Cocktail stick discovered in Border Terrier’s liver years later

Having grown up in Cumbria, with Border Terriers common, Katie Holt chose Teazel, now 9 years old. Much adored, “She’s easy to handle and very, very loyal. She’s good with most other dogs, unless a stranger appears on her patch when she becomes a Tasmanian Devil!” laughs Katie. However, Teazel has always been a scavenger which is not so funny.

Scanning lump

In April a lump protruded from Teazel’s side. Having noticed Teazel slowing down a bit, Katie assumed it was just her age, but she was also losing weight. Fearing cancer, her local vet in Oxfordshire referred Teazel to another vet Solihull. It was looking very worrying indeed, and the vet planned a general scan, followed by a tracer to see if the cancer had spread.

Perilously close to vena cana

However, after the first scan the vet rang to say it wasn’t cancer after all; it was a cocktail stick! Although better news than they had dreaded, it was still very serious. The cocktail stick had pierced Teazel’s gut, migrating to her liver, lodging perilously close to the vena cava - a large vein responsible for carrying deoxygenated blood from around the body, back to the heart; damaging it would be a serious emergency.

Months or years

The vet operated that afternoon. The stick was surrounded by scar tissue (explaining the growing lump on Teazel’s side) and had lost both ends, but it was otherwise intact. The vet couldn’t say if it had been there for months or even years, but it was definitely a while. Poor Katie felt awful, but the vet assured her that all terriers are very good at masking, other than running about less - easily attributed to her age, she hadn’t shown any other signs until the scar tissue became a lump.

After 4 or 5 days in hospital, Teazel came home with a very long scar which healed beautifully, the scar tissue lump vanishing too. And, after a fortnight of lead only exercise, Teazel is back to running around like she used to!

The cost of the diagnostics and surgery has come to over £8,000, and Katie has been delighted with Kennel Club Pet Insurance’s service, “Teazel came with a Kennel Club Pet Insurance 5 weeks free policy from the breeder, and they’ve been very good, I’m really pleased with them and they paid the claim quickly. I know they’re not the cheapest insurance company, but you get what you pay for.”

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