Small Animal Emergency Medicine Handbook

Know Before You Draw It Up: The Dose That Saves a Dog Can Kill the Cat in the Next Kennel Built for the clinician triaging a straining tomcat and a bloating Great Dane on the same shift, this handbook carries the shared foundation of primary survey, the Rule of 20, and shock staging into the exact points where canine and feline management diverge - hepatic glucuronidation, autonomic reactivity, and naturally occurring feline blood group antibodies among them. Every chapter closes on a species-matched decision anchor - canine profile, feline profile, safety threshold - consolidated into an indexed Atlas built for lookup mid-case. Before You Reach for the Syringe, You Will Be Able To Stage shock correctly - the Rule of 20 and the paradoxical feline heart rate that hides decompensation behind a normal-looking pulse. Bolus fluids without drowning the patient - species-specific shock doses built around occult feline cardiomyopathy. Run a code that matches the chest - cardiac-pump versus thoracic-pump technique, plus feline airway adjustments that prevent laryngospasm. Decontaminate correctly the first time - the emetic that fails in cats, and the acetaminophen dose that kills them. Read the ECG and echo for the right species - vertebral heart score thresholds and the feline five P’s of arterial thromboembolism. Catch GDV and linear foreign body before surgery - one anatomically exclusive to dogs, one demanding a sublingual exam in cats. Transfuse without guessing - the naturally occurring feline antibodies that make a first transfusion as dangerous as a mismatched fifth. Close a case right - honest prognosis conversations, species-appropriate euthanasia technique, and hospice analgesia. Pick it up before the next mismatched dose becomes a mistake you can’t undo.