It's not just what we know... it's how much we care!

Such a smoochy boy after his surgery!

Blackie came in to us with severe breathing difficulties after he had gone missing for a few days. Based on the severity of his breathing problem, our vet suspected he may have chest trauma from being hit by a car. We immediately took some emergency chest xrays to diagnose the problem.

A chest xray revealed his stomach, liver and intestines were sitting in his chest instead of in his abdomen where they should be. This means that the abdominal organs are squashing Blackie’s lungs so they can’t inflate properly. This condition is called a diaphragmatic hernia – the muscle sheet separating his chest from his abdomen (diaphragm) had ruptured, meaning all his abdominal organs can move up into his chest. The most common cause of this is blunt force trauma such as a car accident or falling out of a tree.

Blackie’s initial xray where the entire lung field (which should appear black) is grey because of the abdominal organs (liver, intestines, stomach) sitting in the chest cavity.

We took Blackie straight to surgery to repair the diaphragm and improve his breathing. This involved moving the stomach, liver, gallbladder and intestines back into the abdomen where they should be and stitching the diaphragm back together while someone ‘ventilated’ Blackie (breathed for him) throughout the surgery.

Blackie went extremely well after the surgery (we all just loved him he was very smoochy and cuddly) and after several days in hospital, he went home to his loving owner. Patients like Blackie and his lovely owner are why we love our job so much. He is such a beautiful cat and now he can go on to live a full and happy life.

This is the post-op xray which shows the surgically repaired and now intact diaphragm (the white curved structure on the right just next to the lung fields) and a much more normal (black) lung field.

Blackie 48 hours after surgery and feeling great