Around 3 months ago we went hunting with the pups and caught a big Barr. He almost killed Obama the cd with a poke to the neck.. He cut a few other dogs, but nothing serious.. Well it was about 2 days after, we noticed that Briar wasn't eating much of his food. well big e went hunt by hisself and carried him, he threw up the little bit of food he had been eating. We definitely could tell he was sick, so away he went Dr. Long in Hubtsville.
Briar
Week 1: (54 #'s) he was seriously dehydrated, went directly onto an IV. day one the vet noticed a much higher than normal white blood cell count so it was obvious the dog was fighting an infection, blood was drawn and sent overnight to ATM, day 3: lab results back, negative on all bacteria and viruses. Vets believe now that he's having kidney failure, but again this ruled out. Day 4: x-rays are done and the vets discover a large blockage in his intestines the size of an orange. They now believe it is either a blockage or fungus growing in the intestines. Day 5: in surgery they discover that it was actually similar to a hernia, or shall you say an inverted hernia. Instead of the organ protruding out through a tear in the lining of the stomach, the opposite happened. The stomach wall tore and the white webbing on the outside of the stomach sucked up into the cavity, twisting Briars small intestines to 4 times the normal size. Dr long was able to untwist the intestines and immediately noticed color began returning to them and movement was noticed. They put him back together and it was believed the work was done.
Week 2:(42#) by midweek Briar was still on an IV and not able to hold down any food, steadily shrinking and losing weight. I'm not sure if it was through a discovery surgery or through other means the found out that the last 12"s of his small intestines were "Telescoping" not allowing any food too pass through. Dr. Long proceeded to remove 18" of small intestine and hope for the best..
Week 3: ( a whopping 32#'s poor guy was literally skin and bones) he begins holding down food and is slowly beginning to put back on weight!
Week 4: (40#'s) finally gets to come home and is making a full recovery
2 months later: he got to make his first hunt since the surgery! Took him, goose and the puppy's to my deer lease after this rain and he hunted like he never missed a beat. Rolled way out and started a good boar hog we were track hunting, 30 min later he dumped the young dogs on pigs!
Just wanted to inform everyone of this type of injury. As Dr. Long said it was very rare, in his 30 years of experience he has never seen this type of hernia and had only heard of it happening twice from other vets.
