Big Hearts [aka Tiny Minds, Part 2]

Enter Mr Wounded Kitty [MWK] MWK is an adult cat that was either dumped or grossly mistreated in the past. He was brought in this afternoon by Mrs BigHeart. Mrs BigHeart had seen MWK around her house 2 weeks ago. She thought he was a stray, but he seemed desperate for human contact. After 2 weeks of coaxing and gentle words, MWK came out of hiding and into her home. The first thing she did was give MWK a bowl full of food and cool water. The 2nd thing she did was bring him to us.


He is a mess. He was either a pampered housecat before this [given the inability to get himself out of harm's way], horribly mistreated/neglected, or one of the unluckiest cats in the world. His teeth are atrocious. 2 canines are broken, other teeth are brown and the rest have worn away to almost nothing. His right ear has been chewed to bits and is constantly bleeding. One eye has a thick discharge oozing from it. And the most telling sign of this cat's tough past? His front legs have been broken. Both of them. They have healed in the position you see here. In Indiana, there are few things that could break both front legs at the same spot without leaving any marks, save for a single, thin scar wrapping around the leg directly above the break. The other techs and I shared a knowing look....a smooth-edged live-trap. They are still legal to use, provided you check them at least once every 24 hours. I somehow doubt this one was. He can still walk and one paw can still knead, but his other paw has limited movements.

We were all cheering for this little fighter, and had our fingers crossed as we waited for the FeLV/FIV test results. He's NEGATIVE!!! He dodged that bullet, at least. We clipped MWK's nails on the semi-lame paw and taught the owner to do the same. We flushed the bloody ear, but decided to keep it at that. For now, it's draining nicely. MWK also went home with a few bottles of antibiotics, and a small hairless patch on his chest where we shaved some particularly nasty matted fur.

He would have undoubtedly died if left out on his own much longer. We don't know what happened to him before we saw him, but we understand that it doesn't matter. He is one of the lucky ones who found someone willing to help him. Here's the incredibly happy ending to this story: MWK actually has 2 people arguing over who will get to be his human. Mrs BigHeart, who found him, or her mother.

If only every pet could be as lucky as Mr Wounded Kitty.

Tiny Minds

All too often, we see examples of just how stupid humans are [at least the ones who choose to remain in the dark], but some days we have the opportunity to see the other side of the spectrum; a person with a heart so big, you can't help but feel all warm and tingly. Today, I met one of each.

Let's start with Rocky. Rocky is a 6 month old Bichon Frise puppy who came into the clinic last Thursday for a 'routine' neuter. His human dropped him off around 8am and was visibly upset with the idea of leaving him there all day. She was convinced that something awful was going to happen and she thought he might even die on the operating table. Of course she wasn't concerned enough to opt for the PreSurg bloodwork or ECG to make sure none of that transpired. You can just guess which was his neuter headed.....that's right, straight down. His heart rate dropped to below 50bpm, and wasn't bearthing on his own. As the only tech in the mornings, I alternated between bagging the little guy, monitoring his ever-decreasing heart rate and running for more atropine. Thankfully, it was just a neuter and the surgery was over quickly so we could focus on waking him up. Due to this little incident, we decided to keep him over night.

The next morning, I came in to find him wagging his tail so hard, I thought it would fly off his butt. He was given the green light to go home. Since the owner was so worried the previous day, i wrote down everything she could possibly do to speed up his recovery time [make him wear an e-collar or bite-not, keep him confined, don't let him jump up, make sure he's always on a leash when outside, etc.]. The weekend passes. What do we see when we arrive back to work Monday morning? A fax from the emergency clinic in town about Rocky. The owners didn't put an e-collar on him, nor did they monitor him. He had licked off all the glue and re-opened the surgery site. The ER clinic glued it again and gave them a an e-collar. They came back the next day with the same problem. ER gave them another e-collar and stapled the site shut. Rocky's owners brought him back into my clinic today with...you guessed it... THE SAME PROBLEM! I supposed being told 3 times isn't enough. We put a bite-not on him. Think that will do any good?

My Daemon.

Surprise, surprise...it's a kitty! Gee, didn't see that one coming.