09/12/2025
Remember the Board Shanty fire? It brought us our first burn patient who turned into a special kitten for us. We hope you enjoy and learn something as well!
🔥 Part 1: The Emergency 🔥
At RVVE, we sometimes meet patients whose stories change us. Kitten Wonder is one of them. She arrived with multiple 3rd and 2nd
degree burns to all four paws, leaving raw tissue exposed and painful. She had burns on her ears and tail. She also had significant smoke inhalation injuries, causing irritation to her lungs and eyes. From the moment she arrived we made the decision to champion her cause — we decided to give a 13-week-old stray kitten the best possible chance at survival.
Burn patients pose unique challenges: they’re at constant risk of infection, dehydration, delayed healing, and uncontrolled pain. Every decision in those first hours mattered—how do we safely stabilize and manage pain in a fragile kitten? How do we begin wound care without overwhelming her already stressed body?
We started with stabilization: IV fluids, rapid-acting pain relief, protective bandages, and warmth to counteract hypothermia. Our team also had to prepare for the long road ahead. Unlike many emergencies that resolve in hours or days, burn care is measured in weeks of vigilant support, daily (or twice daily) bandage changes, with setbacks and hard decisions along the way. From the start, we knew this would be a marathon, not a sprint—but we were committed to walking that path with her.
Follow along on our next post to see Kitten Wonder’s treatments (like fish skin bandages) and her 6-week healing journey!
