About a month ago I received an email from my veterinary school that my favorite professor was retiring, and they were looking for funny stories or video tributes about this fantastic veterinarian.
Dr. B was more than interesting. In 30-plus years of teaching, he had left an unbelievable impression on his students. Interestingly, in all the years that he taught, the only year he won lecturer of the year was the year that he taught my graduating class.
He was “must-see TV” before NBC had it. He was from South Africa, and he just had a different way of looking at the world. Dr. B taught embryology and toxicology to the veterinary students, and every disease or interesting case had a story that he had experienced. I truly didn’t have to study from the textbook because his stories are what I remembered, and it made the cases real for me.
He used to tell us repeatedly that if you practice as long as he did, you should experience every condition that he taught us. It was up to us to remember it and appreciate it.
One day years ago a black Labrador was brought in for seizing. It was different from other seizure cases that I have worked on. Typically, the owner videotapes or describes the seizure, and it is up to me to determine the cause.
Well, this Labrador came in actively seizing and it was getting worse. I knew that there was no evidence of Bufo toad toxicity, so I started to ask the owner about the dog. He was not the owner, but the owner’s father. The owner was deployed overseas. The father told me that the Labrador was fine two weeks ago when he got the dog from his son, other than some loose stool. “The dog started to act drunk [ataxic], have muscle spasms, and his eyes got weird yesterday,” said the father.
On physical exam, the Labrador had nystagmus, which is an involuntary eye movement, when we moved him. He also had extreme muscle spasms of the legs, and his head kept turning behind him. The father was worried, my technician was crying, and the front staff were standing in the doorway because they loved that dog and his owner. I was writing down all the clinical signs and listening to the father explain to me that nothing can happen to this dog while his son was away, when the literal lightbulb moment of clarity happened. I remembered when Dr. B talked about metronidazole toxicity in dogs, and how a dog’s head turned backward like in the “Exorcist” movie.
I asked the father whether he had given the dog metronidazole as instructed. It is used to treat diarrhea and other intestinal problems. He told me that he finished the medications that I prescribed for the dog before his son’s deployment, and he had more at home from his other dog’s drug stash and has been giving the medication for weeks. He thought that it was safe for everyday use. I told him that metronidazole can be toxic if taken for prolonged times or at high doses.
The Labrador ended up recovering beautifully with Valium and supportive care.
So when it came time to send a video for my professor, I sent him a picture of the Labrador. I titled it “one of the thousands of dogs saved due to the teaching stories of Dr. B.”
Dr. B reached out to me and I told him the story. His smile went from ear to ear. Good luck in retirement, Dr. B.
Glenn Kalick, DVM
Brookside Animal Hospital of Coral Springs
www.brooksidevet.com