We seem to have two Maggies needing help this week. Here’s the account of Maggie the cat, from her feeder and rescuer, Mas. It was written yesterday:
I brought an injured stray cat to your panel vet today, he confirmed that she had suffered a preforation in her diaphragm (Diaphragmatic hernia is a hole in the diaphragm that allows the abdominal contents to move into the chest cavity). She is a spayed stray that I feed daily in my neighbourhood and had not appeared for her food for two whole days. Last night, I searched hard for her and finally found her in hiding, injured and breathing very laboriously so I took her home and brought her to the vet’s attention this morning. I strongly suspect that the poor girl had received a kick in the abdomen.
The vet says she needs an operation to push the liver and other vital organs back out of the respiratory area and close the hole in the diaphragm. He says that normally the operation costs RM400-700 but should some complications arise (he says this is a very delicate procedure) it could rise to RM1500.
The vet also says the cat will ultimately die without the operation because the cat will have difficulty in breathing and will suffocate as the lungs get more and more squeezed out by the vital organs and intestines pushed into the lung area from the lower abdomen.
This morning’s updates from Mas:
I really hope that the operation will be successful and there would not be any relapse as it is quite a delicate operation and survival rate for traumatic diaphragmatic hernia is about 50:50 compared to congenital diaphragmatic hernia which has a higher survival rate overall. However, I have to take a chance because without the procedure, the cat will definitely die because her liver and other organs have already been squeezed into her respiratory area and it is real effort for her to breathe. Even after taking 1 teaspoonful of A/D, she is gasping for breath because her intestines have squeezed into her lung area, making it extremely hard for her to get enough air into her squeezed lungs.
The vet said he has done this procedure many times before so that offers a degree of comfort. But still this is a delicate procedure and he says it is a 50:50 rate. I am praying for poor Maggie and thank you for the financial help that you are able to offer.
We will be helping with the cost of Maggie’s surgery which was performed today. I have just contacted the vet for updates and it is still too soon to say anything right now.
Let’s just pray for Maggie’s recovery, shall we?
Be strong and get well soon, Maggie.
