Met another one who might not make it

[cjsmith]

Quiet. Sweet. Feline. Adult, but not aging. Owners didn't see what happened, but he bore at least one telltale sign of a bad encounter with a car -- all his claw tips were scraped up.

His breathing was weird. It seemed like he was working very hard at it. He was breathing way up in his chest, and every time he inhaled, his abdomen shrank. When the doctor first examined him, she said it felt like he had no organs in his abdomen. Oh, and the left rear leg was at a really bad angle.

X-rays showed a broken femur and something I'd never heard of before: a diaphragmatic hernia. His organs, at least the liver and maybe more, were up -- past his diaphragm and pressing on his lungs. That dark space on the X-ray was the smallest pair of lungs I've ever seen.

I cannot imagine the pain he was in, yet he put up with us stoically, breathing the oxygen when we pointed it at his face and letting us handle him and move him. He also had some of the softest fur I've ever touched. I felt so bad for the poor dude.

He went off to the emergency clinic along with his X-rays. It's a good place with good surgeons. I hope he makes it. I hope the owner can afford to try.

Comments

[platypuslord.livejournal.com]

Why does an encounter with a car result in scraped claw tips?
I would guess it would involve getting dragged along the pavement (?), but I'm not sure how a car wheel would do that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't know; all I know so far is that scraped up claw tips are a strong "car" sign. If they're badly scraped down, perhaps the impact was with the bumper or the undercarriage and the cat got dragged. This cat had only minor scratches on his fur and only minor scraping on his claw tips. I don't know how that happens. A glancing side-impact? But one powerful enough to send the liver up through (I presume) the existing hole in the diaphragm?? I'm not able to picture it.