Paddy
is probably the worst rescue case I have personally ever
seen. His condition was absolutely appalling. Only
around 18 months old he had endured a very sad start in
life. Paddy had no fur what’s so ever underneath his
body, legs
and
chest he was full of soars and swollen and looked like
he had been dipped in boiling water or burnt by fire.
There were balding patches on his sides; his claws were
so over grown they curled into his pads causing
infection. He was under weight only weighing 2.25kg the
average cat weighs around double that. The most
extraordinary part of his condition was his claw beds
they were red roar, very swollen with no fur around them
with a white and cream thick smelly discharge just like
cottage cheese. With all of this poor Paddy could not
stand up and was so weak. He also showed slight
deformity with his back legs and hips. The Vet said she
had never seen anything like this before. Straight away
he was given pain relief and several other medications.
He was blood tested which showed several deficiency in
his immune and body system.
After
several days in the vets he came home with all his
medication to be administered every day. But the hardest
part was we had to clean his claw beds every day by
squeezing the discharge out and washing them with an
anti-bacterial shampoo for cats on each toe one by one
leaving the potion on for 15 minutes and then dipping
Paddy in a washing up bowl of clean water to rinse off
the soap. As you can imagine cats hate water at the best
of times. I would hold him and my husband would do the
cleaning, he would try to nip our fingers and he cried
with the pain this made us very upset the tears filling
up in our eyes, and hope all this would be worth it and
he would get better. As time went by and he was checked
by the vet every week for a month the bathing was cut
down to every other day for another month.
Three months in total have now past and his soars and
fur has all grown back every where all soft and tufty,
his claw beds are not swollen soar and free from
discharge and the claws are growing normally now. His
weight is now 5kg he even has a podgy belly.
Paddy
will always be on steroids for the rest of his life.
Even writing this article brings back the tears of what
he has been through we love him very dearly. Paddy made
a new friend whilst in foster care Teddy and 1 year old
black male full of fun they sleep together clean each
other and play how could I part them both nobody would
want Paddy with all his problems so Paddy and Teddy are
now full members of our household bringing our total to
7.
I will never understand people and how many pets are
neglected. How long had Paddy been a stray and why have
his owners never reported missing. I have learnt not to
be surprised anymore by the cruelty we see we are
supposed to be a nation of animal lovers but there are
only really a small minority that do care. I know we
cannot help them all but I am glad that Paddy is one of
the lucky ones to get the veterinary care he so
desperately needed
Peitra (Orpington Cat Rescue Fosterer) |
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