Trish Allearz
Moderator
Okay, so this isn't so much about health care, per se, but about a health condition...
About 18 months ago, I had a kitten born that was apparently healthy and thriving up until 5 weeks of age when I began to wean the litter. At this point in time, she began to vomit any solids she attempted to eat and obviously quit thriving.
With the help of my wonderful vet, we diagnosed her condition as Persistent Right Aortic Arch through a barium swallow series of xrays. This condition exists due to a failure of the Aortic Arch, which is found in embryonic development, to fall away like it does in normal development. Instead, it restricts the esophagus and therefore causes issues with solids going down.
We busted our butts to get surgery for Neala and with the help of people near and far through the internet, we managed to afford her surgery. Locally- it was quoted at $5000. Since then, I have found vets throughout the country seem to range from about $2500-$5000 for this surgery. It is a very delicate surgery since it involves the heart- so it is understandable that the price is so very high. Neala had her surgery at barely one pound of weight- survived the surgery- and would be alive today except the vet hospital did not feed her the appropriate post-operative diet (after surgery- they MUST be fed a slurry of food- so basically liquid- until the esophagus has time to heal).
IF you have a kitten with PRAA- the symptoms typically will start exhibiting themselves as soon as the kitten begins to wean. The kitten will regurgitate its food almost immediately after eating and oftentimes, they will eat the regurgitated food over and over until it stays down. The risk of leaving a kitten with PRAA is that the kitten will eventually aspirate upon its regurgitated food and develop pneumonia. It will become a vicious cycle without surgery.
Although we lost our precious Neala, we HIGHLY recommend this surgery for others facing PRAA. While the surgery is expensive, in the hands of an experienced vet, kittens can and DO survive this surgery. PRAA is pretty rare in kittens, but we have made it our mission to help others who face this issue.
You can read more about Neala, view her pictures, and read her story here:
http://www.nealagottahavefaith.blogspot.com/
About 18 months ago, I had a kitten born that was apparently healthy and thriving up until 5 weeks of age when I began to wean the litter. At this point in time, she began to vomit any solids she attempted to eat and obviously quit thriving.
With the help of my wonderful vet, we diagnosed her condition as Persistent Right Aortic Arch through a barium swallow series of xrays. This condition exists due to a failure of the Aortic Arch, which is found in embryonic development, to fall away like it does in normal development. Instead, it restricts the esophagus and therefore causes issues with solids going down.
We busted our butts to get surgery for Neala and with the help of people near and far through the internet, we managed to afford her surgery. Locally- it was quoted at $5000. Since then, I have found vets throughout the country seem to range from about $2500-$5000 for this surgery. It is a very delicate surgery since it involves the heart- so it is understandable that the price is so very high. Neala had her surgery at barely one pound of weight- survived the surgery- and would be alive today except the vet hospital did not feed her the appropriate post-operative diet (after surgery- they MUST be fed a slurry of food- so basically liquid- until the esophagus has time to heal).
IF you have a kitten with PRAA- the symptoms typically will start exhibiting themselves as soon as the kitten begins to wean. The kitten will regurgitate its food almost immediately after eating and oftentimes, they will eat the regurgitated food over and over until it stays down. The risk of leaving a kitten with PRAA is that the kitten will eventually aspirate upon its regurgitated food and develop pneumonia. It will become a vicious cycle without surgery.
Although we lost our precious Neala, we HIGHLY recommend this surgery for others facing PRAA. While the surgery is expensive, in the hands of an experienced vet, kittens can and DO survive this surgery. PRAA is pretty rare in kittens, but we have made it our mission to help others who face this issue.
You can read more about Neala, view her pictures, and read her story here:
http://www.nealagottahavefaith.blogspot.com/
I had never heard of this condition before, so your sharing is not only informative, but heartfelt. Thank you!