January was a very interesting month here at City Vet. You can read about two of the cases we saw during the month below. We hope you find them interesting!
Petal
Petal is an ex-feral cat, first found by Limerick Feral Cats a few years ago. She is a great character who has gone missing a few times but soon finds her way home. She even came home with a kitten once despite being spayed!
Petal came to City Vet with a swelling under her chin. The area was clipped up and pus was drained from the lump. Our vet diagnosed that it was an abscess and that it would require surgery. Petal was admitted and was sedated followed by a general anaesthetic. Surgery was performed to debride and suture the wound. This means that the injured tissue was snipped off leaving healthy tissue to be sutured. A Penrose drain was also placed in the wound to allow any further fluid that may accumulate to drain out. Petal recovered well from the anaesthetic and was hospitalised overnight to recover fully.
Petal enjoying her second serving of breakfast!
The following morning, our nurse was greeted by Petal meowing and in great form. She was even demanding her breakfast! She tucked in to her food, purring happily. Petal went home later that day and returned 5 days later for a recheck exam and to have the drain removed. Her wound was recovering well but she would need to keep her Tablock collar on until she got her sutures removed a week later.
The wound healed very well and the sutures were removed 10 days after surgery. Petal has recovered very well from a nasty abscess and is back in front of the fire like nothing ever happened!
Rog
Rog’s owner came to City Vet as she was very worried about Rog; he was out of sorts, coughing, licking a lot and drooling. As our vet examined his mouth, she could feel a lump towards the back but could not examine it fully. She decided to admit him to sedate him in order to investigate fully.
Photo showing the swelling at the back of Rog’s throat.
Once Rog was sedated, our vet could open his mouth and depress his tongue easily. She saw that his larynx and arytenoids (cartilage) in particular were very red and swollen and this was causing him to cough, drool and feel out of sorts. It was obviously very painful. This condition can quite often occur in dogs with severe Canine Cough. It can seem like the dog has something stuck in his/her throat, but as can be seen from the photo, there is only a severe inflammation of the pharynx and larynx. Canine Cough is a highly contagious cough that is spread between dogs by air droplets. Rog was prescribed some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories to help reduce the pain and bring down the swelling.
Two days later Rog was recovering very well from his illness and his owner reports he is now back to normal.