Common causes of blunt force trauma in pets

When animals fall from a height, early and ongoing management of blunt force trauma can help lead to a successful outcome. In a continuing education session, "The Blunt Force Trauma Patient," at the 2025 Fetch Kansas City, Missouri, presenter April Blong, DVM, DACVECC, discussed abdominal and thoracic injuries in blunt force trauma cases as well as identifying and stabilizing possible traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. In this interview with dvm360, she also discussed some common ways that blunt force trauma cases occur.

Blong is an associate clinical professor at the Iowa State University Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center in Ames and the medical director at Iowa Veterinary Specialties in Des Moines. A graduate of Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, she completed a residency in emergency and critical care at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The following is a transcript of the video:

April Blong, DVM, DACVECC: Our most common blunt force trauma patients are going to be hit by cars, right? All those animals, little dogs, are being carried around. They fall out of the owner's arms. That's actually blunt force trauma. That's a fall from a height, similar to if a cat had jumped off a second story balcony. Or, when I was at Cornell, we saw a lot of dogs that fell off of cliffs [while out walking].

There are all types of blunt force trauma. And so there's a lot of ways it can happen. One of the things that really stuck with me in, you know, doing the research to make this talk was that among tertiary referral centers, so like universities, trauma only accounts for about 10% of our hospital admissions. However, if we look at causes of mortality among all dogs, so juvenile and adult dogs, not necessarily senior, it accounts for about half of the fatalities that we see so trauma, and recognizing trauma and treating it is, I think, a huge potential area where we can really make some impact.

For more coverage of the Fetch Kansas City conference, visit the dvm360 conference news page.