Bluebell
Cat Nursed Back To Full Health After Intricate Ureter Surgery At Yorkshire Hospital
A cat who was left thin and off-colour as she struggled to cope with acute kidney damage has made a return to full health thanks to intricate surgery on her tiny ureter.
Bluebell, a four-year-old, long-haired domestic cat weighed just 2.9kg, was dehydrated and in pain as two kidney stones blocked her ureter, the tiny tube that links the kidneys to the bladder.
Now, thanks to specialist surgery and long-term aftercare at Paragon Veterinary Referrals, in Yorkshire, she’s happy, bright and well.
Paragon’s clinical director, Sophie Adamantos, said it was a remarkable success story as surgery to bypass a blocked ureter is extremely difficult and challenging.
She said: “A cat’s ureter is very small, just 2mm in diameter, so surgery is complicated and it’s usually recommended that it is carried out by a specialist surgeon who has done the procedure before.
“It is also difficult to operate if the renal pelvis is very small and Bluebell’s was a borderline case.
“Initially we tried to manage the obstruction with medical treatment, trying to encourage the kidney stones to move down the ureter and into the bladder.
“Unfortunately, there was no success and over the next two days Bluebell’s condition worsened so we decided to operate.”
The aim of the surgery, carried out by RCVS and EBVS small animal surgery specialist Mickey Tivers, is to recover as much kidney function as possible and to provide a bypass in case any more stones form.
The current recommended surgical treatment is the use of a subcutaneous ureteral bypass system which connects the kidney to the bladder through a system of tubes.
Sophie added: “Surgery went well. There was a reduction in renal pelvis diameter, a limited improvement in kidney function and Bluebell made a good recovery.
“Over the last year we have monitored her and performed flushes of her system every three months.
“She’s had no complications and there has been stability in her kidney function.
“We’ve also changed her diet to a senior rather than renal diet which has resulted in the normalisation of her calcium levels. This has remained normal over the last four months.
“Most pleasingly, she has gained significant body weight and her condition has improved and she’s now happy, bright and behaving normally at home.”
Paragon, which is part of Linnaeus, is a multi-disciplinary centre which specialises in expert pet care across a range of services including anaesthesia and analgesia, cardiology, dermatology, diagnostic imaging, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, pain management and soft tissue surgery.
For more information on Paragon Veterinary Referrals, visit www.paragonreferrals.co.uk or search for Paragon on LinkedIn or Facebook.
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