Soft Tissue

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 Veterinary 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.

Elsa, a young female Mastiff, suffered a gastric dilatation/volvulus (GDV) and was successfully treated for this surgically at a neighbouring practice. They undoubtedly saved her life, but a few days later, she started going downhill, and Roger scanned her with us at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals. It was apparent that her gall bladder had ruptured due to the GDV, causing septic peritonitis. This would be fatal if left untreated.

Short nosed “brachycephalic” breeds are becoming more popular. This is not good news, because many of these dogs have compromised airways. In short, humans are choosing to breed dogs that can not get a good flow of air into their lungs.

Kutlis, an eleven-year-old, 9kg, Lithuanian street dog, presented to us at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals with acute urinary outflow obstruction, a bite wound months before that had led to him losing the front half of his penis. He had reportedly been managing to pee until a couple of days before we saw him.

Nell, a 33kg 8-year-old German Shepherd, presented to us at West Midlands Veterinary Referrals with a massive 6kg spleen mass. We sent the whole spleen away for analysis, and exhaustive histopathology located no neoplastic cause – just splenic haemorrhage and necrosis. So the prognosis is cautiously optimistic. Patients can live very well without their spleen if no underlying malignant disease process affects the prognosis.

Buddy, the much loved male Staffie belonging to a lovely couple of die-hard Rockers, presented with a real problem – he couldn’t urinate. He had a large prostate cyst with a communication to the urethra, the tube from the bladder. When he tried to urinate, the urine shunted from his bladder to the cyst, and only a dribble came out. He was also losing a lot of weight and vomiting.