Hattie suddenly became very ill at home. She was panting lots and not interested in food or water. She was brought in to see Simon, who found that her breathing and heart rate were much faster than normal. She was also running a high temperature.
Simon was concerned that she was having difficulty breathing and so took some x-rays of her chest. These showed that the lungs weren't as clear as they should normally be. This can be caused by pneumonia, something like a grass seed getting stuck in the airways or potentially cancer as well. She was started on a drip and also some nasal oxygen (which is the tube you can see running in front of her nose in the picture) to help her breath. Later that day her breathing had settled and she was taken off the oxygen. Her temperature was still very high and so pneumonia was top of the list of potential causes. She was kept in our hospital at Warwick where we could keep a close eye on her 24hours a day to make sure her breathing didn't get worse again.
Two days later her breathing still hadn't returned to normal and so she was given a general anaesthetic and an endoscope with a small camera was passed into her airway to make sure there was nothing obstructing her breathing. Simon could see that her airways were clear so she was given an additional antibiotic to help treat the pneumonia.
A few days later she had responded well and was able to go home. She is now back to her normal self.
