VTNE Emergency Medicine & Critical Care Practice Questions
Emergency Medicine & Critical Care makes up 3 of every 50 questions on a Tigertest VTNE practice test. Here are 10 of the 12 questions on it, each with the answer and the reason.
Updated by the Tigertest team. Based on the AAVSB VTNE content outline approved March 2023. The real exam passes on a scaled score of 425; 70% here is a practice target.
1. Four patients arrive at once. Which should be seen first?
- A.A cat limping for the past two days
- B.A cat breathing with its mouth open
- C.A dog with a torn, bleeding dewclaw
- D.A dog that vomited twice today
Answer: B. Triage follows airway, breathing and circulation: open-mouth breathing in a cat is respiratory distress and can arrest within minutes. The other three are stable enough to wait.
2. Unlike dogs, cats in shock commonly show:
- A.Injected red mucous membranes
- B.Bounding femoral pulses
- C.Tachycardia and fever
- D.Bradycardia and hypothermia
Answer: D. Dogs in shock are tachycardic with pale membranes and slow capillary refill, but cats often present with a slow heart rate, low temperature and weak pulses. Warming is part of a cat's shock treatment.
3. What initial crystalloid bolus is typical for a dog in hypovolemic shock before reassessment?
- A.20 mL/kg
- B.90 mL/kg
- C.5 mL/kg
- D.50 mL/kg
Answer: A. The full canine shock dose is about 80 to 90 mL/kg (one blood volume), but it is given in quarter boluses of roughly 20 mL/kg over 10 to 15 minutes, with perfusion reassessed after each. Giving the whole dose at once risks overload, and 5 mL/kg is too little to restore volume.
4. Under the RECOVER CPR guidelines, chest compressions are delivered at a rate of:
- A.80 to 100 per minute
- B.140 to 160 per minute
- C.100 to 120 per minute
- D.60 to 80 per minute
Answer: C. Compressions run at 100 to 120 per minute with full chest recoil between them, to one third to one half of chest width in lateral recumbency. Slower rates do not generate enough forward flow.
5. During CPR, chest compressions are given in uninterrupted cycles of:
- A.1 minute
- B.5 minutes
- C.2 minutes
- D.30 seconds
Answer: C. Each cycle is 2 minutes without pause, after which the compressor is swapped and the rhythm checked briefly. Pauses longer than a few seconds let coronary perfusion pressure collapse.
6. The recommended IV epinephrine dose during CPR for asystole or pulseless electrical activity is:
- A.0.01 mg/kg
- B.0.1 mg/kg
- C.1 mg/kg
- D.0.001 mg/kg
Answer: A. Low-dose epinephrine (0.01 mg/kg IV or IO) is given early and repeated every other 2-minute cycle, about every 4 minutes, under the 2024 RECOVER guidelines. High-dose epinephrine (0.1 mg/kg) is no longer recommended, and atropine, if used for a suspected vagal arrest, is given only once.
7. Which IV catheter site is preferred for a dog in shock from gastric dilatation-volvulus?
- A.Auricular (ear) vein
- B.Lateral saphenous vein
- C.Medial saphenous vein
- D.Cephalic vein
Answer: D. The distended stomach compresses the caudal vena cava, so fluids given in a hind limb reach the heart poorly. One or two large-bore front-leg (or jugular) catheters are placed before decompression.
8. Within an hour of eating sugar-free gum containing xylitol, a dog is most at risk of:
- A.Hypercalcemia
- B.Hypoglycemia
- C.Hyperglycemia
- D.Methemoglobinemia
Answer: B. Xylitol triggers a surge of insulin in dogs, so blood glucose can crash within 30 to 60 minutes; liver failure can follow in 1 to 3 days. Glucose is monitored and dextrose given as needed.
9. A cat that chewed a lily leaf is at risk of:
- A.Acute pulmonary edema
- B.Acute kidney injury
- C.Acute liver failure
- D.Heinz body anemia
Answer: B. Every part of a true lily, including pollen and vase water, is nephrotoxic to cats. Early decontamination and aggressive IV fluids for 48 hours are the treatment; onions cause Heinz body anemia.
10. Which drug is the antidote for ethylene glycol ingestion in dogs when treatment starts early?
- A.N-acetylcysteine
- B.Atropine
- C.Vitamin K1
- D.Fomepizole
Answer: D. Fomepizole (4-MP) or ethanol blocks alcohol dehydrogenase so the toxic metabolites are not formed; it works within about 8 hours in dogs and 3 hours in cats. Vitamin K1 treats anticoagulant rodenticides and N-acetylcysteine treats acetaminophen.
Practice all 12 emergency medicine & critical care questions, and the rest of the 200-question bank, in the free VTNE training sets. Questions you miss come back until you have mastered them.
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