 May
2009
Harvey
May’s Pet of the Month is a very brave
four month old boxer puppy called Harvey. Harvey first came in to
see Jim the Vet after his owner noticed him coughing and getting
tired quickly when out on his walks. Over the next couple of days,
Harvey’s
condition worsened and he began vomiting. He was becoming more and
more depressed and so it became necessary for him to be admitted
to the hospital for more intensive care and tests to see what was
causing him to feel so ill.
Blood tests were run and
x-rays and an ultrasound scan of Harvey’s
abdomen was performed. The ultrasound scan told Jim that Harvey had
an unidentified lump in his abdomen, however it was clear that in
order to establish exactly what the lump was an exploratory operation
was required. Whilst under anaesthetic, Jim carefully examined Harvey’s
intestines looking for any sign of inflammation or evidence that
Harvey might have eaten something he shouldn’t. However, everything
appeared normal and so Harvey was woken up and closely monitored
by our nurses, Danielle and Wendy.
They gave him lots of TLC
and tried to tempt him with tasty food. Over the next couple of
days, Harvey picked up slightly and was even well enough for his
owner to take him over to the park for a play! However, he still
wasn’t eating and so it was decided to repeat
his x-rays- this time after he had been given a barium meal. This
would allow the Vet to see what was going on inside Harvey by tracking
the ‘dye’ as it passed through his oesophagus, stomach
and intestines. This time the x-ray clearly showed a dark, gas filled
structure at the junction of Harvey’s oesophagous and his stomach-
the classic signs of a hiatal hernia!
A hiatal hernia occurs when part of the stomach protrudes into the
chest cavity through the oesophageal hiatus (the opening in the diaphragm
through which the oesophagus passes). This explains why everything
appeared normal when Jim performed the exploratory operation!
As Harvey grows and his
stomach gets bigger the likelihood of the problem occurring gets
less and less and hopefully he will ‘grow
out’ of it. Should he continue to experience problems then
corrective surgery is a possibility in the future. In the meantime,
Harvey’s owners have taken him home with medication to help
ease his vomiting and with strict instructions to feed him from an
elevated bowl so that everything is kept in place by gravity and
his food can slip down more easily! Harvey popped in to see us a
few days ago and was almost unrecognisable from the sick puppy of
a week ago. His lovely, extra long tail was wagging madly as he rushed
in to say thank you to Jim and all the nurses for looking after him!
Click here to see last month's Pet of the Month -
Mitzi the Yorkshire Terrier!
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