On the night of 9 August, I came across a badly injured kitten standing outside the Old Town Medan Selera entrance. Its front left leg was severed and dangling, the front right paw was almost totally torn off, the hind left leg was badly injured and exposed to the bone. Its tail was also severed. It was in bad shape and smelly as well.

I brought it home and took it to the vet the next morning. She advised me to put it to sleep as she was not confident of saving its leg. I brought it to another vet, who also advised the same.

So, I tried a third vet, Dr Edmund of Bandar Putri. His diagnosis was that the hind leg can be saved. He cleaned up the kitten and applied bandages to all the different injured parts. It was also decided that it would be in the kitten’s best interest to be boarded as its injuries were extensive and required daily cleaning to prevent infection. The vet flushed and cleaned the wounds daily as well as fed it antibiotics.

I visited the kitten almost on a daily basis to watch the dressing changed and check on its progress. During the first week, we were hopeful that the hind leg, which was exposed till the bone, would heal. It did not do as well as expected. There was pus as well. The vet said that he suspected that tissues did not grow because the bones, which were already broken, were moving. He suggested a surgical procedure to hold the broken bones together using a metal stent. This procedure cost RM500(rescue rate).

With this development, the kitten had to be boarded for a longer period. After the surgery, there was improvement only on one side of the leg. Tissues still did not grow on the other side. The vet said he would need to observe and monitor the leg as he did not want to perform another surgery on the same leg. We waited for another week. We were at a loss what to do next. Then, 2 bones came out. After that, the tissues started to grow. I brought Percy home on 17th September. Percy was boarded at the vet in Puchong from 11/08/13 to 17/9/13 (37 days).

To keep the costs down, I supplied the vet with Melolin low adherent absorbent pads. I still use them as it prevents the tissues from sticking to the bandage which will cause bleeding.

The hind leg suffered the most damage and hence needed the most treatment. The tail is fine now. The front leg, which is now a stump, has not healed and is susceptible to bleeding because Percy would use this leg to scratch. It looks likely that this leg will have to be amputated in future unless I am able to find a better solution to protect the stump from constant injury.

I bring Percy to the vet once a week to check on the hind leg which has still not fully healed.

The bill amounted to RM1,529.40. I have settled this bill with the vet. Since his discharge, I have brought him back three times. It will probably take some more visits to the vet in the coming months before it is fully healed. We still have to consider amputation of his front stump.

Due to his handicap, he can only be an indoor cat, He can no longer walk on rough surfaces. The vet said that if he is set free to roam outside, he would likely be bullied by other cats.