I was at my vets doing another observationon surgeries, two spays and two dentals and they had a dog come in with vomiting because he had eaten chocolate.
Fortunately he had vomited most of it out, but they still gave it something to prevent further absorption, charcoal and put him on an iv and had oxygen ready to go.
After things calmed down, the vet sat down with two of her vet tech and I and ran us through the system she uses for emergency evaluations and it struck me that it might be a useful menomic for overall history and physical exam work as well.
The menomic is "A Crash Plan"
A - Airway is the animal breathing, are there any mouth or throat obstructions
CR - Cardio Vascular and respiratory-pulse, respiration, heart, breathing, coughing, gagging,
A - Abdomen swelling, tenderness, guarding, wounds, vomiting,
S - spine- injury, lameness, numbness
H - head ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, mucusa color and texture, teeth, damage, swelling, bleeding, swelling
P - pelvis and unrinary, genitalis, lower GI diarhea,
L - limbs, skin muscles, tendons, bones and joints. swelling, breaks, mis alignments, guarding, tenderness, open wounds and bleeding
A - peripheral arteries- circulation, bleeding
N - nerves, paralysis, convulsions, extreme reactions, balance, muscle tone.
It seems like a pretty logical plan of approach to me, and certainly makes an easy and systematic breakdown of the vital systems that need to be checked, both in an emergency as well as in general.
Marni
SOAP
Look on page 76 of History and Physical Exam book. It explains pretty well what the SOAP means and each process in the SOAP
Subjective is observed IE: A limp, vomiting, or diarrhea.
Objective is quantity. IE: can be measured as with Blood Pressure, Temperature, pulse, respiration.
Assessment explanations for the problems IE: Help determine what tests should be done and patients's progress
Procedure or final plan: Plans for treatment IE: problems that need to be monitored, follow up care. and other recommendations.
hope this helps just read and re read I guess it won't really come naturally until we get right down and do it.
Deb
DAMN IT
acronym
A method of looking at possible causes for a problem. D= degenerative A = anomalies or autoimmune M= metabolic N = neoplasia or nutritional I = inflammation or infectious or immune mediated or iatrogenic T= toxic or traumatic idiopathic
