Animal Restraint for Veterinary Professionals - E-Book

C. C. Sheldon, Teresa F. Sonsthagen, James Topel

• Publisher: Mosby
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780323354950
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Veterinary Medicine

- UPDATED chapters include behavioral observations describing what to look for in the animal being restrained.- NEW full-color photographs accompany new restraint procedures for various species.- NEW! Alternative restraint techniques are added, accompanied by step-by-step photos.

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Restraint Principles

Why learn restraint techniques?

Veterinary medicine is dedicated to the preservation of the health and well-being of animals. As in human medicine, this involves a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. But unlike human patients, veterinary patients are not willing to have blood samples drawn or to hold perfectly still for radiographs, and sometimes even resent being touched! Therefore, as veterinary professionals, we must learn how to properly restrain our patients.

Restraint means the holding back, checking, or suppressing of action; keeping under control; or depriving of physical freedom. Various degrees of patient restraint can be used to allow the veterinary medical team to examine, treat, and perform supportive procedures on the patient as prescribed by the veterinarian. Restraint in its mildest form is a gentle touch and a soft voice. For example, when first meeting a canine patient, you need to start with a soft stroke to the head and a gentle hello. This will go a long way in gaining that animal’s trust.

In its moderate form, restraint can involve confinement in a corral, box stall, or cage that limits the animal’s movement or may be as restrictive as immobilizing a portion of the animal’s body, as is necessary for jugular venipuncture. Restraint in its most restrictive form can be as involved as causing a reduction or complete loss of muscular control through use of chemicals such as tranquilizers, sedatives, and general anesthetics.

Considerations for restraint

Some basic guidelines should be kept in mind while you are learning and performing restraint techniques on animals: How will the restraint technique affect the animal? Is the selected restraint technique safe for the people and animal involved? What technique and equipment should be used? When and where should the restraint procedure be done? Who should perform the restraint procedure?

Effects of Restraint on Animals

The goal in any restraint procedure is to minimize the effects of handling. Improper restraint can affect an animal physically and/or psychologically for the rest of its life. For this reason, it is our responsibility to contain our temper, use good judgment in matching the restraint technique with the individual, and apply the minimum amount of restraint necessary to complete the procedure.

Safety Considerations

Human Safety

It is important to ensure the safety of the people involved in any restraint procedure, not only to maintain their health, but also for economic reasons. Injury to veterinary personnel means loss of income for the practice, and injury to an animal owner can result in a lawsuit. Before you apply any restraint to an animal, you must ask yourself two important questions if you are to prevent injury.

Question 1: What type of animal behavior am I dealing with?

Knowing animals’ normal behavior patterns provides you with important information on what can make them nervous or frightened and enables you to predict how they are likely to react in a particular situation.

All animals, including humans, operate under the “fight-or-flight” principle. The basic premise is, “If I feel threatened and can’t get away from my attacker, then I will fight to preserve my life.” In predator species such as dogs and cats, we must keep the animal from thinking it is under attack. In prey species, we often use the flight response to our advantage when we want to move the group. However, these animals also will go into the fight response if pushed too hard.

The herd instinct dictates the action of prey animals. There is safety in numbers, and if an individual member of the group is threatened, the rest of the group may come to its aid. For example, when a kid (baby goat) is captured, its usual reaction is to cry out. The kid’s cry usually prompts the rest of the herd to come to its defense. This type of behavior is common in groups of pigs, horses, and dogs, as well as goats. Another behavior is to mill around in a circle with the young usually in the center. This confuses the “predator” and with any luck only minor losses to the herd occur. For instance, when cattle are pushed too hard to move into a pen or alley, they will circle around, not wanting to be the one to take the first step “into danger.”

Of course, individual animals of the same species will exhibit differences in behavior, as will male and female members of the same species. Female animals in estrus (heat) can become dangerous and aggressive. Female horses (mares) in estrus tend to develop a short temper and do not tolerate other mares around them. The danger here is getting caught between two mares kicking at each other. Female animals with young should also be approached cautiously. All mothers can be very protective if they feel their offspring are being threatened and will defend them to the death if necessary. Depending on the species, sometimes it is best to separate the offspring from the mother before proceeding with any treatment. For example, sows (female pigs) become enraged when they hear the squeals of their piglets, or even piglets that are not their own, and attempt to come to the piglets’ aid. The sows may climb over or force their way under corral fences to get to the piglets. In other species, such as horses, young animals should be handled within the mother’s sight because the mother is more worried about the physical separation than the handling. If you move a foal out of the mare’s sight, both mare and foal will fret vocally and may injure themselves in the attempt to be reunited.

Bulls, boars, and stallions can be very aggressive and extremely dangerous during the mating season. Extreme caution should be observed when handling these animals, especially dairy bulls, whose behavior tends to be unpredictable even under normal circumstances. Some breeds of dogs tend to be more aggressive if intact. A novice should not handle these kinds of animals. If working around these animals makes you uncomfortable, do not attempt to do so, for your own safety and that of the other people involved. Watch, listen, and learn, so that you will be able to handle these animals in time. Remember, animals can sense when you are anxious or afraid.

Some animals are extremely territorial and quickly establish and defend their territory. For example, a cat or dog that is friendly when placed into a hospital cage or run may suddenly become very aggressive when you try to bring it out for examination. Some dogs consider their owners as territory or part of their pack and feel they must guard or protect them. In either case, the animal has territory issues and will defend it against all invaders. One solution is to quickly remove the animal from its perceived territory in a nonaggressive way. The easiest method is to open the door and allow the animal to walk out of the cage or remove the animal from the owner’s presence. Obviously this is not appropriate if the room cannot be secured against escape. You should also not try this if the animal is aggressively attacking the cage door. However, many animals will calm down and stop being aggressive or protective once removed from their perceived territory.

Some animals have a hierarchy in their pack, group, or herd. These levels of social standing include a dominant animal, after which there are descending levels of status in the pecking order. The position each animal maintains, or tries to maintain, within a group affects behavior. If an animal is removed from the group for even a short time and then returned, that animal may have to fight its way back to its original standing. This can be a dangerous situation for the animal and the human. Members of the animal’s group may try to drive it away or in extreme cases even kill it. A person caught between two or more animals fighting can sustain severe injuries. If an individual must be removed from a group, all of the animals should be moved into an enclosure. The individual should be singled out, quickly removed, treated, and returned to the group as promptly as possible. Then the group can be returned to their pen or pasture. The animals that will most likely exhibit this behavior will be dogs, goats, and horses.

Question 2: How can this animal hurt me?

Domestic animals have teeth to bite with; beaks to peck or pinch with; hooves to kick, stomp, and strike with; and claws that can puncture, scratch, and dig. Large animals can use their heads as battering rams, and there is always a chance of being crushed by unrestrained large animals if they should rush a gate or stampede. Take measures to safeguard against these defensive “weapons.” Apply muzzles when appropriate, use chutes and stocks for large animals, apply ropes and other restraint equipment as described in later chapters of this book, and always have an escape route in mind should something go wrong.

Animal Safety

Most animals do not quietly submit to forcible restraint. Their resistance may prompt you to hold on a bit tighter. This more forceful restraint may cause the animal to resist even more, eventually resulting in injury to you or the animal.

Each of the various species of animals you may work with has a variety of restraint techniques appropriate for that species. Your job is to match those restraint techniques with the diagnostic or therapeutic procedures being performed and the individual behavior of the animal. This will prevent inadvertent injuries from occurring to you and the animal.

Restraint causes stress in normal, healthy animals, and care should be taken to avoid causing that stress. This is even more important for very young and very old animals. Very young animals have to be treated gently so that their first trips to the veterinarian are not unhappy ones. Similarly, old animals have to be treated gently so that their trips to the veterinarian are not painful. The small bones of young animals and the brittle bones of old animals can be easily broken. The joints on the very young are easily dislocated. In very old animals, manipulation of arthritic joints during restraint can cause pain.

Many of the animals handled by veterinary personnel are sick or injured, and already stressed. Rough handling during restraint may delay recovery or even lead to a premature death. Because pain can precipitate shock, restraint techniques that increase pain in an injured patient may cause death. Pregnant animals are also affected by stress, and complications may arise if they are treated harshly.

After the restraint procedure is completed, the animal should be observed for signs of injury associated with restraint. Unless chemical restraint was used, no ill effects should be noted and the animal should appear as it was before restraint was applied.

Every time you use restraint, you must consider the safety of the animal and the people involved. With some experience, you will be able to foresee problems that could develop during a procedure and take precautions to prevent them. Although the animal’s safety is important, human safety must take precedence. If possible, the animal’s owner or nonveterinary personnel should not help restrain an animal unless absolutely necessary, because any mishap could have legal repercussions.

Restraint Procedures and Equipment

It would be wonderful if our patients cooperated and we did not have to restrain them at all. Unfortunately, physical restraint of an animal is usually unavoidable. However, restraint does not have to be extremely painful or very stressful. Before restraint is applied, you must use good judgment in selecting the proper restraint technique. Do not routinely use a favored technique just because it “always works.” You should instead consider the individual and judge what is best to use for that particular procedure.

As stated earlier, animals can be hurt and become psychologically upset if restraint is overly harsh. Restraint techniques must be applied properly and in such a manner as to minimize any pain experienced by the animal. You must have a good working knowledge of animal anatomy, physiology, and behavior to decide what restraint technique to use for a particular procedure.

Equipment

If restraint equipment is to be used during the procedure, examine the equipment and have it ready for use before starting. Nothing is more aggravating or potentially more dangerous than having a piece of equipment fail to function properly or break during the restraint procedure.

The most flexible instruments for restraint are your hands. The hands can soothe and calm an animal and manipulate any part of an animal’s body for examination or treatment. However, your hands can also cause fractures or suffocation if used with too much force. You should consider your hands as fragile instruments because they are easily injured by animals. You must protect your hands by learning where and how to grasp animals.

Most restraint instruments are designed for use on a particular species, and many are designed to distract the animal by applying a small amount of pain to a different area of the body than that being worked on. These instruments can cause injury if used incorrectly but are invaluable when used correctly. Uses of many of these instruments are described in later chapters.

Voice

Another important restraint tool is the voice. Almost every domestic animal responds to the tone and pitch of voice used by the...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1: Restraint Principles
• 2: Knot Tying
• 3: Restraint of Cats
• 4: Restraint of Dogs
• 5: Restraint of Cattle
• 6: Restraint of Horses
• 7: Restraint of Sheep
• 8: Restraint of Goats
• 9: Restraint of Swine
• 10: Restraint of Rodents, Rabbits, and Ferrets
• 11: Restraint of Birds
• Appendix A: Gender Names
• Appendix B: Physiologic Data
• Glossary
• Index