Learn the Lingo, the ER way

Many moons ago (more like a couple hundreds of moons), when I was a volunteer at one of the animal shelters, I used to tag along with my supervisor to animal hospital. It wasn’t a regular event; we were there only when nobody claimed the animals after they had been nursed back to health.

On one occasion, while we were filling out the necessary documents at the administration counter, I saw an unconscious dog being wheeled towards the emergency room. “FB. Critical. Alert Dr. White.” The wheeler told the admin lady and she did just that. Shortly, a man walked in with a pug in his arms. The dog looked limped and distress. After the man exchanged some words with the admin lady, she held a microphone and spoke, “Dr. Black, we’ve a case of ROBO.”

At that moment, I thought I was in some kind of a secret society. They definitely looked decent yet they spoke in strange codes making them so incomprehensible. Not that I had to but curiosity took the best out of me.

The ER team often communicates in code while treating patients. These are some of the common codes used in animal hospitals.

• BDLD: Big Dog, Little Dog – a big dog attacked a little dog
• ROBO: Run Over By Owner – animal accidentally hit by owners in their driveway
• FB: Foreign Body – animal that had consumed chemical or objects
• HBC: Hit By Car
• GDV: Gastric Dilatation Volvulus – bloat
• CBC: Complete Blood Count
• CHF: Congestive Heat Failure
• CPR: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
• CCU: Critical Care Unit
• DNR: Do Not Resuscitate
• ECG: Electrocardiogram
• MEDS: Medications
• PCV: Packed Cell Volume – percentage of the blood that’s made of red blood cells
• RADS: Radiographs or x-ray

So if the next time you are in the animal hospital in ER department (knock on wood), don’t panic when you hear the doctors and technicians spoke in codes. They are efficient and your dog is in safe hands.