Peter, a stray black and white cat, was found lying semi-conscious in the road - he had obviously been hit by a car and was bleeding profusely from his mouth. The lady who discovered him rushed him straight into our RSPCA Clinic, knowing that his only hope would be immediate veterinary attention.

The Clinic team leapt into action - first Peter was given emergency treatment to stabilise the shock and blood loss, then we had to examine his mouth under general anaesthetic to see where all the blood was coming from. We found a really nasty injury – Peter’s hard palate (the roof of his mouth) had been completely split open by the impact of the car.

Peter had to undergo surgery to stitch up the split. It was important that the injury was completely closed by the sutures, because otherwise food material can get into the wound and cause problems with infection.

The split in Peter's pallet

In fact, for the first few days Peter was completely “NIL BY MOUTH”, to allow the healing process to start. We placed a feeding tube into Peter’s food-pipe in his neck so we could give him liquid food straight into his stomach, by-passing his sore mouth. Peter needed very intensive care over the next few days, but the RSPCA nurses were determined he was going to pull through.

Peter all better after his operation

Peter was a perfect patient – he was very tolerant of his feeding tube and was good about having to have loads of injections every day. He became a firm favourite with the Clinic staff so we were all delighted when the tube came out and Peter started to eat normally again. Here he is fully recovered, scoffing down his last meal with us. Nobody came forward to claim Peter so he was transferred through to the Animal Home next-door to be found lovely a new family.

A lovely sight to see Peter able to eat again and ready for a new home

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 10:05 am and is filed under Patient Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.