A stray kitten was brought into Anexa Thames by a local. He was found at the rubbish dump.

He was in extremely poor condition, emaciated, dehydrated, and his face was completely covered with crusty discharge from his nose and eyes. He was also covered in fleas.

With little hope for this little man, the plan was to treat him with various medications, a special diet, and subcutaneous fluids and to see how he responded over the weekend. If he pulled through the weekend ok, we would do a blood test for FIV/FELV, as these two diseases are contagious and often fatal for cats. Fortunately, he responded well to the treatment, and his FIV/FELV test was negative. From here, he got lots of ongoing love and care from the staff at Anexa Thames.

We had to continue his medication to see how his eyes would respond. Once we could see his eyes properly, he was diagnosed with a 3mm ulcer on his corneal. It was quite superficial, but the vet suspected it would get bigger as the treatment so far hadn’t cleared it up, and we didn’t know how long it had been there. The team quickly jumped into action, debrided the ulcer and proceeded with his ongoing medication.

Once he was healthy enough, his vaccination course was started, and he found his forever home with the newest Vet Nurse from the Thames team. He needed to go to a suitable home as there was a chance that he would need his eye removed if the ulcer didn’t clear, which is painful, and there is a chance of the eye rupturing.

Unfortunately, this was the case, and he had to have eye enucleation surgery performed (to remove his eyeball). While he was under the anaesthetic, he also was neutered and microchipped.

Fozzie is doing really well and has adapted to having one eye great. His owner ensures his remaining eye is regularly checked, and his health records stay current. He spends his days playing with his favourite brother, who is a dog, at home and playing in the mud.