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JANUARY PET OF THE MONTH
Megan has definitely earned our January pet of the month honor.
She’s an almost 16 year old Jack Russell Terrier that started out her
Monday morning with her Mom and brother Leon on what she thought was
going to be a great walk. Unfortunately the neighbor’s dog was running
loose and before Mom could get Megan to safety she was attacked. He
went straight for her belly and tore a large hole in her abdominal wall
allowing her intestines to fall out.
Megan was
immediately rushed to our hospital where she was found to be very shocky
and in extreme pain. Dr. Forbes placed her on intravenous fluids and
gave pain medication. She could not stand when she came in, but the
nerves to all her legs appeared to be intact. Her intestinal loops
appeared viable so they were wrapped in sterile wet gauze to protect
them while she was stabilized. Corey and Michelle ran some blood work
and took her straight into radiology to screen for any additional
damage. Amazingly there were no broken bones, no sign of internal
bleeding or damage to her chest.
  Here are her initial radiographs showing the damage from the attack. In the yellow circles you can see the
abnormalities in her intestines and even where they exit the abdominal
wall and protrude from her body cavity.
Once
Megan was stable she was taken to surgery where her abdomen was explored
for any additional trauma. Everything looked healthy. Her herniated
intestinal loops were thoroughly flushed clean and replaced into the
abdomen. They appeared very red and inflamed from the trauma, but it
looked like they were going to survive this event. Her abdomen was
flushed clean and the abdominal hernia was closed.
Megan
made it through stage one of her recovery, but she still had a long
road ahead of her. She was kept on very powerful pain medications and
antibiotics to keep her comfortable and to prevent against infection.
She vomited numerous times in the early days of her recovery which we
suspect was due to ileus (the intestine’s not contracting) after the
trauma. She was placed on additional medications to address this. Her
vitals continued to remain stable, but she just wouldn’t eat on her
own. We re-explored her abdomen to make sure there wasn’t any delayed
trauma to the intestines and they were still angry, but healthy. Mom
came to visit on a regular basis trying to keep her spirits up. Since
the vomiting was controlled we began syringe feeding her to get her
intestines moving again. After 7 days of hospitalization we determined
that Megan was finally stable enough to go home in hopes that she would
start eating on her own.
The picture to the left is her post-surgery radiograph, showing the
repairs. Note the differences in the placement of the instines.
Megan was very happy to be
home. She had a slow start, but once she started eating small amounts
she progressed nicely – especially after she found some snacks during a
birthday party! A trauma like this is hard on a dog at any age.
Potential complications of a trauma like this could include: spinal cord
damage, damage to other internal organs, uncontrolled bleeding,
peritonitis (infection inside the abdomen) from the contaminated wound
and intestinal  loops or delayed necrosis (dying off) of portions of the
intestines from the trauma. Fortunately Megan was spared these
complications and she was a real trooper throughout her recovery.
We’re
glad she’s back to her old self!
"Thanks again for saving our family dog. My husband has had Megan since a pup and that
was 16 years ago. There was no way she
could have survived this tragedy without the excellent support and care she
received from all the staff at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital, thank you."
Tracey Littell
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