If you work in a veterinary practice or in the pet industry or in a business that supplies goods or services to the industry and you have something to say - why not become a 'Guest Blogger'?
For more information click here to read our: Guidelines for Guest Bloggers
This is partly because there is a misconception that developing fluid plans can be very difficult. However, if you keep it simple, you can develop a tailored fluid therapy plan for your patient that is much better than a blanket ‘twice maintenance’ rate.
There are 4 basic components to a fluid therapy plan that you need to think about:
Perfusion deficits need to be corrected immediately. Start with a 10mls/kg IV fluid bolus of buffered crystalloids and repeat as necessary to shock volumes (60mls/kg for cats, 90mls/kg for dogs) until clinical parameters improve.
Once you have corrected your perfusion deficits, then you start correcting dehydration deficits. Correction of dehydration is generally done over a course of 24 hours.
Maintenance requirements are fairly standard and formulas are readily available in many sources.
Determining ongoing losses can be a bit tricky, but you need to try your best to include this in the fluid plan. Patients that are vomiting, have diarrhoea, polyuric etc, will need extra fluid to cover for ongoing losses. These losses can be measured – by weighing the faeces, weighing absorbent bedding if the patient has urinated on it, or by rough estimation.
So when taking these 4 components of a fluid therapy plan into account, you will soon see that twice maintenance is not enough!
The final and most important part of every fluid therapy plan is reassessment.
Reassess your patient every couple of hours to determine if your plan is appropriate and adjust accordingly.
Any questions for Gerardo? Ask them in the Comments section below…
This post originally appeared on Dr Poli’s Blog on the ‘miniVET guide Companion Animal Medicine’ website and has been reproduced with full permission.
Dr Gerardo Poli is an emergency and critical care veterinarian and Company Director at Animal Emergency Services. He has a strong focus on the triage, stabilisation and management of critically ill patients, small animal ultrasound and radiology and emergency surgery. He is the author of The Mini Vet Guide To Companion Animal Medicine; a pocket-sized, quick-reference guide designed to help veterinary students through their final years of vet school and also for recently graduated veterinarians making the transition into vet clinical practice. Find out more about The MiniVet Guide to Companion Animal Medicine by visiting the website: www.minivetguide.com
Connect with Dr Gerardo:
The future of veterinary care isn’t coming. It’s already here. The question is, are you ready to make the most of it? The pace of technological progress has never been faster. AI, automation, and integrated software solutions are transforming every industry, including...
