Chaos!

Phone call yesterday evening from someone concerned that a neighbourhood cat seemed to be unable to stand. She very helpfully offered to transport him to a vet herself, rather than wait until an RSPCA driver could get there. Then, about an hour later, there was another call, this time from the vet's surgery, to say they had the cat and also a stray kitten who'd been handed in.

Sadly the adult cat didn't survive, but the kitten improved over night although she's very snuffly still and anaemic because she had so many fleas feeding on her blood.

Then began what you might think was a straightforward process of moving her for further treatment. Being so small, kittens can improve or go downhill very fast. Yesterday evening, the vets were doubtful whether she'd survive the night, but by mid-morning she was perky enough not to be really in need of inpatient care. Because of the snuffles, there was the added complication that vets don't really want a potential source of cross-infection to other ill patients unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

We don't usually end up calling round our foster homes while an animal is actually in a volunteer's car wondering where to go, but I'm afraid our new volunteer driver had some anxious moments wondering whether he was stuck permanently in transit with a sniffling kitten.

Thank you VERY much to our domestic bird fosterer for stepping in at about 5 minutes notice to provide a safe place with no animals likely to be susceptible to cat germs, and thank you to our wonderful volunteer driver for coping with something we don't normally land on new volunteers!

It does show how essential our volunteers are to making it possible to save animals, and also the importance of having as many individual foster homes as possible to minimise the risks of cross-infection.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Busy, busy

Jake, the little terrier, is doing well and should be fit to go out to a foster home tomorrow. He'll need cage rest with toilet breaks very strictly on a lead to stop him running or jumping and dislodging the metal plates that are holding his pelvis together. Back to the Vet School for X-Ray in a month. 

Luke, the tom cat with a broken jaw, is also well enough to go out and we'll probably move him down to the kennels as there's no reason to restrict him to a cage. He's also not yet neutered (because the vets were anxious about the legality of doing it before we've had him for at least 7 days) which means he's a bit of an anti-social guest for a foster home due to the strong tom-cat smell.

Just after half-past 8 this morning the emergency vet phoned to say they'd got another traffic accident needing to be transferred to our clinic, so our volunteer clinic manager cut her poor dog's morning walk and zoomed down to do the move before closing. This cat has chest injuries - basically the air-tight seal which normally makes your lungs expand when your ribs move has been breached so that there's a leak, making the cat breathless. The initial news on this one is that the School vets think it can be managed by medical treatment rather than needing any operation.