Mowgli is a 9 year old cross breed that is well known to the practice . He is a very happy dog that expresses his happiness with a loud woof so we often hear him before we see him! However on an out of hours night in June we knew something wasn’t right the usually cheerful Mowgli was flat and needed to be carried out of the car and just lay quietly.
Initial investigations showed that he had a lot of blood in his abdomen, there was so much that unfortunately an x ray didn’t show anything useful. Mowgli was taken for emergency surgery where thankfully it was diagnosed that Mowgli had a rather large mass on his spleen. The spleen is situated on the left of the abdomen close to the stomach. The main job of the spleen is to act as a blood storage reservoir to make red blood cells, filter out and remove old blood cells and to fight infection as part of the immune system. Fortunately these jobs can be carried out elsewhere in the body so animals like us can live without a spleen. Unfortunately the spleen has a good blood supply and is very vascular and usually the first time you know there is a problem is if there is a rupture. Removing a spleen is a procedure called splenectomy. Sarah the vet operating on Mowgli had performed many splenectomies but the tumor was the biggest she had ever seen and was almost the size of a football.
Graphic image - not for the squeamish!
It was luck rather than good management but the tumour was of such a large size that the weight of lifting it up it split in two but this actually worked out well because it ended up being its only plug until the splenectomy had been performed and all the major vessels attached to that had been safely tied off. Mowgli got through the operation and was monitored throughout the night but was obviously quite weak from the blood loss so it was decided to give him a blood transfusion.
You may remember we put an appeal on facebook for suitable blood donors and we had many offers of help (thankyou to everyone that volunteered!) – in the end we didn’t need one of the volunteered blood donors it did highlight the importance of animal blood donors so we will be running an event in the future about this.
Mowgli did very well after his blood transfusion and was hospitilised for another 24 hours and then went home where he has gone from strength to strength. Thankfully the results of the tumour came back as a myelolipoma. Myelolipomas are benign tumours reported in the dog and cat and usually involve the spleen or liver but can be found at other locations. Some grow to a large size and behave like a tumour. Obviously Mowgli is a well loved client but I am very proud of Mowgli as a case as it demonstrates what was a real team effort with special mentions for Rhian on reception keeping calm with the initial contact and demonstrating her excellent bedside manner, also Claire who dropped everything to come in out of hours to assist in the operation with on going care from Lowri and Natalie performing the blood transfusion plus all the staff giving support and cups of tea when his mum and dad visited. Even practice manager Clive leant a supportive paw. Mowgli’s mum and dad wanted to sit with him during the blood transfusion and not one to miss out on a knee going spare Clive joined them! Here’s a picture of Mowgli enjoying the beach two weeks after his operation …
