Katie Cranstoun now offers acupuncture for your animals who may be suffering from aches and pains and other conditions like arthritis
Saffi is a 4 year old Border Collie. She presented to us due to intermittent vomiting which had been going on for a few days. Initially she was treated with fluids and antibiotics, however, she seemed to improve and then worsen. A repeat x-ray was taken of her abdomen which showed a suspicious object possibly within her intestine. It was decided to perform an exploratory laparotory surgery, to investigate the cause for her vomiting and the potential object seen on the x-ray.
Surgery was performed on Saffi and it was found that an object was lodged within her small intestine. The part of the small intestine was beginning to die off due to the object cutting the blood supply to the tissue. Due to this, it was not possible to simply remove the object from her small intestine. The damaged part of the intestine had to be removed and the two ends stitched back together. Below is the object which was stuck within the small intestine:
Saffi recovered well from her surgery. She had to be starved for 48 hours after her surgery to allow her intestine to recover. She was then fed small amounts of soft food every couple of hours, with the volume being fed gradually increased. Saffi was able to go home four days after her surgery as she passed faeces and had recovered well.
The object had most probably been with her stomach for quite sometime, hence the intermittent vomiting. Due to natural contractions of the stomach, the object was pushed into the small intestine, where it became lodged. It was at this point that that Saffi became very unwell. Thankfully the surgery was performed in time and Saffi is now doing well and looking forward to getting back to agility in a few weeks!