Soft Tissue

Ear disease usually reflects local skin disease. Skin micro-organisms (bacteria and yeasts) love nothing more than warm moist nooks and crannies so the ear canal can make an ideal environment for them.

Charlie, an 8-week-old Labrador puppy was presented to us at West Midlands Referrals with a history of regurgitation and vomiting once he made the change from liquid to solid food intake.

Princess, a 2-year-old Yorkshire terrier was referred to us at West Midlands Referrals with a history of bladder stones and hepatic encephalopathy (neurological signs) attributable to the effect on the brain of toxins that the liver should have “scrubbed” out of the “dirty” blood coming from the intestines. An abnormal blood vessel called a shunt underlay the formation of the bladder stones and the shunt allowed toxins to get to the brain.

The soft palate is at the back of the mouth. For those who remember the Peanuts cartoons, the soft palate is the dangly bit you can see when Lucy throws her head back and yells at Charlie Brown!

This condition involves the formation of draining tracts around the anus. It is often seen in German Shepherd dogs, and causes discomfort and straining with defaecation.

How many dogs would survive being hit by a freight train, being knocked down a 30-foot embankment and then half drowning in a bog?

Pyometra occurs relatively commonly in bitches, and involves the combination of infection in the uterus (womb) and progesterone hormone dominance from the ovaries.

Urethrostomy means creating an artificial permanent hole in the urethra, the tube that takes urine from the bladder to the outside. In male dogs this can be created:

A male cat had temporary difficulty urinating after mineral deposits obstructed the urethra, the tube that drains the bladder to the outside.

Pneumothorax involves collapsed lungs with air filling the space that surrounds the lungs within the chest cavity. Pneumothorax cases with severely collapsed lungs are potentially life-threatening, especially if the accumulation of air in the chest cavity is rapid and progressive leading to the ever-increasing pressure on ever collapsing lungs (tension pneumothorax). Pneumothorax cases typically fall into two groups.

A young cat was presented to us at West Midlands Referrals for closure of an oro-nasal fistula – a permanent hole between the mouth and the nose. It was uncertain how this had originated but trauma from another animal’s canine tooth during a bite was a possibility.  

“Dave” the spaniel, a working dog, was out doing his thing one Sunday and charged through a hedge. There was a 2 foot rusty metal spike in the undergrowth and he impaled himself on it …

Ozzy, a very likeable little Shih Tzu, scavenged a bone out on a walk with his owner and it got stuck in his oesophagus. It was there for four days and he hadn’t been able to eat or drink in that time. The client had financial issues and his own vets had not been able to get the bone out. The owner was on the point of putting him to sleep but decided at the last minute to bring him over to us at West Midland Referrals and let us have a go at getting it out.

A vigilant local vet found a large mass in the caudal abdomen of a bull terrier called Nathan during a routine examination.

Willow had upper respiratory breathing problems relating to her larynx. A tie-back procedure was unsuccessful and her breathing was becoming distressed.

Gastric dilatation is a condition where the stomach rapidly bloats with gas. This often happens to big dogs and is thought to be predisposed by a lot of exercise around the time of large meals. Gastric dilatation creates problems for the dogs in breathing as the bloated stomach sits right under the diaphragm (the muscle separating the chest from the abdomen, which is the main muscle involved in breathing).

Dulcie, a 3 year-old female Dalmatian presented with a 5-month history of vomiting (daily) and weight loss. Roger, our medic and ultrasonographer, scanned her and found that the stomach was still dilated despite a 12-hour fast suggesting it wasn’t emptying properly into the duodenum (the section of small intestine that follow on from the stomach).

Lyla, a gentle 2y female collie, presented with a collection of fluid under the tongue on the right (a sublingual rannula) and a cystic fluid swelling in the upper part of the right neck.

Poppy, a really sweet little 15kg cocker spaniel, came to us at West Midlands Referrals for a cruciate ligament rupture, but all that got put on hold because we spotted that she had a large mass in her abdomen lurking under the rib cage. Roger scanned this, and she had a massive liver cancer obliterating half of her liver (both the left lobes). We could not detect any spread. 

When there isn’t enough skin left to close a wound and skin flaps can’t be created, skin stretchers can sometimes help.