Page 7 - Paws & Hooves - Spring 2020

STORIES FROM
Increasing demand for small animal surgery at the Beaumont Sainsbury Hospital for Animals
T he RVC Exotics service at the Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital has expanded from just one vet and one nurse to
five vets and three nurses since being
established in 2014 and the variety of cases seen has also increased. Procedures on small species such as hamsters, budgies and geckos are now making up a regular part of their caseload and cases are becoming more and more complex.
Operations on ear canals that are so small and narrow and where the skin is extremely thin are now part of the hospital鈥檚 regular surgical lists
and haemorrhage is a real concern. Radiosurgery offers a less invasive solution to treating these patients with less chance of causing any collateral damage to their tiny ear canals and delicate
skin. The ACT are funding the purchase of a radiosurgical unit in combination with surgical loupes (surgical magnifying lenses), which will allow surgeons a much closer look during the operations and a significant improvement to the procedures they are able to offer.
Jo Hedley, Head of RVC Exotics Service, tells us about a recent case: 鈥淲inter was an 18-month-
old Russian dwarf hamster who presented to
us with a swelling below her right ear. She was scratching the ear a lot and was uncomfortable. Following some initial pain relief and treatment with antibiotics, Winter underwent surgery for the mass which turned out to be a nasty ear infection which was affecting her middle ear.
Paws & Hooves Spring 2020
鈥淭he procedure we performed is called a 鈥榩artial ear canal ablation with bulla osteotomy鈥� or PECA- BO. This means we remove a portion of the ear canal and flush out the bony part of the inner ear (the bulla). This is a challenging procedure which is more commonly performed in rabbits, however Winter was a very tiny patient, weighing only
46g. It was particularly difficult to visualise the structures of the inner ear as the opening was only 1mm in diameter. We were able to successfully perform the procedure but it would have been quicker and much easier had we had an operating loupe to magnify the area, allowing us to use
our microsurgical equipment more effectively. Radiosurgery would also have been very helpful as it hugely reduces blood loss which is vital in our very tiny patients.鈥�
Thanks to your donations, this equipment will allow the Exotics team to provide high quality care to a much wider range of surgical cases. In pets such as birds and reptiles, even a small amount of intraoperative haemorrhage is a significant concern and potentially causes significant tissue damage. Radiosurgery is much safer and the risk of such damage much lower.
鈥淭his equipment will be
an enormous help for the procedures we carry out on these amazing animals. The tiny areas we are working in and the complex nature of some of their conditions makes this type of surgery really tricky; put simply, this specialist equipment will enable us to do more, for more species with less risk.鈥�
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