Taking care of Cooper

Meet Cooper. He’s a 6 month old Shih Tzu transferred to the Veterinary Specialty Centre’s ICU from the Paradise Animal Hospital. He needed continued supportive care for dehydration due to severe diarrhea. He needed IV fluids to rehydrate him.

Little Cooper needed to know his IV fluids were important and he shouldn’t chew on his IV line.  But, veterinarians can’t speak ‘woof’ or ‘meow’ so, talking to Cooper about it wasn’t going to be easy. So, we found another way to help. We wrapped the line in a “no chew” bandage, which doesn’t taste great, but somehow Cooper wasn’t bothered by it. Silly puppy!

The VSC’s ICU is staffed 24 hours a day, meaning there is always someone keeping an eye on patients like Cooper. The ICU staff could intervene and take steps to prevent him from doing damage to his line, ensuring he could receive his full treatment effectively. There are risks involved when a patient is receiving IV fluids unsupervised. Your family veterinarian will recommend transfer to VSC for overnight care to avoid these risks.

Learn more about our emergency services here.