Elective cricothyrotomy in a dog with transient laryngeal paralysis secondary to Australian paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus) envenomation.

The tube cricothyrotomy (CTT) has recently been introduced to small animal medicine as a viable surgical airway access procedure; however, there are no reports documenting its clinical use. The author's objective is to describe the clinical application, complications, and management of an elective CTT in a dog. Furthermore, the characteristics of CTT that may be clinically advantageous over temporary tube tracheostomy (TT) will be discussed. A 2-year-old female spayed German shepherd dog required mechanical ventilation (MV) due to unsustainable work of breathing as a result of tick paralysis and aspiration pneumonia. After successful weaning from MV, the dog was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis. A surgical airway was performed using CTT to allow extubation and patient management whilst conscious. Complications included frequent tube suctioning due to accumulation of airway secretions in the tube and a single dislodgement event. The dog made an uneventful recovery with complete stoma healing by the second intention within 15 days. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first clinical report of an elective CTT performed to successfully manage upper airway obstruction in the dog. Its efficacy, clinical management and patient outcome are described.

SnakeMap: four years of experience with a national small animal snake envenomation registry.

SnakeMap is a national cloud-based, veterinary snakebite registry. It was designed to prospectively collect data of the clinical circumstances and temporospatial information on cases of snake envenomation in dogs and cats. We herein introduce the project and summarise the data from the first 4 years of SnakeMap. The registry is a veterinary community-based online database allowing case entry from veterinary hospitals across Australia. Registry data comprise hospital characteristics, patient characteristics, envenoming snake type, treatment and outcome variables, including time and geolocation of the snake bite. We present summative information on select key variables from the SnakeMap registry (1 July 2015 to 30 June 2019). Twenty-eight hospitals from 6 states/territories entered 624 cases into the registry, including 419 dogs (67%) and 205 cats (33%). Bite time was available in 216 animals of which 90 (42%) were reported to be bitten in the 3 hours between 03:00 pm and 05:59 pm; median bite to presentation interval was 60 (interquartile range [IQR] 30, 211) minutes in dogs and 95 (IQR 41, 238) minutes in cats. Bites occurred in the owner's yard in 356 dogs (85%) and 53 cats (26%). A snake venom detection kit was used in 172 cases (28%) and antivenom was administered in 523 cases (85%). Most animals (n = 534, 88%) survived to discharge (median hospitalisation of 25 [IQR 16, 62] hours). SnakeMap effectively collects relevant clinical data from dogs and cats with presumed snake bite and provides locally specific information on the epidemiology of snake envenomation in small animals.