Summer was brought in to 387 Vets with a cut on her flank after her owner noticed specks of blood on the floor when Summer had come in from being outside. On examination, a circular puncture wound was clearly visible half way up her chest and there was considerable bleeding from the hole. Hamish feared that Summer had been shot and, sadly, x-rays confirmed that she had an air gun pellet in her abdomen.
As is common in these cases, the pellet had drawn hair into Summer’s wound which needed to be removed along with the pellet which was lodged between her right kidney and the kidney’s capsule – the sack in which the kidney is encased. Our other vet Tizzy was able to remove the bullet and repair the damaged capsule to keep the kidney safe. The positioning of the pellet shows just how close Summer came to losing her kidney – and possibly her life – which would have happened if the organ had been hit.
Summer is now fighting fit again, but she was lucky. If the air gun pellet had gone past her ribs into her lung cavity – or her heart – the outcome would have been very different. Hamish only recently discovered his own cat had at one time been shot with an air gun after he brought her in for x-rays for an unrelated condition. Each time we see pets hurt in this way it staggers us how people can be so cruel.
See below for pictures of Summer’s surgery – and the air gun pellet that could have taken her life.
