Animal Care and Nursing
Animal care and nursing tests husbandry, vital-sign assessment, nutrition and fluid calculations, and the day-to-day judgment that keeps hospitalized patients safe. Questions favor trends and reassessment over single readings.
Vital signs and husbandry
- Know approximate resting values: dog 60-160 beats/min and 10-30 breaths/min; cat 140-220 beats/min and 20-40 breaths/min; rectal temperature roughly 100.5-102.5°F in dogs and 100-102.5°F in cats. Trends matter more than one reading.
- Body condition score 1-9, with 4-5 ideal. Weigh hospitalized patients daily.
- Restraint should be the minimum needed, species-appropriate, and never punitive; towel wraps calm cats and small exotics.
Nutrition and fluids
- Resting energy requirement: RER = 70 × (body weight in kg)^0.75. Illness factors are applied cautiously, often 1.2-1.3.
- Maintenance fluids are commonly 50-60 mL/kg/day, or about 2-3 mL/kg/hr; reassess perfusion, urine output, and weight.
- Refeeding syndrome is a real risk in chronically starved patients: start at a fraction of RER and increase gradually.
Worked example
A 20 kg dog needs RER = 70 × 20^0.75. 20^0.75 is about 9.46, so RER ≈ 662 kcal/day. At an illness factor of 1.2, the target is about 794 kcal/day. If the diet is 350 kcal per can, that is about 2.3 cans per day, divided into meals.
Traps that cost marks
Overfeeding a recumbent patient; calculating with pounds instead of kilograms; checking a bandage only from the outside; leaving a urinary catheter open to the floor; and ignoring a decreasing temperature or rising heart rate as just stress.