Roxy is an 18 week old French Bulldog who was brought into us last month for acute onset vomiting. Poor Roxy was just 14 weeks old and had been vomiting all day and continued to be sick during her consultation. Although Roxy remained quite bright the vet could feel a thickening in her intestines which warranted further investigations.
Roxy was admitted to the hospital for some further tests to investigate why she was vomiting. She had blood tests which showed a mild anaemia, a reduced number of red blood cells, however, this is a normal finding in puppies. No obvious cause for her intense vomiting was shown on her blood test results. Due to the thickened intestines we then performed an ultrasound of her abdomen. Roxy’s ultrasound revealed an abnormal loop of intestine by her ileocolic junction which is the part where the small intestine meets the large intestine. At this point the vet was worried about an obstruction in her intestines.
Together with Roxy’s owner, the Vets decided that Roxy should have exploratory surgery to determine the cause of the abnormal ultrasound. During the surgery her small intestines were found to be inflamed and were also an abnormal colour. Starting from the stomach the vet felt down her entire gastrointestinal tract until we reached the end of her small intestines. This revealed a twist in her intestines which was causing a partial blockage of her small intestine and was stopping normal blood supply to her intestines. The twist was corrected and the colour to her intestines returned to normal. The rest of her abdomen was explored and no other abnormalities were found.
Roxy recovered extremely well from her surgery especially given her young age. She was hospitalised for 24 hours in which she began eating and no further vomiting was noted. Roxy was discharged with no further complications.
As many of you are aware there appears to be a lot of vomiting and diarrhoea bugs going around our beloved pets at the moment. Thankfully Roxy’s owner brought her in for an examination with our vets otherwise this story might have turned out a little differently. We would recommend a consultation with one of our vets if you are concerned about your pet. As Roxy has proven there may be more to what’s going on than meets the eye.
