Our Brave Pet for June is ....... Buddy!
Buddy is a very bright and happy English Springer Spaniel.
He came to Valley Vets with a severe problem with one of his back legs. He saw Rob Harry and it was decided that he needed a major orthopaedic operation to treat his lameness.
Buddy was admitted and given a general anaesthetic. X-rays were taken and these confirmed that Buddy needed the operation that Rob had planned and discussed. All was fine. Buddy was very stable and was prepared for our operating theatre.
Suddenly, there was a problem with Buddy's blood pressure and heart rate. It quickly became clear to us that Buddy was having an extremely rare, life-threatening, anaphylactic reaction to one of the the medications we had given him.
For a number of hours our team of vets and nurses battled to keep Buddy's heart beating, his blood circulating and his lungs breathing. We contacted some of the top veterinary anaesthetic experts in the UK and concluded that an extremely rare antibiotic reaction was the most likely cause.
His owner came in to be with him and, at one point, even said her goodbyes with the real expectation that we would not be able to save Buddy.
Buddy, however, had other ideas............
With a tremendous effort from the Valley Vets team and an extraordinary fight back from Buddy, he pulled through and went home the following day.
Rob saw Buddy and his owner a few weeks later. Buddy's lameness was worse than ever. He was in a lot of pain. After a long, heartfelt discussion Rob and Buddy's mum decided we would schedule the surgery a second time.
This story has a very happy ending. Buddy's "mum" received an extremely generous, anonymous financial gift through her letterbox one morning which helped cover a large part of Buddy's care costs; to say that she is grateful is a huge understatement! The second anaesthetic passed without any concern and the operation itself was a great success. Buddy is now running around and fighting fit again.
What an amazingly brave pooch he is. We are sure you'll agree.
