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Chilled-out Chester!
Chester is a very laid back Tibetan Terrier who likes visiting his local pub and climbing on the sofa after a long muddy walk!
Chester has suffered from a disorder of his stomach and bowel (chronic gastroenteropathy) for a few years now. This has been well controlled with his diet and more recently a dose of steroids.
Chester visited our Head of Internal Medicine, Magda Gerou-Ferriani in March with chronic diarrhoea. When he came to us, Chester was showing signs of shock. He was vomiting and producing a lot of saliva. He was immediately transferred to our Dog Intensive Care Unit. We stabilised his condition with intravenous fluids (a ‘drip’) and other medications.
Once Chester had stabilised, Magda and the team performed endoscopy to investigate the cause of his symptoms. Endoscopy involves inserting a tube with a built-in video camera into the area being examined. We found Chester’s stomach and bowel to be very inflamed. There were some ulcers present which must have been very painful. We took several biopsies and sent the tissue samples off for analysis.
Chester recovered well from the procedures. We discharged him for some rest on his favourite sofa whilst we awaited the test results. In the meantime, to ease Chester’s symptoms we prescribed a course of various medications.
The test results confirmed Chester was suffering from lymphocytic plasmacytic gastroenteritis. This is a condition where the bowel becomes inflamed due to an abnormal response by the body’s own immune system.
Chester during a recent check-up with our Senior Medicine Nurse, Laura
A few days later Chester visited us for a check-up. He appeared to be in very good shape. His carers reported no new concerns and felt that there has been good progress with his condition. His stools were now firm, he had not been vomiting, his appetite was returning back to normal and he had put on weight. Since then Chester has continued on his dietary management and medications to suppress his immune system. He has regular blood tests to check that we do not overdo this.
It has been a few months since we first saw Chester. We are delighted that he is doing much, much better. There are no longer any signs of gastrointestinal disease and his weight is back to normal!
Thank you for taking the time to read about Chester’s story. If you would like to find out more about our Internal Medicine Service, please click on the link.
Stay tuned for more tales from Team Ralph!
Take care,
Team Ralph