All creatures waggy, furry and purrrry

It’s been a busy summer here at Kelperland. As usual we’ve had lots of amazing animals  inspiring us with how they just get on with life despite whatever ordeals they’ve been through. One such dog is Meg.

Meg is a 10-year-old jack russell who had major surgery to treat liver cancer. This was a big deal for a little dog to cope with, but as quickly as the next day she was up and about wagging her tail! We sent the liver tissue to the lab which has given us excellent news - there is a good chance with her specific form of cancer that the surgery on its own will be the cure. This is actually quite rare but we’re delighted that she has recovered so well from the surgery and is hopefully cured!

We also had a distressing case of a cat called Merle that had been shot. Thankfully Merle is now absolutely (amazingly) fine - she was brought in by her owners when a hard lump appeared behind her ear. It felt suspiciously like a bullet and we did an x-ray of him to confirm the diagnosis and make sure there were no other bullets or parts of bullets anywhere else. Most x-rays are shades of grey, but bullets being metal always show up as bright white, making them easy to spot. In the x-ray below you can see the bullet lodged just behind Merle’s ear.

There’s another white item on the x-ray which is his microchip which you can see in the skin above her back - this is where it should be and was left there! The bullet was surgically removed without incident and thankfully Merle has recovered extremely well - he was so lucky that the bullet didn’t damage any vital structures in the ear or the brain. Unfortunately, and depressingly, cats being shot with air gun pellets is still something we see occasionally in 2016.

Mike is a big, bouncy labrador who became extremely ill with an unusual form of pneumonia. He had to stay in with us for several days on strong antibiotics to treat his lung infection. It was unusual because the pneumonia was caused by Mike vomiting - he’d picked up a tummy infection first which caused him to be sick. It’s not a nice thought but when he was sick some of the food went the wrong way and was inhaled into his chest where it became infected. The lung infection was far more serious than original tummy infection. The x-ray below shows Mike’s chest before treatment. The white area encircled is the very localised area of infection in his lung fields.

Thankfully the second x-ray, taken just 2 weeks later, shows that the medication is working as the two sides of the lung now look symmetrical and normal. He has to stay on antibiotics for another month to ensure successful treatment, but thankfully he is back to his normal self!

Contact Kelperland Veterinary Centre by calling 01628 624935 or visiting www.berkshire-vet.co.uk

You can also like the centre on Facebook or follow it on Twitter.

Save

Save

Save