A patient care report of intensive nursing care provided to a feline patient presented in hypovolaemic shock

This patient care report highlights the veterinary nursing interventions provided to a feline patient that presented to the practice in hypovolaemic shock.

Species: Feline

Breed: British shorthair

Age: 4 years old

Sex: Malel(neutered)

Weight:l5.9 kg

This cat arrived at the surgery in a semi-collapsed state. The owner was suspicious of poisoning as the patient appeared unsteady and depressed. On examination it was quickly established that the patient had a dislocated hip and was suffering from shock, presumably following a road traffic accident.

The patient was triaged by assessing his cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological systems as detailed below:

Radiographs confirmed a dislocated hip and revealed an abdominal rupture (Figure 1).

The patient had a packed cell volume (PCV) of 30% (reference range (RR) 27–50%), Total solids of 59 g/l (RR 54–78 g/l) (Figure 2). Blood was sent to the external laboratory for basic haematology and biochemistry as no in house facilities existed. A lactate measurement would have been valuable to gain more knowledge regarding the patient's perfusion status (Humm, 2008; Bilbrough, 2009) but Bilbrough (2009) advises there is no clinical benefit to measuring this parameter unless the results are available within minutes.