Okay.
Extreme, isn’t it?
"I can see that things are not well at her back end."
She has a massive prolapse.
I'm in a really tricky situation right now
" because Bonnie is in major distress"
and how can I reduce that?
Well, the best way is by neutering the animal,
but you have blood vessels
"that are about five times the size as they would normally be."
"So that means five times the risk of bleeding and death."
It’s okay.
Good girl, it’s okay.
Scott's first patient is a young Pocket American Bully
who's come in with her very anxious dad.
It's okay darling.
Me and Bonnie are so close.
"We do everything together. She's always with me."
I've had a since she was 14 weeks so since she was very young.
"She's just come on her first heat and I’m just worried that I could see"
something exterior starting to come out.
That's when I started to panic.
It’s okay darling, good girl.
Hi there, Nathan.
Hi, Bonnie.
"Hi, pup. How are you? So, what's happening?"
"Im worried she’s having... Looks like it’s..."
"- Oh. - Bulging out the back there and..."
Yes.
"Last night when that started to expose itself."
"- Yes, started to get worried. - Yeah."
Okay, lets get her in the
"- consult room, Nathan. - Great. "
Come on darling.
" - Good girl.
- Can we get her up on the table?"
Yep.
"Let's have a little look at you, my love."
Good girl.
You are a lump, aren't you, Bonnie?
Are you a lovely girl?
"Hey? So she's still quite young."
Yes.
And she's just had her first season.
"Do you think she's in heat now?"
She is definitely in heat now.
"That’s fine. How do you know?"
"- She started spotting blood. - Right. Okay."
No problem.
Let's just have a little look at this.
It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.
Extreme, isn’t it?
Yeah.
Okay. So.
Oh, my gosh, baby girl.
"I can see that things are not well at her back end."
She has a massive prolapse of her vagina
" out of a vulva, basically"
this big lump
coming right out of that back area
and it really looks painful.
"When they are in tire and they go through the cycle."
They get that real surge of estrogen and then pop out it comes.
Yeah.
"So what happens is once it's out like that, it's prone"
"not only to be damaged but also strangulated"
because it's actually going out of a hole that it's not meant to.
Yeah, it’s very concerning.
"I was so worried. I’m like that’s not right."
No, no, no.
"So you've done really well to bring her in, in time."
Great.
Yeah.
What we need to do is try and replace it.
"So we'll do that by reducing its size and then pushing"
it back in.
"And at the same time, I'm going to have to either"
"look at hormonal treatment to try and reduce"
"the estrogen levels. - Yeah."
"Just so that things start to reduce in size or we might have to spay her."
I'm in a really tricky situation right now
" because Bonnie is in major distress."
"The main driver of this condition is high levels of estrogen."
And how can I reduce that?
Well, the best way is by neutering the animal.
But when you try to spay a female dog,
when they're in season, you have blood
"vessels that are about five times the size as they would normally be."
"So that means five times the risk of bleeding and death."
Okay, baby, I know.
I know. I know.
"They'll be more than a thermometer going up your back end quite soon"
"I’m afraid. Sorry honey."
It’s okay, it’s okay darling.
"- Hey Nathan. - Yeah?"
I think it's love.
Definitely is.
"Being a vet isn't just about treating animals."
It's also being aware
"of the people holding the lead or carrying in the cat carrier."
And in the case of Nathan and Bonnie,
" you can see how clearly they have"
an amazingly strong bond and connection.
It's beautiful, really.
She is a very healthy girl. So you're doing a great job with her.
This is just a really unfortunate event.
"- So we just need to address that. - Yeah."
Hey? Yes.
Alright, well do you want to give daddy a kiss?
"Do you want to give daddy a kiss? Yes?"
She’s probably not going to want to come with me.
"Come on then Bonnie. Come this baby."
You're so good.
"Alright, Nathan, I'll give you a call in a bit."
Great.
"- Thank you. - Good girl. That's it, good girl."
"I'm feeling scared and nervous. I’m just"
" praying that she's going to be okay."
So my last visit up here wasn't too well.
I had to have my last dog put down here, so.
"- Hey, Taylor. How you going? - Good, how are you?"
Good.
"- So this is Bonnie. - Okay."
Let me pop her up on the table for you.
Oh, she's a bit of a lump, as you can see.
"I think what we'll do is we'll give her some pain relief."
"- Yep. - Put her on some fluids,"
"and then we'll get her into surgery and we'll go from there."
"- Sounds good. - Okay."
Good girl.
It’s alright my love.
He’s hoping he can successfully manipulate it back inside
"Bonnie's body without having to anaesthetise her."
We're just flushing the
"vaginal prolapse, just to try and encourage it to go"
back in.
So basically we use a liquid
that has a high concentration
"than the fluid within it, and that will then shrink it a little bit."
"So we're doing that now. She is breathing up quite a bit."
"We've given her some pain relief but being a brachycephalic,"
or flat face dog,
they do struggle
to breathe at the best of times.
So she's getting a bit of oxygen as well.
"Okay. Okay."
Alright so I'm just going to try and see how far I can replace it
manually.
Alright baby.
I know sweetie.
Oh, it’s alright, I’ve seen my wife give birth to 4 kids
it does get worse than this.
I’m afraid, but it does.
This is nothing.
"This prolapsed vagina is kind of like an inverted tube."
"And I need to push that tube back in to where it needs to be."
"But the force that I need to apply is fairly significant"
because as it's been outside of Bonnie's body, it has swollen.
"So now I need to push it back and it doesn't really want to go back."
"So the good news is that it's not desiccated or dried out"
and she's not been chewing at it either.
So, that's all good news.
"But unfortunately, I can't get it back in with her awake."
"So we are going to have to give her an anaesthetic."
Yeah. Yeah.
As the nurses are preparing, Bonnie, I then scrub up,
put my scrubs on and I'm ready for action.
Alright, so we're going to give you some anaesthetic now, baby.
Alright. And we'll try and sort out your back end.
Alright.
"Don’t look, alright. Good girl."
Right okay.
Okay, let's go.
"Come on. Good girl."
Now, I've got Bonnie in the surgery suite.
I have a
"really good opportunity to observe this structure."
It's pretty angry.
"It's very large, it's very engorged with blood."
"And it's going to be really tricky to get it back where"
it needs to be.
Oh come on.
It's going, oh.
The table's moving.
That’s why we couldn’t do it while she’s awake
"because the amount of force I'm having to apply"
is fairly significant.
Kind of expect this level of force applied when you're doing it
to a cow, not to a dog.
But hey, here we are.
I can imagine watching a moment like this
behind the scenes, of a vet
"practice or a doctors where you go, wow, there's a"
lot of force being applied there,
"but actually we need to do exactly that to get the job done."
Right.
So it's pretty much in place now.
So yeah, I'm pretty happy with that.
So now, now we've got it in.
I've got to keep it in with a stay suture.
So we're going to just do like a purse string.
Now, I've managed to replace the prolapse.
"It is desperately still trying to come out."
"So the way I can keep it in place is by performing"
a purse string suture.
"If you think of a drawstring bag or a sleeping bag,"
you basically have something around the outside.
When you pull it, it tightens it together.
So what I'm doing is that same kind of technique on Bonnie
"to avoid the structures coming back out again."
Okay, I'm happy, I've finished.
"Everything that should be inside is now inside so she can wake up."
On balance, I
"feel the right thing is to try and live through the next seven days whilst"
"she's in season and hopefully after that point"
"the estrogen levels will drop and everything will calm down."
But to try and perform a spay
and neutering on her right now is just too risky.
I know.
Good girl.
3 hours later
"it's time for Bonnie to be reunited with dad"
Nathan.
Hi there.
Oh Bonnie, hello darling.
"- There's your daddy. - Darling."
"Tails going. So she's done really well."
"You can see the back end's looking a bit neater now."
There’s a suture to hold everything in.
Yeah.
You alright?
Yeah. Yeah, I'm good.
Yeah, she means a lot to you
"- Doesn’t she? - Oh, everything, yeah."
She's a lovely dog.
Yeah.
Today was quite stressful.
Just waiting on the call.
"I just wanted to know she was safe and take her home to be happy and"
move on.
"I know it's quite frightening when you see something like that."
Looks like she was trying to give birth.
Yeah, yeah that’s right.
Didn't know what was going on, so.
Yeah.
And I understand the last time you were here
wasn’t such great circumstances.
Nah.
"Nah. It's sort of triggering a bit as well."
"- So. - Yeah of course I understand."
It’s okay, let’s get you home.
I’ll get you home.
Good girl.
Well, it's lovely to see how much she loves you.
Yeah.
"And it's lovely to see how much you love her."
Definitely got a great bond.
"- So... - Good, good man."
There we go, baby.
"Oh, good girl. She’s been such a lovely girl."
"Look at that tail wagging. Goodness me."
Bringing Bonnie
out to the waiting room, and reuniting her with Nathan,
it's a beautiful thing, you know?
You see a tear in his eye.
He loves this dog.
And to be able to help treat the dog
and get her back into his loving arms,
" it's a special thing to be a vet."
Give her eight weeks from
now you should get a spayed.
Yeah it’s best for her health.
"Thank you so much. You’ve been so great."
Oh, no worries.
"- Have a nice evening with her. - Yeah."
"And I'm glad that this time it's been a happy ending."
"It has been. So happy."
"- Happy tears. - Good."
The future's bright for us.
So yeah, sadly no babies for her but
but yeah, the future's bright.
"- Alright. - Thank you so much."
"All the best, all the best. Take care."
Come on, good girl.
It's been such a busy
day here at the shelter, so hectic loads of patients coming in.
But it's wonderful, you know, to be able to treat all these animals
and to give them the care that they need
" and to look after their owners"
"in the meantime, it's been a wonderful day"
and I'm really glad that I gave up my day off on the beach.