08/10/2026
🤩Our September winner of the Braveheart award is SMUDGE!🤩
Smudge has been coming to Broughton vets since she was a kitten back in 2009🥹. In late June, she was brought into the practice by her owner, as she had hind limb lameness with blood visible😳. On examination by the vet they found an open fracture to her hind leg in the area of her hock😢. She was given pain relief immediately and had an x-ray taken to see the extent of the damage🩻. X-ray’s revealed that Smudge had quite the trauma to her leg, and so a decision needed to be made as to whether her leg would be amputated or whether we would try to save it. Both of these procedures for a cat of her age are huge surgeries, neither with guaranteed success given her current arthritis in her hips🦴. Smudge’s owners wanted to try and save her leg and so she was referred to an orthopaedic specialist in Northamptonshire. Smudge went straight to the referral practice where she had a CT scan which revealed her hock had luxated and her fibula was fractured😭. She underwent surgery to have these corrected, this resulted in pins being put in to hold her bones back together, and a frame put externally over her leg to protect it🦾. The CT scan also showed some minor instability in her left leg and so a splint was applied to this leg to help support it🩹. Smudge’s surgery went well but with 6 weeks of crate rest until her frame could be removed it was a long road to recovery❤️🩹.
Unfortunately, a few weeks into Smudge’s recovery one of the pins in her frame came loose😱. She was referred back to the specialist and the frame was removed early and replaced with a splint. Smudge continued her recovery and crate rest until her follow up appointment with the specialist at the start of August. At this appointment the splint was finally removed, but the specialist noticed that a piece of wire that had been used to repair the fracture had ruptured through her skin and her hock was unstable, meaning the fractured leg had not healed properly😭. On assessment, Smudge had poor sensation in her toes. With both of these findings, Smudge’s owners had a very difficult decision to make…
Smudge underwent a second surgery at the specialist vets to have her leg amputated, she has been doing well recovering since and is coping like a trooper on 3 legs❤️. The vets have seen her back at Broughton to check her progress following the surgery.
The team at Broughton Vets believes Smudge is an extremely deserving winner of the Braveheart award as this 16 year old lady has shown exceptional resilience and bravery throughout her treatment and recovery from such a traumatic injury🥹. Smudge has been a lovely patient to work with, never showing complaint or dislike towards us. She has demonstrated great strength learning how to cope after loosing a limb, and has remained brave and unphased throughout her numerous vets visits and weeks on crate rest❤️.
❤️Please join us in saying WELL DONE SMUDGE! ❤️
