Capsule camera to help canine patients

VET Katie Ford (left) and practice nurse Sophie Hoyle with Tilly

AN INCH-LONG capsule packed with cutting edge light and camera technology is ending trauma, stress and risky procedures for poorly pets at a Lees-based veterinary practice.

County's End is the North-West pioneer of an American technique which avoids anaesthesia, sedation, invasive procedures and hospitalisation when it comes to diagnosing gastrointestinal illnesses in dogs.

Traditionally veterinary surgeons use invasive procedures such as cameras in the stomach or colon alongside X-rays, blood tests and ultrasonography.

But Alicam ­- which stands for Ambulatory Light-based Imaging ­- simply requires the patient to swallow it and technology, and nature, does the rest, giving unprecedented access to the intestine and producing 360 degree images from throughout its "journey".

Once the capsule has passed through the intestine it requires the owner to "retrieve it" and take it back to County's End who then send it by courier to specialists who analyses the images and can return a diagnosis within five or six days.

The Chronicle was there to capture the moment the surgery administered Alicam to its first ever patient, Tilly, an 11-year-old flat-coat retriever.

Tilly's results were analysed from 36,982 images and available six days later.

Her owner Janet Allen, from Springhead, said she was over the moon Tilly was the first and the whole procedure was much less stressful than conventional methods.

"Tilly's had numerous problems, including vomiting, which they haven't been able to diagnose and the thought of going through all the worry and stress of leaving her there while she endures a more invasive procedure was awful," said Janet.

"They just pushed the capsule into her mouth and that was it.

"Compared with what you normally go through at a time like this it was unbelievable.

"Obviously you then have to wait for the capsule to pass through but even that wasn't as bad as I thought.

"I wasn't looking forward to finding it but it was obvious straight away.

"The worst thing for Tilly was she wasn't able to eat for a day or so but she didn't seem too bothered.

"It's a fantastic thing and it's going to make a massive difference to the animals as well as the owners.

"I always panic whenever I have to leave one of my dogs at the vets.

"It's a worrying and stressful time waiting to hear if they've pulled through okay so I'd do anything to avoid that. They're like our children!"

Within days the analysts contacted County's End to say they had found mild gastric ulceration in Tilly which can be easily treated with medication ending months of illness for Tilly and worry for Janet.

Questions

Senior vet Katie Ford and practice owner Joanna Bednarska discovered Alicam after travelling to the North American Veterinary Conference, in Florida, in January.

"Alicam caught our eye, offering many opportunities for imaging parts of the gastrointestinal tract which have previously been near-on impossible to visualise, without exploratory surgery," said Katie, who is now appearing in a new feature on Oldham Community Radio's "Oldham Today" programme on the first Thursday of every month at 10.30am when listeners can email questions about animal health and well-being in advance.

"We have been desperate to get a hold of the product in Europe, acknowledging its incredible potential to help our patients. Luckily it launched this month, and the manufacturers tell us we are the first in the North-West to use it; this is ground-breaking considering the number of practices and referral centres in the region.

"The Alicam is currently only for use in dogs as the capsule is too large for cats at present. In terms of sizing for dogs, this would be discussed case by case with the vet, but they must weigh at least five kilograms.

Protect

"Tilly has vomited intermittently, despite being on medication to protect her gastrointestinal lining.

"We have performed two specialist scans already (with no abnormalities found) and regular blood testing, with no clear reason for her vomiting found so far.

"Our next step for Tilly was going to be endoscopy, to check her stomach lining, however with her being an older patient, we were cautious over performing the procedure under an anaesthetic, and knew we were limited by our endoscope only being able to pass so far.

"When we heard about the Alicam, Tilly came to our minds immediately as we can look at every part of her intestines and stomach without the need for anaesthesia.

"Tilly is a really lovely dog, a superb character and one of my favourite patients."