Woody
Woody is a 4-year-old Cocker Spaniel who is much loved by his family and a very active and energetic boy. When he started to cough and regurgitate his food his owners were naturally worried, but he improved with some antibiotics and they started to relax. However, a few weeks later and he became quite unwell with a cough and high temperature. A CT scan was performed at Nine Mile Veterinary Hospital and showed an alarming abnormality at the base of his heart, a mass next to his oesophagus. Camera studied showed nothing abnormal on the inside of the oesophagus – this mass was deep in the chest. This was a very unusual finding and a big worry in such a young and previously very healthy dog. The team at Nine Mile were worried about infections, foreign bodies or even cancers. The lesion was pressing on the trachea (windpipe) explaining the cough and was affecting his oesophagus causing him to bring up his food.
Woody’s vet recommended he come to Lumbry Park for us to review his case and decide on the next course of action. Surgery in this area to remove the mass would involve going into his chest which would be major surgery, so we needed to consider this carefully.
At Lumbry Park, we found Woody was bright and cheerful but a little slim. He had improved a little, so we elected to repeat his CT scan so we could see if the mass had changed before we chose to operate. We were surprised and pleased to see the mass had reduced quite significantly in size on the antibiotics Woody’s primary care vet had prescribed. This made an infection much more likely than a more sinister diagnosis, but we still worried that there was still an abnormality and concerned it could stay at this size and still need a surgical procedure to remove.
After discussion between our soft tissue surgery, medicine and diagnostic imaging departments we elected to extend the antibiotic course and repeat the CT scan a few weeks later. We waited with anticipation for the images to appear on the screen, and were overjoyed to see the mass had disappeared! Woody was feeling great and we felt comfortable to stop the antibiotics and monitor him. His dedicated owners slowly started to feed him more normally and build up his exercise.
A month on, Woody is back to his old active and happy self! We assume this mass could have occurred due to a foreign body (perhaps a sharp splinter) piercing the oesophagus and setting up an infection on the outside. Without treatment the results could have been catastrophic for Woody, but he has made a full recovery and been back to Nine Mile for regular check ups.
Woody’s case shows how primary care and referral clinics can work together to manage complex cases, the great advantage of advanced imaging such as CT scanning and collaboration between disciplines can help us choose the best course of action, tailored to each individual animal.
