Emergencies
Ted was rushed into the clinic at Shepperton following an accident. He was running around with another dog, slipped and fell onto a metal bar, the sort used to re-enforce concrete. He was obviously shocked and hurt and his owner rushed him to the vets as it was closing at the end of a busy day. He was checked over and despite only having a 1 cm skin wound on his side, we suspected he had more serious injuries. He was being very brave but was obviously in a lot or pain and going into shock. He was immediately given pain relief, treatment for shock and intravenous antibiotics whilst we prepared to treat his injuries.
Exploring the wound under sedation confirmed our thoughts that the bar had gone into his abdomen. There was lots of damage to the muscle wall and lots of contamination with fur, dirt and other debris. He was anaesthetised and moved into theatre for emergency surgery. The wounds were cleaned and repaired and his internal organs examined for damage. He was very very lucky that his spleen had not been ruptured, one or two centimetres lower down and he may not have made it. As it was, the bar just missed his intestine but damaged some of the blood vessels and made holes the mesentery (which is the sheet of tissue that supplies blood to and supports the intestine in the abdomen). This was repaired, large amounts of debris was removed from inside his abdomen and it was flushed clean.
His anaesthetic was long, lasting over three hours and on recovery he was quite sleepy. He was looked after at that point by our night nurse. She cared for him during the night, made sure his drip was running, he was comfortable and he was getting his antibiotics on time. The next morning he was much brighter and I am pleased to say he went home for a very restful recovery with no running around for a couple of weeks at least. Well done Ted a worthy recipient of the big bear award.
