A TINY puppy born with his intestines outside his body has been saved by expert vets in Solihull.
Newborn boxer Toby was less than an hour old when he was rushed to Willows Veterinary Centre as a “do or die” out of hours case.
He was taken to see on-call vet Moira Watkins thanks to his breeder’s quick-thinking house sitter who rang the surgery and said the pup had just been born with “pink wiggly tubes” coming out of his stomach.
His breeder, Sarah Moore, from Beoley in Redditch, was on a camping holiday in Wales and was out of signal when the do-or-die situation occurred.
Moira said: “I asked her to bring the puppy in immediately and to cover the intestines with a damp paper towel to reduce any further trauma, contamination and drying of the exposed tissues.
“On arrival, the puppy was actually very bright and active, despite his underlying problem – he had been born with his intestines herniated through his umbilicus (belly button).
“The good news was that the intestines still appeared viable with no discoloured areas of compromised tissue.
“Toby came through strongly and recovered well. Within 30 minutes he was back on the move on his heated bed and letting us all know he was feeling hungry.”
Toby was closely monitored in the intensive care unit and as he responded so positively that he was discharged the following day.
Sarah said: “I’ve been a breeder of Boxers for five years and I have never had anything like this before, so it was quite a shock.
“She was mortified and in floods of tears. She couldn’t even get hold of me for advice or to ask what she should do when the vet required a decision between putting the puppy to sleep or going ahead with the operation.
“I was totally unaware of what was happening and only found out about it all once the surgery had been completed. I was told it had all gone as well as it could and that Toby was recovering well, which was a huge relief.”
