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So far this week,
we have worked on developing
your clinical skills in terms of describing the signalment of a dog,
observing an animal carefully to identify as much information as possible and
measuring the respiratory rate of an animal and
comparing this to the reference ranges for vital signs.
All of these skills should be performed at
a safe distance from the animal without restraining it.
We're now going to move on to the final section
of the clinical skills week and this will give you
a brief overview of some of
the general examinations skills that a veterinary surgeon may use.
However, it is very important that we emphasize that the skills demonstrated in
this section are being carried out by
trained veterinary professionals and offer you information only.
For the safety of both yourself and your animals,
please do not undertake these procedures at home
unless you have had professional veterinary or veterinary nurse training.
Please take a moment to read through the important content of this disclaimer slide.
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In a moment, my colleagues will demonstrate a basic physical examination of a dog.
And we will talk you through some of the skills that they are using.
They will start by observing the dog from a distance in the waiting room.
So remember back to some of the important points that we
discussed earlier this week regarding observation skills.
You will then notice that Caroline, a qualified veterinary nurse,
will be restraining Juno the dog,
whilst Neil, a qualified veterinary surgeon,
performs a basic physical examination.
As you saw in the previous section of this week,
a physical examination is usually performed after taking a history from the owner.
Our aim over the next few minutes is to give you a basic overview
of what a veterinary surgeon is looking at when they examine a dog.
We should however point out that we are undertaking
a very basic general health check type examination
here and we are intentionally not recording the rectal temperature of the dog.
Many veterinary surgeons will carry out
a more detailed examination if an animal is suffering from
a specific complaint and we do not intend to
include a comprehensive examination in the following clips.
So take a moment to look through the clips that are coming up.
And here, we can see two dogs in the waiting room.
So, Juno the adult Labrador and Cil the puppy.
And we can just see from our observation skills
that both dogs are bright, alert and responsive.
They're interested in their surroundings.
They're relatively well-behaved and sitting calmly.
From this clip, we can see that Cil is a female puppy and that
Juno has nice clean healthy teeth with minimal tartar on them.
And Juno the adult is also relaxed enough to lie down in the waiting room,
in a strange environment and still relatively relaxed.
Cil's enjoying some attention there and getting in a cheeky nibble.
So now, Neil, my colleague,
is going to examine Juno and he starts by evaluating her head,
looking at the symmetry of both sides.
Then looks at her eyes to evaluate the color of the membranes,
which should be a nice healthy pink color.
He's looking at her teeth and her gums now and
he's just checking the capillary refill time,
which is an indicator of her circulatory function is within normal limits.
He's checking her ears for any discharges, redness,
inflammation or any problems that can be identified.
He's then feeling under her chin for structures called lymph nodes,
which can be enlarged if there's any inflammation or infection.
And there's also a lymph node in front of her shoulder blade,
but he's just checked there.
He's using his hands to palpate her body and just identify any abnormal lumps or bumps.
He's now using his stethoscope to auscultate Juno's heart.
So, he'll be listening to the heart sounds and the heart rhythm.
He's also feeling her pulse at the same time in her hind leg.
And he'll record the heart rate and compare this to normal limits.
It's important to listen to the heart on both the left and the right hand side.
And similarly to listen to the lungs on both the left and the right hand side,
which is what he's doing here.
He then moves on to
just feel down her legs for
any obvious abnormalities and there's a final lymph node in the hind leg,
which he's feeling for there.
He's then checking under her belly,
so her umbilicus or belly button.
And also checking each tit for any mammary swellings or abnormalities.
He's now moving around to palpate her forelimbs.
So he's comparing left and right sides and just picking up any obvious abnormalities.
It's also possible to extend and flex each joint individually.
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And now, he's doing the similar palpation of the hind limbs.
And then, moving on to examine the foot in more detail.
So checking between each toe,
looking for any redness or infection or
inflammation and checking the pads at the same time.
Also the claws and the length of the nails.
And again, here, you can see that Juno's got a really nice bright eyes.
She's got no obvious ocular or nasal discharge and that she's generally a bright,
alert, and responsive dog.
So, that concludes our clinical skills week for you.
We hope that you've felt,
we've introduced the concept of clinical skills.
We've work with you to be able to describe the signalment of an animal.
Work with your observation skills to pick up as many abnormalities as possible,
to be able to identify the respiratory rates of a horse,
a cow and a dog,
and compare this to normal reference ranges.
And then, we've just giving you a very brief overview of
general examination skills that veterinary surgeons will use when they examine a dog.
So, we hope that you've enjoyed the week and thank you for your attention.
Dr Jessie PatersonBSc (Hons) Agricultural Chemistry, PhD, PgDip
Kay AitchisonBSc Agriculture (Hons Animal Production Science)
Prof Susan RhindBVMS, PhD, FRCPath, PFHEA, MRCVS
Dr Gurå Therese BergkvistBSc Hons (Vet Sci), BVM&S, PhD, MRCVS
Rachel WhittingtonBVSC MRCVS
Dr Catriona BellBVetMed, PhD, PGCAP, MRCVS
Dr Andrew GardinerBVM&S, Cert SAS, MSc, PhD, MRCVS
