Quote Originally Posted by FrostyPaws View Post
The brief study prevented DIC, not fatal shock. I've known about the adrenal insufficiency and addison's crisis aspect of GCs. A lot of what I've read about GC is simply increasing cardiac output and decreasing some vascular resistance.

The first 1/4 or so of this article is interesting as it pertains to dogs specifically.

Shock
That is actually a helluvan article in general.

This says the opposite about steroids:
"Steroids. The proposed benefit of steroids include stabilization of lysosomal membranes, prevention of lipid peroxidation, scavenging and stabilization of free radicals, and maintenance of adrenoreceptor function. Disadvantages are many, and include alterations of GI blood flow (especially in an already compromised GI tract), immunosuppression, vasodilation, and impaired wound healing. Multiple studies have failed to show any benefit of high dose steroid administration in any shock state. Low dose steroid administration (at physiologic doses) may be beneficial in anaphylactic or septic shock."

It also answered some questions about Hypertonic Saline:
"7% NaCl (HTS - hypertonic saline) is used for rapid expansion of the intravascular volume. HTS pulls fluid primarily from the interstitial compartment. The advantage is that only small volumes are required to increase intravascular volume quickly. Its use is primarily for treatment of the head trauma patient and in shock resuscitation. Anti-inflammatory effects have also been documented. The volume expansion provided by HTS is short lived, as the sodium redistributes throughout the extracellular compartment quickly. HTS is available as both 7-7.5% and 23% solutions. The 23% solution MUST be diluted prior to administration. HTS should be administered no faster than 1ml/kg/min as vagally mediated bradycardia or arrest could occur."