Pet of the Month: “Prince”

“Prince”, an 11 month old Welsh Corgi cross pup presented to us at Drovers Veterinary Hospital, on 8th January with a history of vomiting for 24 hours. He had been to the emergency vet the night before but continued vomiting during the night and was quite unwell when he came to us. It was obvious “Prince” needed supportive care with pain relief and intravenous fluids but would also need x-rays to rule out a bowel obstruction. When x-rays were performed an interesting radiodense (a white shadowing) object was apparent in the intestinal tract.

The owners agreed to go ahead with exploratory surgery. By this stage “Prince” was passing a very foul smelling bloody diarrhoea and we were not sure whether there would be severe damage to the intestines. The obstruction was found easily but there was some bruising damage to the intestine and the object was tightly wedged into the small intestine. The object with quite sharp edges turned out to be a stone from a neighbouring  garden.

“Prince” stayed in hospital another 2 nights following surgery on fluids, antibiotics and pain relief, but was getting so cheeky and well by the third day, it was decided to send him home.  The next challenge proved to be getting tablets into him once he had recovered. It seems a nasty sharp stone was easier to swallow than several small tablets.

We wish “Prince” and his family all the best for complete recovery and no mischievous actions in the future.

Dr. Merryl Gamble and the team at Drovers Veterinary Hospital