May
2019
http://www.yourdog.co.uk 33The Boston Terrier may
suf er from stenotic nares.Some ops still require specialist
surgery — but not all.surgery in-house is convenient for our clients, and is
often less expensive, too. A recent MMP success story
is Maisie, the English Springer Spaniel. She was out
working when her cruciate ligament ruptured and
her owners were very concerned about surgery and
how well she would recover. All the options were
discussed at length before they opted for the MMP.
Maisie had her surgery and went home the same day
with instructions to rest. It’s always dii cult to keep an
active dog quiet after surgery, especially when they
share a home with several other dogs, but Maisie’s
owners worked hard and the i ve week X-rays looked
great. Maisie has now started to do more exercise,
including hydrotherapy, and hopefully she can soon
get back to some gundog training.BE PREPARED!
Recently, one of our assistant vets was using some
rare free time to study. She is taking an Advanced
Practitioner Certii cate in surgery and was keen to
learn about approaches to the oesophagus, just in
case we get a patient with something stuck in there.
At the moment we would have to refer the dog, as
we don’t have the range of endoscopes needed to
try to remove a foreign body without surgery, or
anyone coni dent enough to perform it. Given that
we are near the coast, and often see dogs who have
swallowed i sh hooks, we have been lucky that mostof the hooks stick in the tongue, or make
it into the stomach — but it can only be
a matter of time!FAST RESULTS
It’s not just surgery either; imagine being able to walk
into your local doctor’s for a blood test and walking
out half-an-hour later with the results! But, that is
exactly what most veterinary clinics can do, and fast
results can make all the dif erence with sick pets.
A recent weekend case of a vomiting dog was
easy to diagnose and i x because of our in-house lab.
Brandy, the Jack Russell, was feeling very sorry for
herself and couldn’t keep a ny food down. As she
was middle-aged and hadn’t been spayed, I was
worried that she might have a pyometra (womb
infection). Luckily, this is quite easy to rule out with
an ultrasound examination, which I could do during
her initial consultation. With that all clear, I took
a blood sample to investigate other causes of
vomiting. Within half an hour, I was able to tell
Brandy’s owners that she had mild pancreatitis,
and they confessed she had been given some
fat trimmings the day before. We started some
treatment, and lucky Brandy didn’t even have to stay
for intravenous l uids. Without our blood analyser,
we might not have got results for Brandy until the
following Tuesday!
The range of treatments and level of care even
small veterinary clinics now of er really is amazing.
And vets and vet nurses are always learning new
techniques, which were often restricted to specialists
only a few years ago.18-19 Vet Diary CS(SW)ok.indd 33 25/03/2019 15:56