Pectus Carinatum

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Tim Charlesworth — Tue, 17 May 2016 18:00:21 GMT

That does look like pectus Carinatum. Do you have a DV at all? The only justfication for surgery would be if there was sig (lateral) compression of the lung fields in which case a sternal splint/plate could be considered. If there isn't and the dog is fine then I would leave it alone. Def one not to be used for breeding though!

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Ross Allan — Tue, 17 May 2016 15:53:37 GMT

Thanks for the feedback so far. I've put the lateral Xray is below, I think it is pectus carinatum? :

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Tim Charlesworth — Mon, 16 May 2016 12:48:33 GMT

that's fair enough. Most of the cats that we operate on are showing sig clinical symptoms from birth and we normally operate when they are 10-12 weeks old. We see the odd one that is older and the surgery is much more invasive/demanding at that age (once the skeleton has fully mineralised). It is very much of a case of "a stitch in time" which is why we tend to radiograph them asap. If I saw a case at 6-10 mths old that was completeley aysmptomatic then I would advise to leave it well alone!

RE: Pectus Carinatum

grumpyoldman — Mon, 16 May 2016 11:52:08 GMT

[quote user="Tim Charlesworth"]I'd advise x-raying the chest of any dog/cat with a significant thoracic skeletal deformity. You can then make a much more informed decision about whether or not there is any significant reduction in thoracic volume which is likely to cause the animal sig probs in the future. If there is then we would advise surgery.[/quote]

Probably a good idea but most are unvaccinated and appear at 6-12 months old ,via a charity (clutching voucher) for a neuter ,some are also pregnant . If you start talking about Radiography and huge surgeries with complications they mostly just run away in horror. You also right the two kittens I described were PE , and both were fine until surgery . Seems the over whelming majority of these do well with no meddling at all, or the kind of people we are dealing with just leave them to their fate.

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Tim Charlesworth — Mon, 16 May 2016 11:02:37 GMT

[quote user="grumpyoldman"]

I have seen many of the above mentioned cats live long and healthy lives with no meddling at all . We had 2 kittens recently and told those involved to laissez faire unless there was a problem. They went for a 2nd opinion , had surgery via a wandering guru elsewhere and both died shortly afterwards. If its not broken do not try to fix it.

[/quote]

Are you sure that you don't mean pectus excavatum (PE) ie the caudal sternum is deviated dorsally? PE is relatively common in cats and often doesn't need surgery unless the defect is severe/resp is sig compromised (in which case surgery is recommended). Pectus carinatum is very rare indeed.

I'd advise x-raying the chest of any dog/cat with a significant thoracic skeletal deformity. You can then make a much more informed decision about whether or not there is any significant reduction in thoracic volume which is likely to cause the animal sig probs in the future. If there is then we would advise surgery. I have seen more than my fair share of PE cases and many of the mild cases effectively only have a cosmetic deformity. The moderate/severe cases go on to have big problems unless the deformity is corrected at an early age (they develop pulmonary hypertension and then right sided heart failure, often before they're 12 months old). It's really hard to assess the extent of the deformity by palpation alone which is why we routinely radiograph them at the initial assessment.

If you do x-ray the dog - can you post them on here for us to have a look?

Best of luck,

Tim

RE: Pectus Carinatum

grumpyoldman — Fri, 13 May 2016 18:21:46 GMT

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Hannah Wynne Richards — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:33:59 GMT

First do no harm. Time to think about surgery if it does start causing a problem to the dog, as opposed to the owner.

Wynne

RE: Pectus Carinatum

Linda Filshie — Thu, 12 May 2016 21:41:26 GMT

Is surgery likely to improve this dog's quality of life? Not trying to be awkward - genuine question.