In a first, a laparoscopic surgery to remove gall-bladder was performed on a pet dog at a veterinary hospital in Pune, officials said on Thursday.
The operation was performed on the dog named Dobby by a team of veterinary surgeon Narendra Pardeshi, bariatric surgeon Shashank Shah, Sushil Kharat and vet Reena Haribhat.
The canine was suffering from a gallbladder infection known as cholecystitis and cholangiohepatitis plus stones.
Dog showed symptoms of abdominal pain, vomiting and loose motion
The pet-parent Vijay Badade from Sinhagad Road panicked after three-year-old Dobby showed symptoms of abdominal pain, vomiting and loose motion and was rushed to the SAC on March 28.
"Necessary tests and examinations revealed a gall-bladder infection. In India, this condition is quite common. But diagnosis is important as the disease mostly goes unnoticed. The ultrasound was done to check his liver condition where we noticed an inflamed and over-distended gall-bladder with sludge," said Pardeshi.
The causes behind such a condition are food and water-borne infections to the liver, vaccination issues, bacterial infections, cancer, trauma to the liver, gallbladder obstruction, blood clots, and low platelets causing bleeding.
"Though his liver problem was sorted out, gall-bladder inflammation and distension were still present. We decided to go for the removal of the gall-bladder," he added.
Dobby was sedated, administered general anaesthesia with gas and oxygen for a safer procedure by the medical team, and was discharged the same day after the two-hour operation.
All you need to know about cholecystectomy
He added that laparoscopic gall-bladder removal, also known as cholecystectomy or lap choli, removes the disease of the gall-bladder, with less post-operative pain, small incisions (up to 2 cm instead of 10-12 cm), shorter hospital stay, and disability from walking than open gall-bladder removal.
"It was a rare and complicated surgery as compared to humans, which is called lap choli and is very routine in human beings," added Shah.
Badade said that now his pet Dobby is leading a normal life, compared to the issues he suffered pre-surgery.
