A super-brave dog left on the brink of death by a perforated stomach ulcer that led to sepsis has made a miraculous recovery … after a seven-hour ferry and road trip to emergency care from her remote island home.
Four-year-old Bella, from Islay in the inner Hebrides, was so ill that when she did reach hospital after her marathon land and sea journey, she was just minutes away from losing her life.
A life-threatening perforated ulcer
Suppose Bella had been a human and not a super-strong Labrador. In that case, vets are convinced she would never have survived the ulcer, which was eating away at her stomach and threatening the viability of her vital organs.
Instead, thanks to four hours of surgery and five days of intensive care at Vets Now’s 24-hour pet emergency hospital in Glasgow, Bella is now back swimming in the sea again and going out on family fishing trips.
Bella owes her life as well to her devoted owners Lynn Bonar and Keith Macdonald – who didn’t hesitate in going ahead with surgery despite there being just a one-in-four chance of Bella surviving it.
Lynn said: “It was a nerve-wracking, traumatic and emotionally exhausting experience.
“But Bella is such a big part of our family we just knew we had to do everything we could to save her – even though the odds were stacked against her and the vets were very honest with us about that.
“At one point in her treatment, when things were looking really grim, the vets said to us: ‘Would you like us to let her go?’
“But Keith and I were adamant – we just felt we had an obligation to do everything we could for Bella.
“Then, because we were so tired and upset, we began feeling guilty about it, thinking maybe we’d made the wrong decision.
“I sat up all night in tears just hoping and hoping and the next day we got word that she’d turned the corner and the relief we both felt was just off the scale.”
Bella’s problems had begun a week previously – when she began to suffer bad complications after being spayed, including uncontrollable nausea and totally out-of-character lethargy.”
A Marathon Journey to Emergency Care
Lynn said: “We didn’t want to have her spayed but we thought on balance it was for the best because Bella had been suffering with phantom pregnancies which were clearly causing her a lot of distress.
“Given where we live, we’re lucky to have a vets practice here on the island so, after a lot of soul-searching, we took her in for the procedure.
“At first she was fine but after a couple of days I could just tell she wasn’t right and things snowballed from there.”
Initially, it was thought Bella might have an infection in her surgery wound – but then it transpired she had fluid gathering in her abdomen and was at high risk of potentially fatal sepsis.
Lynn’s island vets contacted the Vets Now Emergency Hospital in Glasgow and arranged for Bella to be transferred immediately for specialist care, treatment, and diagnosis.
Neus Elias, emergency and critical care specialist vet, said: “I spoke with the island vets when I started my shift at 7am and it was about 4.30pm when Bella finally arrived with us after her very long journey.
“Even though Bella had a perforated ulcer, which meant her gastric contents were leaking dangerously into her abdomen, she was still able to walk in unaided and with her tail wagging.
“That really was remarkable in the circumstances and just goes to show how incredibly strong dogs, and particularly Labradors, are … much stronger in fact than human beings and I’m certain that a human patient just wouldn’t have been strong enough to withstand what Bella did.
“This was an incredibly challenging case of septic peritonitis and the first thing we had to do was to get Bella stable enough to be able to go into surgery, which involved giving multiple plasma transfusions to maintain her blood volume, giving her pain relief, starting antibiotics and providing gastrointestinal support with anti-nausea and gastro-protectant medication.
“Then we had to keep her alive during the four hours she was in surgery, there was undigested food swimming around her stomach and we feared at one point that the ulcer had affected the entire 360 degrees of the gut circumference – which would have been impossible to remedy.
“But thanks to a very big team effort, including the specialist surgeons and nurses here – and to Lynn and Keith, of course, for putting their trust in us – we were able to save her.
“And that’s really because we have a multidisciplinary team giving round-the-clock cover just like in a human hospital.
“Because Bella was with us for five days and such a brave and beautiful-natured dog, we all developed a very close bond with her. She’s been back for two check-ups since and seeing her thriving has been so heart-warming.”
How Bella’s owners and vets saved her life
Lynn said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Neus and all of her colleagues, including the reception staff who were very kind to us and to Bella.
“It’s very remote here on Islay – we’ve only got two or three ferries a day to the mainland, which is a two-hour journey in itself and then it’s 107 miles to Glasgow along slow roads, which normally takes around two-and-a-half hours.
“But on the day Bella was transferred, it all took even longer than usual because the ferry was late leaving and then the traffic to Glasgow was really busy.
“Just getting a place on the ferry can be really difficult if you haven’t booked in advance, but we phoned CalMac in Greenock and they were brilliant and got us on the 9.30 am sailing as an emergency.
“Because it’s a small island, everyone here got to know about Bella – and we had so many get-well cards for her from across the community, it was really touching to get such kindness and support.
“And to look at Bella now, running up and down the beach and into the sea, you’d think nothing had ever happened to her! She’s a very special dog and we’re lucky to have her.”