Sammy came in to see me in mid-January – he was so weak he had to be carried the short walk from his car to my consulting room.  Once inside, he was totally recumbent and could barely lift his own head. Unusually for Sammy, I was able to examine him fully without so much as pair of hands holding him – he had no strength to fight.

He had suddenly collapsed at home and when I saw him he was showing classic signs of hypovolaemic shock – his gums were a shocking white colour and there seemed to be no blood flow to his extremities at all. His heart rate was extremely fast and his breathing shallow and rapid.  Sammy had a noticeably enlarged abdomen so I placed a needle straight into the distended area (abdominocentesis). I easily aspirated a syringe full of fresh blood.

This gave us 2 possible avenues of action: we had to find out what was bleeding internally (and whether it could be stopped) or we had to say our goodbyes to Sammy and stop his suffering as soon as possible.

I warned the owners that the condition was severe, with a heavily guarded prognosis. We could have chosen to perform further diagnostics but it was clear an operation was vital.

We removed several litres of blood from Sammy’s abdominal cavity and were then able to visualise the bleeding source. The spleen had a large bleeding mass on it – but luckily no other organs looked to be grossly affected. The spleen is one of the few organs we can completely remove and continue living a normal life.  I proceeded to perform a splenectomy using a titanium staple gun as well as hand-tied ligatures. Immediately Sammy’s vital statistics began to improve.

Sammy was continually monitored throughout the next day. His temperature was slightly high but he was bright, eating and urinating. He was kept on antibiotics and we discharged him but his condition was carefully supervised.

When I saw him a week later, he tried to bite me – I knew he was feeling better!! Although his temperature was still a little high, he was in good spirits and behaving normally at home. I put his elevated temperature down to his own biology.

Four months on and my main contact with Sammy is when I see him in the park playing ball with his “mum”: There is no happier moment in my job than this!

May 2011

Thumper is the Three Legged Cross Playgroup pet rabbit. He is a dwarf lion-haired rabbit and true to his name, once he has had enough of me, he thumps! During school time, he is fed and watered by the staff and children at the playgroup but during the holidays he enjoys a luxurious spa break in the playgroup manager’s conservatory! Having been around children that adore him for a little while now (he is older than most of the playgroup girls and boys!!) he is extremely tolerant.

 I have been seeing Thumper on and off for 2 years now. He has had repeated problems with his 3rd eyelid. The 3rd eyelid is a small sheet of tissue that slides over the corneal surface of the eye under the eyelids to offer added protection. They are needed in cats, dogs and rabbits as their eyelid anatomy is slightly different from our own. This membrane has its own blood vessels, lymphatic supply and tear glands. One of the main glands in both of Thumper’s third eyelids (also known as the nicitans membrane) has a tendency to prolapse. This scrolls the whole membrane forwards so it protrudes at the corner of the eye. If the membrane is pushed out for a prolonged period it can become dry, swollen and bruised. It can also cause the eye surface to dehydrate which can cause major infections and pain. Usually a short course of eye drops is enough to reduce the swelling in the nicitans gland so it slides back into place but unfortunately, on this occasion the normal drops had no effect.

 We tried other types of drops but nothing seemed to help. Our only option was to operate on Thumper and try to stitch the glands back into the correct place. This is a fiddly procedure which involves extra small operating instruments and very thin suture material. All seemed to go according to plan and Thumper woke up well from his anaesthetic – he started eating almost as soon as his eyes were open!

 Two weeks on the swollen membranes are beginning to settle and the glands are sitting back in the correct place. Thumper is now back at the nursery with his guinea pig companion and all the little ones!

March 2011

Chippy, the miniature schnauzer is one of our agility dogs. He always makes quite an announcement when he comes into the surgery! He lets us all know how put out he is that he is coming into the consulting room rather than down to the field to negotiate the different obstacles!

A few months ago, his owner popped in with him as he seemed to be doing lots and lots of small wees, and straining to do so. Having had Chippy since a youngster, the owner was sure that this was not just the usual marking of a non-castrated male dog. On examination, he was bright and largely normal but I could feel he had a very distended bladder.

Given the symptoms, I decided to try to pass a urinary catheter, but his “pipes(!)” were blocked. It is very important for animals to be able to pass urine properly and if the bladder cannot empty properly there are risks of rupture with toxins being released into the abdominal cavity and bloodstream.

We admitted Chippy to find out more about the blockage and his overall health status. We took a blood sample and performed a cystocentesis: where a long needle is placed through the abdominal wall and straight into the bladder to obtain a urine sample that is not complicated by substances entering the urine from the urethra. We also performed an ultrasound which revealed multiple stones within the lumen of the bladder. Abdominal x-rays showed a plug of stones within the narrow urethra (the reason we could not pass the urinary catheter into the bladder!).

Chippy was given a general anaesthetic and the stones were removed from his bladder. We then tried to flush the plug of stones that was in his urethra back into the bladder to remove them but they were impossible to dislodge. A small incision was made over this plug and the stones were removed directly taking care not to disrupt the tissue of the urethra.

This can be a very painful procedure but thankfully Chippy was extremely bright the following morning. He was passing a good stream of urine so was allowed to go home and we are continuing to monitor his urine regularly to make sure he stays ok.

January 2011

Molly is a beautiful young Hungarian Vizsla – the sort of dog who adores you before she’s even met you. It is quite impossible to walk past her without stopping for a cuddle! She is owned by a couple who work from home and have two children between them. Molly is beautifully cared for and has had a very happy and healthy adolescence so far.

However, sometimes things happen that just cannot be predicted!

During a particularly enjoyable walk through the forests that surround Ringwood last summer, Molly let out a yelp and careered towards her owners. She was visibly shaken but initially it was difficult to gather why. Mrs S rushed Molly into the surgery where the reason for Molly’s anxiety had become alarmingly clear. Molly’s nose had nearly doubled in size and her normally delicate head and bright eyes were disguised behind what seemed like an acre of swollen cheek tissue!

When I examined Molly, her heart was racing and she was quiet and pale: quite unlike the happy-go-lucky puppy I was used to. She was clearly in shock from her experience so we placed her on an IV drip immediately. On closer inspection, 2 tiny puncture wounds were found on the tip of Molly’s nose: undoubtedly a snake bite!!

There are several treatment options for snake bites: I elected to use intravenous steroids, a potent injection very effective at reducing swelling rapidly. I was particularly concerned that the swelling may spread around Molly’s throat area and cause difficulty breathing. Molly was admitted to our hospital due to her young age and the severity of the swelling where she was carefully monitored overnight by our on-site nurse and myself.

Having left a rather sorry-looking puppy the previous evening I was overjoyed to be greeted by a perky, bouncy Molly in the morning (who no longer looked like she had taken part in a boxing match!)

November 2010

Mr W is quite a character. Whenever he pops into the surgery, he always has a joke with the girls on reception and manages to brighten up our day. His dog, Dinkie, is absolutely adored by himself and his wife. She is a little Fell Terrier, whose age (11) is only given away by a few white hairs around her muzzle….She trots happily around the surgery with one ear up and one ear down and has a cheerful disposition to match that of her “mum” and“dad”.

It was a quiet Thursday morning when we received a telephone from a panicked Mrs W. She was calling to let us know that Mr W and Dinkie were on the way straight down to see us: Dinkie had had an accident in the forest.

Dinkie had been bowled over by a bigger dog who wanted to play with her and unfortunately landed so awkwardly that she had completely broken her right hind tibia and fibula. The fracture was ‘uncomplicated’ in as much that it had not broken the skin but there were several fragments and severe bruising to the surrounding tissues.

We were all a little worried about how Dinkie would cope with a general anaesthetic and the complex procedure. She had to have a bridging metal plate to hold the large ends of the bone and cerclage wire to bring all the fragments together. Throughout the procedure, Dinkie’s heart, breathing, blood oxygen level and temperature were monitored. She slept soundly and her recovery from anaesthesia was smooth and steady.

Although Dinkie managed to shake off her protective bandage almost as soon as she got home; she healed beautifully. She was walking on all four legs within 3 days and is now having a course of hydrotherapy in our on-site pool to assist her rehabilitation.

September 2010

Tigger was a young male cat that adopted our surgery when it first opened. Our veterinary nurse living on site looked after him like her own and very soon Tigger and Alfie, Louise’s daschund cross collie, became the best of friends. All the staff became very used to “Tigs” being around: during afternoon consulting. Tigs would often be curled-up, fast asleep on one of the waiting room chairs whilst all hell broke loose around him.

And so, when Tigs went missing one night, we were all gravely concerned. He was in a very sorry state when he was found: covered in mud and barely responsive. We immediately placed him on an intravenous drip and gave him very strong pain relief. Although in severe shock, his vital signs were stable and we knew that the morphine – like pain relief would make him feel very much better in the next hour.

We thought Tigger had been involved in a car accident but then a vital clue was found: a small, perfectly round wound in his flank. An x-ray confirmed our saddest suspicions: Tigs had been shot. The air gun pellet was now lodged in his abdomen and we had no choice but to operate and assess the internal damage. Once the abdomen was open, the pellet could be seen sitting in the abdominal fat – but it had completely perforated part of Tigger’s small intestine on its way there. The pellet was removed and the damaged intestines carefully repaired. We all kept our fingers firmly crossed for the next few days following the surgery.

We all love a happy ending and on this occasion that is exactly what we got: Tigs was eating by the next morning and was completely back to his mischievous old self by the end of the week!