New veterinary centre of excellence is the only one of its kind in Canada

CEMI is equipped with state-of-the-art technology including endoscopy, angiography and fluoroscopy, making it the only centre of its kind in Canada. In the U.S., there are only three such facilities.  

At CEMI, Dunn and her colleague Catherine Vachon perform a range of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for the respiratory, cardiovascular and urinary systems of pets, wildlife, zoo animals and farm animals. Their minimally invasive approach makes it possible to treat more patients. 

With its fluoroscopy table, system of screens, integrated anesthesia system and other equipment, CEMI is also used to train veterinary students as well as "veterinarians from around the world who want to specialize in or familiarize themselves with these types of procedures," said Dunn.

Thanks to the devices and equipment acquired with the donations, the veterinarians are able to perform minimally invasive procedures and watch their manoeuvres on the screen in real time. This is how resident Corentin Treich performed the procedure on Bella, under Dunn’s supervision.  

"The image-guided procedure involved inserting an endoscope through the animal's urinary tract to the bladder in order to locate the stones and fragment them with a laser," explained Dunn. “That makes it easier to remove the stones through the natural pathway, without having to make an incision."

To make sure all the stones were gone, a C-shaped X-ray machine rotated around Bella while she lay on the fluoroscopy table, sending a video of her insides to another screen.  

Unlike Stella’s first operation and subsequent recovery, which was trying for her and her owners, the CEMI procedure left no trace. 

"Typically, surgery to remove bladder stones requires a 14-day convalescence with painkillers and a cone to keep the dog from biting the wound," said Dunn. “With the endoscopic procedure, there is no wound. In Bella's case, she was discharged from the hospital the same day and could have gone to the dog park that evening."

An UdeM professor since 2002 and specialist in internal medicine for companion animals, Dunn was interested in interventional medicine even before it was practiced at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. 

"We had a patient with a collapsed trachea that wasn't responding to treatment, so we asked doctors we knew for expired stents they'd used to clear the bronchial tubes in babies," she related. “We tried this on our patient and it worked!" 

It was the first tracheal stenting performed on an animal in Canada. 

That case spurred Dunn to go further and specialize in image-guided diagnostic procedures for animals, a relatively new field at the time. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Dr. Chick Weisse and Allyson Berent.  

On her return, Dunn set up the Interventional Medicine Department at the CHUV’s pet hospital. 

"With time, we found that our equipment limited for what we could do,” she recalled. “So in 2016, we came up with the idea of creating an interventional medicine centre of excellence. We drew up a budget and reached out to clients and businesses to raise the funds." 

The rest is history. But CEMI owes its existence, first and foremost, to the needs expressed by pet owners, Dunn said. 

"Our clients are our best ambassadors. They’re the ones who ask us to operate on their pets in the least invasive way possible. Interventional medicine helps improve our patients' comfort while reducing their recovery time."