Page 192 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

176 Tasks for the Veterinary Assistant

Eartips, ear plugs
Dual head chestpiece,
turnable diaphragm
Eartubes,
metal tubes, Bell
adjustable binaurals (with hole)

Headset Stem Drum

Binaural spring

Flexible tubing, Diaphragm
rubber tube

FIGURE 10.5 Stethoscope. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Used
under CC‐BY‐SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Stethoscope.svg.

FIGURE 10.4 Femoral and pedal artery positions.
FIGURE 10.6 Auscultation areas for heart (red) and lungs (blue).
patient record. Patient motion, hypotension, and patient
obesity all play a part in the difficulty of finding the pulse. costochondral junction, behind the left elbow (Figure 10.6,
Arteries in horses are large and easy to feel but their red dot). You should hear a solid “lub‐dub” as the valves
heart rates are very slow so be patient! The facial artery is open and close as the heart contracts. On occasion, the
the most convenient as it runs along the medial aspect of heart beat “disappears” and then reappears. Watch the
the mandible. The coccygeal artery runs under the base patient as it breaths in the heart beat can’t be heard and
of the tail or you can try for the dorsal metatarsal artery when it exhales it can! This is called sinus arrythmia and
on the lateral aspect of the hind limb near the hock. is perfectly normal.
When the artery is found, move to using the stetho- If you hear a whoosh or any sound other than a
scope to auscultate the heart. Turn the stethoscope so lub‐dub, alert the veterinarian as soon as possible.
the ear tips are facing forward in your ear canals. Heart murmurs and other sounds can indicate a
Figure 10.5 indicates the parts of the stethoscope, note change in the patient’s health. If the normal lub‐dub
how the ear tips are facing backwards. You will want to is heard, count the heart beats for 15 seconds and
turn the scope around, so they are facing forward. Check multiply by 4, each lub‐dub is one beat of the heart.
that the large diaphragm is engaged by gently tapping Sometimes you may have to modify the number of sec-
on the diaphragm surface, you should hear a rather loud onds you use to count the heart rate. Cats can reach
tap! If not, the bell could be turned to the smaller heart rates in the 200s making it very difficult to count.
diaphragm which is used to listen to higher frequencies. If you use 10 seconds and multiply by 6 or use 6 sec-
Simply turn the entire bell around on the stem and tap onds and multiply by 10 you will get similar results for
again to check. Place the large diaphragm over the left the BPM. Mark the patient’s file with the heart rate
side of the chest just above the sternum, near the and pulse characteristic, as ___ BPM.