my first nasal oxygen tube

I got to place my first nasal oxygen tube on Monday!!! This doggie came in with a pnuemothorax--that's when air gets into the pleural cavity (the little space between the lungs and the chest wall). The air pushes against the lungs making it difficult for the animal to breathe .

Sometimes these are caused by a trauma, like a deep wound that pierces the chest wall. But this guy had a spontaneous pneumothorax. These are caused by some kind of abcess or disease that affects the lung tissue. He had a bunch of little air filled blisters on his lungs called blebs. The blebs had ruptured and leaked air into the pleural cavity.





He was taken to surgery where they opened up his chest and removed a part of his left lung (a partial lung lobectomy). They placed a tube in his chest to help remove the air from the pleural space. After the surgery, he wasn't doing very well. His gums were grey and his pulse ox was 75-80% (normal is >90%). The doctor asked me to place a nasal oxygen tube, which is a tube that goes up the dog's nose and the other end is connected to an oxygen source.

I've never actually placed one before so I was soo nervous. Luckily the dog had very large nostrils and after a little poking and prodding and lots of topical anesthetic (for the dog!!!) I was able to advance the tube up his nose. I had to suture the tube to the dog to (hopefully) prevent him from pulling the tube out.




A few minutes after the tube was placed his color was back to normal and his pulse ox was 95%!!!