Over the holidays, I had taken our blind wobbler Briggs in to see our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, because we had seen blood in his poop. It wasn't the usual colitis and it had us worried. So in between Christmas and New Year's, Dave did a physical exam and ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed no growths or other suspicious areas, and Dave found no polyps during the rectal exam, but there was definitely blood. That meant endoscopy, which we scheduled for last Friday.
Before Dave could put a scope up Briggs' rear end, we had to clean out his colon, which two enemas did just fine, thank you very much. I assisted Dave during that particular procedure, and though I briefly considered videotaping it for the blog, Dave suggested that probably wasn't what most people would look forward to viewing on a Monday morning blog. (Okay, fine.)
In the photo at top, Dave and his vet tech Alex are administering anesthesia to Briggs. Here's another view:
The endoscopy itself showed a normal, healthy colon, pink and free of any signs of growths or tumors. Dave handed me the viewfinder so I could see for myself.
"So now what?," I asked Dave.
He explained that even though the colon looked great, there could still be a problem lurking underneath the lining of the colon. Dave said he had sent in biopsies from otherwise "perfect" looking colons, but the resulting pathology reports show that "microscopically, the colon was a mess." He said that was rare, but it does happen.
For instance, there could be some kind of problem inside the tissue of the colon, under the surface that's not visible. As material moves through the colon and past this particular area, it aggravates the underlying tissue and that's what causes the bleeding.
So Dave took some biopsies to send in for pathology testing.
If they came back with a clean bill of health, then Briggs' occasional blood-in-poop may be something that he, and we, just have to live with. Considering the alternative — some kind of intestinal cancer — that would be the preferable outcome. With negative results from a rectal exam, ultrasound and now endoscopy, that's actually what we're now hoping for!
Here is Briggs during the endoscopy:
He woke up just fine but boy, was he happy to be out of the clinic and back in the truck! He'd had quite enough of things being stuck in both ends!
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