Puppy flown from Dubai to Solihull for emergency heart operation

A puppy flown 3,500 miles from Dubai to Solihull for a heart operation has been saved by vets following the discovery of a heart murmur.

Snoob, an eight-month-old American bulldog, was undergoing a routine vet visit in Dubai where it was found he was suffering from a pulmonic stenosis.

Diagnosis confirmed

Despite being thousands of miles from the United Arab Emirates, Snoob was referred to Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service.

Cardiology specialist João Neves performed an echocardiogram on Snoob when he arrived at Willows, which confirmed the diagnosis of severe pulmonic stenosis – a serious narrowing of one of the valves that controls blood flow from the right side of the heart into the lungs.

Balloon valvuloplasty

Medical treatment with beta blockers is usually employed to try to protect the heart muscle and reduce the occurrence of arrhythmias.

However, the team at Willows chose a minimally invasive balloon valvuloplasty as a more definitive treatment to try to reduce the obstruction.

Reduce obstruction

Dr Neves said: “We made a very small skin incision in the neck and used one of Snoob’s neck veins to advance a long catheter, with a deflated balloon on its tip, into the right side of the heart.

“Once the balloon was at the level of the narrowed pulmonic valve, we inflated the balloon to stretch the valve open to reduce the obstruction and increase blood flow.”

Successful procedure

Dr Neves added: “Everything went to plan and the procedure proved a success. The catheter was removed and the skin incision, which was only a couple of centimetres long, was closed with four stitches.

“The improvement was almost immediate and a postoperative heart scan confirmed a successful outcome, allowing Snoob to be discharged the next day, with his recovery at home also very fast, as we expected.”