The “Skye’s” the limit after a rough start

Five-week-old Skye was rushed into our Centre with her three siblings. The kittens were all showing significant symptoms of cat flu – gunky eyes, sneezing, nasal discharge, breathing difficulties, and difficulty regulating their temperature.

Skye was hit particularly badly with cat flu. Then she got gastro. The combination of these illnesses meant that Skye took longer than her siblings to bounce back.

When she was well enough and had gained sufficient weight, Skye had her desexing surgery. While the surgery went smoothly Skye struggled to recover afterwards. The anaesthetic took its toll on her, making it difficult for her to bring her body temperature back up to normal. For any animal (or human), but especially a tiny kitten, not being able to bring their body temperature up after surgery can be very serious. A low temperature is the first complication. If Skye’s couldn’t be regulated her heart rate would get slower, blood pressure would drop, and her kidneys could go into renal failure. The more complications, the higher the risk and the longer her recovery would take. Skye was in a precarious state.

Fortunately, Skye’s vet team had access to a “bear hugger”. This is a special heater that pumps warm, dry air at a consistent temperature, so animals’ temperatures can be increased and maintained, helping them to recover from surgery safely. It’s only because of donations from generous supporters that animals in our Centres have access to life-saving equipment like “bear huggers”.

After a few weeks, Skye was still very sensitive around her spay site. She came back into the Centre hospital for assessment – her abdomen was swollen and painful. She was put on a course of antibiotics and pain relief and closely monitored but two days later, she was still an unhappy wee girl.

Even with this treatment, Skye didn’t show any improvement. All the tests the vet team had run were showing results as normal or inconclusive.

“But Skye was showing us that something was wrong, so we kept looking”, said Doug, SPCA Vet at Māngere Centre.

The vet team made the decision to operate on Skye to see if they could diagnose what was wrong. It was possible that something had gone wrong during her desexing operation, perhaps an infection, and they wanted to check if they could resolve that.

When they opened her up, they found something unexpected: Skye’s kidney was damaged beyond repair.

“It was the weirdest looking kidney I’ve ever seen”.

It was enlarged with a strange casing on it and was right where Skye had indicated discomfort. The damage to her kidney could have been the result of some sort of trauma from her spate of illnesses, or it could be cancer. If it was cancer, Skye’s treatment options would be limited.

However, the rest of Skye’s organs looked healthy, so the team made a decision – they removed her kidney and sent it off to the lab for testing.

A relief! Lab test results showed no signs of cancer but couldn’t determine what had damaged the kidney so badly.

Following her surgery, Skye again struggled to recover from the anaesthetic. She had also lost a lot of blood during the operation. It was into the “bear hugger” again to help keep her warm and recover from this major ordeal.

Today Skye has fully recovered, is pain-free, and thriving. She’s affectionate, bold, and curious. Because she only has one kidney, she will always need a little extra care. In her furever home she’ll be an indoor cat, protected and loved.

Skye only has this future because her vet team listened to her when she told them “something’s not right” and they had the skills and equipment to act. Your support helps to give animals like Skye a future. Thank you for your commitment to Skye and other animals like her.