We all know that something like this isn’t what we necessary want to do, but we also know that there are times when we’re shorthanded and need an extra hand or have to figure something else out. In my Tech experiences I have had to accomplish A LOT of tasks alone from intubating to placing catheters, which I will also cover another time.
Intubating an animal yourself isn’t impossible. I do this on both dogs and cats but I do it a little different in each one.
For dogs, place them in lateral recumbency and use a mouth speculum to hold the mouth open. I kneel down to get eye level with their mouth and use the laryngoscope and proceed as normal, pull the tongue out, pull epiglottis down and intubate.
For cats, I don’t use a laryngoscope. I place the cat in sternal recumbency. I place the speculum and hold the tongue and bottom jaw and extend the neck until I can see the tracheal opening then place trach tube. If your clinic uses lidocaine or cetacaine or something similar to help prevent spasms then use that before intubating.
Writing this makes it seem really easy, but this does take some practice and you have to be careful not to injure anything. If you are not able to get this on the first 1 or 2 attempts please ask for help. Like I mentioned before this is not ideal but as a Tech I know it is necessary at times. Intubating a dog yourself is quite a bit easier than a cat.
