Rolling Dog Farm Blog

When we had Claude the blind Great Dane puppy neutered a week ago, our internal medicine specialist in Helena, Dr. Britt Culver, also did an innovative surgery called ‘laparosopic gastropexy.’

Our only hesitation in agreeing to take Claude was because Great Danes are at high risk for bloat, which is often life-threatening.  Bloat occurs when the stomach twists, and the condition requires immediate medical intervention to save the animal.  Well, we’re more than an hour from the nearest vet clinic, and with Danes having a one-in-four chance of suffering bloat, it was a risk that worried us a lot.

So when our primary care vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, told us that Britt (her husband) was now doing this new minimally invasive surgery to prevent bloat, we didn’t hesitate.  The surgery requires only two small incisions, and a lighted scope with a tiny camera allows the surgeon to operate inside the body, where the right side of the stomach is tacked to the abdominal wall.  That prevents the stomach from twisting.  For more information on this procedure, see this page.

The surgery went well, but yesterday Claude blew out some of the sutures from one of the incision sites.  Before we realized it, he had started licking at it, causing the incision site to become infected.  I put an e-collar on him yesterday afternoon, and this morning I called Britt to tell him what had happened. 

Then Claude and I hit the road to Helena, so Britt could examine the incision and decide on the best course of treatment.  I took this photo of Britt with Claude in the clinic’s waiting room.  We’re adding a second antibiotic to the one Claude’s already on, and we’ll need to clean out the incision site for the next few days, but Britt is confident it will clear up pretty soon.

We are incredibly lucky to have two board-certified internal medicine specialists for our animals.  Dr. Dave Bostwick in Missoula was our specialist in Seattle when we lived there, and it was Dave who told us about Britt when we first moved to Montana.  That’s how we came to use Britt and Brenda as our main veterinary clinic — and six years later, we still do.  Then Dave moved to Missoula a couple of years ago (small world!), so now we have both of these fabulous specialists about an hour away in either direction.

The reason having board-certified internal medicine specialists is so important to us is because they bring an advanced level of knowledge to the practice of veterinary medicine — typically four years more schooling than a regular vet.  To be certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, a veterinarian must have four years of advanced training beyond veterinary school and take two separate board examinations.  To pass the exams, the veterinarian must demonstrate proficiency in all areas of internal medicine, including cardiology, neurology, and oncology. For more information on internal medicine specialists, go here.

So these internists are at the leading-edge of veterinary medicine, and with the kinds of disabilities and other medical issues our animals have, having them on our veterinary team sure gives us peace of mind.

(Click on photo for larger image.)