Zara McDermott gives 'emotional' update after Sam Thompson concern

Zara McDermott was emotional as she gave an update days after her and Sam Thompson became concerned for their beloved pet cat, named Cedric.

The couple also share pet cat called Albus, both named after I'm A Celeb star Sam's favourite Harry Potter characters. Zara shared an update earlier this week sharing a photo of Cedric in a pet carrier with a bandaged leg.

"My heart is breaking into a million pieces at the moment," the former Strictly Come Dancing star wrote alongside the update to her Instagram followers. She explained: "Just before the weekend while I was away working, Sam woke up to our little man unresponsive and super hot. So he was rushed to the vet and then he was rushed to an emergency animal hospital.

"We hope it was just a stomach infection and it was getting better as they found his white blood cells were very low and had inflamed stomach/intestines/lymph nodes when scanned. But after three days just as we hoped he's turned a corner, he's very anaemic and jaundiced with a heart murmur."

Zara explained he was taken to another animal hospital according to reports in Manchester Evening News. Sam had been rushing between his tour dates to the veterinary hospital, as she asked fans to 'say a little prayer' for her fur baby.

Another post saw the former Love Island star share another snap of her cat when he was well. She wrote: "My hear is breaking at the thought of him being on his own in a little cage not understanding what's going on and why we've left him [crying emoj]. I know people may think I'm being dramatic and think 'he's only a cat', but honestly, I love them so much."

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The reality star added: "They are everything to us, they are our children!! [face holding back tears emoji]. I hope these specialists are able to get to the bottom of it all."

Following her appearance on The One Show on Thursday, where she chatted about her latest BBC3 documentary, Zara revealed she was finally able to collect her beloved pet.

She shared a sweet picture of their reunion, and wrote: "Felt so emotional picking up by boy after a week apart [face holding back tears emoji]. Haven't got a purr yet but I'm hoping tomorrow he'll be feeling more himself after a good night's sleep. We have got a proper diagnosis now which I'll do on my story tomorrow as so many of you have been asking."

The 27-year-old returned to social media on Friday with a video message to her followers to keep them updated. She explained: "Honestly, he was a bit traumatised. I'm not going to lie, but he's feeling a bit better now. He's definitley very sleepy and wants a lot of rest..."

After showing Cedric's shaved tummy and patches on his legs, she continued: "So the diagnosis is that he has something called neutrophilic/bacterial cholangitis which is an inflammatory liver disease. He's also got a lot inflammation in his gallbladder, his bile ducts, you could see it all on the ultrasounds that they did on him.

"He's got a lot of inflammation and his liver is not looking all that lovely at the moment but I think with time, he's on a month's course of antibiotics, he's also on some liver support drugs, so he'll be feeling better I hope very soon. He's not doing too badly..."

Zara joked that their other cat, Albus, hasn't seemed impressed about Cedric's return and had been "loving life as an only child".

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