Clues to thromboembolism in patients

Melissa Evans, CVT, LVT, VTS (ECC), owner and founder of Melissa Evans, VTS (ECC) Veterinary Nurse Consulting, discusses the signs of hypercoagulable states in patients. A hypercoagulable state, or thrombophilia, is a condition in which the blood is more likely to form clots. In this video, Evans explains that although clinical signs can appear suddenly—such as difficulty breathing or neurologic signs, which may indicate a clot in the lungs or brain, respectively—there are often few obvious indicators and warning signs of a thromboembolism (a clot forming and traveling to block a vessel) beforehand.

Evans notes that clinical signs usually appear after a thromboembolism has occurred, and emphasizes the importance of closely monitoring patients who are at higher risk of thromboembolism, including those with inflammatory conditions or limited mobility, to catch potential thromboembolic events early.

Related: Monitoring vitals in blocked cats

Below is a transcript of the video, which has been lightly edited for improved clarity.

Melissa Evans, CVT, LVT, VTS (ECC): Some things we will often see are patients that start to have trouble breathing that were completely fine before acutely, and that can imply that they have thrown a clot to their lungs. They'll also start having neurologic signs if they have a clot that has moved into their brain.

Unfortunately, there's nothing very obvious that happens beforehand. It's usually when a patient has a thromboembolism that lodges somewhere that we see these things. So, there's not a whole lot of warning. It's just important to know what things may cause it. So, if a patient has a disease state that we know is prone to thromboembolism, or if they aren't moving a lot and they have an inflammatory state—two things that often cause hypercoagulation—then that I'm going to keep a very close eye on them.