12/09/2025
🐾 🐶 Friday Feel Good Story - Billie’s Big Fight 💪💙
Say hello to Billie, a sweet French Bulldog who’s just been through an extraordinary journey and has shown us all what true resilience looks like.
Beautiful Billie was brought in to our emergency team after suddenly becoming unwell and starting to regurgitate. Unfortunately, this led to aspiration pneumonia and her condition deteriorated quickly. She became oxygen-dependent and needed urgent intervention to support her breathing.
To save Billie’s life, she was placed on a mechanical ventilator - one of the most intensive forms of critical care, comparable to an induced coma in human medicine. While ventilated, the machine assumes full control of the patient’s breathing, meaning they are entirely dependent on supportive care for all bodily functions.
Patients in this state are unable to eat, move, or self-regulate, so our vet & nursing team must manage every aspect of their wellbeing including nutritional support, hygiene, bladder and bowel management, recumbency care, physiotherapy, massage, medication administration, and continuous monitoring.
It’s an incredibly hands-on process and Billie was never alone for a single moment. For 5 days our Head of ECC - Dr Katy Craig, along side an incredible team of vets and nurses spent every minute with what soon became one of our favourite patients providing one-on-one care, ensuring that every change in her condition, however subtle, was addressed immediately.
On day 5, Billie was stable enough for us to start the weaning process. However Frenchies have unique airways that can complicate recovery so to ensure her breathing was safe and secure as she transitioned from the ventilator to breathing on her own, a temporary tracheostomy tube was placed by our Specialist Surgeon - Dr Richard Mitchell. This allowed us to bypass her upper airway, allow for any airway oedema to resolve and ensure a smooth, stress-free recovery.
We understand how stressful it can be when your pet is critically unwell for both owners and pets, which is why the weaning process happened all with Billie’s loving mum by her side. Billie was able to smell & hear her mum talking to her while she woke up which meant Billie woke up calmly and peacefully, wanting cuddles from mum immediately. 🥺
Just 2 days later, her temporary tracheostomy tube was removed and she was strong enough to head home!!! We’re thrilled to say she’s continuing to improve every day and we fully expect her to make a complete recovery and be back playing with her sister very soon. 🐶💕
These cases are a testament to the power of teamwork, dedicated vet & nursing staff, expert care and the incredible bond between pets and their people. Billie’s owners were outstanding partners in her care and we couldn't be more grateful for their trust.
💙 Welcome back Billie - you’ve won all our hearts!
