Elle the cat's leg surgery
Donation protected
Hello, if you're taking the time to read this I thank you in advance and I promise you a heartwarming story of a very sweet kitten who aparently has some of the worst luck in the world. Back in september one of my co-workers brought two very young kittens in to work. They were barerly four weeks old when their mother abandoned them and one of them was quite aparently paralized from the waist down. After a short discussion with my girlfriend we decided that it was our mission to do everything within our power to make sure the the kitten had the best life possible.
The day we got her was her one month birthday, September 26th. We immediatly took her to the vet and when told them her story, they did all they could to help. Our vet is incredible by the way, they have given Elle free check ups and are always excited when she comes in to visit, which I must admit is quite frequently. Elle was given an x-ray to see why she was paralized. It turns out that she has a slight seperation between two vertebrae causing most of her problems and also giving her a disinctive hump along her back. It was also discovered that her right hip was dislocated, she had a wound along her back as well but it couldn't be determined if that was a result of her injury or the cause. Regardless, our vet determined that it could one day be possible to rehabilite her and teach her to walk.
The first month and a half was full of vet visits two or three times a day to get her bladder expressed as she was incapable of doing it herself. She still needs to have her bladder expressed for her but in that time we have learned to do it ourselves. This brings up another issue Elle has, frequent urinary tract infections. Until the time that she has enough muscle control to do it herself, she will unfortunatly be always at risk of U.T.I.'s. Since then however her vet trips have been reduced to only two or three a week for laser therapy. It may sound like a lot still, and it is, but it's a lot less than the twentyone we used to do.
This brings us to the base problem and the reason I'm reaching out now. Last Saturday, January 14th, we were taking Elle for her laser therapy. As soon as we stepped outside though, there was a low flying airplane that spooked Elle. I was holding her at the time and she tried to get away by twisting 180 degrees in my arms and trying to climb up my jacket. When we carefully freed her, we noticed that her leg had a bend in it. Fortunately we were already on our way to the vet. After about an hour and a half and more x-rays we were given a very difficult decision to make. It turns out that Elle had broken her leg at the knee, snapping the growth plate off. As good as our vets are, the are not orthopedic surgeons. We were told our only two options were to either take her to a specialist in another city which would cost several thousand dollars or to amputate, which could be done locally for under a thousand. We slept on it. It was hard for us to justify the cost being that she was already paralized but reason prevaled. We realized that if we amputated, she would almost certainly never be able to walk again and we have far too much of ourselves invested in this little girl to just give up her. That and as I mentioned before, one of her hips had already been dislocated. This was not the leg that broke unfortunately so if we amputated, she would be left with an already bad leg.
In the short time that we've had Elle she has managed to start moving her legs a bit and twitch her tail. She can stand on all four legs and even walk a little if the surface is rough enough for her to grip. We know it's possible to give her her mobility which is why we refuse to give up on her. As I write this, her surgery is booked for tomorrow, so it's going to happen either way but the quote we were given by the vet starts at 3700 dollars and could easily be more given any complications that may arise.
Elle means so much to us and to everyone that meets her. She often comes in to work with me to visit and has probably made more friends in her short life than I have. I thank you once again for reading this, I know I rambled a bit but she really is very special. She never cries or complains and every day I'm amazed at the hurdles she's overcome.
Thank you so much,
Roland Kristen, and especially Elle.
The day we got her was her one month birthday, September 26th. We immediatly took her to the vet and when told them her story, they did all they could to help. Our vet is incredible by the way, they have given Elle free check ups and are always excited when she comes in to visit, which I must admit is quite frequently. Elle was given an x-ray to see why she was paralized. It turns out that she has a slight seperation between two vertebrae causing most of her problems and also giving her a disinctive hump along her back. It was also discovered that her right hip was dislocated, she had a wound along her back as well but it couldn't be determined if that was a result of her injury or the cause. Regardless, our vet determined that it could one day be possible to rehabilite her and teach her to walk.
The first month and a half was full of vet visits two or three times a day to get her bladder expressed as she was incapable of doing it herself. She still needs to have her bladder expressed for her but in that time we have learned to do it ourselves. This brings up another issue Elle has, frequent urinary tract infections. Until the time that she has enough muscle control to do it herself, she will unfortunatly be always at risk of U.T.I.'s. Since then however her vet trips have been reduced to only two or three a week for laser therapy. It may sound like a lot still, and it is, but it's a lot less than the twentyone we used to do.
This brings us to the base problem and the reason I'm reaching out now. Last Saturday, January 14th, we were taking Elle for her laser therapy. As soon as we stepped outside though, there was a low flying airplane that spooked Elle. I was holding her at the time and she tried to get away by twisting 180 degrees in my arms and trying to climb up my jacket. When we carefully freed her, we noticed that her leg had a bend in it. Fortunately we were already on our way to the vet. After about an hour and a half and more x-rays we were given a very difficult decision to make. It turns out that Elle had broken her leg at the knee, snapping the growth plate off. As good as our vets are, the are not orthopedic surgeons. We were told our only two options were to either take her to a specialist in another city which would cost several thousand dollars or to amputate, which could be done locally for under a thousand. We slept on it. It was hard for us to justify the cost being that she was already paralized but reason prevaled. We realized that if we amputated, she would almost certainly never be able to walk again and we have far too much of ourselves invested in this little girl to just give up her. That and as I mentioned before, one of her hips had already been dislocated. This was not the leg that broke unfortunately so if we amputated, she would be left with an already bad leg.
In the short time that we've had Elle she has managed to start moving her legs a bit and twitch her tail. She can stand on all four legs and even walk a little if the surface is rough enough for her to grip. We know it's possible to give her her mobility which is why we refuse to give up on her. As I write this, her surgery is booked for tomorrow, so it's going to happen either way but the quote we were given by the vet starts at 3700 dollars and could easily be more given any complications that may arise.
Elle means so much to us and to everyone that meets her. She often comes in to work with me to visit and has probably made more friends in her short life than I have. I thank you once again for reading this, I know I rambled a bit but she really is very special. She never cries or complains and every day I'm amazed at the hurdles she's overcome.
Thank you so much,
Roland Kristen, and especially Elle.
Organizer
Roland Huddleston
Organizer
Red Deer, AB