July 31, 2015

Early Approach to Dyspnoeic Cats, First Do No Harm!

40 minutes

In this episode of the podcast I discuss an approach to the early management of dyspnoeic cats that is predicated on ‘first do no harm’ and thinking risk-benefit at all times. The main take-home messages from the episode are:

Appreciate that dyspnoeic cats can be very vulnerable and easily tipped over the cliff edge.

Even more so than normal, pay acute attention to the risk-benefit assessment at all times.

Understand that each cat is clearly going to be an individual patient with their own set of circumstances and behaviour, but that a hands-off, slow, staged approach is likely to be the least risky and most beneficial in most cases.

Continue to improve your ability and confidence in examining these cases paying attention to trying to anatomically localise the cause of the dyspnoea; this will allow you to make the most sensible decisions in terms of how to help the patient.

Don’t be in a hurry to x-ray dyspnoeic cats until and unless you feel like you have done all you can to make them as stable as possible beforehand.

And, lastly engage more with POCUS, point-of-care ultrasound, if you are not already.

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