We picked Boots up late in March, 2010. We had first been informed about him back in February, but despite several attempts, had been denied access to the garden where he had camped out.
When we finally found him, we could smell the stench of infection and feel the skeletal frame of what was once a very large cat. He was wearing an old elasticated leather collar around his neck BUT this had obviously been put 'back' in place by someone … he had a very, very deep wound in his front armpit where the collar had obviously been cutting into his flesh for quite some time.
We rushed him to our vets, who said that it was the worst collar injury she had ever seen - the collar had been cutting into his armpit for at least a month.
For those of you who aren't familiar with collar injuries, what happens is that the cat gets one of their front legs through the collar, while it is still around their neck. Obviously the collar will be too small to fit around the cat's neck and armpit - and so the collar starts to dig into the flesh in the armpit and sometimes on the opposite side of the neck too. Sometimes the skin starts to grow back over the collar because it is embedded so deeply into the armpit. An open wound will obviously then become infected and start to cause serious problems.
The collars which cause this type of injury are flea collars with an elasticated piece on them and a buckle. See pictures on this page. Every cat SHUA has seen with collar injuries (Lottie, Stretch, Summer, Seth, to name a few) has been wearing this kind of collar. If your cat wears a collar, PLEASE make sure that you do not use this kind. ONLY buy the safety 'snap' collars - these have a plastic button which pops open under pressure, meaning that if your cat gets the collar caught or snagged on something or tries to put its leg through, the collar will pop open and your cat will be unharmed. If you need to treat your cat for fleas please use something like Frontline Spot-On, which when used regularly as per the instructions on the pack, will keep your cat flea-free.
Sadly, Boots' infection was too advanced to treat successfully. His entire lymph system had swollen up and you could not even distinguish his shoulder from his neck. This was repeated down every lymph junction down that side of his body. He was having great difficulty swallowing due to the inflammation of his throat. It is easy to tell when a cat has given up and wants to die - but Boots did not - he clearly wanted a chance to know some love and kindness before he left this earth. For a week, we cleaned and nursed Boots, struggling to keep his pain under control and trying to gain his trust. We kept on hoping for a miracle - but when Jenny, one of our trustees who gives reiki treatment to the animals at SHUA, saw Boots, she immediately felt that he had cancer everywhere. We took Boots back to our vets and they agreed. On a daily basis we could see and feel it growing. But by now, Boots was loving and fussing us, purring every time we saw him; rubbing his battered head in our hands and trying to wash us. Thanking us for giving him a chance. It was absolutely hearbreaking. Kay, Jessica and Jacqui could only measure his behaviour every day to decide WHEN Boots had had enough.
Easter Sunday was a glorious sunny day. Boots was purring and smiling at us but he hadn't managed his food and breathing was becoming increasingly more difficult for him. Kay, Jacqui and Charlotte (our vet) all cuddled him as he went to sleep that once last time, purring all the way.
Boots' story IS heartbreaking. It has left another scar on all of our hearts, another little soul we tried our best to save. Unfortunately for Boots we found him too late. But we have to take comfort in the fact that Boots enjoyed love, cuddles and friendship in the short time he had with us. Someone out there must have missed him - he had "BOOTS" engraved onto the namedisc on his collar, with a Penarth/Llandough phone number, sadly disconnected.
If you take anything away from reading this story, please spread the word about the dangers of buckled flea collars. Please help us to prevent this from happening to another cat.
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