April 2008 - Autumn Seabrook
Autumn Seabrook and her hairy troubles
Autumn Seabrook is a lovely 8 year old long haired cat who had a very nasty run in with a very common problem. Fur balls! One of the problems of being long haired is that when the cat grooms itself it inevitably ends up swallowing fur. Cats can usually throw up this hair when it starts building up in the stomach, sometimes they need to be given a special paste to help stick the hair together into a slippery blob which the cat can throw up more easily. However sometimes even this can’t shift it and the ball gets well and truly stuck. This happened to Autumn.
Autumn had been vomiting for a few days and hadn’t responded to hairball treatment. When we sedated Autumn and took an x-ray we thought we could see a lump in the abdomen. With Autumn fully relaxed under her sedation we could also feel a soft doughy lump in her intestines. We tried overnight to shift the lump with medication but it didn’t move so next day we opened up Autumns abdomen and found the lump. The intestines surrounding the lump was visibly very sore. We cut the gut open and removed the hairball. The hair had woven and tangled into itself to form a thick plug completely blocking the intestine. Because the intestine was so sore we wrapped some omentum around it. Omentum looks a bit like a net curtain and has lots of blood vessels in it. It is normally attached to the stomach and is sometimes called ‘The policeman of the abdomen’ because whenever there is trouble in the abdomen the omentum finds its way to the problem and sorts it out. The rich blood supply in the omentum helps healing and speeds recovery.
Autumn didn’t eat much after the operation to start with and had trouble going to the toilet but within a week was back to her normal self.
Many cats suffer with hairballs which can often be controlled with ‘Katalax’ paste mentioned above. All of the Royal Canin diets we stock contain fermentable maize starch which binds hair to the intestinal contents making sure they pass through unhindered. Fortunately Autumn was also insured which meant Miss Seabrook didn’t have to worry about the cost of the operation and aftercare.
