Scamp is a West Highland White Terrier who came to see us feeling quite unwell. He was very lethargic and drinking more than usual. He had been sick a few days before and didn’t want to eat anything either. On examination he also had a high temperature.

We needed to investigate further as Scamp was feeling so poorly, so initially we took some blood to run some tests. Scamp’s results suggested that his liver was the cause of the problem. There are lots of conditions that can affect the liver and the blood test cannot give us an exact diagnosis. At that stage we could not tell whether Scamp’s condition would carry a good or poor prognosis. An ultrasound scan was the best way to try and get more information.

We organised a specialist to scan Scamp’s abdomen the next day. In the mean time we started him on some intravenous fluids to try and support him. With liver problems we sometimes need to take a sample of the liver to be examined at the laboratory. Because the liver can sometimes bleed when we take a sample with a large biopsy needle it is important to check that the body has enough ingredients to clot the blood effectively In Scamp’s case one of his clotting times was a bit increased so we opted not to take any liver biopsies until the test could be repeated to check whether it was ok.

However, the ultrasound scan itself showed some changes. The ultrasonographer suspected that he had an infection in his bile from his gall bladder, causing inflammation of the bile ducts and possibly the liver itself. We took a sample of the bile to send off so that we could work out which antibiotics would be most effective to treat the infection.

We continued Scamp’s fluids and started some antibiotics and soon he was looking much brighter. We also started some liver supplements to help his liver function. Unfortunately, once we stopped Scamp’s fluids he deteriorated and started vomiting again. Therefore whilst we were waiting for his bacterial culture results we kept Scamp on fluids, his antibiotics and the liver supplement. Unfortunately although he remained stable, he did not continue to improve as we hoped.

The reason became clear when we received Scamps culture results. He did have an infection of his bile but unfortunately the infection was not responsive to the antibiotics he was taking. We started some new antibiotics that the culture results showed should work against Scamp’s infection.

Scamp soon started feeling a bit better and we were able to stop his intravenous fluids. This meant that he was able to go home to continue his course of antibiotics. Since then Scamp has had a few ups and downs but he is now doing much better and enjoying his walks again.