Shade, our little star!
‘Shade’ came to us in November when she was 4 months old but she was no bigger than an 8-week old kitten. The first time we saw her, we were sure she had a congenital heart defect as she had very laboured breathing.
She had been born outside and we were in fact neutering/spaying/microchipping all the cats and returning them to the lady who was providing for them. They weren’t housecats so I was really concerned about ‘Shade.’ Thankfully, they agreed I could bring her home with me, and I would give her whatever natural life she may have. She had been seen by a Vet and they said she was unlikely to see Christmas.
We took ‘Shade’ to our Vets and they also thought there were problems with her heart… not so! Our vet, Kerry, did a scan and her heart was working normally BUT there was ‘something’ behind the heart that shouldn’t have been there!
Our dilemma was that it was far too risky for her to have an anaesthetic or sedation. This little girl had been seen several times by Kerry and Simon at Pet Doctors and on a recent visit, Simon was sure her kidneys were misplaced and in completely the wrong place.
She had by this stage put on 0.5kg (she originally weighed 1.2kg) so had grown to about the size of a 14-week old kitten (even though she was coming up to 9 months!) Decision time… Simon explained that if they left her she would at some stage have a ‘terminal crisis’ and they would not be able to save her. So, after much heart-searching on everyone’s part, today was the day to right what was wrong.
‘Shade’ had a scan and an X-ray and coped with that really well. Simon then went on to operate…
This dear little girl did, as suspected, had a diaphragmatic hernia. Some of her abdominal organs were lying in her chest cavity, so restricting her lungs, and other organs had been shunted backward.
At home post-op 
Tucking into tuna dinner
She is now home (helping me to type this, in fact, keeps pressing the keys!) is purring for Britain, goes off to eat or drink, and settles down beside me again!
This Little Girl is A star. But instead of one shining in the sky, she is here with us safe, sound, and very happy. Her breathing now normal and her character as huge as ever.
I would so like to thank both Simon and Kerry for working together to not only save ‘Shade’s’ life but enabling her to live on after this very major surgery.
I will never forget this day and I will remain eternally grateful.
This injury was caused by ‘Shade’ having an accident and was not a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, how she survived at the time, God only knows, but she did and she has survived again.
