Cynthia M. Otto, DVM, PhD, DACVECC

Head trauma can result from a variety of different types of injury in dogs and cats. The aim of treatment for head trauma is the prevention of secondary brain injury.

Signalment: 6 year old female Rottweiler, Miss Pooples, weighing 40 kg

Shock is the general term used to describe several conditions that lead to inadequate perfusion of the tissues. There are multiple types of shock, but the common derangement in all forms is inadequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the cells and inadequate elimination of metabolic byproducts.

In the 1991 consensus conference, sepsis was defined as evidence of infection and the clinical picture of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Severe sepsis is sepsis with evidence of organ dysfunction and hypotension or hypoperfusion. Septic shock is severe sepsis with refractory hypotension.

Sepsis is defined as the systemic inflammatory response to an infection. We commonly see patients that have a clinical presentation that appears similar to sepsis, but no source of infection can be identified. This syndrome has been termed the systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS.

Parvovirus is a virulent infection that most commonly afflicts dogs less than one year of age. The infection is characterized by vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and leukopenia. More recently a new variant of canine parvovirus (CPV2c) has been recognized.