AVCC Doctors and Nurses Work in Collaboration to Save Albus
“There were genuinely times…where my husband and I went home and we didn’t think we would see him again,” recalls Kim Hauth of her dog Albus. Just before the holidays, Albus started a little cough. “It was nothing major. It was like a single cough or hack and then it would go away and he wouldn’t do it again for several hours,” Kim adds. “Nothing else had changed with him.” But, days after Christmas, Albus began to vomit, make wheezing noises and went into respiratory distress.
Kim’s husband Dan took Albus to their family veterinarian. There they discovered one of his lungs had no air passing through it and his white blood cell and platelet counts were very low. They were told to take Albus to an emergency veterinarian, where he was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. But, after a few days, Albus showed no signs of improvement and developed a mild pleural effusion (fluid in the chest cavity). “If anything, the infection was starting to get worse and spread from his left lung into his right lung,” says Kim. Albus then transferred to Advanced Veterinary Care Center (AVCC) in Davie.
“The x-rays at AVCC showed pretty bad results,” says Kim. Beyond aspiration pneumonia, Albus had developed a pneumothorax. Pneumothorax is the accumulation of air between the chest wall and lungs. A chest tube was placed to reduce the air. A feeding tube was also placed, as Albus was not eating. “If the chest tube didn’t work… there would need to be conversations about next steps,” said Kim somberly. “There were nights that we were pretty sure we were going to get that call.”
Albus Turns a Corner
With 24-hour critical care support and time in an oxygen tank, Albus was improving. It turns out, the “chest tube placement went very well, the antibiotics kicked in, and we didn’t have to have any tough conversations,” adds Kim.
“AVCC has been great. We worked with three different emergency doctors, nurses, etc. Everyone knew what they were talking about. Albus started with Dr. White, his intake doc. Dr. White and Dr. High were definitely the two we worked with the most. They were constantly giving me updates and speaking with specialists and internists (within AVCC). Albus was seen by the whole team. Even nurses I didn’t know were stopping to pay attention to him. You can tell there was a lot of collaboration. During our visits, they let us sit by his oxygen tank and stick our arms in to pet him. We would spend time sitting with him in their treatment area and we would stay for an hour or so. And, nobody looked at us like we were in the way.”
After a week at Advanced Veterinary Care Center, Albus was able to go home. Today, he is doing much better, according to Kim. His personality is coming back and he has started chasing lizards again. He also celebrated his 10th birthday! Kim is grateful that the doctors, nurses and staff at Advanced Veterinary Care Center were there when they needed them most. “AVCC has a lot of…resources, experience, and seemed so well equipped for dealing with this. If Albus had stayed put (where we had started) I don’t know if we would still have him.
To learn more about Advanced Veterinary Care Center in Davie, FL (Broward County), click here!
