Soft Tissue

A 6-month-old small breed pup presented to us at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals with signs of brain dysfunction and poor growth compared to her litter mates.

Laryngeal paralysis commonly affects larger breed dogs that are usually relatively old. The cause is usually not identified.

At West Midlands Veterinary Referrals we see male cats that get obstructed urinary tracts with mineral deposits that usually form in their bladders. These then get flushed out with urine, only to get stuck towards the level of the penis at the point where the urethra narrows. The urethra is the tube connecting the bladder to the outside.

A young pup of 3-4 months of age presented with exercise intolerance and increased respiratory effort. A specialist cardiologist had diagnosed peritoneal-pericardial herniation and the pup’s vets referred him on to us for corrective surgery.

Ben, an elderly male dog initially presented with partial obstruction of the larynx caused by paralysis of the vocal folds that caused stress-related collapse and exercise intolerance. The problem was initially addressed with a “tie back” surgical procedure (see separate article in this section, and our post-operative care sheet for tie-backs in the section for owners).

Gemma, a 7 year old Border collie, presented with a history of removal of the spleen in the previous year at the referring practice, and now had had a solitary large hepatic mass observed on an ultrasound scan.

After trauma like road traffic accidents, ruptured diaphragm can occur and abdominal contents including intestines and liver can move through into the chest cavity. The reduced volume available for the lungs usually leads to significant respiratory distress. Occasional cases however have surprisingly minimal clinical signs.

This is a relatively common problem seen by us in Burton-Upon-Trent, usually affecting older un-castrated male dogs but occasionally affecting female patients.

Cats can have great difficulty passing faeces through a narrowed pelvis, resulting from pelvic fractures left to heal naturally after trauma from road traffic accidents etc.

One Friday afternoon, a general practice some miles away had a problem: