On March 1 after dropping off my kids at school, I headed out to take a few morning photos. oh, but before I left town, I also stopped at the local tractor supply to get dog food and just happened to get cat treats - I've purchased cat treats maybe twice in the last 10 years I thought I would use them to get some good cat photos of our bunch. On one of our little country roads I spotted a ginger cat. I took a picture of him and thought something was amiss. I pulled the car over and tried to coax him to me but he wouldn't. I remembered the cat treats, retrieved them and tossed him some. After about 15 minutes he got close to me, I gently petted him and the purring began. I picked him up, put him in a towel I found in the car and took him home. It was very clear he was injured. His face was disfigured and he had a nasty, long, healing injury to his left back leg. I called our vet and they advised me to bring him in.
Sure enough, he had a broken jaw, which appeared to be about two weeks old. The injury to his leg was estimated to be the same. The good news was he is Feline HIV and Leukemia negative!!!!! My vet couldn't fix the jaw and the leg injury would heal. I was referred to a specialist. In the meantime, He is being treated with strong antibiotics, he was given ear mite medicine and treated for worms.
We saw the specialist - Dr. Cunningham, the following week who took X-rays. It was then revealed Gin had been shot in the face. Who could do such a thing? Dr. C vet couldn't do the surgery either and said we'd need to go to Columbus, Ohio to see a Specialty Vet there. He did however, neuter Gin and pull some loose and broken teeth Gin had as a result of the gun shot.
After raising some funds, I took Gin to an area vet, Dr. McNeel at Cross Lanes Veterinary Hospital in Cross Lanes, WV. He could do the surgery to fix his jaw but wanted to wait and continue Gin on antibiotics since his mouth was still having some redness from the gun shot and/or shrapnel. We would return in two weeks.
When we returned two weeks later to see Dr. McNeel, he was very pleased with Gin's progress. Gin had gained over THREE POUNDS! This was very important for the next decision to Gin's care. Should we proceed with the surgery to re-break his jaw and reset it or just continue to do maintenance care. For me, this was a no brainer. He did however, still have that irritated spot in the lower back left of his jaw and called in another vet who specializes in that type of surgery. She evaluated Gin and we elected to take out more teeth and evaluate a walnut size knot under his jaw. Gin did well during the surgery and came home later that evening.
Gin is very happy today as you can see. A top cat model in his sleepy little town, has his own Facebook page and now his own story here on lovemeow. His message through media and to all he meets is prevention of animal cruelty.
Thank you for letting us share our story here!