February- Patient of the Month- Sandy!!!

This month's patient of the month has a very interesting story to tell. Sandy, a 7 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback came in last month for a routine spay.   She received a full examination  by Dr. Carlos and blood-work for the procedure was discussed. In situations where a patients is young and (apparently) healthy, it is quite normal to not pursue pre-anesthetic blood-work before a routine surgical procedure.  This instance seemed no different and Sandy's owner elected to go forward with the procedure without blood-work. We will find that Sandy was not a "normal" patient.

Once in surgery, Dr. Carlos discovered that Sandy had a few anatomical abnormalities. Sandy's uterus and ovaries were severely underdeveloped making them difficult to locate. While looking for the left ovary, Dr. Carlos noticed that Sandy was born with only one kidney. 

Having only one kidney does not effect a spay procedure specifically. It does change anatomical development, as seen with Sandy, and makes everything more difficult but more importantly it directly effects the way the body metabolizes anesthesia.  Happily, this is where Sandy's story is somewhat uneventful. Sandy recovered from surgery quickly. She spent one evening with us on intravenous fluids and was soon home and healing well.

What continues to be interesting though was that Sandy's blood-work (done after surgery) was completely normal. Because she was born with this deviation, her kidney values were within normal limits. In fact, if not for this routine procedure, the awareness of her unique condition would not have manifested until a problem arose later in life due to the responsibility of functionality resting solely on the one kidney.

Now Sandy is home. Her incision is healed and she is frolicking like a Ridgeback does. Her family is prepared for future variations in her blood-work because of this visceral difference and can approach decisions well informed.

This routine procedure gave both Sandy and her family more than anticipated. Sandy is a lucky dog and we are happy to highlight her as our Patient of the Month for February!