Several weeks ago, Lou the super Kelpie sheep dog, had been doing the rounds of the farm on the back of the ute. Being super smart, Lou normally dives off the slow moving ute in order to help her owner move a mob of sheep. On this day she did exactly that again, however unbeknownst to her owner, she had a bad landing and must have hit the dirt with her chest instead of her legs!  A typically brave Kelpie, she continued to work all day, but next day was observed to be a little slower than normal. 

After a few Xrays the next day at the Euroa vets it became apparent that Lou had a deflated lung on her left side and a string of abrasions along the front aspect of her teats and a suspected diaphragmatic hernia (damage to the diaphram between her chest and her abdomen).  She was then referred up to Dr Stephan Miechel the following day for surgery. 

Lou was anaesthetised and taken to theatre for an initial 'keyhole' thoracoscopic examination using a 5mm telescope (thoracoscope) whereby the severe nature of her injuries quickly became apparent. She had suffered total collapse of her left lung, some marginal areas of the right lung were also deflated, as well as extensive bruising around her heart and of the ribs at the front of her chest. See our keyhole surgery video.  Her diaphragm was intact so the rest of the surgery involved an open thorocotomy incision for accessing the left side of her chest and determining if she still had leaking lungs.

Throughout her surgery our vet nurse Peta Kelly continually ventillated her lungs as Lou could not breath once her chest had been opened.  Luckily her lungs were not found to be leaking and had in fact healed during the three days before the surgery. So after filling her chest with warmed saline there was no evidence of air leakage.  Gradually her left lung lobes were sucessfully re-expanded and the saline was removed with suction. Dr Miechel placed an indwelling chest drain before repairing the large chest incision. Finally he introduced the thoracoscope back into the chest again to check on her lung function - which was now normal.

Lou remained in our hospital for a further 3 days - having her chest cavity continually drained. After a week the chest drain was removed because the fluid leakage had resolved, and she continued her recovery back at home for the next week, feeling very frustrated when she heard the farm noises outside around her!  A final check up at the 2 week mark saw Lou cleared for a return to light duties, and the very next day she was up and at those sheep again, as if nothing had ever happened.  Watch her in this amazing video showing Lou in action just 2 weeks after the surgery - not quite what her doctor considered light duties! A true hero of the sheepyards.