14 Mar 2023
School’s Queen Mother Hospital for Animals is marking 10 years of providing extracorporeal therapies for cats and dogs with kidney failure, immune-mediated disease and certain toxicities.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Ten-week-old Marty, who presented with leptospirosis, was one of the RVC Queen Mother Hospital for Animals’ latest successes as it celebrated 10 years of life-saving work.
Dozens of dogs and cats have benefitted from life-saving treatment offered at the RVC for 10 years this month.
The college’s Queen Mother Hospital for Animals (QMHA) launched its service of extracorporeal therapies for cats and dogs with kidney failure, immune-mediated disease and certain toxicities late in 2012, with the first treatment in March 2013.
The QMHA remains the only place in the UK to offer the specialist treatment, and more than 50 cats and dogs have been supported in the past decade.
Pioneering blood purification treatments include dialysis and have been funded by the RVC’s Animal Care Trust.
Therapeutic plasma exchange, or plasmapheresis, is used for some immune-mediated conditions in dogs, including immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia.
RVC’s first patient was Alba, a one-year-old Labrador retriever with cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV). Latest successes include 10-week-old Labrador retriever puppy Marty, who presented with leptospirosis that was causing acute kidney failure, and Oscar, a one-year-old Labrador retriever-cross with leptospirosis and evidence of acute kidney injury.
In addition to supporting in-need pets, the QMHA’s dialysis machine and other equipment was loaned to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stefano Cortellini – senior lecturer in emergency and critical care, and co-director of the renal replacement therapy service at the QMHA – said: “We are very fortunate to have the option to treat dogs and cats with acute kidney injury using dialysis at the QMHA. As we’ve seen with Marty and Oscar, this can be literally a life-saving treatment.
“Providing dialysis is very much dependent on teamwork, and this involves highly coordinated efforts by members of the renal replacement team, critical care clinicians and nurses, as well as support from other specialty services at the QMHA.
“We are delighted that Marty, our most recent case, has made a full recovery and we are looking forward to updates on his progress in the future.”
Rosanne Jepson – professor of small animal internal medicine and nephrology, and co-director of the QMHA extracorporeal therapies programme – said: “Our Prismaflex machine offers advanced treatment options not only for the management of acute kidney injury, but also enables us to perform a mode of treatment called therapeutic plasma exchange.
“This has allowed us to manage some of the most severely affected dogs with immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia that are failing response to traditional treatment, has been used in patients with CRGV, and together can help us manage certain toxin exposures.
“We are really very lucky to have this facility at the QMHA and to be able to offer this advanced care where it is needed. None of this would be possible without the amazing team who help us run this service.”
