Grace the Cat

This week's case was Grace the cat who presented to us with dyspnea (trouble breathing), including open mouth and abdominal breathing. It turned out that she was hit by a car three weeks ago but the owners did not want proceed with diagnostics at that time. We auscultated (listened) to her chest and heard muffled lung sounds in all lung fields. Borborygmus (noises from the abdomen) was also auscultated in the caudoventral thorax. So far all of these signs pointed to diaphragmatic hernia (when the abdominal organs move through the diaphragm and into the thoracic cavity). We then took a radiograph and confirmed our diagnosis. Grace underwent surgery to repair the diaphragmatic hernia, a thoracostomy tube was placed and her collapsed lung was re-inflated. Grace went home a few days later.