This month there are two Pets of the Month from Cambridge Vet Services. Both are cats, and they both live just two doors apart in Grosvenor Street. Bernie, a 1 year old tabby lives with the Sambells family, Dene and Maryanne, and their two daughters 11 year old Sinead, and 8 year old Niamh. He shares his humans with his brother, Max, and Tabitha, a more mature Birman puss. Sam a 4 month old kitty lives with the Joyce family, John and Caroline, 8 year old Lucy, 5 year old Haley, and 3 year old Joel. He shares his family with his mate Sacha the dog and Polly a fellow feline.

Both were innocently living their little feline lives, dedicated to bringing joy to their families when disaster struck in the same week.

On Tuesday evening Sam didn’t turn up for his tea. The Joyce’s called and called him but by 10pm there was still no sign of him and they anxiously resigned themselves to a worried sleep. They rose early and were relieved when Pauline spotted him apparently relaxing under the neighbours’ hedge. However when they called him he did not bounce up to them in his usual gay manner. When they finally picked him up and carried him inside, a careful examination showed his back legs to be paralysed. So off to the vet clinic. Dr Peter Twine examined Sam. Whilst his head and front legs were normal, his rear legs were completely paralysed – a severe paraplegic. Only one thing was likely to cause this in a young kitten, a spinal fracture or severe bruising of the spinal cord due to some external trauma, usually an accident. His bladder was also full to overflowing, suggesting bladder paralysis also. Despite a detailed search Peter could find no external wounds, but suspecting a broken back, he took some x-rays to examine the underlying vertebrae. He lifted the developed plate from the processor, placed it on the viewer, and immediately spotted a bright white spot in the shape of a slug pellet shining from the plate. This was no accident. Some person had spotted the innocent kitten, lined him up in their gun sites, and sent their small missile flying through the air. The missile penetrated Sams skin, ripped through his thoracic muscles and slammed into his backbone. Fortunately the bone of his 8^th thoracic vertebrae had stopped the slug penetrating his spinal canal and severing his spinal cord. It is likely that the shot did not immediately fell Sam, and he only became paralysed as the resulting bleeding placed pressure on his spinal cord. We can imagine Sams terror at the sudden impact and pain, and then bewilderment as his back legs slowly gave way.

We know that the spinal cord cannot recover from complete severing, but there is a chance of recovery if the cord is bruised. Despite complete paralysis, Sam retained slight feeling in his paws – a good sign. There was a chance of some recovery, but how fast and to what degree we cannot predict.

Sam could live temporarily without the use of his back legs, but more urgently he needed to poo and pee. Due to a phenomena known as spinal shock, these functions are often temporarily lost after spinal trauma. Whilst waiting for their recovery, we needed to control constipation with laxatives, and empty his bladder several times daily by squeezing it through his abdominal wall.

Now 10 days later the Joyces have taken Sam home. They have learnt to express his bladder, and he is slowly regaining some control of his back legs. We are cautiously optimistic that recovery will provide a life worth living.

A kind gentleman in Princess St found Bernie on his lawn on the Friday morning. He was lying paralysed on his side, howling pitifully with pain. His pupils widely dilated, his eyes unseeing, both right fore and hind limbs locked in tetanic spam. So the gentleman brought him down to the clinic.

Despite his sorry condition Bernie did not look like a wild or stray cat. The cat was in good condition and had a glossy coat, he was obviously someones loved pet. Consequently I elected to treat him and hope that his owner showed up. Possible causes of his neurological symptoms included encephalitis (viral, bacterial or protozoal inflammation of the brain), trauma (as in a severe blow to the head, thiamine deficiency (this occurs in cats fed solely on a cooked or processed meat diet) or a stroke (unusual in a young cat). Without a definite diagnosis I treated Benji with valium to relax his spasms – strong painkillers for his his obvious pain and antibiotics in case of infection.

Bernies spasms and paralysis improved gradually over the next few days, however he remained almost completely blind. Initially he behaved like a zombi, stumbling around his cage, growling on any physical contact, and ignoring the offered food. After 4 days, with the weekend coming up, and still no sign of an owner, I debated putting him to sleep, but as he had started picking at his food and seemed relatively comfortable, I fortunately decided to hold off the final solution until the following week , when an advertisement would be placed in this paper . the delay was rewarded – Maryanne spotted it  and felt a surge of hope. Could it be Bernie who had gone missing 8 days ago. she shot down to the clinic , opened the cage door and spoke his name – the blind Bernie leaped to his feet , yowled with surprise ,and accepted her delighted caresses with pleasure . He was in no doubt of his identity.

The Sambells took Bernie home , where Maryanne spotted an injury I had missed , a small puncture wound over his right eye . Having heard through the grapevine about Sams plight , she became suspicious and brought Bernie in for a skull radiographs . I was astonished when I viewed the developed plates .  They showed a slug lodged at the base of his cranial cavity . It had  penetrated the bone over his left eye , entered his cranial cavity  , and torn through the complete length of his brain . It was a miracle Bernie was still alive , let alone staging a rapid recovery.

When the Maryanne , took Bernie home , the family expected to cope with a blind cat for the rest of his life . Bernie , however , has continued to defy medical science .Just over two weeks after the day of he was shot , he has recovered over 80% of his vision  , and to the naïve casual observor would appear a perfectly normal cat .

Cambridge Vet Services wishes Sam and Bernie good luck in their convalescence , and hope and no other animals suffer the same fate from their cowardly gunman.