Where is dogs spleen

Plummer has been passionate about caring for animals, and graduated with Honours in a Bachelor of Veterinary Science from the University of Queensland. He opened the Brisbane Pet Surgery with the aim of making quality pet care affordable for everyone.

Does your furry friend need to meet with one of our experienced veterinarians? Book a consultation below or call our team today. What is a splenic tumour? Common breeds effected Certain breeds are more predisposed to developing splenic tumours, including Boxers, Pointers, German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers.

Diagnosis methods Sometimes we are able to feel a mass on examination of the abdomen. Treatment options The best treatment method for splenic tumours is to remove the entire spleen and the tumour growing inside it. Nikki, Labrador, 13 Years old.

Recovery and aftercare For most removals, your pet will only spend a single night in hospital, before being take home for continuing recovery care. Abbey, Beagle, 13 Years old. Life expectancy When a splenic mass is benign, your pet may live for many more years following the surgery. There is also some data that shows it may also promote healing and possibly has some anti-tumor benefit against hemangiosarcoma.

To better understand the benefit of this supplement, clinical studies are needed. There may be some ongoing clinical trials available to your pet. Clinical trials are most often trying to find a new and possibly better treatment to improve the outcome for dogs with hemangiosarcomas. Our main goal when treating your pet is to provide good quality time for all of you. Call us today in Annapolis at , Towson at or Columbia at Categories Uncategorized. Close Font Resize.

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We also perform a clotting panel since blood loss is common in this surgery and we do not want post operative bleeding. Unfortunately, survival time for dogs and cats with surgery alonge HSA is only months, with most dogs dying due to spread of the HSA to other organs, causing these organs to malfunction. This emphasizes the need for an early diagnosis in the breeds prone to this cancer. Dogs that have surgery to remove the spleen, and that are also treated with chemotherapy, might survive up to 9 months.

This depends on whether the tumor has spread, and again emphasizes the need for an early diagnosis. Dogs and cats have less side effects than people on chemotherapy, and their quality of life is high if this therapy is instituted immediately after surgery. Dogs that are diagnosed at a young age, have had the HSA rupture prior to surgery, have evidence of spread to other organs when the splenectomy is performed, or have a more aggressive grade of tumor, do not tend to live 9 months after surgery.

The primary chemotherapy drug for HSA is Adriamycin doxorubicin. It will slow the disease process, but it will not cure your pet of this disease. The doctors at the Veterinary Cancer Group in Tustin institute this therapy. If a pet is anemic, or we anticipate significant blood loss during surgery, we will give a blood transfusion prior to surgery or during the procedure. Post operatively if a pet is not doing well we will give a blood transfusion also.

After doing a cross match to ensure compatibility we obtain whole blood for the transfusion. A splenectomy is performed to treat and sometimes cure this problem. It is sometimes done as an emergency procedure if the spleen has ruptured and there is significant internal bleeding. Pre-anesthetic preparation is important in every surgery we perform, no matter how routine, because surgery is not an area to cut corners.

Once a pet is anesthetized , prepared for surgery, and had its monitoring equipment hooked up and reading accurately, the surgery can begin. This is a sterile abdominal surgery, and our surgeons scrubs with a special antiseptic soap prior to gowning and gloving. While our patient is being anesthetized our surgeon is already in our surgical suite setting up instruments. Our surgeon is ready to start before our patient is at a proper plane of anesthesia.

Once the anesthetist gives the green light the surgery starts immediately. We want our surgeon waiting for his patient, not the other way around. All of this is to minimize anesthetic time. We keep a close tab on important physiologic parameters for all of our surgeries. Monitors like this give us an early warning of an impending problem. Our anesthetist is using a special stethoscope esophageal , that is passed down the esophagus and lays right over the heart.

This gives us a clear sound of the heart and how it is beating. To minimize anesthetic time we routinely have 2 doctors working as a team performing the splenectomy. They work together as a well orchestrated team.

Our patient is under anesthesia and our surgeons are completing the draping process while our anesthetist is adjusting the surgical lights. By working together early in the surgery we minimize anesthetic time. For a pet that might already be anemic it is important to minimize blood loss during surgery. Special care is taken on entering the abdomen to minimize loss. There is minimal bleeding at this point as our surgeon gently dissects the sub Q subcutaneous tissue just under the skin.

As the surgery progresses we sometimes encounter significant bleeding from blood vessels in the sub Q fat and from muscles that are cut. All of them are clamped or cauterized before proceeding further. For a pet that might already be anemic this added blood loss is important to control, and it is stopped immediately.

When all bleeders are under control called hemostasis we enter the abdomen. We make our incision at a specific spot in the abdominal muscles called the linea alba. It is at this spot that there are minimal blood vessels. The linea also has strong tendinous attachments to the muscle, so when we sew it back together these tendons attachments have more holding ability than the abdominal muscles alone.

This will prevent a hernia. Our first view of the spleen once we have entered the abdomen. A spleen that is not healthy is friable and can easily rupture when handled. Our surgeon has to gently coax it out to prevent this from happening. Once it is finally exteriorized the problem is obvious. At this point we do not know if it is cancerous or not. We do know it is in the process of rupturing and glad we are getting it out now.

Now that we have it ready for removal we have to ligate its blood supply. As you remember from your surgical anatomy above the blood vessels to the spleen are closely related stomach. It is important to ligate the blood supply very close to the spleen so as not to compromise the blood supply to the stomach, leading to serious consequences. This blood supply can be surrounded by fat. We have to isolate segments before we ligate.

In the center of this picture you can see one blood vessel that is already ligated. On the right our surgeon is in the process of ligating another blood vessel. Our surgeons work simultaneously, each starting at a different end of the spleen, so they can complete this tedious part of the surgery sooner. Its all about secure ligation of these blood vessels and minimal anesthetic time. As part of the natural healing process there is a tissue in the abdomen called omentum.

It is like a net, and surrounds an organ that might be diseased. For example, a ruptured intestine that is leaking intestinal fluid extremely irritating to the abdomen and will cause a peritonitis , will have this net surround the intestine to wall off the leak. In the case of this rupturing spleen the omentum covered the spleen to help prevent further blood loss.

These are clots on the omentum from that. At this point in time during the surgery we cannot determine for sure if these are clots or spread of tumor. The report from the pathologist will tell us for sure. It turns out that this time they are clots. When the spleen is completely removed we complete our exploratory surgery by checking the other internal organs, especially the liver. Once this check is complete we suture the muscle layer the linea alba closed.

Again, we work as a team, with each surgeon they are both lefties suturing the linea until they meet in the center. Once we have finished suturing our patient, who is already on a pain patch Duragesic or Fentanyl patch- which is removed in 3 days , is given an additional pain injection and carefully monitored post-operatively.

As part of the monitoring we perform a simple blood panel to make sure there was no problem with blood loss during surgery. If the blood loss is significant we will give a blood transfusion with the blood we have already set aside specifically for this patient.

Post operatively we take radiographs of the chest and perform and ultrasound every 2 months for cases of HSA looking for distant and local metastasis. Occasionally we come across a spleen that is so large it is hard to believe it can get this big. The following spleen was over 8 pounds, removed for a 65 pound labrador named Jake. P and Dr. R had to do this one together.

Removing it was like delivering a baby! The size was obvious as soon as we entered the abdomen. At this point in time we were not sure if it was a boy or a girl! P is coaxing it out of the abdomen at the beginning of the surgery, being very careful not to rupture it. We had to be very gentle because it was quite delicate friable and already rupturing. Ligating the blood vessels to the spleen was more difficult than usual because of the size, scar tissue, and omental tissue that covered the rupturing spleen.

It turns out that this was a hematoma and the dog did fine for several more years.