No time to lose in fight to save dog

AS a vet in a busy practice like Donaldson’s Vets, we never know what will be thrown at us next.

In addition to the pre-booked schedule of consultations and operations, we often see emergency cases which need urgent treatment and turn an otherwise organised day on its head.

That was very much the case the other day when afternoon consultations were coming to an end, and it looked as though I might have an hour to catch up on some paperwork before the start of evening surgery.

The front door to the surgery crashed open and a young couple rushed in with their elderly German Shepherd dog.

Ushering them straight into a consulting room, we laid the very sad looking dog on the table.

Quickly taking a history, I learned that they had both started work early that morning and their dog had appeared to be absolutely normal as they left, but when they had returned home mid-afternoon, they had found him to be unable to stand.

He was a big dog, 45kg and with a heavy hair coat. His owners explained that, under normal circumstances, he was not very keen on vets and had to be muzzled a year ago when he had his annual vaccination. As I started to examine him, he lay flat out on his side and could hardly lift his head, much less mount an attack.

German Shepherds, in particular, are prone to tumours in the spleen which grow slowly and silently over periods of months without showing any outward signs. As the tumour grows, it stretches the wall of the spleen until it eventually splits under tension. As the spleen has a huge blood supply, the rupture results in a heavy internal blood loss and the resulting drop in blood pressure causes circulatory shock. There was no time to lose. In theatre, I entered the abdomen which was awash with blood and located the spleen. Normally, the spleen is a small slender organ but this spleen had a cricket ball sized lump on the end with a ruptured surface which was still bleeding.

In dogs, other organs will compensate when the spleen is removed so, carefully, the blood vessels to the spleen were isolated, clamped and ligatures were tied around each one until the whole spleen could be removed.

With the source of the blood loss dealt with, he was brought round from his anaesthetic and monitored through the night as an intensive care patient.

Biopsy results from the spleen confirmed that it was a benign mass so I am glad to say he should make a full recovery and, the following day, I managed to get a spare hour to catch up with that paperwork!