"She's got a couple of puncture wounds in her butt"
"and it's looking more serious than what we all thought."
"The neighbor's dog must have spotted her"
and just charged for her.
"So I picked Pear up and this dog just literally jumped"
"at Pear in my arms and pulled her by the tail."
Holy minoly...
She's got a hole.
How you doing Pear?
Good girl.
In Bondi waiting to see Dr. Kate
"is long time client Lara and her beloved animal family,"
"rescue cat Pear and dogs Olive and Honey."
Come here Olive, away from the food.
I’ve come to Bondi Vet my whole life.
"My godfather used to own this practice"
"and when Kate took it on, she really took me under her"
"wing and is always there for me when I have questions"
"about my animals or getting another animal."
"And yeah, we formed a really lovely friendship."
"- Hi, fancy seeing you here. - I know, once again."
You need like a frequent flyer card, hi girls!
So you have a new cat?
Yeah I do, it’s my cat Pear.
"- I have seen this cat on Instagram. - Mhmm."
"Pear is a little Scottish Fold and Scottish"
"Folds are quite interesting because they have"
"these little ears that fold over and they're born like that."
"She's a cutie, but she needs your help."
"Yep, okay, let's go have a look at her."
Come on girls.
"- I’ll take Pear. - Okay you take Pear."
Unfortunately my cat
"got into a fight with a dog, not one of mine."
"And she's got a couple of puncture wounds in her butt,"
"and it’s looking more serious than what we all thought."
Hi, babe.
"- So I have that she has a tail injury? - Yes."
So what happened?
"So I was trying to be a good neighbor,"
"and I had my neighbor's dog to look after for the day."
And the neighbor's dog
"must have spotted her and just charged for her."
"So I picked Pear up and this dog just literally jumped"
"at Pear in my arms and pulled her by the tail."
"And you didn't think there's anything wrong with her?"
You kind of thought okay,
and looked her over thought everything was okay?
Because of her fur
"I didn't see that underneath her tail"
"it almost looks like the pelts been pulled back."
"- Okay. - This was my fault"
"I should have been much more careful."
No, I mean the reality is that you're
dealing with multiple animals.
It can happen to anyone, right?
"So Lara hasn't actually noticed that Pear has an injury"
until today.
Okay little missy.
Holy minoly...
She's got a hole.
It's very, very deep.
I'm so sorry Pear.
Holy minoly...
She's got a hole.
"Goes all the way down into that muscle layer."
"And we're going to need to stitch it up."
In Bondi, Kate has discovered
"a nasty wound in cat Pear after the young rescue"
"cat had a run in with a neighbor's dog."
Owner Lara is shocked
the injury is so severe.
"It looks like there's been a tooth that actually has penetrated"
through those muscle layers.
Oh I'm so sorry Pear.
The worry here is about infection.
Having that open wound,
"it's been a tooth, a really grubby tooth all the way through"
into that bottom.
"So it's obviously not an ideal location"
because what we're risking here
"is that we get some kind of infection. Wow."
She's boiling, it's really hot.
She’s 39 and a half.
She's definitely carrying a temp there.
That makes me concerned.
"That means that Pear is heading into dangerous territory."
"Once we hit about 40, that's when we start to hit the panic button."
"I’m going to take a little swab of this area."
"We don't know what kind of bacteria is down there."
"And what we don't want to be doing is just guessing"
when it comes to antibiotics.
"That's when things can start getting a bit scary."
"We don't want infection in this wound."
"The other complication is it's depth."
"As soon as I put that little swab in, I can’t actually feel the end."
"If that wound has gone so far up that we've actually penetrated"
into the abdominal cavity...
"It's going to be a whole new level of pain."
"- She's a sweet little thing. - Yeah."
"With infection from the nasty wound rapidly spreading through her"
small body, Pear needs urgent surgery.
I feel horrible
"that I've not spotted it and that this poor,"
"beautiful little thing has a wound in her."
I only just rescued her
"so obviously it was pretty traumatic."
Good girl.
Good girl babsy.
"In Bondi Kate is preparing for urgent surgery after discovering young cat"
"Pear had a life threatening wound from a nasty dog bite."
The nurses are just preparing her
for surgery,
"so they're just clipping and making sure"
"the anaesthetics going okay, before we take her into theater."
Appreciate how deep this
goes down into her.
Wow.
"So that basically goes to about there."
That's pretty long.
So if you can imagine,
"she's only a little cat and she's got a wound that deep."
This bite has gone really far in.
"Worst case scenario here is that wound has actually"
"penetrated a body cavity. We need to make sure that we haven't"
"penetrated any structures, that we actually need."
"In this case, she looks like she's been quite lucky."
"Thankfully, there's no damage to Pear’s vital organs."
But the good news is short lived.
The skin here is not bleeding.
"It's just got no blood supply right?"
Which means it's going
"to eventually become necrotic and it's going to die."
If there's no blood supply
"there is no point stitching up two pieces of tissue"
"because it's just going to break down."
"We're going to have to cut away the edges of this skin."
So we're going to have to actually
"take this back until we can see a nice red rosy blood."
Blood is good.
Let's get
"some saline and let's flush this out."
"The more that I can flush it out means the less bacteria"
"that's actually going to be in the wound."
"With the injury already thoroughly cleaned,"
"Kate is ready to finally close the young cat's shocking wound."
"I'm going to put some internal sutures in"
"so we can close some of that dead space up."
And then we're going
"to do a couple of layers of sutures on the outside."
"I'm guessing maybe a 50% chance that this is going to"
"break down again and maybe she's going to need a second surgery."
"All we can do is wait and see and hope."
"As
Pear wakes up, Kate is cautiously optimistic"
"that the adorable rescue cat is on the road to recovery."
Oh, so cute.
Oh she’s so sweet.
Hi Lara it's Doctor Kate,
you can breathe a sigh of relief.
Everything is good,
Maria's just holding on to her,
she's just waking up at the moment.
It was really deep,
deeper than even we thought.
"So we need to just be mindful of the stitches all coming apart."
"But we can cross that bridge when we get to it."
Okay, bye.
Over the next couple of days,
"I'm going to keep a really close eye on Pear."
"Lara is going to go home with a whole bunch of instructions."
"But I'm hopeful this is going to go pretty well."
Okay there you go.
Good job.
Hi.
It's two weeks since Pear’s
"dramatic surgery and she's recovering"
"well at home with her devoted adoptive mum Lara."
Good girl. Your such a poser.
"It's an absolute relief that Pears back and also that she's okay,"
that it went so well.
I knew she was in amazing hands.
Shall we have a look at your butt?
Thankfully, the
"stitches on Pear’s wound held together."
"Doctor Kate's done an amazing job on Pear’s little butt."
"I can't believe it's healed so quickly."
Come on both of you,
breakfast time.
And even better, news Pear and Lara
"have grown even closer through the traumatic experience."
Pear and I have really bonded.
"I guess two months ago she was a rescue cat,"
then all of a sudden was thrown
"into a completely new environment, so maybe didn't trust me."
But now she knows that I'm
"the person who's protecting her, the person to pick her up."
Good girls.
Pear, Honey and Olive are my little family
"and the bonding that has happened through this experience."
"It's definitely resulted in a pretty happy little household."