Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

bongo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:59:13 GMT

seen it in a cat and in a dog-pericardial peritoneal diaphragmatic hernia. apparently congenital and most of the time is an incidental finding on x ray.

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

lorraine wiggins — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:10:43 GMT

i have only seen one in my years of nursing it was a JRTX that got hit by a car, quite a bad one was under GA for a while, the GA was up and down tho. he is still alive today bless him

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:32:17 GMT

Think the body compensates with a chronic DH its when you open them up when things start to go down hill!!!

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

shropshirelass_1987 — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:10:12 GMT

Yeah I've seen 1 on a collie cross pregnant bitch around xmas time, a brilliant op to watch. Which again was the result of an RTA & the poor thing survived & went on to have a healthy litter of 6 out of 7 puppies a week later! but what a nice result & both our young vets hadnt ever seen one before, but this bitch appeared bright & healthy, with good mucous membranes, pulse & resiration rates & was bright & alert xx

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

hobbits — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:42:37 GMT

Yup a while ago we had a lab present with a gastric dilatation which easily decompressed but kept rebloating. On X-ray and contrast rads the diaphragm was ruptured and part of the stomach was being pinched in the hole causing the bloat. The only history of trauma was an rta about 2 years previously and a history of being 'just not right' since! We stabilised as best we could and went to surgery but he died under ga and stomach was necrosed. Oddest GD I ever saw!! Have seen one other in a dog but it also had a penetrating thoracic wound so may not count! - it did fine :)

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

sarahjune84 — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:50:37 GMT

A couple of months ago we had a 10week old lab puppy with this. We sent it for surgery at a hospital thinking if it was congenital it might be so big the vet wouldnt be able to repair it as only done some in cats following RTAs. The sx went well and pup did fine but it was actually due to trauma, poor puppy!

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

Nick Shackleton — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:51:03 GMT

Yeah I have seen DH in dogs in fact used one for my Advanced Diploma Casebooks. our was following RTA, have heard of them happening following blunt trauma, such as kicking etc..

Extract from my casebook:

A diaphragmatic hernia occurs when the continuity of the diaphragm is disrupted such that the abdominal organs can migrate into the thoracic cavity. Diaphragmatic hernias are commonly recognised by small animal practitioners and are either congenital or may occur secondary to trauma. Most hernias in dogs and cats caused by trauma, particularly road traffic accidents. The increase in intra-abdominal pressure accompanying forceful blows to the abdominal wall causes the lungs to rapidly deflate. This produces a large pleuro-peritoneal pressure gradient. Alternatively, the pressure gradient that occurs between the thorax and abdomen may cause the diaphragm to tear. The tears usually occur at the weakest point generally the muscular portions. Traumatic diaphragmatic hernias are often associated with significant respiratory embarrassment (fossum 2007).

Many hernias (15 – 25%) are often left undiscovered after the initial injury and the patient may also present with other injuries, such as fractures. For this reason is it always mandatory to obtain thoracic radiographs of patients that have been involved in traumatic incidents, including road traffic accidents.

can post the whole of my case report if you would find it useful

Re: Ruptured diaphragm in a dog

Sal the 1st — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:49:13 GMT

I have only ever seen two - one was a shi tzu that had jumped out of a window and landed on a paved patio and the other was a pointer that had argued with a car.The shitzu died under GA but the pointer who was much more severely injured ( splenectomy as well because the spleen was mush) survived.