A sandy surprise and a super recovery… Goose’s story!
Goose presented to the practice late one evening after his owners noticed he was showing potential signs of bloat. His abdomen was very distended and uncomfortable. He was very reactive around his tummy.
After sedating him and taking some x-rays, we found that while it didn’t look like a typical gastric dilation volvulus (GDV – a life-threatening emergency in which a dog’s stomach fills with gas and then twists on itself), there was something unusual in Goose’s stomach.With his condition giving us every reason to be concerned, and with his owner’s consent, vet Kate and nurse Lucy took Goose straight to theatre for an exploratory laparotomy.
Once in surgery, we discovered a large amount of silty granular material in Goose’s stomach… very much like sand! With no beaches involved we were a little unsure where all of it could have come from, but he’d clearly been on quite the sandy snack spree!
With some much-appreciated backup from vet Sam, Kate carefully and meticulously removed as much of the material as possible, while Lucy ensured a smooth anaesthetic. Thanks to our amazing team, Goose came through surgery beautifully. Although we can confirm, the clean-up was not pretty! After some stabilisation and recovery, he was up, eating, and back home with his very relieved pawrents.
Thanks to his owners for noticing their concerns before he became in critical condition, we couldn’t be more pleased to share that Goose has now made a full recovery and has been officially signed off.
Here’s some pictures of Goose’s sandy stomach contents, his stay with us, and his extremely handsome face!
