Notes from a clinic....

Today we spayed, neutered and vaccinated 54 cats--a pretty good day for us. None were pregnant, but one was post-partum and required subcutaneous fluids post-surgery.

Three cases stand out--one was two kittens from the same litter with birth defects. Each was born without an eye, one on the left and one on the right. The eyes were not lost to trauma--they just never formed. When the kittens opened their eyes the empty sockets became infected. They are currently being treated with antibiotics and in a week or so the infected tissue will be cleaned out and the empty sockets sewn shut--hopefully they will also have gained enough weight for the full course of spay/neuter surgery and shots.

One of the kittens today was a "failure to thrive" kitten, again the probable result of birth defects. It had been abandoned by it's mother; one eye was cataract-cloudy and Dr. Muraka determined that it's internal organs were deformed and abnormally enlarged. There was nothing to be done for it except euthanasia--the only cat we lost today.

A female red tabby was brought to us by a trapper who planned on releasing her back to her colony. The cat had an injured leg. An X-ray showed a compound fracture of the upper femur; the bone segments were completely separated and facing at different angles. The cat was probably hit by a car. Dr. Muraka saw on the X-ray that calcium deposits had begun to form on the ends of the bone segments, and consequently the femur could not be reset. He estimated the injury to be at least five weeks old, and the only option was an upper thigh amputation.

This was a classic compound fracture, only the bone did not protrude through the skin--this saved the cat's life, as it would not have survived the resulting infection. This cat will need to be kept indoors and is not feral, but the trapper did not know this. A recovery foster has been found, one of our vet techs is hunting for a financial deal on the amputation (normally around $400.00-$600.00), and the rest of us are waiting to "pass the hat around". She's not quite out of the woods yet, but so far this girl has almost used up two of her nine lives. Stay tuned....

Wow. So many stories. I sure wish there was an answer to the over population of kitties. Your vet tech has a big to foster this poor little one.

I hope the recovering kitties are doing well Gosh, that's a busy day.

A light day for us, especially as over half of the surgeries were neuters--makes things a bit crazy in recovery, as Dr. Muraka just lines those cats up and does them like they're on an assembly line, but it means that we finish sooner. We did more ferals than usual--I was pretty busy eartipping, and the ferals move out of recovery faster than friendly strays or housecats. I think that's because in order to survive outdoors full-time the ferals need and have a more robust constitution; they shake off the anesthesia faster and with fewer complications. If a cat stays in recovery for more than a half hour it's pretty much certain that it's not a feral.

We had four spay/abortion surgeries, none with complications. One cat was an advanced pregnancy, and the trapper initially wanted to hold her until after the holidays--by Thanksgiving she would have had her kittens. Tough call--I probably would have let the pregnancy go once it was that far along, but often there is no real way to tell until the cats come to a clinic like ours.

The latest on the "eyeball" kittens is that they're being treated with antibiotics; as soon as they have gained enough weight and are old enough for the stress of surgery they will be spayed/neutered and their eye sockets cleaned and sewn shut. The latest on the kitty with the broken leg is that a surgeon has been found who will do the amputation either for free or at cost; for now the cat is resting comfortably with its fosters.

Two of my kittens were adopted today--something of a bittersweet moment. I acquired the kittens by accident when I discovered a box dumped outside of the PSPCA that had a mother and four kittens inside of it. The mother has since disappeared (my cats are allowed out during the summer months after they've been either spayed or neutered; most stick to the back deck or the alley behind the house), one of the male kittens disappeared and probably died--I just haven't found his remains yet, and his brother was adopted about two months ago by a coworker and has since become the subject of an amusing You-Tube video.

Two of the cats at this week's clinic turned up positive for FELV, but none were euthanized--homes were found for both of them.

No clinic this week, as we're taking a break for Thanksgiving, and I'll sit out the following week--I don't much care about the Super Bowl but I never miss an Army-Navy Game. Go Army, Beat Navy...!!!