Rosie, a Maine Coon X who suffered severe head trauma

Rosie is a sweet little 1 year old Maine Coon X who was taken to an emergency vet late one Tuesday night suffering severe head trauma after being hit by a car.

On presentation she was bleeding from her nose and mouth, she was unable to close her mouth and she was unable to stand up. She was clearly in shock. She had a very rapid respiratory rate of 108 breaths per minute and needed urgent treatment. Rosie was given pain relief and oxygen to stabilise her breathing. Rosie’s owners were contacted and once Rosie was stable, she was transferred to AMVS for emergency care.

Our on-call surgeon Matthew Eayrs took over her care and a CT scan was performed by our Radiology team, scanning Rosie’s head, thorax and abdomen to check for internal injuries. The CT scan identified multiple complex maxillofacial injuries. Blood tests revealed that Rosie was also anaemic.

Rosie was anaesthetised at our practice in Hampshire and our Veterinary Dentist Matthew Oxford performed surgery on her facial injuries. Rosie had a traumatic cleft palate repair, a wire and acrylic intra-oral splint was placed on her upper and lower jaw for stabilisation. She also needed root canal treatment on a broken canine. Her jaw was then wired closed to allow her fractured jaw to heal. An oesophageal feeding tube was then placed so that Rosie could be manually fed without interrupting her healing jaw.

After five days in the hospital, Rosie was able to be discharged and her dedicated owners took over her care, feeding her and giving her medication using her feeding tube.

Eight weeks after the accident, Rosie returned to AMVS for a check-up and to have her intra-oral splints removed under anaesthetic. Rosie had recovered well and Matthew was extremely pleased with her recovery, bearing in mind the severity of her injuries. Rosie is now able to eat normally but she must remain on soft food for two months to allow maximum healing time for her jaw.

Rosie is such a sweet little cat and has had a tough couple of months. Understandably, her owners have been very worried about her, but thanks to their dedication and after care, along with our surgery team, Rosie will soon be back to normal.

OWNER’S ACCOUNT- Alex Keep

Rosie is an exceptionally loving 1 year old maine coon Cross. She lives with her brother, mother and uncle in Woking.

On 1st June she ran into a reversing car. She suffered extensive damage including all the bones in her skull being broken and extensive bleeding in her brain. Luckily the people who reversed into her took her to Vets Now in Guildford. Vets Now put her in an oxygen tent and kept her stable until she could be taken to Anderson Moores in Hampshire the next morning.

Upon arrival the injuries were found to be far worse than initially diagnosed. She couldn’t see, her palette was cleft to the back of her throat and her jaw was completely smashed. In addition it looked likely that she would lose her left eye.

Matthew Eayrs and the rest of the staff did an incredible job. She was in surgery for several hours while they sewed her palette together and put back together the jigsaw that was her bottom jaw. They placed enamel over it as she was too injured to wire her jaws together. After several days at Anderson Moores she came home and, several weeks later, she is well on the road to recovery with her and her family looking forward to an upcoming move to the Surrey Hills for a country life in the fields near Denbies (hopefully away from any cars!).