Super spaniel survives deadly bout of tetanus

Veterinary teams at a midlands practice are celebrating after successfully resolving the worst case of canine tetanus they have seen.

Six-year-old Welsh spaniel Morgan presented at Pride Veterinary Centre in Derby – where she subsequently remained for a month.

Her stay included round-the-clock treatment by eight different teams and two weeks in an intensive care unit (ICU) – the longest a dog has spent in the Pride ICU.

Full recovery

Veterinary personnel said this was the first case seen at the practice where a dog has gone from being so severely ill to making a full recovery from tetanus – a condition that usually proves fatal to dogs.

Due to the severity of the case, the ICU had to be isolated for Morgan as she became hypersensitive. Any stimulus provoked an explosion in her temperature, blood pressure and heart rate, and caused painful spasms, so controlling her environment was essential.

The lights were almost turned off and the sound controlled to maintain a very quiet environment, which included moving other dogs also in the ICU on to a separate ward.

’Serious’

Pride veterinary neurologist Juanjo Mínguez said: “At first, Morgan only presented mild clinical signs of tetanus. Usually, we would expect to see the worst phase of the disease after around two weeks, but Morgan experienced this after only four to five days.

“Generalised tetanus is serious, but when the animal starts to present autonomic signs, too – fluctuating heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, vomiting, diarrhoea and so on – that really is the worst case scenario, with the worst prognosis.

“Morgan was experiencing both within a very short amount of time, which made her case extremely serious – and even more impressive that she was able to fully recover.”