Warning: Pictures May Disturb You

Today someone dropped off a 3 month old kitten that had been attacked by a raccoon.  At first glance, her face had a large scab over it with only one nostril showing.  After we cleaned it up - this is what we saw: 

Yes, it is bad. But she has two things working for her: 
1. youth
2. being a feline 


Being a feline gives her a heads up on healing. Remember those other kitty cases I've shown you?  And as we learned in vet school, if you get two parts of the bone in the same room and it's a cat (or cow) it'll heal. In other words, they overcome quite a lot!  


This kitten does have some obstacles:
1. The one nostril is partially destroyed at this time. What will become of her ability to smell or breath through her nose? Too soon to tell!
2. She will have some type of deformity - to what degree too soon to tell!
3. She must be a rabies suspect until she's passed 10 days. Though if the raccoon was rabid and the bite occurs this close to the brain, she would show signs before 10 days. This is the reason I handle her with gloves. However, should she turn out to have rabies, I still will need and get post exposure vaccinations. You do NOT want to mess around with rabies. 


Our plan: A few days of antibiotics and then some plastic surgery for her. We can't repair it completely as there are large pieces of tissue missing but we can get some things closer together.


I hope to show you pictures as she progresses!