The young Labrador retriever was in critical condition when it arrived after hours at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
He was unresponsive and displaying signs of hypovolemic shock. Emergency and critical care intern Dr. Valentina Dazio and her peers immediately went to work stabilizing their patient, unsure if their efforts would save the animal.
One week later, the dog left with its owner. The cause of his sudden illness was never identified, although it is suspected that the dog could have been exposed to blue-green algae. In hot summer months, conditions can become ripe in waterways to produce toxic blue-green algae – or cyanobacterial – blooms that can be deadly to animals.
“Sometimes even if we don’t know what is going on, that is OK, as long as they get better. Every day he got a little bit better. He started to walk with help, then he started to be able to do it alone,” Dazio said. “That was really cool to see.”
Dazio began her year-long internship at WSU this past summer after having earned her degree in veterinary medicine and completing a small animal rotating internship at the University of Bern in her home country of Switzerland.