Nonnie went in for yet another weekly progress inspection this past Monday, and things were not looking good. Her red blood cell count was stable, but she'd lost more weight and, alarmingly, her white blood cell count was sharply elevated. Clearly, she had some sort of infection. The vet gave her a thorough exam, complete with x-rays, but couldn't find anything definitive -- she was just too skinny for anything to be all that perceptible.
Further testing was needed, so I took her back early Tuesday morning for some barium and an Upper GI exam, which finally revealed something: an obstruction of some sort in her intestine. This would call for some exploratory surgery, and fast.
She was on the table by lunchtime, and the vet found an intestinal inteceception. He removed a third of her intestine, sewed her back up, and she was in recovery by the middle of the afternoon (the surgery lasted for around two and a half hours). We got her back home by 7pm.
It was quite the whirlwind/rollercoaster of a day, but I'm happy to report that Nonnie has been mending quickly all week long and is eagerly trying to catch up on all her eating! She's so much better already!
The vet (Dr. Tai Federico, if you locals are wondering) was kind enough to share his photos of the surgery with me, and I'm going to share them here -- but for those who get weak-kneed at the sight of medical stuff (which is a category I normally belong in), I've put them on a separate page, so that you won't see them unless you really want to.
So, without further ado, here are the images, step-by-step, of Dear Puppy's intestinal resection. For those who don't want to go there, here is the recovering DP, on the day after surgery (there's an IV stump under that tape on her leg) -- and, of course, as usual, there are more creature pics over at modulator.org (which I think are mostly exterior shots)!
As always, have a great weekend!
8 comments:
Awwww - DP and Ms. B have matching right front legs(except that MB's is not quite so colorful, no vetwrap).
alls well that ends well - and I'm giving myself a bit of time before I have a look at those pics. I may forward this post to my school's yahoo group so they can see what goes on, unless you'd rather I not do so (bandwidth?). Let me know here. I'll check back.
OMG your poor DP!!!
That first pic looks so so SO painful!!
I imagine she's raring to go after losing that bit of unpleasantness...
Go ahead and share, sravana! I'm sure the servers can handle it! ;-D
Amazing intestines! Glad that DP is on the mend and up to a photo op :)
Those were some pictures! I can't make up my mind what DP's expression is saying, bu she's sure a cutey!
Wow. That is amazing. Thank god you took her back in. What I'm left wondering is--what is the mysterious mass? Did she eat something that wouldn't digest (like a rock or piece of plastic in the yard)? I'm so glad that the mystery of her weight loss is solved. Can't wait to come see her!
I'm so glad the problem was determined and corrected. It sounds like the vet care was superb in this case also. I have to admit to not looking at the surgical pics tho. Give DP a big hug and a Beggin' Strip or pig's ear for me.
[...] there. First, the immunization-induced canine autoimmune hemolytic anemia. And then there was the intestinal inteceception. They might be connected and they might not. But we’re pretty sure the shots made her immune [...]
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