Lillie is a 1y11m old cat, brought into our Bognor Regis hospital on 25th July 2011 after being found by her owner with blood dripping from her abdomen. Lillie was admitted immediately for treatment and on examination two puncture wounds were found on her abdomen. However, what caused the greatest concern was a large bulge next to the wounds. The injuries suggested that she may have been attacked by a dog. The vet was concerned that something had herniated. A hernia is where there is a tear in the muscle or abdominal wall and a piece of gut, for example, slips through this hole; this requires surgical repair.

Lillie was placed on a drip to treat shock, and was given pain relief and antibiotics along with sedation so she was ready to be anaesthetised. Once Lillie was under anaesthetic the vet took x-rays and examined Lillie further. The vet found severe bruising to the abdomen with two large puncture wound to the abdomen and fat tissue poking through the wound. Lillie also had small puncture wounds to her back legs. The x-ray indicated that Lillie's chest was in good condition, but the abdominal x-ray proved that she had some of her intestines herniating through a tear in the muscle wall.

Lillie was prepared for surgery and the operation was carried out to repair the hernia and stitch up the other remaining open wounds. She recovered well post anaesthetic.

The next day she was re-assessed and the vet checked the abdomen for any further herniation using ultrasound imaging, the results were positive and no further herniation was apparent. Lillie was still very swollen and sore.

The following day Lillie was brighter and the swelling had reduced, the vet checked again for further herniation, but encouragingly, Lillie was doing well. She remained hospitalised and managed on pain relief and antibiotics. Over the next few days the abdominal swelling continued to reduce, but her leg wounds remained slightly swollen. Under the instruction to maintain cage rest, Lillie was discharged and went home.

Unfortunately, Lillie was re-admitted as one of the wounds on her abdomen had become severely bruised and some of the tissue around the wound was necrotic and had made a large tract under her skin. We decided to re-hospitalise Lillie in order to flush the wound twice daily and apply a healing ointment, whilst continuing with her medication. A couple of days later the other abdominal wound headed the same way and went necrotic leaving another tract, so we ended up flushing the wound and applying the ointment to both large wounds. Whilst Lillie was hospitalised she got a lot of loving and even though she had to wear a buster collar at all times to avoid interference with the wound, she was allowed supervised periods of grooming. It was also important for her to keep her food intake up as her body was healing and using extra energy.

After hospitalisation and continual care of the wounds, Lillie's abdominal wounds were getting smaller and her other wounds were looking better. Lillie went home on the 13th August on antibiotics and her owners were instructed to bathe the abdominal wounds twice a day and to keep her in until the wounds were healed.

Since then we have checked up on her and her wounds are all healed, she's back to her normal self and is even going outside again and is doing very well.

Vet clinic quick links: Denmead  |  Havant  |  Emsworth  |  Chichester  |  Bognor Regis  |  Barnham

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