We are very lucky to be able to offer scoping facilities at the practice and it has meant we have been able to pass a camera up noses, down stomachs and sadly for our very own Bert up bottoms too! Well to scope does mean assess or investigate something. On Friday March 22nd it turned out to be cavalier scope day with three of them booked in. Harvey had an endoscope passed down to his stomach a procedure called gastroscopy. For those that have a strong stomach you can click on the description to see some photos!
Tonsillitis
Lower Oesophagus
Angularis
A gastroscopy is a procedure that involves passing a thin, flexible tube (an endoscope) with a camera at one end into your mouth down into your stomach and the first part of the small intestine the duodenum.
No one wants to hear their pet isn’t well but thanks to the camera Harvey was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and we are able to start him on specific treatment.We could also reassure his mum there wasn’t anything more sinister going on. We were able to see that he had ulcers that were healing.
Mylo had a rhinoscopy where the thin camera was passed up his nose. Cavaliers can have a condition called Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome and as we were investigating episodes of sneezing we wanted to know if his anatomy was the problem or something else, thankfully despite having a lump in his nasal passage biopsies showed it was just a polyp.
Duodenum
Cardiac Sphincter
Cobbled Gastric Mucosa
Becky had a bronchoscopy and rhinoscopy so bless her she had cameras up (her nose) and down (her windpipe). That in itself is fairly amazing as the dog lung has four bronchiole systems, dorsal, lateral, ventral and medial, on either side. Each measuring less than centimetre! In Becky’s case an x ray would have missed some of the changes going on and although cavaliers can get a cough due to heart disease this was definitely not the case for Becky!
If you have a pet that you think would benefit from further diagnostics including scoping then please contact the practice on 01492 546112.
Scoping procedures with biopsies start from £750 upwards depending on what your pets requirements are.