Eddie, an 8 year old greyhound, had been lethargic and lost weight over the previous six weeks. His owner had noticed that he had been eating more grass while out on his walks, and had occasionally vomited his food. A blood test showed that he had an iron-deficiency anaemia, the most likely cause being chronic blood loss, probably from either his stomach or intestines.

An ultrasound scan of Eddie's abdomen (the tummy) identified an abnormality, called an intussusception, within the small intestine. This is a condition where the intestine telescopes into itself, and often causes the bowel to obstruct. In Eddie’s case an obstruction did not occur, and instead the inflamed area of intestines slowly bled into the gut over several weeks, causing the anaemia.

After the ultrasound scan had identified the cause of the problem, Eddie was anaesthetised and taken to the operating theatre by one of our soft tissue surgical Specialists who removed the intussusception. Although the operation went well, subsequent analysis of the abnormal intestine under the microscope (histopathology) unfortunately revealed an underlying malignant tumour within the intussusception, which slowed down Eddie’s recovery.

 

 

This ultrasound image shows a cross-sectional view through the intussusception. The centrally located section of small intestine that has telescoped into itself (top indicator) can be seen completely encircled by another thin-walled layered structure which is the outer layer of gut wall (bottom indicator).

 

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