This is the story of a serious misadventure and the amazing resilience of a cat named Jack, the companion of one my receptionists. Jack was living in a doggie daycare owned by my receptionist’s boyfriend. She isn’t really supposed to have cats in her apartment due her landlord’s allergy. At the daycare, Jack lived in a “safe room,” away from the boarders. Last Tuesday, the door to his room was unintentionally left open by an employee.
Not being present when this door was left open, neither my receptionist nor myself can say with 100% certainty how events actually happened, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t good. A large dog managed to get into Jack’s room, grab his lower back and most likely shake him around. The employee claims that everything was very quick, which is probably true. It doesn’t take long for big injuries to happen, especially when there are such disparities in the size of the perpetrator and the victim.
Jack was originally brought to a vet closer to the daycare that sees “urgent” cases. He was assessed, given an injection for pain and told he would most likely be fine. Once she found out where Jack was, my receptionist picked him up and brought him back to work to have one of my colleagues take a look at him as well. She trimmed some of the hair from around his wounds, started moving the skin back and forth around them and noted there was some extensive pocketing, potentially with deeper wounds to be discovered. She blocked an extra appointment slot in her schedule at the start of the afternoon to investigate further, but came over to see where we were in surgery that day, in case I could potentially sedate Jack, get a better look at his wounds and place a drain.
I was just finishing up a procedure, so the timing was good to move ahead with Jack since they had already given him an opioid injection for his initial exam. I had my surgery and recovery techs get some blood on him, just to get an idea of how his organs were doing, and take some x-rays trying to determine if there was any penetration into his abdominal cavity from the wounds.
When we looked at the x-rays, we didn’t see any indication of free air in Jack’s belly, but there was a questionable area on his left side, where my colleague had noted all of the movement and possible deeper wounds, that looked like it could contain a loop of bowel. I decided to be optimistic while waiting for our radiologist to respond because we also had another scheduled procedure I hoped to still get to as well. As I was walking into the bathroom to scrub, I checked my phone to see if our radiologist had responded: she had and was pretty convinced that his body wall was punctured and that a loop of bowel was in his subcutaneous space.
By then, Jack was already anesthetized, so I figured, I may be in over my head, but I might as well go and see what there was to find and what needed to be done about it. I scrubbed, went into surgery, started flushing Jack’s wounds and opened up his skin over his left flank to assess the underlying muscles.
There were no obvious openings into Jack’s abdomen, but his poor muscles on his lower back were torn apart. I called my colleagues to have a look as well. We could see nerves running along his back, and I could directly palpate the vertebrae of his lower spine. Thankfully, one of my colleagues had a cancellation and was able to reschedule her other remaining appointment for the afternoon. She scrubbed in with me to help flush things out and hold Jack’s muscles in apposition while I sutured them back together. I put in his drain, and we proceeded to open Jack’s abdomen, just to ensure that there was no damage we had missed. The last thing we wanted was for us to not see an opening into his abdomen and poor Jack would become septic after all he had already been through that day.
We didn’t find anything of note in Jack’s abdomen itself, other than some bruising we could see in his retroperitoneal space above his left kidney (in the area where we had to put his muscles back together). Together we flushed his abdomen with sterile saline in an abundance of caution and closed him up. We started antibiotics and gave additional pain medications. My receptionist then transferred him to a local ER for overnight care.
The following morning, my receptionist picked Jack up from referral, where she was told he was doing better than he had been the previous night. They really advised he stay another day, but understood it would be more cost-effective if she brought him back to work with her. For the most part, Jack seemed to be doing well that day.
Thursday morning, Jack didn’t want to eat. He had a fever of 104 when he got to work. I collected samples for a culture of the drainage from his wounds. We upped his pain meds and continued fluid therapy for him. His body temperature came down, but started to increase again at the end of the day. I was already home and all other doctors had left as well. I had my techs get another x-ray and run a complete blood count on him. Things looked alright/as-expected for being two-days post-surgery for a traumatic event. I gave them some additional treatments for Jack, and we agreed that even though his owner was off on Friday, she would still bring him in to work for observation and pain management. We had had a discussion on Wednesday that even though he seemed to be doing well, I wouldn’t say he was “out of the woods” until at least 5-7 days had passed.
By Friday, Jack was seeming more himself. I ultimately had to call my receptionist to pick him up a little bit early because he decided that he was well enough to climb the cage bars. He’d then get to the top and fall back to the ground on his back/wounds. Obviously, we were worried about him doing more damage. Saturday morning, she reported that she had slept on the floor by the dog crate she’s keeping him in at home because he was doing the same thing at home.
By this Tuesday, we removed the drain from Jack’s wounds. He finished up his pain meds and overall seems very happy and comfortable. He’s still on antibiotics for a second week. This coming Tuesday, we’ll remove his staples and recheck his blood work to see how his red and white blood cells are recovering, as well as his albumin that had dipped a little low. We’ll probably continue cage rest for a couple more weeks to give his muscles some more time to heal. One thing his mom can say for sure is that he is NOT going back to the daycare. And, for anyone wondering, Jack is not worried about big dogs, even after his experience. Magic tested it out for him by offering him some kisses through his cage door one day last week.
Here’s wishing Jack (and his mom) a speedy and full recovery from here on out! Also- a huge “thank-you” to everyone that has been there for Jack since his ordeal last Tuesday morning. He’s a fighter, for sure, but he’s a had a lot of good people looking out for him along the way. I can finally feel better that he’s going to make it. Jack and his mom are a good reminder of why we do what we do every day.
“Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat’s personality is never bet on a human’s. He demands acceptance on his own terms.” ~ Lloyd Alexander
