A Staffy pup has found luck at the end of the rainbow, after snacking on a potentially deadly item forced vets to think quickly to save his life.
In a display of ingenuity, the team at Animal Emergency Service Tanawha saved the life of Rainbow, who had ingested several pieces of wire posing a serious threat to her health.
The playful pup chewed through and swallowed wire fragments, some measuring up to five centimetres in length.
Recognising the immediate danger these sharp objects could pose to the dog’s gastrointestinal tract — including the risk of perforation and potentially life-threatening complications — the team knew that traditional “wait and see” methods were not an option.
Led by Dr Whitney Hansen and the team of vet nurses quickly brainstormed a range of innovative solutions to safely remove the wire fragments.
“Rainbow initially presented for retching, then the owners found the wire and it looked like it had been chewed on,” Dr Hansen said.
“Rainbow had belly pain on physical exam. We took x-rays to confirm and found a copious number of pieces of wire sitting in her stomach, maybe 20 or 30.
“The concern was that if one of the pieces were to puncture the gut, it would cause sepsis and need major abdominal surgery to treat this.”
Dr Hansen said with a survival rate of about 50 per cent in septic abdomen cases, the team considered their options.
“Making her vomit would risk the sharp wires piercing important structures in her neck,” she said.
“Doing a scope to grasp and gently pull out each individual piece could have easily taken all day … (and) seeing the small wire with the endoscope camera was very difficult since the stomach is also full of food and stomach acid.”
Instead, the team developed of a novel “fishing move” technique leveraging the magnetic backing of a name badge with an endoscope to carefully navigate and retrieve the wire pieces.
“One of our nurses came up with the idea of using a magnet,” Dr Hansen said.
“We did not have any magnets on hand and so ended up using the magnetic backing to one of our name badges with a long string tied to it so it could be easily retrieved from the stomach.
“(We) guided it into the stomach with the scope and pulled it back out a few times. All of the little wires just stuck to it.
“We were able to remove all of the pieces in quick time.”
Subsequent X-rays confirmed the procedure was a success, with all pieces of wire safely removed, much to the relief of the dog’s owners and the medical team.
Animal Emergency Service Tanawha is an emergency vet hospital giving urgent medical care to pets and wildlife when other vet clinics are closed, including on weekends and public holidays.
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