Whoa Disturbing!

[Lemons2lemonade]

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=0+1275+2025&aid=3366

Bacteria from decaying flesh could cause dysautonomia in dogs...health care people? I need to do more research on this.

[Lemons2lemonade]

Also horse dysautonomia http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/100805.htm

[brethor9]

WOW!! That is way too creepy.......

[lieze]

Well I've definitely thought it could be environmental or from a bug but...as healthcare workers we are not around decaying flesh.

You would have to be taking care of a patient with gangrene or work in a morgue or be some type of pathologist or something along that lines.

At the point of decaying flesh that is beyond healthcare.

[hilbiligrl]

This stuff is way awesome....... i mean the knowledge of it. But it is waaaaay so creepy, yet amazing that they are recognizing these symptoms in animals as dysautonomia, yet docs can't even recognize it in human patients. Glad you shared this!!!! Pretty awesome stuff here

tennille

[Clairefmartin]

Wow! I worked around decaying marine mammals right before I got sick - doing necropsies and rescues off the beaches here for the local stranding team (not always live ones). I wonder if this is true of marine mammals? Thanks for posting - how interesting!

[lieze]

Does it ever seem to you guys that veterinarians are more aware of what is going on with animals vs disease than human doctors are?

One of the blogs I had read about foods and the dangers of certain foods was written by a veterinarian.

Maybe it is in their training where they have to be so aware of what is in an animals surroundings that can affect it that just gets them into that mindset I don't know.

And maybe it isn't that way at all-again I don't know.

[lieze]

Another thing they do and it was an ad for chelate vitamins but according to the ad with animals you pump them full of vitamins to keep them healthy and free of disease.

Many doctors for humans will say vitamin supplements are not necessary.

It seems like an entirely different approach at times.

[bellgirl]

Also horse dysautonomia http://www.merckvetm...m/bc/100805.htm

There is alot about health of horses, because racing and showing are hard core businesses; the better horse wins!! It is actually harder to get into VET school than medical school for humans!! not joking... I don't know whether it is because there are more applicants, (more competition), but this is what I've always heard. My dog's vets are very knowledgeable, and I will ask them human medical questions at times, even though there are differences, some things are similar

[Lemons2lemonade]

You know what bothers me even more about this?! That cats are closer to the ground in their stance and shouldn't have to compensate as much for gravity as us... Another separate idea to note is that there is a lot more testing on animals because of the ethical issues involved with doing certain types of testing on humans...

[songcanary]

A great veterinarian is a great diagnostician. Their patients can't talk. They must interpret the clinical signs and lab data to make a diagnosis. If they're lucky, the owners are hip and provide a good history, but that's not always the case.

I always marvel at how vets diagnose problems. It really does take skill and paying very close attention to the patient (imagine that!). I posted awhile back that I was talking to a friend of mine who is a specialist veterinary internist, and she told me that dysautonomia is SO HARD to diagnose. She said in her practice cats usually present with dilated pupils.

[Katybug]

My small animal vet is the one that told me (after 6 months of human docs not having a clue) that I should insist on testing for tick-borne illnesses and he was right in the money. He and I spoke of the difference between human docs and vets. He said he believes that one of the reasons that vets seem to be better diagnosticians is that there is much less specialization in the veterinary practice, While there are specialists, they are much fewer and harder to access for clients, so your local vet is expected to be able to bare the brunt of the diagnosing and treating. It is usually only rare occasions that people even have the resources to take their pets to specialists. So vets tend to be more well rounded and more global/big picture thinking when considering the possibilities. Plus, they are not beholden to insurance companies the way human docs are so they don't really need to think "inside the box."

[songcanary]

Katybug,

Great explanation. I couldn't agree more. Too bad vets can't dx and treat humans. We'd probably all feel better! That's one of the reasons I miss vet work so much--I picked up a lot of great info just by listening and asking questions.