Fixing a kitten's broken heart

Aug. 31—HERMITAGE — When a kitten was brought to the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter earlier this summer, the stray simply seemed to be having trouble eating.

A couple months later, the kitten — named Beanie — would undergo a life-saving surgery at Happy Tales Veterinary Hospital in Clark, giving the kitten a new chance at life.

"Beanie's doing phenomenal now, but at one point we almost had to choose whether to let her live and suffer for her last few weeks of life, or put her to sleep?" shelter Manager Angelia Sherman said.

Beanie was first brought to the animal shelter staff's attention on May 23, when a local resident called about a stray kitten that wasn't breathing.

At the time, Beanie was only five or six weeks old, and after the kitten was rushed to the animal shelter, she choked and vomited up some food. This initially led the staff to think Beanie was starving and ate food too quickly, Sherman said.

Shelter staff took Beanie to Happy Tales for a checkup, where the kitten seemed bright, alert and responsive.

Beanie went home with Happy Tales staff member Sue Smith as a foster, but when Beanie was fed a little bit of wet food more appropriate for a kitten, Beanie vomited again.

Beanie returned to Happy Tales, where owner Dr. Charles Yurkon took another look at Beanie.

Charles said although there were a few potential causes, one unlikely but still possible chance was that Beanie had a congenital malformation of the great blood vessels in her chest, known as a vascular ring anomaly.

This results in blood vessels encircling the kitten's esophagus, making it impossible for solid food to pass through, according to information provided by Happy Tales.

"Basically, Beanie's esophagus wasn't growing up with her," said Jennifer Yurkon, Charles' wife and co-owner of Happy Tales.

The condition could result in stunted growth and a "voracious appetite" secondary to malnourishment, and can also cause pneumonia, the information states.

If untreated, an animal with the condition will either starve to death due to an inability to feed or die due to pneumonia.

Despite the odds against a kitten like Beanie having the condition, Charles decided to perform an X-ray on the kitten just in case — and it turned out Beanie was afflicted, particularly with a persistent right aortic arch.

Unfortunately, identifying the condition didn't necessarily make the path forward any clearer, Charles said.

"I thought, 'now what are going to do?'" Charles said.

Happy Tales can perform many routine or less invasive procedures — such as spaying and neutering.

However, something as involved as the heart surgery Beanie would require — "cracking the chest," as some of the Happy Tales staff referred to it — would normally be referred to a surgical specialty hospital.

Jennifer said the Happy Tales staff do have a positive relationship with a couple such hospitals in Akron, Ohio and Pittsburgh, where they have referred multiple clients in the past.

But such hospitals can present their own issues, such as higher costs or longer travel distances for local clients.

Charles spoke with surgical doctors about the procedure and did some research, and after some consideration, he decided to perform the procedure at Happy Tales instead of sending Beanie elsewhere.

"That was probably the hardest part of the preparation," Charles said. "The moment in my head when I decided, 'okay, we're going to do this.'"

Since Beanie was still relatively young at the time, it was actually better to wait a couple months and give the kitten's body time to develop — increasing her chances of enduring surgery and anesthesia.

That also gave the Happy Tales staff time to prepare, which included more research, from reviewing books and videos, to ordering specialized equipment for the procedure.

In the meantime, Smith continued fostering Beanie, giving the kitten a special wet mixture, which was more digestible, on a rigid schedule, Dr. Taylor O'Malley said.

"She got up every two or three hours to make sure Beanie was fed," O'Malley said of Smith.

O'Malley previously worked at Happy Tales before returning as a veterinarian in July. With such a unique case occurring so early in her career, O'Malley said she and the other staff members was enthusiastic about the procedure.

"I wanted to be in on it. We had a lot of people here that were volunteering to help with it or watch it happen," O'Malley said.

When the time for the procedure came around late July, Charles said there were three doctors, three veterinary technicians and one vet student involved.

Among them was Dr. Casey Pawl, who said while Beanie was under anesthesia, the staff had to track the kitten's breathing — at one point increasing Beanie's breaths from once every six seconds to every three seconds.

Beanie's breathing was also complicated by the nature of the surgery, which kept the kitten on its side instead of its back, meaning one lung was underneath the chest.

The other lung had to be physically pushed away to allow for the surgical procedure, Charles said.

Despite the nervousness on the part of those performing the surgery, Pawl said the experience was an educational one for some of the clinic's younger staff.

"You have to watch how the kitten's doing, you have to watch her CO2 levels, you can help her breathe by hand if you need to," Pawl said. "There's a lot of things people can learn by watching this procedure."

For the surgeons, they were operating with an opening only a few inches wide, and while there had been much research by the staff ahead of time, Charles said it was still difficult seeing an animal's insides for the first time, while identifying what was supposed to be out of place.

"I was sweaty by the time I was done," he said.

The surgery itself lasted only about 45 minutes, not including prep time. But Beanie seemed to be doing fine afterward, and has continued to progress well ever since, including eating some dry, solid food, O'Malley said.

"We've been trying to control her, that's how well Beanie's been doing," O'Malley said.

Although Charles and the staff are technically capable of doing such a procedure again, future clients in need of a surgical procedure will continue to be recommended to surgical specialty hospitals and that many factors combined to make Beanie's case unique.

"There was the fact it turned out to be this issue at all, the time in this kitten's life we diagnosed it, the nature of the issue — there were a lot of things," Charles said.

Beanie is just one of many cats that have gone through the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter's care this year.

As of early August, the shelter staff had taken in 103 dogs and 103 cats. Including animals that were brought in and adopted out to forever homes, the number climbs to 565 animals, Sherman said.

That total number of animals served was only 398 animals last year, reflecting an increased need in the community.

A further 359 stray or feral cats were trapped, neutered and returned this year. These trap, neuter and return, or TNR programs were made possible through volunteers and grants, including grants from the Glenn and Jean Harnett Private Charitable Foundation.

Calls for animal control services are also higher, with 159 calls as of early August — compared to 168 calls for the entire year of 2022, Sherman said.

"The need has gone up, and we're still struggling with summer staff going back to school, so our resources have gone down," Sherman said.

Like David L. Dye on Facebook or email him at ddye@sharonherald.com.