Category: News

Meet Penny, our Pismo Beach Vet “Pet of the Week.”

Penny is a nearly ten and a half year old lab mix and a super sweet girl!

After picking her up from a boarding facility, Penny drank a huge amount of water and the owner’s noticed that soon after she became uncomfortable, was panting excessively, and had a distended belly.  She was brought in to Pismo Beach Vet and diagnosed with gastrointestinal dilatation and volvulus (GDV) – basically bloating and twisting of the stomach.

This may seem like Deja-Vu as our technician Julie’s dog Brie had the same problem two weeks ago (link here).  For those of you that have seen “Marley and Me,” you may recognize this condition.  GDV is a life threatening emergency that requires immediate surgery (Marley actually may have been saved if they had done surgery on him).

Penny was taken immediately to surgery, where her stomach was rotated back into normal position and a procedure called a gastropexy was performed to attach her stomach to her body wall (thus preventing her from twisting again in the future).  She was transferred to the Central Coast Pet ER for overnight care and monitoring and discharged the next day, doing much better.  Penny continued to be somewhat weak for several days but now is back to her normal self!

GDV is a fairly common condition of large and deep chested breeds, especially those over 90 pounds, affecting as many as 20% at some point in their life.  Standard Poodles, Great Danes, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, and Labrador Retrievers are some of the most commonly affected dogs.  The good news is that it is possible to prevent GDV from happening with a simple procedure called a gastropexy that is often performed at the time of spay or neuter.

Click here to see Dr. Joel Conn speaking about GDV on the KCOY CBS 12 Morning Show two weeks ago.

Meet Andy, our Pismo Beach Vet “Pet of the Week.” 

Andy is a 7 year old neutered male, indoor/outdoor kitty who is normal in every other way except that he has been sneezing off and on for about a month.  The sneezing suddenly progressed to violent sneezing and nose bleed the night before he was brought in to see us.  He has a history of playing in the grass and Andy’s owners felt that a nasal foreign body was likely.

One sided nasal discharge and sneezing in cats can be caused by a number of things including bacterial, fungal, or viral infection, foreign body (especially foxtails), dental disease, cancer, and auto immune/allergic disease.

We admitted Andy and sedated him so that we could look up his nose using a small otoscope.  We immediately located a large strand of grass and were able to easily remove it.  We then flushed his nose to help clear out his nasal passages.  This is probably one of the most dramatic nasal foreign bodies that we have seen at Pismo Beach Vet and underscores the importance of performing nasal exams in sneezing pets.

Andy is now doing great and is sneeze-free!

Meet Dakota.  She went missing several months ago for a night and turned up with a fractured pelvis and her right hip was out of socket.  Her family brought her in immediately and we replaced her hip and treated her external injuries.  Unfortunately, due to the severity of her injuries, her hip continued to pop out of socket and for the last two months she was unable to put any weight on her back right leg.

Dakota needed a $1500 surgery to enable to her to walk normally again.  Her family was unable to afford the surgery and the friends and clients of Pismo Beach Vet came through for them!  After a $650 donation from the H.E.L.P. fund, Dr. Joel performed the surgery Dakota needed and she is walking again!

We would like to thank everyone that has contributed to our H.E.L.P. fund over the years.  As you can see, it goes to a great cause!  For more information on the H.E.L.P. fund, go to /services.html#help

Scout is a nearly 14 year old, spayed female Cocker Spaniel that has been a long time patient of Pismo Beach Vet.  She came in for an ear infection and had some mild redness in her left eye.  On closer inspection, we realized that she actually had luxation of her lens in that eye. Lens luxation is when the lens, which is normally anchored in the center of the eye behind the pupil, moves out of position.  This is a very serious condition that can rapidly result in increased pressure in the eye, called glaucoma.

Sure enough, we checked Scout’s eye pressure and found it to be extremely high in the left eye.  Unfortunately, when this happens, it rapidly becomes very painful. We recommended that Scout have her left eye removed.

As you might imagine, this came as quite a shock to Scout’s owners.  It is an extremely difficult decision but we always council owners that pets do really well with one or both eyes removed.  In fact, when that eye is a source of severe pain, many of them feel much better after the operation than before.   Dogs and cats have such finely tuned senses of hearing and smell, that loss of all or a part of their vision is often not even noticed right away by their owners.

Scouts parents elected to have the surgery and we are happy to report that Scout is doing great! She went home the same day as the surgery and by the time she had her stitches out two weeks later, you would never know that anything had happened  We think that her missing eye only adds to her charm and character!

Meet Brie, our Pismo Beach Vet “Pet of the Week.”  Brie is an 11 year old, female, Standard Poodle that belongs to our technician, Julie.

At around midnight on Sunday, she began having sudden vomiting and extreme weakness.  She was brought in and diagnosed with gastrointestinal dilatation and volvulus (GDV) – basically bloating and twisting of the stomach.  For those of you that have seen “Marley and Me,” you may recognize this condition.  GDV is a life threatening emergency that requires immediate surgery (Marley actually may have been saved if they had done surgery on him).

We took Brie to surgery and used suction to remove a tremendous amount of gas and fluid from her stomach.  After that, we rotated her stomach back into normal position, then sutured it to the side of her body wall to prevent the twisting from happening again.  With some good pain control and fluid therapy, Brie was eating again within 24 hours and went home the next day – she’s doing great!  What a trooper!

GDV is a fairly common condition of large and deep chested breeds, especially those over 90 pounds, affecting as many as 20% at some point in their life.  Standard Poodles, Great Danes, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, and Labrador Retrievers are some of the most commonly affected dogs.  The good news is that it is possible to prevent GDV from happening with a simple procedure called a gastropexy that is often performed at the time of spay or neuter.  This procedure involves suturing the stomach to the side of the body wall to form a permanent adhesion that prevents the stomach from twisting and is something that we recommend to all of our large breed dog owners.

Even if your dog hasn’t had this procedure, the survival rate of those suffering from GDV can be greatly increased by recognizing the warning signs early on and seeing a vet on emergency as soon as possible (do NOT wait until morning to bring your dog in, it will be too late). Signs include sudden onset of abdominal bloating, non-productive vomiting, and weakness, often after a meal and/or exercise.