🐾 Alfie
🏥 Referral - Spinal
🩺 Surgeon - Philip Smyth
Handsome Alfie was referred to NIVS because of severe pain in his neck and front legs, which quickly progressed as he lost the ability to stand. When he arrived at NIVS he was unable to move any of his legs, but he was still trying his best to wag his tail.
He was carried into the hospital on a stretcher and had an emergency CT scan. The scan identified a very large bulging disc in his neck that was compressing his spinal cord. He was transferred directly to the operating theatre for decompressive surgery.
The surgery went perfectly and he was immediately much more comfortable. Over the following three days he gradually regained function in his legs and was a much happier dog. He will continue to recover from surgery over the next few weeks and will have some physiotherapy exercises to complete, but he seems to be on the way to a full recovery. 💙
#nivetspecialists #spinal
Alfie was a 10 month old Yorkshire Terrier who presented to Alison Irwin of our Internal Medicine Service for investigation for a shunt vessel, bypassing his liver, allowing toxins into his systemic circulation causing lethargy, depression and episodes of inco-ordination, as well impairing his growth. 😔
Following Alison’s investigations and medical stabilisation, our Soft Tissue Surgeon, Darren Barnes took Alfie to surgery, identifying the anomalous vessel and after checking this was the correct and only vessel with fluoroscopy (video x-ray), ligating the vessel.
The first 10 seconds of the video shows blood flow looping the loop and bypassing the liver. The last 3 seconds of the video shows a temporary clamp in place on the shunt vessel, and subsequent blood flow into the tree-like branches throughout the liver.
Alfie has subsequently made a full recovery and is now no longer receiving medication and we hope can lead a normal life here after. 💚
#nivetspecialists #veterinarymedicine
🏥 Outpatient CT offer for the month of May! 🏥
The CT includes General Anaesthetic, 2 regions and detailed reports from a Diagnostic Imaging Specialist. Our standard fee is £2500 and we are offering a 25% discount which equates to £1875 saving your client £625!
#excitingpromo #outpatientct #nivetspecialists
🏥 Outpatient CT offer for the month of May! 🏥
The CT includes General Anaesthetic, 2 regions and detailed reports from a Diagnostic Imaging Specialist. Our standard fee is £2500 and we are offering a 25% discount which equates to £1875 saving your client £625!
#excitingpromo #outpatientct #nivetspecialists
If only CT’s were this speedy 🤣
#nivetspecialists #ctscan
Oh Barry 🙈
Barry has had enough and demands to go home 😂 thankfully, he had a fantastic follow up appointment with Eagle Eye Vet and won’t need to visit us TOO regularly 💚
#takethehint #nivetspecialists
🐾 Peig
🏥 Referral - Internal Medicine
🩺 Advanced Vet Practitioner - Alison Irwin
Peig was referred to NIVS after being unwell with vomiting and anorexia for 10 days. When she presented to the clinic she was depressed and lay on the floor, uninterested in her surroundings.
She was found to be dehydrated with low blood pressure and a low body temperature and was admitted for emergency treatment. After collecting blood and urine samples for analysis in our lab she received boluses of IV fluids to treat shock.
The laboratory tests detected electrolyte derangements and lack of a stress response which were suggestive of a rare hormonal disease named Addison’s disease. This is a condition where the body cannot produce sufficient steroid to cope with periods of stress. Further testing of Peig’s cortisol levels after stimulation confirmed the diagnosis which although rare is more common in young female dogs like Peig.
With treatment, Peig has started eating again and gradually regained her normal bouncy character. She will require lifelong medication to prevent her from having recurrence of her clinical signs however with management the good news is that she should enjoy a normal life.
It is important that these cases are diagnosed as dogs can suffer life threatening crisis if not treated appropriately. Unfortunately the disease is called ‘the great pretender’ as it can present in multiple ways and therefore as vets we must keep it on our list of possibilities.
Thanks to our colleagues at Newry Veterinary Centre for their referral! 🐾
#peig #kerryblue #internalmedicine #nivetspecialists
BOAS
A shortened day in the life of a BOAS patient ❤️🩹🐾
We are on TikTok! 🥳 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZGJGoj7He/
Come and follow us to see more behind the scenes clips just like handsome Norman. 💙
Watch this space for a story time on Norman 🤫
#goodboy #veterinarynurselife #nivetspecialists
Head nurse Shirley talking to you about the Stimpod machine which allows precision nerve location in regional anesthesia, simultaneous nerve mapping and location. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
Hi everyone! This is our Head Vet Nurse Shirley. Over the next few days Shirley will give you an insight into the role of Head Nurse within a Specialist Referrals Hospital. If anyone has any questions they would like answered about the role, let us know in the comments!
BEHIND THE SCENES!
Take a look at a time lapse of our wonderful surgeons and nurses performing a Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery. This is a procedure we perform very frequently and the surgery typically takes 1-1.5 hours in real time. As you can see it takes a whole team effort and a theatre full of equipment to provide the highest quality of care to all our patients.
Following on from Monday's post - here is a video of the ACDO device which has been deployed across the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).
A contrast study is being performed to demonstrate that the device is successfully occluding the PDA. In comparison to the video on Monday, we can see the contrast flowing into the descending aorta but it can no longer cross into the pulmonary artery. The ACDO device will remain within the patient's heart for the rest of their life.
PDA occlusion is an extremely rewarding cardiac procedure as, if successful, our patients are considered cured! As a minimally invasive technique, the majority of patients also go home the next day with a tiny surgical wound and non-the wiser that they just underwent heart surgery! #vetcardio
We hope you all did your homework and studied Julie's article on patent ductus arteriosus over the weekend! See our previous post if you missed it!
Did you know we offer minimally invasive PDA closure at NiVS? Here's a fluoroscopic study of a case our specialist cardiology team treated recently. Contrast is injected via a pigtail 🐷 catheter into the aortic arch. This highlights both the descending aorta and the PDA, in turn demonstrating the abnormal communication between the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Can you spot the PDA in this video?
Balloon Valvuloplasty (BVP)
This procedure is used in cases of severe pulmonic stenosis to attempt to reduce the obstruction in the pulmonic artery and subsequently the pressure which the right side of the heart is under.
During the procedure a catheter is placed into the jugular vein in the neck. This allows our cardiologists to place a number of guidewires down into the heart, eventually enabling them to place a balloon catheter across the pulmonic artery valves. The balloon is then inflated several times, forcing the fused valves open and allowing the blood to flow more freely, unobstructed from the heart to the lungs. Once the valves are sufficiently opened, they remove all of the equipment and the patient is left with no more than a small neck wound and is usually able to go home the next day.
The aim of the procedure is to reduce the pressure across the valve by over 50%. Although BVP does not cure pulmonic stenosis, it has been shown to improve quality of life and extend the life expectancy of dogs with
severe disease.
BVP is a specialist procedure which is only performed by board certified cardiologists, requiring many years of specialist post-graduate training. We are very proud to be one of very few centres in the whole of Ireland to offer this service.
Sunnee recently visited Cardiologist Julie’s ‘Puppy Murmur Clinic’ to investigate the cause of the heart murmur her vet detected at her 2nd vaccine.
On her exam her HR, RR and resp effort were all normal and Julie could hear a loud, grade V/VI, right basilar ‘to-and-fro’ heart murmur.
Our next step was an echocardiogram and ECG for Sunnee which revealed a left to right shunting, restrictive ventricular septal defect (VSD) with secondary aortic regurgitation (AR).
Here we could see turbulent blood flowing abnormally through the VSD between Sunnee’s left and right ventricle. This occurs when her ventricles pump (systole) The secondary AR can also be seen, which occurs when the ventricles relax (diastole). These two flows cause the characteristic ‘to and fro’ heart murmur.
The high pressure blood flows through the VSD, under the aortic valves, causing one of the aortic valves to be ‘pulled’ into the VSD flow, resulting in the secondary aortic valve regurgitation.
Thankfully Sunnee’s VSD is considered non-haemodynamically significant and does not require further intervention at this time. Chronic AR can result in left sided heart enlargement and so we plan to monitor Sunnee over the coming months with repeat echos. If we do not see progressive remodelling over time, it is possible Sunnee could live a normal life.
#vetcardiology #cardiovet#cardiologist
#puppy#heartmurmur
#echocardiography #veterinaryreferrals#veteducation #vetdiagnostics #heartdefect #nivetspecialists #ventricularseptaldefect
Have a look at Jess' story 🥰
