Pingu's Story

PINGU'S NEW SKIN

"Pingu" was rushed in with massive injuries to both hind legs. After giving lots of pain relief and stabilizing him with IV fluids, Pingu was anaethetised and some X-rays were taken. On the lucky side there were no broken bones but then when we got to investigate a bit further he was found to be missing a ligament on the inside of the hock area on the right hind leg and a lot of skin was missing from both legs exposing all the muscles, ligaments, tendons and some bones in the area. Some tissue was missing as a result of the legs been dragged across the road resulting in the joints been unstable and Pingu was unable to walk.

We knew at this point it was going to be a long road for recovery for Pingu. Pingu has exceptionally nice owners that were willing for us to do anything to help him keep both of his legs. With the entire circumference of skin missing from one of his hind legs and a lot missing on the other hind leg, this wasn’t going to be an easy task but with Pingu’s laid-back nature he put up with weeks of being bandaged, sometimes with the whole half end of him wrapped in bandages!

To begin with, we went ahead and put in a false joint ligament to replace the missing one. This involved inserting 2 bone screws either side of the joint and then running a synthetic ligament between the bone srews. This synthetic fibre would then mimic the original ligament that has been lost on the road.This procedure was quick and easy compared with what was to follow. We had to wait 2 weeks before we could do any skin grafts – this gave time for a healthy bed of granulation tissue (otherwise known as ‘proud flesh’) to form and cover all the exposed area.

With the ‘better’ leg, we harvested a piece of skin from his chest wall; this skin segment was made the same size as what was missing and small slits were cut into it, to make it look like a piece of mesh. This was very carefully placed over the hock area where the skin was missing and sutured down to cover the skin deficit. The whole lower leg was then bandaged.

The graft was checked and the bandages changed every few days and after 2 ½ weeks the whole graft had taken (impressive - since an 80% ‘take’ is often seen as an excellent result!).

As for the the tricky leg: This one was missing all the skin from the hock right down onto the pads, right the way around the leg! It was decided to try a ‘Pouch Graft’.This is where surgery was performed to put the lower leg and foot into a pouch of skin on his lower abdominal wall and tacked there for 2 ½ weeks. Yes, thats' right- we sewed his foot to his abdomen for 2½ weeks!

The paw was then slowly released in stages over another week taking a patch of abdominal skin with it. This new abdominal skin patch then becomes new skin for the lower paw.

The reason this method is not very successful in most cats and dogs is they find it too uncomfortable[not surprisingly!]and want to keep wriggling and so the skin moves too much and the graft never takes.

But Pingu was so laid back about the whole thing he didn’t seem to mind too much that he was wrapped up from his chest to his tail and he made the perfect patient for this procedure -and when it came time to let the leg down, the graft had taken well! He now had skin from his abdomen growing as new skin on his lower legs.

Both legs had been saved and new fur was soon growing on his legs when it had once grown on his tummy!

He was soon walking around on his newly grafted legs and looking as pleased as a Cheshire cat!

He was a fun cat to have in the hospital and we all enjoyed his stay enormously. He just lapped up attention and pats. He endured multiple anaesthetics and yet never lost his decorum. He endured multiple surgeries, adjustments and bandage-changes without ever complaining. He was happy just as long as the food kept coming!

In the end it was kind of sad to see him go home but at the same time it was also very rewarding to see him achieve a normal lifestyle again.

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