Weird situation this week. We have a patient in with a seizures. She and her spouse insisted that her dog was a service dog and needed to stay with her. Apparently it barks when she is about to have a seizure.
She got a private room and her husband stays with her almost always. He does leave some to get food, I'm assuming to go home and take care of some things. Not sure if he works.
Well, when he leaves, he usually takes the dog with him..????? Now he does take the dog out to potty on occassion, but both days I had this patient, he left for several hours with dog. Plus, whenever I'm in the room, the dog is with husband, not with patient????
It has barked a few times, but when we go in there, it is at people who it didn't know...dietary, housekeeping, etc.
It's a small dog - chihuahua/dauchstand mix and very well behaved. I just think the family is getting away something here. I've been told it has all of its papers, etc.
I know that pet therapy is common and that they use service dogs for more than just blindness now, but has anyone heard of this?
This is a med surg/telemetry floor. The patient is on telemetry, so if she started to have a seizure, the monitors should alert us.
I had a patient once who had a daily visitor with a service dog. She was in a wheelchair and the dog would help pull the chair, open doors, etc. They treated this dog like a service dog...as in we shouldn't pet him when he's on duty etc. This couple from this week just doesn't behave like this.
The dog isn't really doing any harm and it is cute and well behaved, but something just seems....I don't know....fishy about this.
we've had a few patients where night shift arranged for their pets to be snuck in for a visit, in the of the AARP unfortunately there are more 4 legged companions than 2. Never had a service dog issue come up tho, if the dog barks aggressively at strangers it most likely isn't service related but just a comfort measure, could be the patient has anxiety when alone for prolonged periods of time.
I think the OP said that the patient stated she had papers for the dog. If she has papers, no matter what anyone feels, nothing can be done. I have epilepsy and have met a few people with service dogs that help them before, during, and after one. My husband suggested it but I have no interest in taking care of anything else. On the funny end of the spectrum I saw an ad for a seizure service dog that had epilepsy. Now that would make for some hysterical situations.
I'm not really fighting any battle as some of you have said, or trying to control anything. I'm just thinking out loud in this thread. Haven't you ever seen a situation that makes you stop and go, "Huh?". I'm not planning on doing anything about this situation. I was just wondering what others thought.
I see all kinds of things that make me think, "I wouldn't make that same choice," or "Something about this seems a little odd to me," and I question it . That doesn't mean it bothers me enough to challenge it or do something to change it. Doesn't anyone else do this?
The off going nurse who gave me report told me the dog had "all it's papers" whatever that meant. I have no idea if that meant vaccination papers or actual service dog papers. The dog had already been there several days and the manager was well aware of it. I didn't take, nor have the time, to investigate this for myself. Since the dog was still there several days after we became aware that the family wanted it there and since I saw my manager talking to them, I assume someone else took care of that aspect and that's good enough for me.
Sounds like the dog behaves better than most human visitors..lol
I have heard of dogs that can predict seizures, but who knows if this one does or not. But like others have said, I wouldn't make a big deal of it unless it is interferring with your work or the other patients.
The point of the dog is to alert BEFORE the person has the seizure so they can make sure they are safe, etc. Seeing a the heartrate increase and running in the patient's room is fine, but planning ahead and making sure the patient is already laying down and in a safe position is even better.
I recently had my first patient who had a service dog for seizures. This was all new to me. Seems fishy to me also. Seems like this is the husband's pet dog, otherwise he would leave the dog in the room to do its job, with the ok of the hospital administration. Just how it seems to me.
My brother-in-law had a Golden Retreiver that could sense an impending seizure. Oddly enough, this dog also developed seizures. To my knowledge, they never had seizures at the same time :).
I once went into a patient's room to draw a.m. labs, and when I pulled back the covers, a Chihuahua growled at me and bared it's teeth. I made the wife get off her roll-away and take the dog off the bed before I did the draw.
We had one patient who would come into the outpatient phlebotomy lab for her draws and bring a large, shaggy, poorly groomed "service dog" with her. From conversations with her, I strongly believe that the dog was a companion, and not really a service dog. Unfortunately, I would begin having an allergic reaction before I even knew the dog was in the clinic, and I would be affected for the rest of the day. I usually ended up cleaning up all the shed hair as well. I probably wouldn't have had as much of a problem if the dog had been brushed and bathed occassionally. I always wondered about all our other patients who are very ill to start with who might be affected by this dog. It really doesn't seem fair to subject them to this dog simply for the owner's comfort. Other service dogs who have come in stayed with their owners and didn't wander around; they were also well groomed, so service dogs as a group are not the issue.
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CrazierThanYou
1,917 Posts
If having a pet offers comfort for a sick person, I'm all for it. Particularly since the husband is there to take care of the dog's needs.