Joey’s Pet of the Week – Bella’s Bloated Belly

By Scott Lackenby | Dated October 28, 2015

Hey gang! How are you all?? How crazy has the stormy weather been?!? Thunder storms can be especially scary for us furries and it’s often the time that we run away. We’ve spoken about it before, but it’s a good chance to remind you to make sure that your 4legged friend has a microchip that is registered with your local council. If you move or change your contact details, be sure to update your new details with the council. And ID tags on collars are great.

Ok, enough chit-chat, this week my star is an extra in-depth case, so I need lots of time to talk about her. Bella is an 8year old Boxer who came in to see Dr John Morgan. Bella hadn’t been herself for a few days, she had been off her food, not as active as normal and had drunk a lot of water at the beach. When Dr John initially examined her, Bella seemed bright and happy, but after a few minutes, she became quite flat and Dr John noticed that Bella’s stomach was quite bloated. Bloated tummies in dogs is always treated as a possible emergency, and in Bella’s case, an Xray conformed that Bella had GDV, or Gastric Dilation and Volvulus. GDV is a potentially life threatening condition where the stomach bloats and then twists which cuts off the blood supply to parts of the stomach.

Bella’s Xray. You can see all of the gas in her stomach

The first step in treating Bella was to relieve the gas build up so Dr John could perform the surgery to un-twist Bella’s stomach. Normally we would pass a tube down Bella’s throat and into her stomach to do this, unfortunately Dr John wasn’t able to pass the tube far enough into Bella’s stomach to do this, so Dr John placed a needle into Bella’s stomach and was able to decompress Bella’s stomach.

The needle relieving the gas build up in Bella’s stomach

Now that the gas build up had been relieved, Dr John prepared Bella for surgery to untwist her stomach. This is a big surgery with lots of potential complications. When Dr John opened up Bella, he discovered that Bella’s stomach had twisted 270′! Some of Bella’s other organs where caught up in the twist, but once everything was put back into its right place, things started to return to a normal colour. Bella was still not out of the woods, so she was sent for 24hour monitoring with our good friends at Northside Emergency Veterinary Service at Terrey Hills.

When Bella returned the next day she was doing well considering. Bella then started to have an abnormal heart beat which Dr John treated with a drug called Lignocaine and we checked her heart rate every hour. Just when we thought Bella was out of the woods, her stomach bloated again! A second surgery was needed and this revealed that Bella had a fluid build up in her stomach, a complication of her initial surgery. Bella was certainly proving to be a stressful case for us all!! Once Bella was able to be offered food and water, it was noticed that she was excessively thirsty. Bella’s parents said she had been a thirsty lady for a long time. There are a lot of reasons that could explain this, but given everything she had been through, we thought it would be best to send Bella home, and reassess her drinking when she came in for a recheck. Bella was able to go home after 5days with us.

When Bella came back for her recheck 4days after going home, her parents said she had been thirstier than ever. She was constantly looking for water and the neighbors had even been giving her a drink over the fence with their hose!! Dr John and Dr Gen were suspicious that Bella had Diabetes Insipidus, a rare form of diabetes where basically the kidneys can’t adsorb normal amounts of water. Bella was started on medication to see if that made any difference and her humans were asked to bring her back in two weeks for another post-op check and also to reassess her new medication. When Bella came back, she was a lot less thirsty, her appetite had improved and she looked great! Bella will need to stay on her new medication for her Diabetes Insipidus and will need blood and urine tests every 6months to check on her kidneys and make sure the medication is still effective.

Bella having smooches with Dr John after her check up

Phew! I told you it was a big one! Well, I’m pretty tired after all that typing, so I might go and have a nap. Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll catch you all next week. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo