Bloodhounds and Police dogs

I thought I'd write about a couple of our recent patients at the vets
'Shuey' the Bloodhound (above with Katie) and 'Benson' the Copper.

Katie was helping me on a Saturday afternoon that became a bit busy, as we got to complete a couple of interesting surgeries. First was Benson, a 10 year old German Shepherd. The owner really loved Benson, who had been his older brother's police dog. On Saturday the dog had suddenly become depressed, painful about his belly and was having trouble walking. He had a very swollen belly, with what seemed like fluid. We popped a needle into his side and drew out straight blood. That was enough for the diagnosis - he was suffering a massive bleed into his abdomen. German Shepherds are really prone to developing masses on their spleens, which will often rupture, meaning the dog can bleed to death. We knocked him out as fast as possible, with the owner's help. All the while the owner was telling us stories about Benson, who was actually fairly nice for a Shepherd.
Benson had had a twisted stomach a few years before, apparently suffered while trying to mate with a bitch. This was despite being castrated the year before, after being a little 'enthusiastic' in his job in the defense of his handler. After getting the nick, Benson lost his nerve. Instead of chasing down crooks and searching buildings, he would hide under hedges and run away a lot. So Benson was retired, but he still loved catching crims part-time. The owner told us about Benson's ability to pick out people that were up to no good, such as two teenagers he 'pointed' to, whom they then saw breaking into a van. The police caught up with them after Benson's tip-off, as well as another guy who had stolen a motorbike.
Unfortunately Benson didn't come through the surgery. Removing the spleen, as we'd hoped to do, wouldn't be enough. His belly was full of little blood vessel tumours (haemangiomas) as well as about 5 litres of blood. We put him down on the table, while the owner wept and wept. It was quite sad 'cause he was a nice guy, and he obviously adored this dog that had saved his brother. He spent some time with Benson after the surgery, and asked us for his ashes to be returned, with a plaque on the urn saying 'Benson - still a Copper'.

The same evening we saw 'Shuey' in a case with a happier ending. Shuey is a 2 year old Bloodhound, like the Sherlock Holmes dog. His owner was a really nice, sensible lady who brought him in because he had a twisted stomach. Dogs with deep chests are really prone to bloat after a big meal, and the stomach can then twist and block up, making them very ill. They can die in a few hours from shock. Shuey looked terrible, he was rolling and throwing himself aroung, and trying to be sick. His heart rate was really high, and his gums were bright red. We anaesthetised him, and tried to pass a tube into his stomach, to let out the gas and food. That didn't work, so we put a huge needle into his side and let lots of gas out - maybe 3 litres? That helped a lot. Katie helped me put an iv line in and we set up for surgery. We needed to de-rotate Shuey's stomach and make sure everything else was ok. This took ages! We eventually got the stomach tube in via his mouth, and tried to get some fluid and food out using water and gravity to siphon off. That didn't work, the mushy biscuits were too thick! So Katie went beyond the call of duty, and started sucking the tube. Luckily it was a see-thru tube, and we could watch as the bits of sludgey biscuit and gastric juices slid down towards Katie! The owner was highly impressed with this 'fully-commited' vet nurse..
Eventually we emptied enough to untwist Shuey's stomach, and I stitched the pylorus to his chest wall so it wouldn't re-twist. Then we closed him up and put him in the cage overnight, praying he wouldn't die from shock (20-40% of Gastric-Dilatation-Volvuluses /GDVs die after surgery). The next day we were stoked to find him up in his cage, and looking awake. Well, he would have if we could have seen his eyes. The nurses were worried Shuey had gone blind, cause he'd bump into things as they took him out to toilet. But the owner later told us that Bloodhounds always do that - 'They don't really use their eyes - it's all smell' It's been a week now, and Shuey is doing really well. It was great to see him a few days later, it made getting to bed at 3am after his surgery seem very worthwhile!