A cute cavapoo puppy has been given a second chance at life after undergoing life-saving heart surgery in Northumberland.
Scans revealed that Nancy, who weighed in at roughly two bags of sugar at 2.5kg, had been born with a rare heart defect. It can be a killer, with more than three-quarters of pups affected developing signs of congential heart disease in their first year.
Following surgery at Moorview Referrals in Cramlington, Nancy is now full of life and her owner Lynne Robson is just thankful that the potentially deadly condition was spotted so early in Nancy's life. Lynne said: "A couple of weeks before her second vaccination I had to take Nancy to the emergency vets with bacterial cystitis and the vet said she could hear a heart murmur.
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"She advised getting it checked at her vaccination. Nancy was a bundle of energy and I wondered how she could have been so full of life with this."
A subsequent check during Nancy's second vaccination at her daytime vet confirmed the murmur and she was referred to Moorview. Antonio Moneva-Jordan of the Moorview cardiology team said: "Nancy was completely asymptomatic and very playful when we first saw her at 16 weeks.
"On examination, we found what is called continuous "machinery" murmur and reached a diagnosis of patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA. It is quite rare, and we only see a handful of cases a year.
"It is something you would hope to detect during an initial puppy examination, but with small wriggly pups it can be missed."
Vets strongly recommend early closure of a PDA and due to Nancy's small size, it was decided that an operation was the best option. The team were able to operate and the PDA was successful repaired.
Dr Moneva-Jordan continued: "Happily, Nancy’s recovery was uneventful, and we were able to discharge her the following day on pain relief. When we did follow-up checks four weeks after the surgery, everything was clear, and her long-term prognosis is excellent."
Nancy's owner Lynne is just delighted with the detection of the potentially deadly problem and says that Nancy hasn't looked back, saying: "She’s still tiny, but she’s feisty and she keeps up with her brother Shaun who’s much bigger. We’re really impressed with how quickly everything happened and just happy she came through it all."
Have your pets ever had a life-saving trip to the vet? Let us know!
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