Buddy presented to our clinic for a routine dental procedure, but his pre-anaesthetic blood testing revealed an extremely high elevation of an important liver enzyme.
An ultrasound of the liver was recommended, which revealed a gallbladder mucocoele. Gallbladder mucocoeles have only been well-recognised as a medical condition in dogs within the last twenty years. The gallbladder stores bile before it is excreted into the intestines for the digestion of food. Abnormal production of mucous by the gallbladder results in the formation of a mucous plug, which was identified on ultrasound as a white mass, resulting in an elevation of the liver enzyme. Once this was identified, medical therapy was quickly initiated by our team. Four weeks later, the mucocoele had been cleared from the gallbladder and the liver enzyme had significantly reduced.
Had blood tests not been performed, this condition likely wouldn't have been identified until it was too late. Gallbladder mucocoeles are essentially ticking time bombs, eventually bursting into the abdomen, which is associated with a grave prognosis for survival. Buddy is not only incredibly brave, but extremely lucky that our team caught this issue early before it became deadly.