Cats

In October 2009, Edmund went missing from home for three days. When he came back he had a large wound extending the length of the left fore leg and a few toes were looking worse for wear. After the vet assessed his leg it was found that some of his toes were too damaged to save and there was likely ligament damage, meaning the leg was unstable. Edmund was given the options to either amputate the leg or to attempt wound management. His owner chose to undertake intensive wound management, which was going to be a long process with the risk that amputation might still be needed.

Ash has recovered well from her ordealSix year old Ash, a domestic short haired cat, was rushed to Adelaide Animal Hospital on the 29th of September after her owners found her outside not moving that morning. When Dr Bryony Senic examined Ash she was paralysed. Her pupils were very dilated and minimally responsive to light, and she was breathing very shallowly and rapidly. Dr Senic was concerned that Ash may have been bitten by a snake. Her owners had also previously seen a brown snake in their yard.

Dear Hospital Staff,

Thank you all for finding me a pet human. He seems to be nice, but I am a bit wary of him; he being so big and much different from you girls. However, he has treated me well and has given the greatest of joys. He has a settee and I am in ecstasy sharpening my claws on it. Good designed sofas just for my felix brethren. He feeds me well enough and I always have a fun and happy tummy.

Norma is a 6 month old tortoiseshell kitten full of personality who came to us in August for a sore foot. Normally an indoor cat, she managed to get outside and may have gotten into trouble with another cat as she had two puncture marks that may have been from a bite. But what else may she have got up to?

Many people are unaware that most human medications are not suitable for pets. One problem is the different size of pets. An average cat weighs 5kg and an average person may weigh 70kg. So if you give a cat a human tablet you are overdosing it 14 times. Even a 30kg kelpie would be getting twice as much medication as would normally be prescribed. The second and often more serious problem is that pets may metabolise the medication differently to humans. This is particularly true of cats who lack a specific enzyme that is responsible for breaking down medications (and some potential poisons) into safer chemicals.

Milo was presented to the hospital one lovely afternoon after his owners returned from holidays to find him limping. On physical examination he had a skin wound on his left foreleg and his humerus felt unstable. The veterinarian suspected a possible fracture of the leg so after discussion with his owners, Milo was given an anesthetic and x-rays were taken of his leg. Unfortunately the gods were not with Milo and the x-rays revealed a spiral fracture of his humerus.

Sandy is an 11 year old cat. He had previously required surgery due to repeated episodes of urinary obstruction 7 years ago. This required that he had the end of his penis removed so that the opening would stop getting continually blocked. He had had no problems since then. During his routine vaccination his owner reported that Sandy had been urinating small amounts frequently and had discomfort when urinating for about 1 month and was also losing weight.

Mika is an affectionate smokey grey cat that came to us one night after a nasty misadventure. Her owner came home that night to find her injured and bleeding. We suspected she had ventured onto the road which is unusual for her since she would normally not venture past the front porch.

'Max' Halcrow is a 10 year old cat who had been living happily with his owner Yasmin, in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide. After moving house to the foot hills of Adelaide and acquiring two additional family members, 2 new cats, Yasmin noticed Max was becoming restless.

At 14 years of age "Scottie" is one of our more senior patients. He visited us recently for his annual checkup and to have a vaccination. His owner reported that he had become rather snuffly of late. The checkup showed that he had lost quite a bit of weight during the last year and that he seemed to be having trouble breathing through his nose.