Bramble's life hung in the balance after suffering serious injuries
A cat needed emergency surgery and then had to be brought back from the dead after being attacked in the garden by a fox.
13-year-old rescue cat Bramble was left in an awful state after being mauled by the animal at his Motherwell home.
Thankfully, despite the current coronavirus lockdown, help was at hand for owner Kenneth Gibb.
Vet Now’s network of out-of-hours clinics and hospitals are still open to provide care for pets suffering from urgent illness and injury. And Kenneth rushed his badly injured cat to our state-of-the-art hospital in Glasgow.
“We’ve had Bramble ever since we got him as a rescue when he was about four,” said Kenneth, 56.
“I heard a noise outside and when I went to see what had happened, I saw the fox run off. We couldn’t find Bramble at first but when he eventually came in, we could see he was distressed.
“He was obviously traumatised and hiding away from us under the bed which we knew was a bad sign. There was a lot of blood, especially around his throat, which got us very worried.”
Kenneth had used Vets Now previously and knew it was the call to make after the shocking attack at the end of last month. He was told to take Bramble straight to our hospital in North Street.
“We were directed to the car park at the back of the building because of the safety procedures in place due to the Covid-19 situation,” said Kenneth, who is a professor at the University of Glasgow.
“That meant we just had to leave him rather than stay and he was in such a bad way we were definitely worried he might not make it.
“We got the first phone update from the vet about an hour after we got home and at that stage it was really grim. His heart had stopped under the procedure they were doing and we thought that was it.
“But the team managed to bring him back and we were told he was really lucky.”
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“When Bramble arrived at the hospital he was bleeding from a wound on his chest and severe swelling on his face was causing breathing difficulties. Unfortunately, he had a suspected cardiac arrest as we were treating him,” said vet Andrew Murray.
“We did CPR and were able to successfully recover him. Then we were able to start dealing with the wounds. The injuries were so extensive, there were a number of serious risks.”
Thankfully, our team managed to pull Bramble through and after a few hours his condition improved.
“It was such a relief that he came through the surgery and then it was down to concerns about infections and possible abscesses,” said Kenneth.
“Although we weren’t able to see them, we built up a good relationship with the staff and were kept up to date throughout.
“We were delighted to be able to take Bramble home after a couple of days. He slept a lot initially, but he got better day by day and more like his old self.
“I’m just thankful such treatment was still available at night and with all that’s going on. That’s really important.”