Case of the Month

The following case came from one of the shelter/rescue organizations that the Animal Care Clinic works with to provide services and surgeries at a greatly reduced price.

A six month old, small beagle mix named "Jazz," from the ANIMAL HOUSE SHELTER, presented to the Animal Care Clinic for a routine spay.

Prior to surgery, as is standard protocol, Jazz received a physical examination. The attending doctor determined that Jazz had a serious heart murmur. Based upon the characteristic sounds of the murmur, it was suspected that Jazz had a congenital (meaning a problem you are born with) patent ductus arteriosus (also known as PDA). The following day an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) was performed and the PDA diagnosis was confirmed.

The ductus arteriosus is a vessel connecting the aorta to the pulmonary artery. This is present in the fetus to shunt oxygenated blood (received from the mother) from the pulmonary artery to the aorta. Since the fetus is not breathing oxygen on its own, thus having no oxygen in the lungs, it is pointless to send blood through the pulmonary artery into the lungs to receive oxygen, rather the oxygenated blood received from the mother can go directly into the aorta for circulation. Normally this ductus arteriosus vessel should close when a puppy is born. Rarely, the vessel will remain open and create the heart murmur. If left untreated ~ 60% of dogs die from congestive heart failure within 1 year of diagnosis.

Treatment for this problem is surgical. This is an open chest surgery which is very delicate procedure because of the proximity to the heart. Due to the complexity and risks of surgery this is a very expensive procedure. Typically, a referral hospital will do the surgery. Although Animal House Shelter does everything in their power and financial means to help their shelter dogs, the tremendous cost of this procedure would not allow for this to be performed on "Jazz."

Due to the financial restraints of Animal House Shelter, the Animal Care Clinic agreed to have two of its veterinarians, Drs. Adam and Paul, to perform the surgery at a greatly reduced cost. Both doctors have been involved in this surgery before and were comfortable performing it.

The thoracic surgery was performed and was a great success. Jazz recovered uneventfully and will now live a normal happy, healthy life.

Two important points to remember from this case: First, always make sure your pet has a physical examination and blood work performed before a surgical procedure where an anesthetic is used. Second, even young animals can have serious organ disease that many times can be treated if diagnosed early.