If we had to make an introduction of Bo, we would say he is a young, adventurous yet affectionate cat.
His adventurous spirit took over and he went out one evening and stayed out for 18 hours!
His owners were becoming increasingly worried but eventually he showed up at their door at 3 pm the following day.
Although he didn’t have any visible wounds or bleeding, he was walking only on 3 legs. This confirmed the fear that the owners were feeling, they knew something serious had happened.
Luckily, Bo made it back home and he was promptly brought to us for examination. It was clear Bo had a significant injury, but what, how or when it happened nobody knew.
But that didn’t matter much, what we and the owners needed to focus on was to get him back to full health.
We admitted Bo for further testing and X-rays. He was found in good general health, albeit his leg not so much!
That’s how his leg looked like on X-rays:
This is a kind of fracture classified as Salter-Harris type 2. In simple words it’s a fracture that causes the growth plate to be separated and additionally a fractured fragment from the main bone.
Sadly, if these fractures are not fixed, the animals can have limb deformity and poor/no use of the limb.
The situation was very unexpected as even though Bo is very adventurous, he never normally goes far from home and is always ready to cuddle up in his cosy bed at night.
Despite the difficult situation, his owners had no hesitation in deciding what was in Bo’s best interest.
The surgery was scheduled for the following day and under the care of our skilled team, Bo was out of theatre in under an hour!
See if you can spot the difference on these X-rays:
So, we used two crossed pins and an additional smaller pin to fix the little fragment from the main bone. The surgery went well, the anaesthesia was smooth, and we were all happy with how Bo did throughout the procedure.
He was sent home with a set of instructions to aid his rehabilitation and a course of medications.
During his follow-up appointments the vets were satisfied with Bo’s progress and so were his owners.
After 7 weeks of rehabilitation, Bo has made a full recovery, and we are pleased to see him back to his normal self.
We think Bo was extremely lucky in surviving what we think was a Road Traffic Accident.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish Bo all the best and to remind everyone to be a little more careful on the road, both for our own and others safety.
