Our regular feature focusing on the work of North-East veterinary specialists Wear Referrals this week reports on the treatment given to Charlie, an eight-year-old springer spaniel with a nasty blockage.

CHARLIE Lisle is an eight-year-old springer spaniel who lost his spring in December and had a surgery at his vets to treat a suspected blockage of his intestines.

The vet removed some plastic and fabric from his gut but unfortunately, he continued vomiting, had lost his appetite and his skin turned a yellow colour called ‘jaundice’.

Charlie was referred to the Internal Medicine specialists at Wear Referrals, and following some blood tests and a CT scan, an abscess was found next to his pancreas and intestines.

The swelling was also blocking bile drainage from his liver and gall bladder – where bile is stored and released when you eat to help digest food – meaning that it was building up in his blood causing the jaundice.

Wear’s soft tissue surgeons operated on Christmas Eve and drained the abscess on his pancreas.

They also placed a soft rubber tube from his intestine into his gallbladder to relieve the blockage and open the duct for bile to flow normally again.

This is just like clearing a blocked chimney and placing a new flue liner.

In order to ensure that Charlie could get enough calories after the surgery, he had a special feeding tube positioned in his neck.

The intensive care that Charlie received after the surgery could only be provided for by a 24/7 veterinary surgeon and nursing ICU facility.

Day-by-day he slowly improved and was discharged after four days and all of his follow up blood tests have shown a great recovery.

Charlie had a dangerous and painful problem but as a result of quick action by his vets and the multiple specialist departments that work together at Wear Referrals, he has done extremely well.

Specialists at Wear said: “Just like people, dogs and cats can get pancreas and gall bladder disease which may need surgery.

“Sometimes, blocking of the bile duct can be cleared using camera telescopes in people, but because pets are much smaller, surgery might be required.”

In some cases, gall bladder stones can mean that the gall bladder is permanently removed and surprisingly they don’t miss them.

You might find it interesting to know that horses don’t even have a gall bladder!