Soft Tissue

A 6-month-old small breed pup presented to us at West Midlands 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 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:

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.