Cheddar The Cat

by Wood Green Animal Shelter News July 08
(UK)

Cheddar the cat nearly loses one of his nine lives.

Just over a month ago you will recall the rolling weeks of warm sunshine, laughter and barbeques. But for a cat named Cheddar, it was a month that nearly saw one of his nine lives come to an end.

Cheddar was found alone in some bushes severely dehydrated from the sun and with two broken legs on the right hand side of his body.

Brought in to Wood Green vets placed him on a drip and examined him further. They discovered that the breaks in his legs were old and had healed over. He had learnt to walk on the break of his front leg whilst dragging the back one behind him and had been living like this for some time.

An orthopaedic vet decided that the front leg could not be saved due to multiple breakages but as the back leg was a clean break, they decided to apply an external fixator to give Cheddar a chance.

This fixator will be in place for eight weeks before further x-rays will tell us how well his leg is healing.

Unfortunately this week it was discovered that Cheddar had a severe hidden graze on the underside of his front left leg. The wound had a lot of dead tissue and was close to the shoulder joint causing worrying concern. He underwent an operation to remove the dead tissue and it was cleaned to avoid further infection. It is hoped in the next couple of weeks the wound will shrink and reconstructive surgery can then take place.

For now, he remains on cage rest with constant checks and x-rays. You can follow Cheddars story on the website to see how he is progressing.