Update on Izzie

Izzie is doing very well. She has been at home for a week now and she is breathing much more comfortably at home.
We have changed her medication slightly as she is drinking a lot with the diuretics.

We will see her again in a month and let you know how she is doing.

Follow the progress of Louis the goats' broken leg - Part Four - Louis gets a kiss from Emma

Figure 1. Larkmead Vets does not endorse the activity of kissing goats.

This is Louis getting very well looked after by Practice Assistant Emma whilst sporting a very trendy covering to his Robert Jones dressing. 

Follow the progress of Louis the goat's broken leg - Part Three. Alex has to improvise

Alex had to improvise a little and decided less-is-more and just placed a single screw across the fractured bone ends. 

After this the leg had to be immobilised in a big bandage, called a Robert Jones dressing. This Xray was taken six-weeks after surgery and shows the bones starting to heal, hooray!

Follow the progress of Louis the goat's broken leg - Part Two. Louis goes under the anaesthetic.

This is Louis receiving oxygen by mask to help him through his anaesthetic. 

Goats provide several challenges compared to dogs and cats. 

The most difficult aspect was that they do not tolerate being kept on their back for prolonged periods, which would have been the positioned used for a dog having surgery for the same type of fracture. 

This meant it was difficult to apply the same type of repair that we would have put onto a dog or cats broken forelimb. 

Follow the progress of Louis the goat's broken leg - Part One

Part One

Louis the goat, who lives at Beale Park, was brought into Larkmead Vets at Cholsey to see Alun because he suffered a sudden and obvious issue with his front leg!

Louis’ keepers don’t know how he managed it but somehow he managed to break his front leg – a fracture through his radius and ulna, ouch!

Alun strapped the leg up to keep Louis comfortable and the next day he was taken to our Didcot practice for one of Larkmead's Orthopaedic Surgeons to assess the damage and find a way to allow it to heal. 

Izzie gets treated for congestive heart failure

This is Izzie.  She is a 3 year old Ragdoll Cross.  

She was a very poorly girl when she came in to see vet Sarah on Friday morning as she was struggling to breathe.  We were very concerned about her as her brother had died suddenly last year showing similar signs. 

We quickly found that Izzie was suffering from congestive heart failure (a build-up of fluid on her chest) and started treating her immediately.  She was put in an oxygen chamber and given diuretic medications into her blood stream to help remove the fluid from her chest.

We stabilised Izzy over the weekend and by Monday she was well enough to undergo an xray, ecg, blood pressure test and heart scan.

This is Izzxie's scan which shows the thickened wall of her heart.