Friday 3 January 2014

Three Legs | elliewoods


Mariah turned up on our doorstep around 5 and a half years ago at the age of 5 months old. With persistence and utter determination she not only made her way into our house but also our hearts. And that of our Rhodesian Ridgeback X dog Ralph who was 12 at the time. Anyone who meets her instantly fall in love with her and her personality. She is not a cat she is a little human in a cats body.
The end of 2013 was quite a stressful and emotional one.
On the 11th of December my mum accidently ran over my darling little kitty in the driveway. As she had decided that she no longer wanted to lie in the flowerbed but instead wanted to lie in our steep driveway and lick herself. Luckily for us and my cat Mariah, I was standing at the end of the driveway at the time and was able to hit Mariah slightly out of the way and stop my mum from completely running over her. 

It was then a mad dash to the vet where we were sure we were going to lose her. We knew she had at least a broken leg, which was evident whilst holding her.

The beautiful vets at KVH took her off us and immediately put her in an oxygen chamber. Later that night once she was stabilised (around 9:30pm) they began to operate on her. 80% of her diaphragm had been destroyed and had to be fixed and also a small proportion of her bladder had to be removed. The operation was finished around 12:30am. Which we then had to convert her to the Emergency Hospital, as she would have to be observed overnight. This was because she had a large amount of air on her chest and a small tear in her windpipe; they said they couldn’t believe she was still alive, as most cats would just give up. After being observed and transported back to KVH in a oxygen chamber. We were told she was now able to breath on her own. Mariah stayed three days in KVH and finally we were allowed to bring her home.
 (two days after accident)
(first day home and instantly wanted to go outside)
Her leg still hadn’t been fixed so it was highly bandaged, as they wanted to deal with the life threatening injuries first. So we continued taking her to the vet to get her bandaged changed every two days. A week later they told us that two of her toes had no blood going to them and had to be removed. So they were removed that day.
Then on 23rd of December they told us that the leg would have to be removed as there was no longer any blood going to the remaining two toes, her stitches in her stomach also had to be removed and cleaned as her stitches were infected. Later on in the day they rang and told us that they could not go through with the operation as it was to dangerous and Mariah had stopped breathing during the operation to remove the leg. Luckily they were able to revive her, but she was to weak to go through with the operation that week.

On the 30st of December we took her in to get her bandaged changed once again. They looked her over and told us that she was ready for the operation. So on the 31st of December we took her in bright and early in the morning for her operation. Everything went well and we were able to bring her home that night to celebrate the New Year.

(day before leg amputation)
Now the 4th of January and she is slowly returning back to her old self, her fur is slowly growing back and she is slowly regaining some of the weight which she lost following the accident. She is still unable to properly walk but does give it quite a go. The lower half of the staples in her stomach are due to come out next Thursday and the stitches on her leg and the upper body staples are due to come out the following Thursday.
Well this was quite an emotional one to write, just rethinking about that day and all that has been done to save our gorgeous little kitty always gets me a bit teary.


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