February was not a good month in the Thomas household. My boyfriend Ian was rushed into hospital with appendicitis and had to have surgery. When I returned from visiting him in the hospital one Sunday night, I couldn't find Giacomo. It's most unlike him not to be either around at tea time or to appear immediately when called.
Eventually I found him; hiding under my bed and refusing to come out. Again, most unlike him. When I crawled under and slid him out, I found that he was breathing very heavily and quickly and didn't want to stand. It was every cat owner's nightmare - he'd been hit by a car.
I checked him over and discovered that he had a painful hip and pelvis and was shocked, but the rapid breathing didn't indicate anything more sinister going on in his chest. He'd also got a nasty wound on his tail.
He needed pain relief quickly. Living in Cardiff, I didn't want to take him up to Merthyr and back to get treatment, nor did I want to leave him at home whilst I went to fetch it. Luckily VETS, our emergency clinic have a branch close by at Galbalfa, along with the clinic that we usually use in Ystrad Mynach.
VETS are open from six o'clock at night, to eight o'clock the next morning and have a vet and veterinary nurse on site at all times to deal with emergencies through the night. They are also staffed all weekends and bank holidays, even Christmas Day. If we are not at the surgery, you can always contact them for advice or to be seen. They monitor our hospitalised animals overnight; the ambulance takes them there in the evening and returns them to us the next morning.
Giacomo was swiftly seen, painkillers and antibiotics were administered and his tail wounds clipped and cleaned. As with all emergency cases, they faxed his details to the practice the next day; they also have a website so that we can access comprehensive records when their vets are in bed recovering from their busy nights.
We X-rayed Giacomo at the practice once his breathing was back to normal and discovered that he had broken his hip. His was an incredibly tricky fracture to fix, especially in a young cat, so we referred him to the orthopaedic specialist Steve Butterworth at the Weighbridge Referral Centre in Swansea. It was a familiar route for Giacomo; they operate in the same building as the SMART clinic. His fracture was repaired, he was home the same day and by the next day he was walking almost perfectly on his leg and was back to being his normal, purry self.
Now I just have to keep him rested for eight weeks. We can't explain to him what is going on and he doesn't understand why he can't run and jump as normal, so he is confined. Here you can see visiting time in the living room.
Initially and some of the time now he is kept in the big cage we used to introduce the kittens to Rungo. We have also cleared a room of all furniture except a mattress on the floor and he is allowed out and about in there (it has a very low windowsill, otherwise it would not be suitable).
Thank goodness we got him insured. The bill for this accident alone is over £2200; I'm so glad we have PetPlan cover and can give him the treatment he deserves.
Now we just all need to stay sane whilst he's in jail. We're
considering getting him a TV with a DVD of a fish tank just to keep him interested!
