I often wish that animals could talk, so they could tell us what happened to them.
Greg is a complete mystery. He is a big, handsome gray cat but his feet were a disaster when he arrived at the shelter. Three of his feet had big, red fleshy areas on the underside. After sedating him to get a better look, I could see one pad on each foot had split open and what I was looking at was the inside of his pad on the outside! The pad had tried to close around it, so this had been going on for some time.
Surgery was extensive. Two of the pads were toe pads, so it was easier and a better prognosis to remove the toe. He lost a toe on one front foot and one rear foot. The real problem was the other front foot, as that was the large pad he walks on. The excess tissue was removed and the pad sewed closed.
Unfortunately, pads do not heal well and I was worried about his recovery. As predicted, the surgery site opened again – twice! At that point, I just had to bandage it and let it heal on its own. This required weeks of bandage changes, but Greg was the most patient cat I have every dealt with. He is super affectionate, loves to be held and the whole staff loves him.
Greg tested positive for the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), so he needs to be an indoor-only cat. FIV positive cats can live with FIV negative cats if they get along since it is transmitted primarily by bite wounds. But since we don’t know if Greg gets along with other cats, and don’t want to take a chance of infecting another cat, we recommend he be adopted as an only cat.
Torino came into the shelter with the string from a “fuzzy dice” car ornament wrapped around his rear leg, cutting off the circulation. I had already left for the day so when Judith, my vet tech, called, I thought I would just be going in to sedate him and remove the string. But one look at his leg and I could tell the muscles of his leg were dead. Our only option was an emergency amputation. Dead muscles can quickly make an animal extremely sick.
We had no idea if Torino would be friendly and adoptable. If he was feral, he would not be a good candidate for the surgery as he would require antibiotics and follow-up care. What if we couldn’t get our hands on him the next day? I decided to give him a chance and go ahead with the surgery. The procedure went well and he recovered normally.
The next day we could touch him but he cowered in the back of his kennel, preferring to be left alone. Amazingly, after three days, when Judith was cleaning his kennel, Torino rubbed his head against her hand and started purring. He became very loving and was adopted quickly after his recovery was complete.
Both of these cats defied the odds and will make great pets for their lucky adopters. Sometimes they just need to be given a chance. Torino is doing great in his new home and sweet Greg is still waiting to be adopted.
— By Dr. Lisa Levy, Aiken County Animal Shelter Veterinarian
