Sheba is the queen of canine courage

By nicola tapp herald reporter

A GERMAN shepherd dog who received emergency abdominal surgery to save her life is the latest recipient of the Braveheart Award.

The Veterinary Hospital has chosen 13-year-old Sheba who, despite her age, pulled through her ordeal.

Sheba's plight unfolded when her owner, Mrs Bolt, noticed that she suddenly began to look and behave very oddly.

Mrs Bolt said: "I was playing with her after her evening meal about 7pm. She seemed fine.

"Then, about half an hour later, she was walking round in circles.

"She was retching, so I opened the back door and she went out. I stroked her to reassure her and felt that her tummy was bloated.

"I put her right in the car and took her to the vets' hospital, but I thought at the time that something was desperately wrong. I didn't want to leave it any longer."

Luckily for Sheba, Mrs Bolt took her straight to vet Laura Neerings on emergency duty, who realised that Sheba might be developing a problem called gastric dilatation (bloat).

This is a condition where the stomach fills with frothy fluid and often twists, which shuts both the entrance and exit of the stomach, leaving nowhere for this gas to escape.

As Laura suspected, on examination this gastric torsion seemed to be exactly what was happening, and she realised that Sheba needed immediate investigation and likely emergency abdominal surgery to save her life.

Sheba was anaesthetised without delay, put on a fluid transfusion, and had a blood test. An X-ray confirmed the problem, so Laura decompressed the stomach by letting some frothy gas out through a wide needle called a canula inserted into the stomach through the abdominal wall.

This gave a temporary respite and enabled Sheba to breathe more easily during the operation that Laura then carried out to find and correct the cause of the problem.

The stomach had indeed twisted due to the heavy spleen which is attached by ligaments to it, so she replaced the stomach and spleen back into their normal positions and anchored them by sutures to the abdominal muscles.

Mrs Bolt, a nurse at Derriford Hospital, said: "Within a couple of hours she was actually in surgery. I was concerned because of her age."

The operation was completed and Sheba allowed to come round on a warm bed in the ward under close supervision by ward nurse Nicola Cunningham.

To Nicola's amazement, Sheba was up and walking in the ward one hour after she left the operating table, with Nicola holding the drip bag and tube as she walked.

By the next morning Sheba was quite bright, with no vomiting — but, understandably, was not interested in breakfast.

She was well enough to go home later that same day with strict instructions about only feeding a very light diet in small amounts, and almost complete rest.

When she was examined three days later, Sheba was getting to be more like her old self, but still not very interested in food and sensibly eating little and often.

As gastric dilatation and torsion often occurs when a (usually) large dog is given a big meal and then taken for a walk, Sheba's owner has been advised to avoid this situation.

Sheba was remarkable in both her complete and speedy recovery at her age — but we would not like it to happen again!