Imagine your home being engulfed in flames. Those that you live with are screaming or trying to escape. You find an open window and climb out falling several feet to the ground. You are terrified and run wildly as far as you can on feet that are damaged and searing with pain. The night wears on as you hide in the grass and watch your home burn to the ground. In the light of the morning, you return to the ashes having no where else to go, it's the only home you have known. Your friends and your people are gone. You are starving and in pain. You sit and wait.

This is how a little orange cat named "Runt" came to us on a cold morning in December. After this devastating house fire, neighbors found him burned and sitting in the ruins of his house. They thankfully brought him straight to the Animal Clinic where he demolished a can of food and purred. His owners who had lost everything in the fire were able to save their two outside dogs. A mother cat and her kittens, however, had not been so lucky and despite brave efforts to find them the next day, they were gone.

Runt had second degree burns to all four of his feet and his ear tips. The hair on his face and whiskers were completely burned off and the rest of his hair curled and singed from the heat of the fire. His lungs were clear and his appetite was excellent despite the trauma he had been through. Just as in people, smoke inhalation can be a very serious complication for animals that have been in fires. Smoke can damage lung tissue and cause fluid buildup in the lungs. This kind of inflammation is treatable but can be deadly. When we examined Runt about 12 hours after his escape his lungs were fine. His feet however had not fared so well. All 4 paws were swollen and blackened from burned skin and debris between his pads. His nails were curled and black as were the tips of his ears.

After a couple of good meals, pain medication and antibiotics, Runt was sedated to clean and explore the wounds on his feet. It appeared that there was linoleum burned into the pads of his feet telling us the extreme temperature of the flooring he ran across to make his escape. We soaked his feet in antibacterial solution and clipped off hair and burned plastic. By the time we were done he had barely any skin left on his toes. Burns are graded 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree based on the amount of tissue that is damaged. Runts burns were 2nd degree because they took the outermost layer of skin and hair (epidermis) but not the dermis. These wounds would have to heal by what is called second intention meaning the body must produce new tissues. First before this healing can begin all of the dead and damaged skin must slough and a healthy bed of granulation tissue must be present.

So Runts feet were bandaged in blaze orange vetwrap and he went home with pain medication and antibiotics. We were to see him back in a week to change his bandages.

At his recheck, Runt was doing very well. He was walking on all feet, the swelling in his limbs was resolving and his singed hair was starting to grow out. The tips of both of his ears were curled and black with healthy tissue forming beneath the burned ends. We decided to leave the ears alone until the black tips sloughed off. His feet were a mess under the bandages. Damaged tissue produces a large amount of fluid so the bandages were soaking through and had a bad odor. He was patient as he could be as we cleaned the dead tissue, hair and fluid from his feet. And when he lost his patience a bite of canned food seemed to take his mind off of what we were doing.

Over the course of the next month, Runt had weekly bandage changes (with more and more treats involved!) and continued to grow and heal. He lost all the skin, pads and nails on all four feet but eventually healthy pink skin began to grow and cover his toes. His singed hair and whiskers grew out and the hair around his nose and eyes came in full and thick. What a handsome orange tabby cat he was becoming! By the time the feet were fully healed we could not keep bandages on him he was running around so much and he was losing his tolerance for us messing with him! His ear tips fell off giving him little rounded ears and some of his toes actually grew together like webbed feet. Maybe he will take up swimming!

Runt was a miracle of survival and healing. We all fell in love with the little guy and wish his family well in all that they lost in this devastating house fire. Pet Alert stickers are available to put in the window of your home to alert firemen of your pets in case of a fire.