Pet of the Month

Cooper

Cooper is a very energetic 4 1/2 year old Boston Terrier who loves to play all of the time.  Already, in his short life, he has had three major operations.  The first occurred when he was about 1 1/2 years old and had surgery to have a linear foreign body removed from his intestines.  Linear foreign bodies can  occur when animals eat things, such as blankets, dental floss or carpet.  Part of the fabric will get trapped in the stomach or small intestines as the rest continues to move through, causing the intestines to become like an accordion. 

Cooper's second and third surgeries occurred last November.  The owner noticed that Cooper seemd quiet and had some episodes of vomiting and diarrhea.  She brought him to East Valley Animal Clinic for an exam.  Blood tests were performed in the hospital, including a complete blood cell count and a chemistry profile.  He also had a barium contrast study of his gastrointestinal tract to see if there was an obstruction.  After the tests, it was decided to do an abdominal exploratory.  During the surgery, a very unique problem was identified.  Part of Cooper's intestine has become entrapped in tissue in the abdomen called the mesentery.  This caused a portion of his intestine to die, and need to be removed.  Because of this, he had also developed an abdominal infection called peritonitis.  Statistically, 30-60% of dogs may not survive peritonitis even with aggressive treatment.  A few days after the first surgery, there was some concern that Cooper was not recovering well, so a second exploratory was performed that same week.  During this surgery a gastrotomy, an incision into the stomach was made to make sure that there was no foreign material in it.  At the time of the last surgery, his abdomen showed remarkable improvement in his abdominal infection.

Recovery for Cooper was slow but now his family is happy to say that he is back to his normal, crazy self!