Irregular heart rhythm.

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that poor Jasper has had an accident.

It is quite common to postpone surgery for a fracture until we know that the animal is stable and that the anesthetic will be safe.

It's hard to say exactly why Jasper has an irregular heartbeat. One possibility is something called "traumatic myocarditis". This can happen if the heart muscle is stressed severely during trauma. It can sometimes take 3 to 4 days for the heart rhythm to return to normal in these cases.

Another possibility is that the pain from the accident has caused the heart rate to increase. Sometimes when an animal's heart rate increases dramatically it can cause arrythmias (irregular rhythms). This type of problem is usually resolved with pain medication.

If there was any head trauma then this can affect the heart rhythm as well. But it doesn't sound like this is the case with your boy.

From what you have described it is unlikely that the heart problem will be life threatening.

I know it is hard to wait to do surgery and to leave him with fractures. However, rest assured that Jasper will be on good pain medication and will be kept as comfortable as possible until he has his surgery.

I really hope he does ok!

Dr. Marie.



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Dr. Marie replied:

Oh, I am sorry to hear about the kidney problem. This is a tough question for me to answer as there are many variables. Did your vet mention what the problem was with the kidneys? Is it just that the kidney enzymes are elevated? Or does he think there is trauma to the kidneys?

It's possible that his blood pressure dropped because of the trauma and this caused damage to the kidneys.

I wish I could give you more information but there are too many possibilities.

How is he doing tonight?

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that Jasper had to be put to sleep.

It's hard to say what caused the kidney problem. It's not common for a kidney to be damaged by trauma. My guess is that he may have had age related kidney problems even before his accident. Often we won't see any symptoms early in kidney disease, but symptoms that we sometimes see are an increase in thirst and urination.

It's possible that the stress of the accident, or possibly low blood pressure caused by the accident put extra stress on the kidneys which pushed them into failure.

While no one can say how long he would have lived without the accident, at 12 years old he was already a very senior dog.

I am so sorry that Jasper's life had to end with such a hard situation. If you would like me to, I would love to publish a memorial of Jasper on my blog. I have been thinking of doing this for my askavetquestion customers. You can email me a picture of him and a few words about his life at photos@askavetquestion.com.

Again, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Dr. Marie.