Treating emergency respiratory distress

Mary Ann Evans, BS, CVT, VTS (ECC), intensive care unit nursing supervisor at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital in New Jersey, has experience with cases of smoke inhalation in animals. In an interview with dvm360, she discussed how these patients are treated when they present with this type of emergency respiratory distress, including those escaping house fire or wildfire.

The following is a transcript of the video:

Mary Ann Evans, BS, CVT, VTS (ECC): Respiratory cases are one of the tougher cases for us to see, because that is something that we can outwardly see our patients struggle with, but we do see them often, and oxygen support is the main and most important part of that treatment.

It's tough to watch them go through that, because it's really just kind of time and supplying the oxygen and any other support they might need through the respiratory emergency. We do have large and small oxygen cages, and we have other ways to deliver oxygen. So we have the little prongs like you often see humans have in the hospitals.