Dr. Phil Zeltzman’s Blog

Riley wasn’t feeling well. A five year old Lab, he wasn’t acting like himself and had been vomiting. He went to Berks Animal Emergency and Referral Center and had an X-ray taken.

The arrow is pointing at a very subtle abnormal area. If you look closely, you can see the “grainy” structure that is classic for a corn cob. Corn cobs are notoriously difficult to see on X-rays. Riley is very lucky that a doctor at the emergency hospital noticed the anomaly!

Abdominal surgery revealed the corn cob stuck was stuck the small intestine. The strange thing is that the only known cob he chewed on was possibly swallowed on Memorial Day, five months prior.

Riley will make a full recovery. His owner says,”Riley thanks you so much for taking such good care of him. He is healing up nicely and can’t wait to have the cone come off!”

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!

This 13 year old Norwich Terrier, Tadhg, was not feeling well.

He wasn’t acting like himself, and he had a poor appetite. After undergoing an ultrasound, it was discovered that he had an enlarged gallbladder.

The gallbladder needed to come out. It was full of “sand” and gallstones.

After surgery, Tadhg felt better and started eating. A week later, biopsies confirmed inflammation of the gallbladder called cholecystitis.

The arrow on the X-ray is pointing at the gallbladder. Because it was full of minerals, the gallbladder was visible on X-rays.

The first picture below is the gallbladder. The second is after the gallbladder was cut open.

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!

The lovely Lady Oreo is a sweet, 2-year-old pitbull.

She presented with a large swelling under her tongue, which you can see in the pre-op photo. It was diagnosed as a salivary mucocele (also known as sialocele or ranula). It’s a benign condition that happens when the canal coming out of a salivary gland is plugged or damaged.

I performed surgery to open up the ranula. This creates a new opening for the canal coming out of the salivary gland and allows saliva to drain into the mouth.

After two weeks, Lady Oreo has made a complete recovery!

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!

Baxter is a handsome, 15 year old cat who was losing weight even though he had a healthy appetite.

He was diagnosed with or hyperactive thyroid glands, also called hyperthyroidism. I removed both thyroid glands during surgery.

The biopsy revealed that the glands contained cysts and an adenoma, or benign tumor.

Despite being 15 years old, Baxter recovered very well. Surgery on senior pets should be considered very carefully, but it can definitely be worthwhile!

You can see the bulge in Baxter’s throat in the pre-op photo, and below you can see the glands we removed.

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!

Link is an eight year old male Shar Pei who had an emergency surgery because of intussusception of the small intestine.

Intussusception is a weird disease of the intestine where one bowel loop squeezes inside another, like a sock or a telescope. The inner portion then slowly “dies.”

Younger dogs tend to have an intussusception because of parasites, parvovirus, or foreign bodies. Older dogs usually develop intussusception if they have intestinal cancer. Sure enough, Link’s ultrasound was suggested the worst. In spite of the odds, Link’s owners elected surgery.

One week later, the biopsy revealed that Link did have a tumor in the intussusception, but it was benign leiomyoma! Below, you can see the part of the intestine that was removed.

Three weeks after surgery, Link’s guardians say he is “Doing fabulous. Mom can’t keep him from jumping. He is eating well, has no more vomiting and his skin incision healing well.”

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!