Discussion
Ladies... Gents....
Our 2 year old cat, Ringo Starr got hit by a combine harvester last Monday. It was an absolutely traumatic experience.
His front leg got ripped off just above the elbow, his back leg (on the same side) was fractured in 3 places and you could see the bones in his tail.
Despite these injuries, he managed to crawl across the fields and very nearly made it back home! How on Earth he did this, I don’t know but he obviously desperately wanted to get back home.
You can read the full story here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ringo
He is being well looked after by Fitzpatrick Referral’s, the same ones on the Supervet TV show and the main surgeon has confirmed that Ringo confirmed that Ringo is a viable candidate (for a prosthetic) in terms of age and type of fracture of the leg.
Rachel and I have debated what to do, quite heatedly I must admit, since seeing Ringo this afternoon.
Part of me thinks the poor chap has gone through enough however I have been given some reassurance from the vet around the pain relief he is getting and what the potential future ops and rehabilitation will mean for him.
I don’t do ‘social media’ with the exception of some of the other car forums and a long-term reader on here. The vet costs are simply unbelievable but we don't want to put him down if there's a chance of him living a fulfilling life after all this.
Someone on the Lotus forum suggested a justgiving page, which I felt uneasy doing at first ("it's our issue" I said) however the vet costs are ever increasing; the initial vet bill of £9,400 of which only 3k will be covered by our insurance will rise significantly. The prosthetic and surgery alone will be a cool £10,000
If you feel like donating, that's fine, if you don't then feel free not to - but please don't send any abuse, I don't think either of us can take that right now!
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ringo
We've also uploaded a few videos here:
https://youtu.be/U-L6T9AGyaQ
I did say he was a determined bugger!
Https://youtu.be/mXn-VCeStAA
Https://youtu.be/4xtZbk4iy14
P.S. Not sure how to rotate the pic?!!
Thank you Bex.
He was indeed lucky to survive and we feel weirdly honoured that he decided to try to get all the way home rather than go somewhere to die as some cats do.
We’ve done a helluva lot of reading on prostethetics in the last week plus we found the Tripawd UK support group to be very helpful indeed. There will be at least a 6-8 week rehabilitation period according to the vet (seems short...?) but the other half isn’t working atm, and is an ex-theatre nurse so will do Ringo proud I’m sure!
Jim
He was indeed lucky to survive and we feel weirdly honoured that he decided to try to get all the way home rather than go somewhere to die as some cats do.
We’ve done a helluva lot of reading on prostethetics in the last week plus we found the Tripawd UK support group to be very helpful indeed. There will be at least a 6-8 week rehabilitation period according to the vet (seems short...?) but the other half isn’t working atm, and is an ex-theatre nurse so will do Ringo proud I’m sure!
Jim
telecat said:
Small Donation on behalf of our Tripod Minnie. She made it home with her front leg hanging off. Now happily bounds around the local area and able to catch the odd unwary Mouse and bird.
Thank you Telecat, donation received and much appreciated.Sorry to hear about your Tripod 'Minnie' but glad to see that she's not let it hold her back! ;o)
solo2 said:
I've made a donation to Ringo, will be checking back on progress.
I have 8 cats of my own and foster for the Ginger Cat House Rescue and have asked if they would kindly post your link on their Facebook page.
Thank you Solo2 - that's brilliant of you and absolutely no problem at all with you sharing the link, that should be valuable to Ringo's cause indeed: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ringoI have 8 cats of my own and foster for the Ginger Cat House Rescue and have asked if they would kindly post your link on their Facebook page.
Ali-Kat, Stan, Geek, Steven
Thank you all for the best wishes and donations, mich appreciated.
The ‘dust’ must have blown from here (at last). We’re just back from seeing him and he looked really, really well! Considering he’s just had the front leg amputated (properly this time... sorry, need to get some humour back in my life) then he looks remarkable.
His back leg is still not good. Thoughts are he will lose it from the knee (elbow ?!) downwards as it looks pretty dead to be honest.
We’ve put a couple of updates on last night (link below if you haven’t seen them). He looks even brighter and very chatty tonight. Will try and do another update soon.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ringo
Thank you all for the best wishes and donations, mich appreciated.
The ‘dust’ must have blown from here (at last). We’re just back from seeing him and he looked really, really well! Considering he’s just had the front leg amputated (properly this time... sorry, need to get some humour back in my life) then he looks remarkable.
His back leg is still not good. Thoughts are he will lose it from the knee (elbow ?!) downwards as it looks pretty dead to be honest.
We’ve put a couple of updates on last night (link below if you haven’t seen them). He looks even brighter and very chatty tonight. Will try and do another update soon.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ringo
tallstevef said:
Donated too, Ringo looks a lot like our 2 year old tabby - can't imagine how you felt seeing him in such a bad way... Glad he seems to be doing well. Fingers crossed for the little guy.
Thank you. He was absolutely amazing today. Confirmed (to me anyhow) that we’re doing the right thing. He’s become a bit of a star at the vets too. They love him! 
tallstevef said:
Donated too, Ringo looks a lot like our 2 year old tabby - can't imagine how you felt seeing him in such a bad way... Glad he seems to be doing well. Fingers crossed for the little guy.
Thank you. He was absolutely amazing today. Confirmed (to me anyhow) that we’re doing the right thing. He’s become a bit of a star at the vets too. They love him! tallstevef said:
Maybe the mods could make this thread a sticky to raise the profile and get some more donations through for Ringo?
Thanks Tall Steve.We’ve just left the vets now. He’s had the front leg fully amputated and is doing great after that op (photo hopefully attached). He’s been trying to move about a lot, chattering away (which is a good sign of normal for him) and he then fell asleep with us at the end of our visit, bless him.
Looking forward to him coming home for 6 weeks or so whilst his back leg bone heals enough for the prosthetic.
He’s a strong bugger though so I’m sure he’ll face the next challenge head on!
The last six weeks have been emotionally draining so please forgive the late update.
So after 18 days of staycation at Fitzpatrick Referrals aka the Supervet, we bought Ringo home. He had his back leg plated and pinned and we were looking after him to see if that would recover.
We soon learnt that the lower part of the leg wouldn’t survive and it was heading for a prosthetic. I think that was around the time of my last update...
So, he was back home for a week or so and he seemed very content with snuggles on the sofa and meowing for his breakfast. The saddest part was the other cats didn’t want to know him. At one point he legged it (hopped it?) after our ginger as he just wanted to be play with him however Rocket was off in a flash leaving Ringo just standing there.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/ndL2eMS3[/url]
We then took him back for his next stage of surgery which was the removal of most of the leg ready for the ready to take the prosthesis. Apparently the knee bit is called the hock on a cat and the vet removed most of this downwards.
With the removal of the infected part of the leg, Ringo seemed 10 times better. We wasn’t allowed to see him for 2 days and then it was my ten year old’s birthday. I gave her the choice of going to the park or going to visit Ringo; she wanted to see him and as soon as we walked through the door, we knew we made the right decision.
The nurses used to tell us he would get very excited when he was put in his cat carrier as he knows he ‘has visitors’ and we can always here happy meows all the way to the consultation rooms. At this point he was up on his feet, going round pushing his face in each of ours in turns. That amazed us after just 2 days of major surgery!
https://youtu.be/YkPM1ZzdzzY
The vet wanted to do the next bandage change to check on the healing progress and Ringo never really came home after that.
Progress was apparently good at first, the top part of the leg where the fracture was located had healed okay but then an infection got into the bottom of the stump. I still think that the ‘dead leg’ should’ve been amputated sooner and that caused the further infection however I need to read up on the subject.
So the vet cleaned up the wound and took a little bit more of the leg off to try to stop the infection.
One of us had visited Ringo everyday with the exception of the 2 or 3 days that we weren’t allowed due to post op work. We were both due to pick him up at 2pm on Saturday to bring him home for a few days inbetween the bandage changes but got our daily update call from the vets in the morning which wasn’t the news we were hoping for...
The vet said that there was a high risk of failure with the next stage of the operation if we went ahead, he didn’t want to give a figure but I narrowed him down to 20-30% which seemed far too low to put him through yet another op. The contributing factor was the infection.
So we decided to have a weekend with him, spend a nice 48 hours in his own surroundings and a few cuddles on the sofa.
He was quite noisy on the way home but seemed really content and snuggled up next to me when we got him inside.
He then went exploring, followed closely by us of course, tried to jump up on the kitchen surface before I grabbed him and then onto the sofa. When he was on the sofa a noise startled him and he twisted, got his bandage caught and the whole thing came off.
He was then howling in pain, similar to the day that I found him. Rachel’s an ex-theatre nurse and has done a lot of Ringo’s bandage changes and pain meds whilst he just sat there but we struggled to get it on as he was in so much pain. Bear in mind that the last op meant that the metal plate and screws were sticking through the skin and yet never once did he turn on us.
Someone said that we would know when the time was right and we both knew. We phoned the vet and took him back in tears. The vets and all the reception staff have been amazing so far, very compassionate and knew how much he meant to us. They gave him some painkillers to ease the pain so that we could have a few minutes with him, he ate nearly a full pack of Dreamies and loved them before the vet came back in and put him to sleep.
Absolutely and utterly heartbreaking but think we made the right decision for him.
Last pic of him - he’s a little bit wet from the IV drip.
Not sure if I mentioned about Ringo’s blood donor which was our ‘standard moggy’ Comet who was a ‘blood type A’ match (again, I didn’t know that cats had blood types nor how blood banks don’t seem to work as the blood doesn’t store well, I think that was the reason anyhow). Here's Comet, the black and white one next to Ringo.
So whilst we put Ringo to sleep on Saturday, Comet disappeared on Thursday and has been missing since.
He’s a grumpy, cantankerous sod at the best of times but he’s a homely cat and as regular as clockwork so very out of character for him to go missing - and certainly not the best of timings.
We’ve had some amazing friends and neighbours helping to post leaflets / speak with other neighbours. Last night six of us covered over 8 miles each through fields and some of the roads nearby. I’m less worried as he’s a strong cat, it’s been incredibly warm during the day and night but at the same time there’s a niggling worry that we’ve lost two cats this weekend.
So after 18 days of staycation at Fitzpatrick Referrals aka the Supervet, we bought Ringo home. He had his back leg plated and pinned and we were looking after him to see if that would recover.
We soon learnt that the lower part of the leg wouldn’t survive and it was heading for a prosthetic. I think that was around the time of my last update...
So, he was back home for a week or so and he seemed very content with snuggles on the sofa and meowing for his breakfast. The saddest part was the other cats didn’t want to know him. At one point he legged it (hopped it?) after our ginger as he just wanted to be play with him however Rocket was off in a flash leaving Ringo just standing there.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/ndL2eMS3[/url]We then took him back for his next stage of surgery which was the removal of most of the leg ready for the ready to take the prosthesis. Apparently the knee bit is called the hock on a cat and the vet removed most of this downwards.
With the removal of the infected part of the leg, Ringo seemed 10 times better. We wasn’t allowed to see him for 2 days and then it was my ten year old’s birthday. I gave her the choice of going to the park or going to visit Ringo; she wanted to see him and as soon as we walked through the door, we knew we made the right decision.
The nurses used to tell us he would get very excited when he was put in his cat carrier as he knows he ‘has visitors’ and we can always here happy meows all the way to the consultation rooms. At this point he was up on his feet, going round pushing his face in each of ours in turns. That amazed us after just 2 days of major surgery!
https://youtu.be/YkPM1ZzdzzY
The vet wanted to do the next bandage change to check on the healing progress and Ringo never really came home after that.
Progress was apparently good at first, the top part of the leg where the fracture was located had healed okay but then an infection got into the bottom of the stump. I still think that the ‘dead leg’ should’ve been amputated sooner and that caused the further infection however I need to read up on the subject.
So the vet cleaned up the wound and took a little bit more of the leg off to try to stop the infection.
One of us had visited Ringo everyday with the exception of the 2 or 3 days that we weren’t allowed due to post op work. We were both due to pick him up at 2pm on Saturday to bring him home for a few days inbetween the bandage changes but got our daily update call from the vets in the morning which wasn’t the news we were hoping for...
The vet said that there was a high risk of failure with the next stage of the operation if we went ahead, he didn’t want to give a figure but I narrowed him down to 20-30% which seemed far too low to put him through yet another op. The contributing factor was the infection.
So we decided to have a weekend with him, spend a nice 48 hours in his own surroundings and a few cuddles on the sofa.
He was quite noisy on the way home but seemed really content and snuggled up next to me when we got him inside.
He then went exploring, followed closely by us of course, tried to jump up on the kitchen surface before I grabbed him and then onto the sofa. When he was on the sofa a noise startled him and he twisted, got his bandage caught and the whole thing came off.
He was then howling in pain, similar to the day that I found him. Rachel’s an ex-theatre nurse and has done a lot of Ringo’s bandage changes and pain meds whilst he just sat there but we struggled to get it on as he was in so much pain. Bear in mind that the last op meant that the metal plate and screws were sticking through the skin and yet never once did he turn on us.
Someone said that we would know when the time was right and we both knew. We phoned the vet and took him back in tears. The vets and all the reception staff have been amazing so far, very compassionate and knew how much he meant to us. They gave him some painkillers to ease the pain so that we could have a few minutes with him, he ate nearly a full pack of Dreamies and loved them before the vet came back in and put him to sleep.
Absolutely and utterly heartbreaking but think we made the right decision for him.
Last pic of him - he’s a little bit wet from the IV drip.
Not sure if I mentioned about Ringo’s blood donor which was our ‘standard moggy’ Comet who was a ‘blood type A’ match (again, I didn’t know that cats had blood types nor how blood banks don’t seem to work as the blood doesn’t store well, I think that was the reason anyhow). Here's Comet, the black and white one next to Ringo.
So whilst we put Ringo to sleep on Saturday, Comet disappeared on Thursday and has been missing since.
He’s a grumpy, cantankerous sod at the best of times but he’s a homely cat and as regular as clockwork so very out of character for him to go missing - and certainly not the best of timings.
We’ve had some amazing friends and neighbours helping to post leaflets / speak with other neighbours. Last night six of us covered over 8 miles each through fields and some of the roads nearby. I’m less worried as he’s a strong cat, it’s been incredibly warm during the day and night but at the same time there’s a niggling worry that we’ve lost two cats this weekend.
Some further answers before I get asked:
We met the farmer! Nice guy and was sorry to hear what happened. His wife actually phoned Rachel this morning to say that they have a expectant cat and if we would like one of the kittens from the litter but it’s way too early for that.
There are some strange people about - one of the neighbours apparently has an alligator and a load of shotguns living 300 or so metres away. He’s threatened another neighbour to feed the “bloody yapping dogs next door to the ‘gator” if they don’t shut up ??
It was expensive. A couple of people were right with two strains of thought:
a) you will stop counting at 10k
b) you can’t stop it due to money as it will always come in piecemeal, 1 or 1.5k at a time in our case.
I think we hit 15k but not sure if that includes the initial 1,400 outlay at the emergency vets
The vet insurance will be named if they don’t pull their unempathetic, archaic process selves together soon. They still haven’t settled after six weeks and have been frankly crap.
I remembered why I don’t do social media after some of the messages, offering to euthanise the cat, wondering how we keep losing cats etc. On the plus side, there have been some wonderful, very kind natured people who have donated their time, money and a shoulder to cry on when needed
Our last remaining cat has certainly changed his behaviour over the last few days. He’s been popping indoors every hour or so, been more affectionate and seems to be pining for the others.
Here's Rocket (ginger) and Comet together
We met the farmer! Nice guy and was sorry to hear what happened. His wife actually phoned Rachel this morning to say that they have a expectant cat and if we would like one of the kittens from the litter but it’s way too early for that.
There are some strange people about - one of the neighbours apparently has an alligator and a load of shotguns living 300 or so metres away. He’s threatened another neighbour to feed the “bloody yapping dogs next door to the ‘gator” if they don’t shut up ??
It was expensive. A couple of people were right with two strains of thought:
a) you will stop counting at 10k
b) you can’t stop it due to money as it will always come in piecemeal, 1 or 1.5k at a time in our case.
I think we hit 15k but not sure if that includes the initial 1,400 outlay at the emergency vets
The vet insurance will be named if they don’t pull their unempathetic, archaic process selves together soon. They still haven’t settled after six weeks and have been frankly crap.
I remembered why I don’t do social media after some of the messages, offering to euthanise the cat, wondering how we keep losing cats etc. On the plus side, there have been some wonderful, very kind natured people who have donated their time, money and a shoulder to cry on when needed
Our last remaining cat has certainly changed his behaviour over the last few days. He’s been popping indoors every hour or so, been more affectionate and seems to be pining for the others.
Here's Rocket (ginger) and Comet together
Thank you for the kind words, it has been a tough six weeks for all the family. Rachel is finding it by far the toughest as Ringo was ‘her baby’.
Some good news however, the little b*gger came back. Comet is looking very thin and super clean with no muck on from the fields I.e. he’s groomed himself indoors. Suggests to me that he’s been locked inside somewhere and couldn’t get home for the past six days.
So Rocket and Comet (and us) are reunited again. Rocket hasn’t left his side most of the day!
Not sure why the photo is upside down!
Some good news however, the little b*gger came back. Comet is looking very thin and super clean with no muck on from the fields I.e. he’s groomed himself indoors. Suggests to me that he’s been locked inside somewhere and couldn’t get home for the past six days.
So Rocket and Comet (and us) are reunited again. Rocket hasn’t left his side most of the day!
Not sure why the photo is upside down!
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