Summer came in on Mother's Day - 26th March - 2006, from Archers Road in Ely. To date, hers is one of the worst cases of abuse and neglect that we have seen. She had a large wound on her back, about the size of an adult human hand. It looked like a burn but there were no signs of a flame injury (singed fur, smell etc.). When we cut her collar off, it revealed a deep wound in her front left armpit which had been caused by at least a month of the collar being stuck under her front leg. Then we noticed how terribly thin she was - literally skin and bone. Her fur did a good job of covering this fact up - but you can still discern from the pictures that she was very underweight.
We made her as comfortable as we could in our hospital wing and stayed with her all night. We administered rehydration fluids and fed her Hills a/d (a special, high calorie, high nutrient food given to injured animals).
We took her to our vets first thing in the morning. They were very shocked at her condition and insisted that she be blood-tested before any other treatment could be given - they couldn't believe that a cat this skeletal had nothing else more sinister going on (an underlying disease such as feline immunodefiency virus). But all of the tests came back ok, suggesting that she had been locked in somewhere with no access to food; cats are incredibly resourceful creatures and will usually be able to find a food supply of some sort. Whether her starvation was deliberate or whether she accidentally got locked in somewhere, we will never know.
The vets agreed that the injury on her back wasn't caused by flames or by chemicals. Summer hadn't fallen into boiling water or been doused entirely because the soles of her feet were fine. They could only surmise that the wound had been caused by someone tipping boiling water over her. They cleaned away all the dead tissue and stitched together what little healthy skin they could. The rest of it had to be left - a yellow open sore on her back (see picture).
They cleaned up her armpit, gave her a buster collar and sent her home with us with instructions for her care. The biggest risk was infection, especially with such a large surface area open to the air. To help counter this threat, we cleaned Summer's wounds twice daily and irrigated them with saline. We then applied a special cream to help soothe and heal the burns, as well as intrasite gel to help heal the collar injury. She was in such a weak state that she couldn't even have any pain medication - but the burns were so deep in places that (thankfully) there weren't any nerves with which to feel pain. We gave her additional heat pads in her pen (which is integrally heated anyway) to make sure that she was comfortable.
From the start, Summer had a good appetite and was generally bright, which was the best we could hope for. She had a real fighting spirit - this little cat wanted to live. Over the coming weeks, the burns on her back slowly changed colour - from that nasty yellow to a healthy looking red, indicating that the blood vessels were growing / recovering from the trauma.
The buster collar came off and healthy, new skin replaced the horrific wounds on her back. She gained weight steadily and eventually she was able to come off the Hills a/d and onto normal cat food - though with all of the chicken and fish she had become accustomed to, she was somewhat spoilt!
Summer no longer felt 'ill'. She was given the run of the main utility block and was even starting to manage small jumps. She would come running out to greet you, tail in the air, when you went into the room. Less than two months after she came to SHUA, Summer was a different cat. If it wasn't for the beautiful markings on her face, you would not have recognised her. The expression on her face, her whole demeanour had changed. Amazingly, even her fur had started to grow back - something we had never expected.
Summer is now a normal-sized (ok, a little podgy!), healthy, happy pussy-cat. She loves a cuddle and will jump onto your lap the instant you sit down! Summer has now been formally adopted by Jacqui, one of our trustees.
