Steven Epstein, one of the faculty of the Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care Service at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, received an unusual request Dec. 7 from the hospital’s Large Animal Clinic.

Epstein normally works with small pets such as dogs and cats. However, a goat from Glen Ellen (Sonoma County) with severe pneumonia had been admitted to the Large Animal Clinic barn the evening before and was not breathing well despite treatment with antibiotics and supplemental oxygen.

The 13-year-old Nigerian dwarf, a pet named Gabby, had such trouble breathing that even extra oxygen prescribed for her was not getting into her lungs. Epstein discussed the matter with Rosie Busch, a second-year resident specializing in large animal medicine who had taken on the case.

Busch had talked by phone with the animal’s owner, Marty LaPlante, and was ready when the client arrived with an exhausted Gabby, whose lungs were barely moving by the time she reached UC Davis. At one point, her respiration rate was 120 breaths per minute, compared with a normal rate of 20 to 25 breaths per minute for her species.

Epstein, Busch and a team of specialists made a fast decision. They anesthetized and placed Gabby on a ventilator, a machine that could breathe for her — the first time that they had performed such a procedure on a companion food animal. (The teaching hospital has five ventilators used by its five critical care experts to help small companion animals and foals in respiratory distress.)

The ventilator took over the work of Gabby’s lungs, helping her breathe through the night and allowing her body to rest. After about 18 hours, the veterinarians removed the breathing tube, and Gabby was breathing again on her own.

By Friday afternoon, her gums and tongue had returned to their normal pink color, showing that oxygen was reaching her organs once again. The veterinarians discharged Gabby on Dec. 12, to be cared for at home by LaPlante and Gabby’s own veterinarian, Peter Ahern.

Experts at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital treat more than 30,000 large and small animal patients each year while teaching veterinary students essential clinical skills and training resident veterinarians in more than 30 specialties. Faculty members work in concert to handle everything from routine preventive services to the most complex cases. Veterinarians throughout the state may refer their patients to UC Davis for support with difficult cases like Gabby’s.

For the veterinarians based in the teaching hospital, challenging cases are a frequent occurrence. Nevertheless, the extraordinary measures taken and the animal’s rapid recovery after such an illness made an impression on staff and students alike, many of whom visited Gabby often in her barn stall and said their goodbyes on the day she left.

As for LaPlante, she describes Gabby’s recovery as a “holiday miracle,” stating, “I did not think that she would make the trip. We could not be more grateful to the entire team of doctors and students who rallied to Gabby’s aid. Gabby was really good on the ride home and jumped out of the Jeep and began eating my roses when we got home — which for once I was glad to see.”

Lynn Narlesky is a senior writer in the School of Veterinary Medicine.