Lily

Lily’s Story - this was written May06

The picture is Lily looking not too well after her 2nd operation.

Lily is a lovely black & white female cat who was on our list to come into care due to an expanding human family & the reason that they couldn’t cope with a cat as well.

When I went to pick her up she was curled up asleep on the hall floor, just a quick look at her told me that she wasn’t very well. Whilst sorting out the paperwork I asked her owners what her story was. They told me that they had originally adopted her from the RSPCA about 5 years previously when she was about 2 years old. They said she had always been a little snuffley, & they had been told that she had suffered from cat flu before coming into RSPCA care. However about 2 years previously she had been shot in the mouth, she had had an operation to remove the pellet but the hole left by the pellet in the hard pallet had opened up again after the operation. Unfortunately, as diagnosed by our vet later, the sinus was draining directly down through the hole causing lots of sneezing & discharge from her nose & this was the real reason they no longer wanted her. She was only allowed in the hall & the kitchen & spent a lot of time with an elderly neighbour.

Lily’s fur was in a terrible state, indicating to me that she was no longer washing herself. She was a very depressed little cat when I got her home. I took her to the vets & they were extremely worried about her. They took blood samples for full blood tests which were sent away & the vet confirmed that the hole had reopened. Unfortunately after a few days of waiting the results showed that she had quite severe liver damage. The vet prepared me for the possibility that Lily might have to be put to sleep but a course of steroid treatment was decided upon. She was moved from a cat pen to our spare bedroom (in case it was to be her last few weeks & I felt that a room would be more normal than a cat pen).

After a few weeks on the steroid treatment another set of blood tests were taken & thankfully the liver damaged had decreased. After another month or so a further test showed that her ALT level were within normal range, meaning that the liver was now working ok.

During this time Lily was a very quiet & still slightly depressed little cat. A couple of different types of operations for her mouth were discussed & the least aggressive operation was decided upon. The surgery took place & Lily really seemed to buck up. She became slightly more active, insisting on sitting on the table in front of the keyboard, meaning that you had to type around her. She started nibbling at your hair & then your neck while you tried to type! Things seemed to be going ok.

Then she started sneezing again. A check up after 1 month confirmed that the hole had opened up again. Poor Lily then faced another operation. The second operation involved taking a flap of skin from the soft cleft & sewing it over the hole on the hard cleft (at least that is how I understood it!)

She had this done on Monday 24th April, I brought her home that night but she was very uncomfortable & in pain, & would not eat or drink. She was dropped back off at the vets Tuesday AM & they gave her pain killers & syringe fed her. She would swallow but would not eat on her own. She was kept in the vets until Wednesday evening when I brought her back home. I tempted her with a tin of Gourmet Salmon in a very smelly brine type of sauce. She was refusing to talk to me & ignored her food – I think I was the big bad person for giving her so much pain.

However after leaving her in her room with the very smelly food, when I came back it was all gone! I gave her the other half which was also quickly devoured, I think I was forgiven (I hope!). She will be taken to the vets for daily check ups & injections (as opposed to tablets) for the next few days but now all we can do it wait & hope that all the pain she has gone through recently will be worth it & the hole will stay closed.

As you can imagine, this has cost us over £300 so far but we felt that she deserved it.