Little Rufus had his owners very worried when he was restless overnight, and when they awoke. He was not doing very much at all – looking very ‘flat’ and lethargic, and not acting like a new little puppy should at 12 weeks old. His owners called the clinic first thing in the morning to book an appointment to see Dr Emma Crabbe to see what was wrong with him.
During his consultation, his owners advised that he did eat a large cooked chicken bone a few days ago, and was now straining to defecate and had a sore bottom. He hadn’t eaten or had a drink since the night before, and they also advised that he likes to chew on everything! All of his clinical vital signs were normal, but he was very painful in his abdomen area, and as this area was tense, Dr Emma was unable to palpate the area deeply to feel anything abnormal. Because of this, radiographs were recommended to be able to see if anything abnormal was happening in the abdomen.
On the radiographs a small metal object was evident in his gastrointestinal tract with some mild gas building up behind the object, showing to us that the abdomen area was quite unhappy and not functioning normally. As the metal object was cranially (towards the stomach area), and affecting his intestinal function, it was decided that the best thing for little Rufus was to perform an exploratory laparotomy to remove the unknown piece of metal, as we did not know what it was and it could of caused damage to the rest of the intestines if it passed all the way through.
Dr Emma showed the radiographs to the client and the recommended treatment plan was discussed. Rufus’ owners opted to go ahead with surgery and this was performed almost immediately to prevent damage to his gastrointestinal tract or changes to his vital signs.
For us to perform gold standard care on Rufus, we performed pre anaesthetic bloods. This allowed us to assess the kidney and liver function of little Rufus, as both of these are important organs involved in processing the anaesthetic. This process involves a small blood sample being taken from Rufus via a vein in his neck, and our in-house pathology allows us to obtain results within 15 minutes. The results were assessed by Dr Emma and were considered to be within normal limits for a growing puppy, so the surgery was able to proceed.
Rufus underwent a surgical procedure called an ‘Exploratory Laparotomy’, a fancy name for a procedure in which an incision is made into the abdomen to allow the surgeon to explore and assess the abdomen. This procedure may be utilised by a veterinarian in many different situations – in Rufus’ case this allowed access to his abdomen to locate and assess the foreign object he had eaten for removal. An incision was made through the skin, fat and fibrous layers in the middle of the underside of his belly and a thorough check of his organs was completed – from one end to the other to ensure nothing was missed. A foreign object was found to have traveled to and lodged in the first part of his large intestine but thankfully everything else looked great!. Often when foreign objects get stuck in the gastrointestinal tract they require a cut to be made, enabling the object to be removed and the hole to be stitched closed. Sometimes when time has passed and damage has been done to the organ or its blood supply we even have to remove a section of the gastrointestinal tract. Luckily for Rufus, some gentle manipulation allowed the foreign object to become dislodged and we were able to milk it further along his large intestine to his bottom. This decision was made as it would be much safer for Rufus to pass the object now it was moving in his faeces than to make a cut into his intestine to remove it. Rufus had 3 layers of stitches placed to close his incision and he woke up from his general anaesthetic nicely.
When Rufus was awake and bright he was given some food as well as a small enema to encourage him to pass the object – which he did! The offending object turned out to be a metal chain, like the kind used to attach things to keychains.
The following morning little Rufus was very bright and alert, happy and wagging his tail. Little Rufus spent another day in hospital post surgery – this was to ensure that he was eating ok, that his intestines were working as they should, and passing through the food without pain etc. He ate his food with enthusiasm! And his few small meals were staying down (he was not vomiting) and his little belly was not getting upset from the movement.
We telephoned his owners to inform them that he could go home that afternoon and when Rufus saw them he was super excited and we could not stop that little tail from wagging. A discharge appointment was conducted by the hospital veterinarian, and his owners were informed about his medications, all post op care, advised about what warning signs to look out for, and when to call us if concerned etc.
Rufus came back to visit us 2 weeks post surgery, and his wound was fully healed and he had grown so much! He has continued to be been bright with normal puppy activity at home, and with no changes noted by owner. He was due for suture removal, so they were removed, all the nurses had a cuddle and he was sent on his merry way to have a wonderful happy life and strictly told not to eat anything else he should not have!
