Sitka is out of Surger

Report from Dr. Glassman at UGA just about 10 minutes ago.... Have a few other questions that have popped up, but we will ask when we receive another call tonight.

Ok... here is the report.

He told us he was sorry it took so long to call... but she is fine.

Initially when they went in, could not see any bubbling, even from the bulla they knew was ruptured. They ended up looking at ALL lung lobes and found several bullae most in the Left cranial lobe area of the lung. They found two dime sized bullae on the left cranial lobe that didn't appear ruptured (although they looked to be on the CT from earlier today) but were abnormally inflamed. So they removed a portion of her left lung - a 1-2 centimeter size.

On the right side. They did fine one hole that did not show up on the CT. They fixed this one. So, this is why he was very glad they took their time in looking over ALL areas of her lungs. So they removed 1/4 of one lobe on the right. (I think dogs have 2-4 lobes on each lung - and you can be fine without all lobes).

The areas they removed are called Eosinophils, which are abnormal cells which can indicate irritation or infection or parasites. He did confirmed that Sitka was on heartworm medication. He also said that the percentage that they saw on her was 2 or 3 % and sometimes there are no cause for them. Dogs just have that abnormal tissue growth. But they will know for sure after the path report comes back.

He said that he thinks she may have had another ruptured bullae somewhere that resealed itself since they have had her in the oxygen container and on the chest tube pump.

For now, there are no leaks in her lungs. They left her open for a short amount of time to make sure so they would not have to staple her shut then reopen the incision.

She is still sedated. But she appears to be tolerating it very well. No heart arrhythmia apparent. Breathing is good. Still has the chest tube however. They are going to keep her over night on a local anesthetic for the chest area for pain.

He would have preferred to go in using the scope, but he had to do a larger incision to get the abnormalities out. Other than the bullae disease, they did not see any other abnormalities but they are submitting the tissue they removed to pathology just in case.

They did do the tracheal wash. In doing that they noticed some inflammation of her trachea. This could be some sort of infection but he thinks it may be from all of the huffing/puffing she has done over the past couple of days.