Veterinarians Bring Nearly Frozen, Unresponsive Cat Back to Life

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Most animal lovers enjoy hearing about the plight of animals who have endured difficult circumstances and then thrive once they have been rescued. Likewise, they enjoy stories of animals who have had a near-death experience and survived. This certainly applies to a cat called Fluffy who survived against all the odds but may now only have eight of her nine lives remaining. Fluffy had been left in freezing temperatures for hours; an experience that should have killed her. Her owner found her trapped in a snowbank near their home in Kalispell, Montana. At the time, the temperatures outside were below ten degrees Fahrenheit. It was surprising that Fluffy had survived in these temperatures for so long.

Fortunately for Fluffy, her owner acted quickly and took her straight to a local vet in Kalispell. It was there that Fluffy was quickly seen by Dr. Jevon Clark of the Animal Clinic of Kalispell. Clark took Fluffy’s temperature straight away and things weren’t looking good. The poor cat’s temperature was so low that it didn’t register on the clinic’s thermometers, which have a bottom range of 90-degrees Fahrenheit. Clark said that the average temperature of a healthy cart is usually around 101-degrees Fahrenheit. The staff at the clinic needed to take urgent action to save Fluffy because if they couldn’t raise her temperature, she would die. They needed to do this gradually to prevent the cat from going into shock, so they used blankets, hot water bottles, heated cages, and heated pads.

Thankfully, this strategy worked and Fluffy’s temperature began to rise. To everybody’s amazement, Fluffy made a full recovery from her ordeal and soon returned to her home. However, her owner has since made the decision to keep Fluffy as an indoor cat because she fears another situation like this arising and putting her pet’s health at risk. This story is a stark reminder to cat owners to take extra measures to ensure the safety of their pets in extreme conditions. The staff at the clinic were so delighted to have saved Fluffy after her traumatic experience that they shared the story on social media pages. On Facebook, they posted that Fluffy is an amazing cat and shared photographs of the long-haired cat taken after they had unfrozen her.

The spell of bad weather in various places in the United States means that Fluffy is not the only animal that has been affected by the cold temperatures. Both domestic pets and wild animals have suffered as a direct result of the weather. A perfect example of this is the plight of the sea turtles around Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Staff from Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation have reported that they are caring for sea turtles that are stunned by the cold weather and that they are also finding many sea turtles who have not survived.

The staff demonstrated the plight of the sea turtles by posting a video of one of the turtles on social media. It is still alive because it has a pulse, but it is stunned and immobile. Those caring for the turtles explained that this type of cold stunning is a hypothermic reaction. It is something that happens when the turtles are exposed to low temperatures for a prolonged period. They went on to explain further that sea turtles are cold-blooded reptiles, and this means they do not have the ability to keep warm if they are in water that is too cold. When the turtles cannot find warmer water, they have a hypothermic reaction and could potentially die. Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation that the sea turtles around Cape Hatteras in North Carolina have found themselves in recently.

According to the staff from Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation, they have found many sea turtles that have lost their lives because they were unable to find warmer conditions and they have died from hypothermia. When the staff has found turtles that are still alive, they are doing everything they can to save them and there is a happy ending for many. The one the staff filmed for their social media post is one of the lucky ones. That turtle went to the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation Center, and it is believed the turtle will make a full recovery.