Miniature Dachshund pup with a broken heart saved after world-leading surgery

Little Lola, a miniature Dachshund, was just 10 weeks old and weighed less than two bags of sugar when she was rushed to Paragon Veterinary Referrals in Wakefield suffering from heart failure.

Minimally invasive surgery was Lola’s best chance of survival even though she would be Paragon’s smallest patient to undergo the procedure, and amongst the smallest reported in the world, weighing only 1.6kg

Lola’s owner, Hayley Forrest, from Shelf in Halifax, said: “We had only had Lola for 12 days and I noticed her breathing had changed and her ribs were visible as she inhaled.

“A diagnosis confirmed a heart birth defect and we were in utter shock.

"She had undergone her first immunisations and got a full bill of health so we never in a million years expected to be told she had a heart problem.

Lola had developed heart failure because of an underlying birth defect called patent ductus arteriosus, commonly know as ‘PDA’, which also occurs in human babies, which happens when the communication between the two major blood vessels of the heart fails to close at birth, allowing blood to ‘short-circuit’ between the heart and lungs.

“Due to the size and potential complications we were extremely worried about the procedure,” Hayley said.

"However we knew we had to go through with this to give Lola a chance of life.”

The surgery was a complete success and Lola’s symptoms of immediately resolved. Amazingly, she was discharged from hospital the following day.

Julie Kavanagh, veterinary surgeon at Paragon, said: “Unless her PDA could be closed, Lola’s outlook was very poor.

“Gold-standard treatment of PDA for both babies and dogs involves a minimally invasive surgery to place a special medical device inside the PDA lumen, occluding the blood flow through it. But, with Lola’s small body size, this approach would be extremely challenging.

“Despite her tiny size, she coped well with her anaesthetic. Her outlook is now excellent.”

Hayley said: “The team at Paragon were amazing. I will always be thankful for the fact they looked at every possible way to save her life.”