Gastric torsion in the disease of larger dog breeds. Why this disease occurs is still not completely clear. If after eating, the stomach starts to produce gas for certain reasons, the accumulating gas can lift the pylorus so that it rotates around the stomach. Depending on the severity it can lead to a complete closure of the stomach.
A stomach that is closed forwards and backwards cannot be correctly supplied with blood anymore and continues producing gas. The progressively increasing pressure injures the stomach wall and compresses the large vessels in the body.
The affected animals become visibly bigger, they feel a relentless retching and they constantly attempt to vomit (and this remains only an attempt because the stomach is closed forwards and backwards due to rotation).
If the condition remains unrecognized for several hours, it leads to a life-threatening situation: The gas-producing stomach is not correctly supplied with blood anymore and it mortifies slowly; escaping toxins lead to shock. Due to the above-mentioned compression of large vessels, an additional stress on the blood circulatory system occurs with cardiac arrhythmia.
The acute emergency treatment consists in the following procedures: to release gas from the stomach and then to cope with shock. Because a stomach tube cannot be introduced in this condition, a so-called trocar is put from the outside through the abdominal wall in the stomach; it leads to an instant relief for the affected patient. As soon as the condition of blood circulatory system enables it, the stomach must be returned to its correct position using a surgical procedure. During this procedure, the stomach wall is examined for places that are no longer correctly supplied with blood and that accordingly threatened with mortification. If necessary, a partial resectioning of the stomach wall must be performed.
The forecast for healing depends especially on the duration of formation of gas up to the moment of operation. In our Veterinary Clinic am Hasenberg, an operation team is available to you for such emergency cases day and night.
Injuries in the area of an eye are always especially dramatic, because they can be accompanied by the loss of the ability to see.
The most painful eye injuries are not always the most fatally dangerous. As a rule pet owners do not miss painful superficial cornea injuries because of the resulting convulsive closing of the eyelid; deep stab injuries that perforate the cornea often come without dramatic clinical symptoms and therefore they are more easily overlooked.
Every time you suspect an injury to the eye, you should immediately consult a veterinarian. They can professionally examine the animal and if necessary refer it to a specialized clinic such as the Veterinary Clinic am Hasenberg.
Visible foreign bodies, which penetrate the conjunctiva or even the cornea, should not be pulled out of the eye under any circumstances. Scratching and rubbing by the animal can aggravate the existing trauma and must be strictly avoided. In the ideal case, a collar should be worn. A veterinarian must be consulted immediately.
An acutely reddened eye is always a reason for an immediate veterinary examination. It can be a harmless but strongly irritating conjunctiva irritation, which should be treated quickly in order to avoid injuries caused by self-trauma.
But it can also possibly be an acute ocular hypertension (glaucoma) as a reason for the reddening. In such a case you must act immediately. In case the intraocular pressure is too high, the sensitive nerve cells of the retina can be irreversibly damaged after just a couple of hours.
Our veterinarians are trained to take care of such emergency patients, they can determine a diagnosis quickly and then treat your patient in a targeted manner.
As a result of accidents an eye can completely prolapse out of the eye socket. The prolapsed eye swells quickly up and so it can be irreparably damaged.
If help is provided by specialists quickly, such eye can be saved in many cases. Before arriving to a specialized clinic the affected eye should be covered with wet and cold bandaging material or simply with a clean wet cloth.
Whenever your animal patient hurts itself, it’s cause to visit the veterinarian as soon as possible so that the wounds are treated correctly.
Basically you should distinguish between superficial and deep injuries, as well as cutting, tearing and large-scale injuries with the loss of substance. A separate group is represented by bite injuries.
Cutting injuries appear in our dogs and cats most frequently on the paws. It cannot be simply determined how deep is the cutting injury. It can be a small cut, however behind it there can be a deep lesion hidden also with the injury of deeper lying structures and dirt build-up in the wound cavity.
Tearing injuries yawn so that the damage can be identified in the deep. They are more unpleasant because under specific circumstances the skin is cut unevenly.
The worst are the abrasion injuries which as a rule appear after car accidents and can be accompanied by considerable loss of substance of the skin. The problem here is that there is not enough skin available to cover the defect. In this case as soon as the wound has a good healing tendency a possible skin transplantation must be performed.
In rare cases there is such a bad bleeding, that the animal is in danger of bleeding to death. The worst bleeding occurs in case of cutting injuries between the balls of the foot. There are large vessels that can be easily injured. At first it will not be harmful for the healing if the wound bleeds. It means that the vital tissue is available. Besides the bleeding has a certain flushing action and it transports cells that are responsible for the defense against pathogens.
If the bleeding is pulsating after the sectioning of a larger vessel, danger may be imminent.
In case of any injuries rule number one is to clean the wound area from coarse impurities, perhaps to rinse it with clean water and subsequently to cover it with clean bandaging material and to bandage it. No ointments or the like should be applied on the wounds and it is also not necessary to “disinfect” the wound with alcohol or similar strongly irritating substances.
Pulsating bleedings are treated with a pressure bandage. In order to put local pressure you can use an open gauze bandage, which is then wrapped around tightly. Please do not legate the whole leg. As a rule it is not necessary. Improper ligature can lead to irreparable damages.
Bite injuries are a separate group of injuries. As a rule they are infected and deep. In this case it is especially important to treat the wounds quickly because together with the bite, persistent bacteria get under the skin. If they are not treated professionally, they can lead to an abscess with high fever. Furthermore, the tooth, which is hooked into the skin, frequently leads to tissue destruction that is not visible from the outside, right up to the perforation in the thoracic or abdominal cavity, which can make necessary the surgical revision of the destroyed tissue.