May 2011 - Poppy Langley
Poppy gets a pain in the Botty!
Poppy is a very loving, 1 year old tortoiseshell short haired cat.
She was first seen at the beginning of May after being attacked by another cat and was bleeding from her back end. Upon examination a puncture wound was located 1cm below her anus. The vet managed to express puss from the hole, so she was placed on antibiotics and pain relief.
After two days Poppy was still sore when trying to pass urine or faeces, her temperature was raised and she was passing a large amount of diarrhoea. She was admitted into the practice so that the veterinary surgeon and nurse could clip and clean her back end and place her on intravenous fluids, to combat the dehydration caused by the diarrhoea.
Poppy was kept in the practice over the weekend so that she could be rehydrated, administered intravenous pain relief and antibiotics, and her back end could be kept clean. By Monday she was back to her normal self, although still passing very soft faeces, so she was allowed home for her owner to care and clean her.
Poppy was seen two days later, her temperature had risen again, and her owners were finding it difficult to clean her back end, as Poppy was being wriggly. Poppy was admitted once more, and was placed on intravenous fluids. Her back end was cleaned on a regular basis. During one of these times, two large connecting fistulas opened up beneath her rectum, both of which had faeces passing out of them, confirming that the bite wound had punctured Poppy’s rectum.
On the third day of her stay, once Poppy was rehydrated she was placed under a general anaesthetic, and the hole in the rectum was closed, together with the fistulas. A drain was placed and a suture was placed over the anus to prevent a prolapse of the rectum.
Poppy recovered very quickly from the general anaesthetic and during the course of the weekend was administered antibiotics and pain relief, a long with lots of food (Poppy gobbled this down very quickly). The suture over her anus was removed and within the next few hours Poppy had passed some very soft, but formed faeces!!
The drain was removed on the Monday and Poppy was allowed home, much to the delight of her owners and her sister Ellie. Poppy has since returned on numerous occasions for us to check her wound, and on the 25th May, once all her sutures had been removed she was finally “signed off”.
Poppy has been a delight to nurse, never once did she bite or scratch. She took her tablets, and allowed her back end to be cleaned repeatedly. She loved being fussed and FED!! And has explored the majority of the practice on her walks with the nurses.
