Frida’s life saving surgery
Meet one of our beloved patients, Frida. You may notice that Frida has different coloured eyes. This relatively rare condition is called heterochromia. Whilst her unique appearance is indeed striking, there is much more to Frida’s tale.
We first met Frida at Catcuddles Vets London in February. Frida had recently returned home visibly distressed and seemed to be dragging her back legs. She needed further diagnostics so her owners reached out to us, seeking affordable care at not for profit prices.
Upon examination, it became evidence that Frida was in discomfort and needed some intervention to find out what was causing this.
We sedated Frida so we could examine her legs, hips and abdomen more closely without causing further pain and we set about taking x-rays. We soon discovered that she had some dislocations and displaced pelvic bones and whilst these were mild they meant Frida would need to be crate rested for at least 6 weeks to allow the bones to heal.
Frida’s more pressing issue was that she had obviously undergone some form of trauma as she had suffered a ruptured abdominal wall and her bladder had become entangled in this, effectively strangulating the bladder. This was Frida's immediate problem and this had to be addressed as an emergency as there was a fear that she was unable to pass urine as a result of this.
Our Vet converted Frida's sedation to a general anaesthetic to allow us to take her to surgery to correct the rupture and replace her bladder. She then began the immense task of trying to piece poor Frida back together and finally place her bladder back to where it should be, as you can imagine this took great skill and patience and of course quite some time to do.
Frida recovered from her anaesthetic well and remained with us overnight, where she incredibly started to tentatively walk around her kennel, she ate and seemed happy. She had not passed any urine until nearly 24hrs after surgery but we are very pleased to say that she went on to pass normal amounts of urine without any problems!
In the intervening months since we first met Frida she has been coming back to us for regular check-ups since her surgery and this week had her final X-rays taken recently and we are pleased that all is healing well. We just hope that Frida stays out of harm’s way* and continues to enjoy a happy, pain free life!
*those of you who follow us will already know that not only is our lovely Head Nurse Sarah notorious in her attempts to steal our patients, she also has a soft spot for torties and calicos. We’re pleased to report after celebratory cuddles Frida was safely returned to her lovely family!
A set of x-rays costs £350.
The wellbeing of cats is our top priority. If your cat needs an appointment be it routine or urgent do not hesitate to reach out. With convenient, same-week appointments available, we are here for your feline family in North and South London.
Find us at:
Palmers Green, N13 4UY
Hither Green, SE13 6SN