Looking better

​This gorgeous boy came in as a stray last week. As you can see, he was in a terrible state. His eye had popped out of the socket, he was riddled with fleas and ear mites, and a huge lesion on the inside of his mouth revealed that his upper jaw had been fractured. After examination by our vets, suspicions that our little cat had been hit by a car arose. It seemed a miracle that he was still alive. Sadly as he was not microchipped, we were unable to locate his owner. Unbelievably, even with these injuries, he is the friendliest, most loving cat in the world! He had melted all our hearts!

​So, where do we go with this distressing stray case? After he had us wrapped round his little paw from being so outstanding and lovely, LBVC decided to take on the cost for his treatment ourselves and give him another chance at life.

Firstly, on his arrival we administered pain relief. We continued to treat his fleas and ear mites, and gave him antibiotics prior to surgery.

The following day was surgery day. Steve performed an enucleation which literally means removing the eye. We X-Ray'd his chest and abdomen to check for any internal injuries from the suspected car accident. It was all clear - hurrah!

In recovery after his surgery

Part of the maxilla bone that had to be removed from his face

​Steve proceeded to treat the fractured jaw. It was very clear that a couple of teeth would need to be removed. When taking these teeth, this big section of fractured jaw came with them! This piece of bone seemed to be the only apparent problem with his mouth, so Steve stitched up the gum line to finish the surgery. While he was anaesthetised, we also castrated him and implanted a microchip for his future owner.

After a quick bath, nail clip and hair brush, he was a new man.

Now, 4 days on, he is back to his normal, loving, cuddly and gorgeous self (and also will not stay still for us to take a photo, we had to put him in a kennel to have him stay still!!)

Once he has fully healed from his surgery, this gorgeous boy will be ready to be re-homed to one very lucky owner.

​Stray cats are becoming an increasing problem in Britain, there are millions of them. Female strays can have up to 200 kittens in their lifetime, which means the stray cat population is ever growing. We see many stray cats here at LBVC and we are really struggling to find rescue centres to take them on as they are all full. A lot of these cats are un-neutered, not microchipped, and unlikely to be vaccinated, which in itself is the start to potential trouble. It seems this is what happened to our pussycat, he was un-neutered and most likely wandered on to a road where he was involved in the accident.

We all started this job because we want to help animals in need but we are not set up to be a rescue centre as we don't have the space to house them all or funds to cover all the treatments. We can't save them all as some have been too badly injured but at least we can make their passing gentle and painless. The ones we do save we are very successful finding good homes for. It's for this reason we are looking at ways to raise funds to help give more of these deserving cases a happy future. Watch this space.