Difficulty Swallowing
Eden is a delightful, one year old cat. She had vomited a fur ball a few months ago but in the last few days whenever she was near her food she would be retching and gagging. Eden had retched up lots of small puddles of froth.
Before Eden was examined Dr Jill took a long history trying how to decide how much of a problem this was and was the problem progressing. She asked Eden’s owners if she ever went outside because sometimes cats will chew on grass and have a problem like this.
When Eden came in she was assessed and the back of her throat was examined very carefully. Nothing could be seen until you pushed down the back of her tongue and a small flash of green was sighted. It was lucky that she is such a lovely cat.
Eden was admitted into hospital, sedated, had a catheter placed and a preanaesthetic blood test taken – which was all normal.
Once Eden was anaesthetised, Dr Jill could see a little flash of green coming behind her soft palate and visible in her pharynx.
Up close it was a thin blade of grass. This was grasped with crocodile forceps and gently pulled down from where it was lodged at the back of her nose.
More anaesthetic was needed as the movement of the grass was sharp and irritating.
The grass was 7 cm long and much thicker at the end that had been up her nose.
Once the grass was removed, Eden was given a pain relief injection and woke up very nicely from her anaesthetic.
It is great to have a problem which could be solved so neatly. Eden is much happier now.