Vets in Cramlington perform surgery on Cavapoo Nancy after discovering she has rare heart condition

Little puppy Nancy, weighing only 2.5kg, was found to have a heart murmur after owner Lynne Robson took her to Moorview Veterinary Referrals in Cramlington.

Lynne said: “A couple of weeks before her second vaccination I had to take Nancy to the emergency vets with bacterial cystitis and the vet said she could hear a heart murmur.

“She advised getting it checked at her vaccination. Nancy was a bundle of energy and I wondered how she could have been so full of life with this.”

After the condition was confirmed, a decision was taken to operate on Nancy, as it is generally better to sort this type of problem early.

Antonio Moneva-Jordan, from Moorview’s cardiology team, said: “Nancy was completely asymptomatic and very playful when we first saw her at 16 weeks.

“On examination, we found what is called continuous ‘machinery’ murmur and reached a diagnosis of patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA.

“It is quite rare, and we only see a handful of cases a year. It is something you would hope to detect during an initial puppy examination, but with small wriggly pups it can be missed.”

The PDA was successfully repaired and Nancy was discharged the next day, later passing the necessary checks after four weeks.

Lynne said: “She is still tiny but she is feisty and she keeps up with her brother Shaun, who is much bigger.

“We are really impressed with how quickly everything happened and just happy she came through it all.”