Pain assessment in the dog: the Glasgow Pain Scale
Pain is an unpleasant personal emotional experience. It has 3 dimensions: Sensory – discriminative (location, intensity, quality, duration)...
Issue number 25.3 Other Scientific
Published 15/04/2021
Also available in Français , Deutsch , Italiano and Español
This paper will present some basic epidemiology of dogs seen for emergency care at a network of primary veterinary clinics in the United States of America. The findings presented in this paper are only intended to provide a bird’s eye view of the common causes of emergency visits...
This paper will present some basic epidemiology of dogs seen for emergency care at a network of primary veterinary clinics in the United States of America. The findings presented in this paper are only intended to provide a bird’s eye view of the common causes of emergency visits to most primary care veterinary practices, and the progress and clinical outcomes for each category are beyond the scope of this paper.
Nearly 2.4 million dogs were seen in almost 7 million pet visits to Banfield Pet Hospital in 2014. This included 21,840 dogs (0.9%) seen for 22,625 “emergency” examinations, and of these, approximately 57.7% (13,056) of the visits had an exact diagnosis entered into the appropriate field of the health record. The top 10 breeds presented as an emergency are shown in Table 1; Chihuahuas and Labrador Retrievers were the most common breeds seen. Top diagnoses and the frequency of each diagnosis are shown in Tables 2a and b; HBC was the most common cause of an emergency, at 22.8% of all visits. Within the ten “emergency categories”, conditions within the “dermatologic” sector were most commonly encountered (25.4% of all cases), followed by the “HBC/bone fracture” category (24.5%). With regard to animals hit by a car, concurrent injuries were not uncommon, as shown in Table 3; for example 27.8% of dogs had related dermatologic wounds and 11.5% had bone fractures.
Dogs | Number of unique pets seen | Percentage of emergency pets |
---|---|---|
Chihuahua | 2,114 | 9.7% |
Labrador Retriever | 1,932 | 8.8% |
Pit bull | 1,292 | 5.9% |
Yorkshire Terrier | 1,247 | 5.7% |
Shih Tzu | 1,060 | 4.9% |
Dachshund | 795 | 3.6% |
Mixed breed | 742 | 3.4% |
German Shepherd | 720 | 3.3% |
Boxer | 691 | 3.2% |
Maltese | 676 | 3.1% |
* The list of the top affected breeds is very similar to their breed representation in the overall Banfield pet population seen during the course of the year.
Specific diagnosis | Number of emergency visits with this diagnosis | % of emergency visits with diagnosis |
---|---|---|
HBC (hit by car) | 2,975 | 22.8% |
Seizures | 1,362 | 10.4% |
Poisoning/toxicity | 942 | 7.2% |
Malaise | 836 | 6.4% |
Laceration | 733 | 5.6% |
Abrasion | 717 | 5.5% |
Wound from animal bite | 590 | 4.5% |
Allergic reaction** | 501 | 3.8% |
Allergic reaction (acute)** | 406 | 3.1% |
Hepatopathy | 356 | 2.7% |
** “Allergy” covers problems such as skin reactions whilst “acute allergy” was used for life-threatening or severe conditions.
Diagnosis group | Number of emergency visits | % of emergency visits |
---|---|---|
Dermatologic problems | 3,322 | 25.4% |
HBC/bone fracture | 3,197 | 24.5% |
Gastrointestinal | 2,032 | 15.6% |
Neurologic | 1,694 | 13.0% |
Toxin/poison | 1,565 | 12.0% |
Nonspecific | 1,117 | 8.6% |
Allergy/allergic reaction | 1,077 | 8.3% |
Respiratory | 660 | 5.1% |
Urogenital | 319 | 2.4% |
Endocrine/metabolic | 242 | 1.9% |
Number of HBC cases*** | 2,453 |
% with bone fracture | 11.5% |
% with dermatologic wound | 27.8% |
% with respiratory diagnosis | 3.8% |
% with neurologic diagnosis | 1.9% |
*** Note that the number of HBC cases are slightly less than the number of HBC visits given in Table 2a; this is because some animals had more than one visit for a HBC incident.
The list of diagnoses from emergency visits will not be a surprise to the general practice veterinarian. It is tempting to suspect there might be a breed predisposition to having an injury or condition resulting in an emergency visit, but this is unlikely as the list of the top affected breeds is very similar to their breed representation in the overall Banfield pet population seen during the course of the year. It is possible that HBC as the most common diagnosis was biased, as the definition of an “emergency visit” for this study included all pets involved in a vehicle incident, irrespective of whether or not the animal was deemed to require an “emergency” visit. In addition, there is potential bias because over 40% of the cases did not have an exact diagnosis entered in the appropriate field of the health record; however, a random review of these cases found that their actual problems could be categorized with frequencies similar to those cases where a diagnosis had been entered. It is therefore unlikely that HBC cases (and indeed the other diagnoses) in Tables 2a and b are either over- or under-represented, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that the percentages for the co-occurrence of certain conditions related to car accidents, as shown in Table 3, are fairly accurate.
Pain is an unpleasant personal emotional experience. It has 3 dimensions: Sensory – discriminative (location, intensity, quality, duration)...
Animals with thoracic trauma frequently present in small animal clinics and should always be treated as an emergency.
Gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV) is a life-threatening condition which requires prompt diagnosis and treatment.
Penetrating wounds are often deceiving! An innocuous-looking skin puncture may overlie tissue that has been significantly compromised by strong forces...