Cristal's story

CRISTAL DEVELOPS COLIC

Cristal was only 12 weeks old when her vigilant owner noticed that she was starting to vomit more than expected. The owner had only had Cristal for 2 days so it would have been difficult to know if this is what this kitten does.

So it started off as just a small amount of vomiting but 2 days later, this little Balinese kitten, had developed to the point where she could not hold anything down, had developed a bit of diarrhoea, and then was not interested in eating.

Cristal When she was examined we noticed that we could feel a bit of a lump in her abdomen and decided that this should be investigated further. We took Cristal through to abdominal ultrasound to see if this could reveal whether she had eaten a foreign body that was now causing an obstruction.

Instead the ultrasound revealed the characteristic pattern of an intussusception, a condition almost as complicated as it is to pronounce. An intussuseption is when the gastrointestinal tract goes into excessive spasm and excessive contractions cause it to enfold on itself and start to consume itself. It is a progressive problem with the gut continuing to envelope and consume more and more of itself.

The trapped length of intestine begins to lose its blood supply and send the patient into a downward-spiralling shock syndrome.

Cristal was taken to surgery immediately and upon opening her tiny body up, the gut was slowly and intricately separated out from itself; some of this intestine had already lost its blood supply and was necrotic. This dead section was excised and removed and the remaining gut reconnected and repaired. Lengths of intestine were then tied loosely to each other to prevent further enveloping and the condition repeating itself.

After a short time, and been healthy and strong, , Cristal made a full recovery and today is now seen bouncing up and around the corridors of home as she approaches her first birthday.

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