The Feline Hospital

04/25/2025

Friday Ēostre update!!
She continues to recover very well! Her skin is healing and filling back in nicely, and she is getting PT every day on that knee to make sure she will be able to keep a full range of motion as the skin heals. Her appetite and attitude are fabulous, and she is encouraged to hear how many fans she has and how many people are rooting for her! I unintentionally interrupted her nap for a photo 😹 but all was forgiven with some pets and chin scratches. Thank you all again for the support

04/21/2025

Monday Morning Ēostre update!

She has gained a POUND since last week. She is bright, alert, and happy, and overall is doing quite well. Her wounds are growing new healthy tissue. She will begin some PT today to try to rehabilitate her injured leg, and we will be incorporating mānuka honey into her bandage routine because of its antimicrobial properties. Thank you all again for the support and well-wishes and donations towards her care--it means so much to us and her!

Look at those big, bright eyes!

04/19/2025

Today's Ēostre update!

She had her first bandage change (she was sedated for her comfort). The tissue looks good underneath; Dr. Lewis is employing a wet-to-dry bandage technique that will continue to debride the wounds to encourage new granulation tissue to form. She is feeling very good this evening and eating up a storm. When I was feeding her this afternoon, she gave me the stink eye and grabbed my hand to make sure I wasn't even thinking about taking that dish away! She is a little fighter, and so sweet. Thank you all again for the support and well wishes--we are humbled and overwhelmed (in the best way) by the response for this little girl.

04/17/2025

Ēostre update!! She did very well for her surgery and woke up HUNGRY!! Dr. Lewis reports that the tissue beneath the wounds was healthy with a good blood supply--these are serious injuries but it could have been worse. Little Ēostre is quite malnourished but we plan to change that! Stay tuned for more updates this weekend, and thank you all again for the support.

04/17/2025

Thank you all so much for the kind words and well-wishes and support (financial and otherwise!) for Ēostre! She is currently under for her surgery under the skilled hands and watchful eyes of Dr. Lewis and Paula, all is going well thus far. Here are a few pics of her being miffed at us while she was being sedated! We will update later tonight

04/16/2025

Meet Ēostre.

Monday night, I received a call around 6pm from a very worried young gentleman about an injured cat in his yard. He said it had a visible wound and appeared to be struggling to walk and breath, and was quite possibly dying. He had been calling around for at least an hour, trying to find anyone to help. He tried animal control for his town, animal control for the surrounding towns, and all were closed. The police said it wasn’t their job. Rescues were either closed or unable to help. Everyone he called said “sorry, can’t help” and gave him another number to try, and finally that led him to calling us at The Feline Hospital.

Before anyone rushes to judgement on this Good Samaritan for not bringing the cat to an ER, let’s consider a few facts here: this gentleman may not have had the resources to do so. Not everyone has reliable transport, not everyone has the money for a cab or Uber, and a great many people do not have a credit card with a $10k+ limit that would have been needed to bring a stray cat into an ER. This young man spent at least two hours trying to get help for this kitty, and didn’t stop.

We get calls about stray and injured cats all the time that we put in touch with the appropriate organizations so they can get help, but we do not have the staffing or resources to personally take in and help every cat out there, no matter how much we wish we could. When you work in a field where you are exposed to animal suffering and death, even when you are doing everything you can to save them, you have to build walls around your heart. Anyone who works in veterinary medicine will tell you this. If you don’t, you will take so many wounds that you will burn out and not be able to function and help the animals anymore. I have been at The Feline Hospital for over a decade; my walls are high and fortified. I still reach out through the walls to exercise compassion and live my beliefs to provide the best care for our clients and patients, but very little gets in.

I told this gentleman I would make a few calls, look into any other options, and be in touch. Like him, I hit dead ends anywhere I reached out.

But I couldn’t be the tenth person to give this man another phone number to try, and say “sorry, I can’t help.” I couldn’t go to sleep at night thinking about this cat suffering and dying if there was anything I could do to stop it.

That’s not the culture that Dr. Ternes has cultivated and led at our practice for over 40 years.

We can’t save every cat out there, but we could save this one.

The wall cracked.

Anna, one of our amazing VAs, grabbed a friend, called this gentleman, drove to his city, and brought Ēostre to us. It turns out she is a kitten, barely 6 months old, who had been hit and dragged by a car several days ago and has severe road rash on her sides and hind legs which has become infected. She is missing a lot of skin. But she is bright and alert and friendly, purring and asking for head scratches in spite of the great pain she must have been in. Dr. Lewis stayed after hours to examine her, and Melissa and Margaret helped triage her. She is all of four pounds, and very clearly skinny and hungry. But as far as we can tell, no bones are broken and she appears to be ok internally. She’s been stabilized, given an antibiotic and pain medication, and will get her full assessment and surgical debridement on Thursday. She is enjoying lots of attention and food, currently in the care of Anna and a Feline Hospital client who has kindly opened her home to Ēostre until her surgery.

Ēostre has a long road to recovery in front of her. She will need frequent bandage changes, pain management, and a lot of hands-on care. This is a severe injury and her tiny body is fragile and thin. We are hoping that no further injuries are revealed once she is under anesthesia.

No matter what your persuasion or faith, spring is a time of renewal and life–the light of hope at the end of winter. Another chance to try to better ourselves and our world–to be better people than we were last year. That’s why we named her Ēostre–the name of the ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, whose festivals and feasts gave the Christian celebration of sacrifice and resurrection its name. It can be pronounced Easter or Esther! Here are some videos of her rescue, and we plan to keep you all updated here on every step of her progress, starting with her surgery Thursday.

We are living through troubled times–our country and our world are rent apart by fear, hate, confusion, and greed. Compassion seems in short supply, and it gets harder and harder to do the right thing. But we are not excused from our ethics and duties because times are hard. We are not called to love our neighbors, both two and four-legged, only when it is convenient for us, or only when they look like us, or only when we think they can repay us. The way we treat the very least of these tells what kind of character we have. Everyone at The Feline Hospital is here because we believe in our mission to treat every cat as our own. It’s more than a job, it is who we are.

So we hope that you will follow Ēostre’s recovery journey with us, and if you are in a position to do so, 100% of any donations to the Kitty Fund in her name will go towards the costs of her care, and anything above and beyond that will be used to replenish the Kitty Fund for future kitties in need. Checks can be made out to The Feline Hospital, or credit card donations may be made over the phone at 978-744-8020. But just well-wishes, prayers, and sharing her story are appreciated as well. We hope that this Easter week, maybe Ēostre’s story can encourage all of us to be the best people we can, and not turn our backs when we have the ability to help another.

by Jennifer, Practice Manager

PAYPAL POOL LINK: https://www.paypal.com/pool/9e2IoXe5Zm?sr=wcco

For whatever reason, the Facebook mobile app will break the link if you click it. Please try copy pasting it into your web browser. There should be no cost to contribute from your paypal account, there may be small CC fees if you do not have a paypal account. GoFundMe takes a significant portion of donations as fees, which is why we are using paypal pool.

04/01/2025

Finnie saw a stack of clean towels and decided that it CLEARLY must have been set out for him. The princess and the pea!!

03/26/2025

Inky was absolute purrrfection at her appointment yesterday! Isn't she just precious?

03/19/2025

Please join us in wishing a very Happy 5th Birthday to handsome Valentino! What a charmer he is, sitting upon his throne of pillows.

03/04/2025

Yesterday was International Cat Rescue Day. The information is good for any time you are considering adding a new feline family member whether it is your first or another member of your clowder.
Dr. Ternes

Today is International Cat Rescue Day! If you’re considering visiting a shelter to adopt a new cat, please keep in mind the Three Ps of Adoption: Patience, Planning, and Preparation. These are essential for successfully introducing a new cat into your home. For more information on the Three Ps of Adoption, visit https://bit.ly/2Hyu0Nx.

03/03/2025

https://6abc.com/post/cat-euthanized-hunterdon-county-new-jersey-becoming-sick-bird-flu/15964678/

Very sad outcome. Yet another reason to keep cats indoors whenever possible and practicable.

A cat in New Jersey was euthanized after becoming severely ill from a confirmed case of bird flu, the state's health department said Friday.

02/19/2025

Dear Feline Hospital Clients,

Due to unforeseen staffing challenges, The Feline Hospital will be closed on Saturdays, effective immediately. We hope to be able to have the staff for Saturdays within the next few months, and we will keep you all updated. Emails sent before 11am on Saturdays and sent before 11am on Sundays will be checked by the doctor on duty. Calls and texts will not be checked or answered until Monday.

If you need Saturday food pickups, you are welcome to call or text us Thursday or Friday and pay over the phone and we can put it out to be picked up off the porch Saturday (weather permitting--canned food cannot be left out in freezing temps).

We thank you all for your understanding and patience.

02/14/2025

Jazzy Bear wishes you all a Happy Valentine's Day! Please join us in celebrating this handsome boy's 17th Birthday! What a charmer!

01/29/2025

Thank you all for your interest and help sharing Ivy and Ozzie's picture and story! They have found a great home! 😸

01/27/2025

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/22/nx-s1-5270042/cat-food-bird-flu-raw-milk

A good article about the current risks of H1N1 in domestic cats.

A few cats have died from bird flu after eating raw food. And some raw pet food products have been recalled. Here's what to know about the risks to your fur babies, and how to keep them safe.

01/10/2025

So sad to see there are now multiple cat deaths linked to raw food diets contaminated with H5N1 avian influenza.

From Dr. Scott Weese of of the Ontario Veterinary College’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses:

"High pressure pasteurization (HPP) is a process used to reduce pathogen burdens in raw food. It should markedly reduce (or perhaps sometimes even eliminate) bacteria like Salmonella and viruses like influenza. However, as we repeatedly see in situations like this, contamination can still occur.

These repeated recalls raise a number of issues. One is the standard concern about contamination of these diets with bacteria like Salmonella, that cause disease in dogs and cats, and sometimes owners who have contact with the diets or animals. More recently, we now also have important concerns about H5N1 avian influenza virus contamination of raw meat diets for pets, as multiple cat deaths have been linked to consumption of such raw diets (including diets that were high pressure-pasteurized).

I recommend not feeding raw diets to pets. We cook food for people to kill things that can hurt us, and the same concept applies to pet food. If someone insists on feeding a raw diet, I recommend a high pressure-pasteurized diet to help reduce the risks, but this certainly does not eliminate the risks. Pet owners need to be aware that (despite all the claims on various companies’ websites) there are still infectious disease risks to pets and people with these diets, and safe food handling practices in the home are critical to reduce the risks to people in particular.

Since there’s no health benefit from raw diets beyond equivalent cooked diets, it’s best to go with a cooked diet. Post-cooking cross-contamination of food can also still occur, so while they still aren’t zero risk, they are much lower risk than raw diets."

read more here at Dr. Weese's blog:

https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/

12/31/2024

Another reason why veterinarians are not fans of raw or boutique brand diets. We're not just trying to sell you cat food.

A Portland-based pet food company issued a nationwide voluntary recall after a house cat in Oregon died from eating one of its products, which tested positive for bird flu.
Northwest Naturals, owned by Morasch Meats, announced the recall Tuesday for one batch of its 2-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after the product tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, also known as H5N1 bird flu, according to a news release.
This product was sold nationally. Please check your freezers.