Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Raffe undergoes surgery


In September of 2014, I introduced you to the newest long term resident of the kitten room, Raffe. I purchased him at a yard sale for $20. He looked a little sad then, and despite my attempts to fix his neck with chiropractic manipulation, he has looked sad every day since.

Raffe's head continues to droop.

I checked to see if I could easily see the stitching because I knew I would have to be cutting that thread to get into him, I was lucky it fairly visible with a bit of pulling.

Visible seams makes the job a bit easier.

I gathered up a few supplies from my craft room and set to work. Yes, dental floss. It is generally much stronger than standard threads and a bit wider so it isn't as likely to cut through the fabric. The cat butt coaster came along so I didn't lose the needle.

Dental floss to fix a giraffe? really?

Ripping the original seam was a bit easier than I thought it was going to be.

a clean cut on the seam of the giraffe

I was fairly certain about what I was going to find when I got in there, but I was still surprised that support for the neck was so thin considering the wire for the shoulders - and I'm assuming the hips

the thin wire goes up his neck, the thicker one goes down to his feet

I attempted to straighten out the neck from the inside, but it was simply not happening. I finally gave up and pulled the wire out completely and was shocked to find it in such poor shape. I guess whoever owned this before had someone who hung off that neck on a regular occasion.  Fortunately, it was fairly easy to bend back into a straight form. Getting it back into the neck hole was a different story, I ended up having to bend it again to do it, but it seemed fairly easy to bend it back once it was in there.

this wire is so bent that I had to wonder what happened to it.

This is where the floss comes into play. I took a random piece and ended up being lucky enough that it was long enough to close up the entire seam.

because why wouldn't you sew up a neck with dental floss

Tada!



Raffe is looking up these days and hopefully, that was enough that he will be for some time to come. If not, I'll pop the seam again and find a stronger piece of wire to help him out.  Part of me wants to get in there and fix his hips and shoulders, as he only can put three hooves on the ground at any one time, but I figured that was going to be a far riskier procedure and I didn't know if I could get him back together again. Maybe one day I'll see if some chiropractic manipulation will work for those, but I'm in no rush, and the kittens never seemed to care and climbed up him despite his bad hips.

18 comments:

  1. Wow, great surgical techniques! Hats off.

    Emma and Buster

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  2. The posture improvement is amazing!

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  3. Wow, good job! I'll try to remember to use dental floss when I need to repair something - what a great idea!

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  4. Anonymous3:55 AM

    Lot of surgeons can learn of this. Well done! Now keep your head up, Raffe :D Pawkisses :) <3

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  5. nice surgical work!! that neck wire sure look like it had taken a beating

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  6. Wonderful! How cool is that...make sure you put that on your resume; zoological engineer.

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  7. Color me impressed! Excellent surgical skills and a beautiful suture. Good job!

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  8. Wow, you did such a great work! Raffe sure looks much happier. I've never thought of using dental floss as threads. That's really clever!

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  9. That was a pretty impressive neck-ectomy. The mom says maybe you coulda done her hip. ;)

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  10. Well done on a successful surgery!

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  11. Wow what a bloody great job you did, Raffe is sure looking better now

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  12. Great job. I wonder if you can fix my neck.

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  13. Wow! Raffe looks so much better! It was brilliant to think of dental floss.

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  14. Great job! You are very talented.

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  15. Awesome job! Raffe is looking fit as a fiddle!

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  16. I remember when you got him! What a great job you did of fixing him. Now he'll be even better for the kittens.

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  17. Pawsome job you did with the sad Raffe !
    He is looking much happier now :)

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