Pup thriving after surgery at Kentdale Referrals in Cumbria

Lucy and Cameron Dickinson were left devastated when a CT scan revealed that their puppy had an uncommon condition called a persistent right aortic arch.

Ms Dickinson, a vet herself from Kirkby Stephen, said: "We took Callie on when she was just 24 hours old after her mum and the rest of her littermates died.

"We hand reared her ourselves, feeding her every couple of hours around the clock for the first few weeks of her life.

"When we started weaning her onto solid food at a few months old we noticed she was regurgitating the food and unable to keep it down, which raised suspicion.

“As a vet myself I was suspicious of a vascular ring anomaly because she was pretty much a textbook presentation of it but, as it’s so rare, I just thought I was being paranoid."

Callie and her owner Lucy Dickinson (Image: Supplied)

Her concerns were confirmed with the CT scan, which meant the pup was to undergo major surgery.

She said: "I couldn't really believe we would be unlucky enough to have that as the cause of the problem, seeing as she had already had such a tough start in life already."

The surgery was carried out by Kentdale's Jan Beranek, a specialist in small animal surgery, who was assisted by Chris Allen, an advanced practitioner in small animal surgery.

Callie underwent a two hour surgery (Image: Supplied)

Describing Callie's problem, Mr Beranek said: "She was born with the aorta leaving the heart on the right side (normal is left), which trapped her food pipe between big vessels above the heart and the ligament spread between them.

“As Callie grew, this had caused a restriction around the oesophagus (food pipe) and she was struggling to eat and swallow her food."

Jan described the successful two-hour surgery performed through a thoracotomy: "We performed a thoracotomy (opening of the chest) to access the problematic ligament and ligate (tie) it and then remove it from around the oesophagus."

The young pup has since made a full recovery (Image: Supplied)

The young pup underwent a thoracotomy, the opening of the chest, to access the 'problematic' ligament.

Callie was able to go home the day after the two-hour long surgery, consuming small volumes of soft food several times a day for four weeks.

Mrs Dickinson felt very grateful and said: "Kentdale were brilliant from start to finish.

"The communication was amazing and I would certainly recommend them, 100 per cent without any hesitation."

Kentdale Referrals, based in Milnthorpe, offers numerous specialist services in diagnostic imaging, anaesthesia, arthroscopy, orthopaedic surgery, spinal surgery, soft tissue surgery, and physiotherapy.

For more information, visit www.kentdalevets.co.uk or search for Kentdale Referrals on social media.