Last week we eagerly removed Kissinger’s cast. Kissinger had broken his left leg four weeks earlier and it had been an eventful month for both him and his owners.

Kissinger is a two-year-old cat who lives in a house with his feline brother Sheldon and his owners who willingly describe themselves as his humble servants.

Kissinger was originally homeless and had been adopted as a kitten. When asked about his familiar name, his owners explained that Kissinger is not named after the former US foreign minister of the early 70s, but after a hunting dog dear to the owner when still a child in her homeland and who, incidentally, was named after Henry Kissinger.

Whatever his namesake, one thing is for sure… Kissinger is an intrepid explorer and it was in the very early morning hours that I received the phone call.

A visit to Kissinger’s house confirmed he had broken his radius, or forearm. It was also evident that Kissinger was not one to take things lying down.

Clearly, we were going to need to transfer Kissinger to the clinic for sedation and X-ray examination. The X-ray confirmed the suspected break, so it was necessary to apply a cast.

The only thing left to do at that stage was to advise the owners to wait it out. Little did I know...

Cats and dogs breaking their forearms or legs is not an unusual occurrence. It happens to them just as it happens to humans.

Contrary to the old adage that a pet with a broken limb needs to be put down, our canine and feline friends are as capable of recovering from a broken bone as we are.

The same basic treatment of splinting, time and patience is all that is required – both for pets as well as owners.

Normally, a feline or canine patient with a broken limb is sent home and its owner instructed to bring it in for regular check-ups to make sure that all is well with the splint prior to removing the appendage when the prescribed three weeks are up. Not so with Kissinger.

The following weekend, his owners were entertaining friends to a rooftop barbecue when Kissinger somehow slipped out of the house and jumped a couple of storeys down to the bottom of the neighbour’s services shaft, ending up tightly wedged behind a water tank, wailing piteously.

I’m told that Kissinger had to be rescued by his owners with the aid of ladders, ropes and sheer guts. His cast was testimony to this latest escapade, totally ruined and needing to be replaced. We put it down to high spirits and laughed it off… but Kissinger seemed to have a thing about weekends.

The weekend after, the owners had gone on holiday, so this time the call came from relatives who were cat-sitting Kissinger. Somehow, he’d done yet another Houdini and had managed to remove part of his cast bandaging. For the third time in as many weeks, we redid Kissinger’s splint.

When the full 21 days were up, we eagerly removed the cast and were totally relieved to find that there had been sufficient bone healing to allow him to end his convalescence at home without a splint.

When it comes to orthopaedics in general and fractures in particular, it is vitally important that the form of treatment is decided as early as possible

From a purely medical aspect, when it comes to orthopaedics in general and fractures in particular, it is vitally important that the form of treatment is decided as early as possible so as to decide whether this will be carried out through open surgery or external bandaging.

Each orthopaedic condition needs to be considered on its own merits. This not only depends on the where and how but also on the type and size of the pet we are dealing with.

Other than that, it is truly wonderful to see the strength of nature doing its utmost to repair itself.

From a pet owner’s point of view, the lessons learnt in aftercare contribute towards understanding the dynamics of relationships between owner and pet.

From a purely personal perspective, it has been a pleasure to witness the unstinting love and concern Kissinger’s owners have shown their cat during these last three weeks. Kissinger is a very lucky cat indeed.

thisweekwiththevet@gmail.com

Dr Martin Debattista is a veterinary surgeon.