40 dogs lives saved by cardiac surgery at Wakefield vets

Chris Linney started the interventional cardiology service at Wakefield's Paragon Veterinary Referrals in May 2021 after joining from fellow Linnaeus hospital Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service, in Solihull.

He said the vast majority of cases treated were puppies who would have otherwise had little chance of living a normal life.

Chris, an RCVS and EBVS specialist in cardiology, said: “Last May, I transferred between two of our Linnaeus hospitals to come and work at Paragon, a whole 13 years after originally leaving Yorkshire to pursue my dream of becoming a cardiology specialist.

“Since arriving, the caseload has doubled and continues to grow. We are also seeing growth through the support and needs of our other specialist disciplines within the hospital.

“Our new minimally-invasive cardiac surgery has seen a total of 40 dogs having life-saving, corrective surgery at Paragon over this past year.

“The majority of these were young puppies, who without surgery would have had little chance at a normal life. We are in an incredibly fortunate position to be able to offer them this with keyhole surgery.”

The referral centre, which opened its doors in 2018, also invested around £145,000 in a state-of-the- art ultrasound, ECG machine and a new fluoroscopy unit to support the service, which Chris says provides the highest level of cardiac patient care available in Yorkshire.

“The cardiology service itself has also expanded from one clinician in 2021 to two full-time clinicians and one dedicated cardiology veterinary nurse. We also have another cardiology specialist joining us later this year,” he said.

“There are more exciting things in the pipeline within the cardiology service to improve accessibility, as well as Paragon as a whole – watch this space!”

For more information on Paragon Veterinary Referrals, visit www.paragonreferrals.co.uk or search for Paragon Veterinary Referrals on social media.