Hole in Dachshunds Windpipe Blows Him Up Like Balloon. Vets Work Quickly to 'Deflate' Him
If you think of the words “balloon” and “dog” together, you probably conjure up a memory of a day at the fair or a party where some cash-strapped soul was feverishly making balloon animals for children who would most likely pop them rather unceremoniously within the hour.
They’re short-lived but a staple of colorful celebrations.
If you think of “balloon” and a real dog, you might think of a dog playing with or popping balloons — there are certainly videos of that.
But for one very unfortunate dachshund named Trevor, “balloon” was a bit more literal.
The pup himself was ballooning up, giving his formerly svelte frame a padding of air.
“We put him straight in the car and took him to the emergency vets and they had never seen anything quite like it,” said Fran Jennings, Trevor’s owner. “Whatever it was, it affected his breathing so we had to leave him there while they tried to find out what was wrong.”
The vets were surprised, too. How in the world could something like this happen?
Michelle Coward, a veterinarian at Beech House Surgery was puzzled.
“I have never seen a case like this before and it was a new surgery for me,” Coward said. “There were no external injuries that would explain how air had got under the skin, so we suspected that an internal injury to the airway could have been allowing the air in.”
“Every time he took a breath, some of the inhaled air escaped through a hole in his windpipe,” she added.
The fat-faced dog was a sight — one that could have been funny if it weren’t also so terrible. He was diagnosed with sub-cutaneous emphysema.
He was “fixed” about the way you would expect: While they didn’t call it “poking a hole in him and letting him deflate,” that’s essentially what they did. They also fixed the hole in his windpipe.
“He looked like a big fat seal,” Jennings’ daughter Jessica said. “His whole body was like a blob.”
“It was horrible seeing him like that. We had to deflate the air out of him, it was weird,” she added. “But now he’s back to his normal self, chasing the chickens and we wouldn’t have him any other way.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
