Tag Archives: catheter

We had a “Lost in Translation” moment last week in the clinic. While discussing the need to place a catheter in a patient to administer chemotherapy, the pet’s family asked, “How will he urinate if there’s a catheter in his bladder to administer chemotherapy?” We were talking about an intravenous catheter, and they were talking about a urinary catheter. After a bit more chatting, we cleared up the misconception, but I suspect this family is not the only one with questions about catheters—and that is the subject of this blogpost.

Any medical or surgical procedure carries a risk of a complication such as an infection. Infections in human patients occur in about 4% of hospitalized patients. The number of infections in hospitalized dogs and cats is not well studied. However, studies of hospital-related infections help physicians and veterinarians improve the quality of care they provide to their patients. Today’s blogpost will talk about infections associated with intravenous (IV) catheters and how AMC is working to make them less common.

October 9-15, 2011 is National Veterinary Technician Week. Because of his firsthand experience with the skilled and devoted licensed veterinary technicians at the AMC, Jack Black the cat volunteered to