Page 19 - Basic Monitoring in Canine and Feline Emergency Patients

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Ketone pad

Glucose pad

Fig. 1.7. A reagent strip test demonstrating the test pad for ketones and glucose among the other items for which the
strip can test.
practitioners should be cautious in making clinical or fever (increased body temperature as a result of
decisions based on these methods. alteration in the set point of the thermoregulatory
Obtaining a rectal temperature and determining center in the hypothalamus). Causes of true hyper-
if a patient is hypothermic or has a body tempera- thermia are usually associated with environmental
ture above normal can provide information related changes leading to an inability to dissipate heat
to a patient’s clinical status, alert a clinician to appropriately (e.g. being locked in a hot vehicle) or
changes in the animal’s condition, and may lead to muscular activity such as in exercise or during gen-
adjustments in the therapeutic plan. As an example: eralized seizures. Hyperthermia commonly occurs in
hypothermic patients could be so as a result of obese animals or those with airway disease such as
environmental exposure or as a result of shock, laryngeal paralysis that cannot effectively pant and
anesthesia, heart failure, or any other condition lose heat via evaporation. In contrast, fever can be a
that might result in decreased cardiac output. symptom of a wide variety of diseases whether infec-
When an animal’s body temperature is increased, tious, inflammatory, immune-mediated, or neoplastic,
the first decision point is to determine if the elevated and is not typically accompanied by any difficulties
temperature is due to hyperthermia (exogenous warming) in dissipating heat.

Physical Examination and Point-of-care Testing 11