Surgery saves life of former champion Great Dane

When Barbara Leytem brought her retired champion Great Dane Sebastian to the University of Florida’s Veterinary Medical Center for emergency surgery in September, she was full of questions and anxiety – for several reasons.

One, she’d recently had a negative experience with other veterinarians, so trusting the staff at UF was difficult at first. Two, her father had died only a week earlier. Still acutely grieving, the Bucholtz High School guidance counselor was emotionally unprepared for Sebastian’s sudden-onset illness, much less the prospect of another family member’s loss.

To top it off, her husband, Dr. Brent Leytem, a partner in Gainesville Family Physicians, had been unable to accompany her to the UF clinic. But Dr. Colin Sereda, the surgery resident, was able to reach him by phone and explained everything. Ultimately the Leytems decided surgery was the best option for saving Sebastian’s life. Surgery was successful, and in the days that followed, Brent Leytem took “Sebat” to work with him to monitor his recovery.

Sebastian experienced some minor problems with eating and vomiting but those issues quickly resolved.

A week later, Barbara Leytem e-mailed the surgical team at the College of Veterinary Medicine: “Sebat is doing great! He happily trotted out to Brent’s car this morning and popped in the back seat to go to work with him again.” Sereda said Sebastian had a pneumothorax – a ruptured lung that was leaking air into his chest.

“Treatment for this type of case usually involves finding the leak and removing that section of lung,” Sereda said. “In Sebastian’s case, we performed thoracoscopic-assisted surgery using a thoracoscope. This basically means we were able to accomplish our goals surgically through a small incision rather than by opening Sebastian’s entire chest up.”

The VMC typically sees between six and 10 cases of this type each year, Sereda said, adding that the problem is usually seen in large-breed dogs. Four months later, Sebastian is back to being a couch potato, hanging out at the Leytem’s 40-acre Micanopy farm and accompanying the couple on trips to out-of-town horse shows.