Tag: Fluid Therapy
-
Maintenance fluids
—
by
A while ago we discussed the components of a fluid therapy plan and talked about hydration deficits. This week I want to touch on maintenance fluids. Maintenance rates are typically calculated using the following formulae: ml/day = 80 × bodyweight (kg)0.75 (cats) ml/day = 132 × bodyweight (kg)0.75 (dogs) or ml/day = 30 × bodyweight…
-
Perfusion deficits and fluid resuscitation: a more in-depth look
—
by
A few weeks ago in the Tip of The Week, we discussed the four basic components of a fluid therapy plan – perfusion deficit, hydration deficit, maintenance requirements and ongoing losses. Let’s consider perfusion deficits. As an emergency clinician, correcting perfusion deficits is a crucial part of stabilising a patient. So what is a perfusion…
-
Fluid therapy: twice maintenance just isn’t good enough
—
by
Fluid therapy is a topic that sometimes gets overlooked by vets, partly because there is a misconception that developing fluid plans can be difficult. However, if you keep it simple, you can develop a tailored fluid therapy plan for you patient that is much better than a blanket “twice maintenance” rate. There are four basic…
-
Tree of life
—
by
Seeing a “tree of life” can be an intimidating sight. When you see this number of pumps for one patient, you instantly know things are pretty serious. This sight is almost a daily occurrence in our ICU. Now, your first reaction may be to turn around and walk quickly in the other direction. However, rather…
-
Handling an Addisonian crisis – part 2
—
by
Managing an Addisonian crisis can be daunting, especially when the patient looks like it is about to check out and its baseline bloods show a sodium of 110mmol/L, a potassium of 8mmol/L and a glucose of 2.3mmol/L. That is enough to make anyone’s brain explode. The patient can be treated in many ways, but I…
-
Are vet nurses hidden in plain sight?
—
by
As a community, we vet nurses sometimes feel we are not noticed. We know the rest of the vet community sees us (we’ve had the RCVS petition to show support for protecting our title and now have the Schedule 3 working party to look at what we do every day) and people outside our community…