70 days of specialist care
When this stray cat arrived at Woodgreen, our team weren’t sure he’d make it. Starving, dehydrated and riddled with one of the worst cases of fleas our vets had seen, this poor cat needed urgent help.
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The worst ears we’ve ever seen
Rosie was suffering with incredibly sore and smelly ears. It would take months of complex treatment to help her recover.
She needed immediate treatment
Both of Rosie’s ears were oozing with stinky discharge and severely inflamed. Her left ear had almost completely closed up. Even as we assessed her, she couldn’t help but scratch at them, making them bleed.
Our veterinary team were keen to help Rosie as quickly as possible, but first we had to ensure there was nothing that would make surgery unsafe.
Unfortunately, when we swabbed Rosie’s ears, we found she had an aggressive ear infection that would need to be resolved before we could give her the surgery she so desperately needed.
Clearly in a lot of pain, Rosie was also becoming withdrawn and wouldn’t eat. We placed her in a foster home with Kirsty, one of our cat specialists, where she could start to feel safe enough to eat and explore.
Kirsty could also make sure that Rosie was taking her antibiotics and not scratching her ears too much.
Finally ready for surgery
With the infection finally under control, our vets placed Rosie under anaesthetic so we could take a proper look at her ears without causing her any discomfort. We also removed a large amount of nasty black discharge.
A few days later, we were able to perform Rosie’s first total ear canal ablation (TECA) on her left ear – a major operation that completely removes the ear canal and middle ear.
The road ahead was still long. Rosie needed her ears cleaned twice a day to remove any remaining discharge. Kirsty could do this at home to keep her comfortable, but she also had to bring Rosie back to Woodgreen regularly for more intensive cleaning.
Eventually, we were able to perform the same complex operation on Rosie’s right ear. Thankfully, after this surgery, we saw an immediate improvement. She seemed bright and happy, and her ears were finally clean and healthy.
No longer living in pain, Rosie’s sweet nature could finally shine through. And after four months of dedicated care, Kirsty realised she couldn’t imagine living without Rosie and applied to adopt her.
"She is such a gentle, loving girl. She makes us incredibly happy, she has such quirky little ways, like she waits at the top of the stairs and gives you a kiss before you feed her. There is not a day that goes by where she doesn’t make us laugh and smile."
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