year old black and white cat with long white whiskers, thought all she ate was thread. Upon looking at the xrays, it revealed ‘Lunar’ had also eaten a needle.
The first thing I do when I arrive is prepare the endoscope.
DEFINITION: Endoscope - An imaging instrument. A long tubular camera that’s inserted into the mouth, through the esophagus and into the stomach.
This procedure was performed on the wet table.
DEFINITION: Wet Table - A table that’s attached to a sink where exams and procedures are performed.
The doctor feeds the endoscope down into the stomach and locates the needle as it’s ready to go into the small intestine. To pull the needle from the stomach, the doctor then uses another instrument called alligator forceps. Through cautious handling by the doctor, she pulls the needle slowly back up trying to avoid puncturing anything along the way. As I hold my breath, she carefully continues pulling as it slides against the walls of the of the stomach then the esophagus and out through the mouth without injuring any tissue. Lucky for Lunar, her parents (owners) were quick to bring her into the hospital. If another half hour had passed, Lunar would have woken up with an incision from surgery.
This was a pretty routine case for me as I monitored ‘Lunar’s’ anesthesia and vital signs. Thankfully, we never went to surgery, so it was back to bed for me. We were very happy with the result.
‘Lunar’ had no complications and was discharged by 9 A.M that morning.