Theo Anderson has been awarded the Fromus Vet Group’s

MAY PET OF THE MONTH AWARD

“Theo” went out early evening as he always did but instead of coming home in the morning he arrived home just before midnight, with a bleeding wound on the bridge of his nose, just between his eyes. His owner became very concerned as Theo was distressed and wouldn’t settle and therefore decided to contact our out of hour’s emergency service, who advised Theo’s owners to bring him to the surgery immediately.

When Theo was examined by the vet, he had a bilateral epistaxis - nose bleed from both sides, he could walk but was very dull in himself, also his nails were badly scuffed (which is sometimes a sign seen if they have been hit by a car), he also had a very swollen left eye, which was protruding abnormally from his head. There was a concern whether or not Theo had lost his sight in that eye.

The vet decided Theo should be admitted as an emergency, so he could be given pain relief, antibiotics, fluid support and close observation, as at this point it was unclear what had happened to him.
Theo was given fluid therapy overnight to help stabilise him, as he was clearly in shock from whatever had happened.

Due to his symptoms of scuffed nails, swollen eye and wound on his nose the next logical step was to x-ray Theo’s skull. To obtain the best possible view, with no pain or distress to Theo, he was carefully sedated.

Once the x-rays were developed we were shocked to find our initial thoughts of an RTA- Road Traffic Accident were actually wrong, in fact it was much worse…………………

To our horror Theo had been SHOT with a 0.22 calibre air rifle. The x-rays clearly showed a pellet situated under the mandible- Lower jaw. Amazingly the pellet had entered his nasal cavity between his eyes and passed down behind hid his left eye to lodge in the back of the mouth inside the angle of the mandible. If the pellet had not followed a downward path it would have passed into Theo’s brain and certainly killed him!

All the vets were brought together to discuss Theo's case. It was decided due to the position of the pellet and potential damage to the facial nerves and the main blood vessels, his best chances of making a full recovery, was to leave the Pellet where is was.

After lots of care, attention, pain relief and antibiotics (to cover potential infection from the wound), Theo was a lot happier and started to return to his normal purring self. His eye returned to its normal position as the swelling and blood behind the eye resolved. Miraculously he seemed to have retained sight in the eye. As Theo was doing so well he was sent home to continue his recovery.

The local police and press have been informed of this disgraceful act.

<--- BACK