Daisy is a lovely Lurcher and was referred to us for a CT scan by a neighbouring practice after she ran at high speed into a tree.  Radiographs revealed she had bruising to her lungs and Daisy had visible bruising to her abdomen.
A CT scan was performed revealing Daisy was suffering from a pneumothorax.  This is visible in image 1, which you can see is considerably different to her CT image number 2, showing her lungs after healing.  This is when air leaks into the space between the lungs and chest wall.  The air then pushes on the lung causing the lung to collapse.  This happened due to the force of the impact between Daisy’s body and the tree.  This is a life threatening condition and required urgent attention to drain the air.
Daisy’s chest was surgically prepped and a chest drain was introduced and secured in place.  A large volume of air was drained from her chest plus 165mls of blood.  The blood was indicative of major lung trauma and damage to the blood vessels around the lungs.  Daisy’s owners were updated advising that this was a critical condition for Daisy to  be in and that her prognosis was guarded.  As her lungs were damaged the air continued to leak from them into the surrounding chest space.  Daisy received critical care nursing with constant monitoring.  Both air and blood was drained from her chest, via the drain, between every 30-60 minutes for the first 3 days of hospitalisation.  The frequency depended on the amount that was drained each time.  Throughout this time Daisy had her blood levels closely monitored, intravenous fluid therapy was administered and pain relief was provided.  After 3 days, there was no longer any blood present on drainage.  After 4 days we were no longer able to drain any air from her chest.  At this point a repeat CT scan was performed to establish the condition of her lungs prior to removal of the chest drain.  Image 2 shows her lungs both inflated with air, confirming there was no longer a pneumothorax present.

Daisy was discharged home to her owner’s 6 days after her injury and we are pleased to report she is doing well.