Sausage dog ‘blown up like a balloon’

It’s the wurst thing that may happen to a sausage dog — ending up looking more like a meatball.
The four-year-old family pet, named Trevor, went from wiener to whopper when a hole in the windpipe left air trapped below its skin in a rare problem.
But vets quickly had the distended dachshund returning to its saveloy-like self after a small operation to “deflate” it through three times its normal size.
“He’d blown up like a go up, ” said owner Fran Jennings.
Worried Ms Jennings, from Lymm in Cheshire, hurried the animal to an emergency vet right after it bloated and began to experience breathing difficulties.

X-rays showed every time the pet received a breath, air was being compelled under its skin and had been affecting its heart.
Ms Jennings said: “We place him straight in the car plus took him to the emergency vets and they had never seen anything at all quite like it.
“Whatever it was, it affected his inhaling and exhaling so we had to leave him presently there while they tried to find out what has been wrong. ”
Checks were carried out and the dog had been diagnosed with sub-cutaneous emphysema, an irregular collection of air under the skin.

Vet Michelle Coward associated with Beech House Surgery in Warrington performed a procedure to relieve the stress and stitch up a hole within the dog’s windpipe.
The girl said: “I have never seen an instance like this before and it was a brand new surgery for me.
“There were no external injuries that will explain how air had obtained under the skin, so we suspected that the internal injury to the airway might have been allowing the air in.
“Every time he took the breath, some of the inhaled air steered clear of through a hole in his windpipe. inch

Microsoft Jennings’ daughter Jessica, who displays sausage dogs at Crufts, additional: “He looked like a big fat close off. His whole body was like a blob.
“It was terrible seeing him like that. We had in order to deflate the air out of him, it had been weird.
“But today he’s back to his normal personal, chasing the chickens and we more than likely have him any other way. inch