On December 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve, a very kind-hearted woman witnessed something terrible; a cat being attacked by several coyotes. There were other people witnessing this, and they all grouped together to shoo the coyotes away in an attempt to rescue the cat. The coyotes ran away, leaving the cat, but the cat was badly injured. The good Samaritan brought the orange tabby to the Animal Medical Center of Seattle for treatment. When the cat presented, he was in shock, but his injuries didn’t seem like he was beyond saving. We scanned him for a microchip and were successfully able to get his owner’s information. We now had a name for our patient too; Mango. The phone number on file went to voicemail, so a message was left explaining the situation. While we waited for the owners to contact us, we treated Mango for pain and shock to stabilize him.

We received a call back from his owners later on that day who were out of town on vacation. They explained that Mango was being watched by a pet sitter and he had escaped from the house. His owners were so worried about him but grateful that Mango was being cared for. Once Mango was stabilized, his wounds were assessed, and although he had numerous puncture wounds, bruising and facial trauma, he was doing okay considering what he had gone through. X-rays were taken of Mango’s head to assess the injuries he had sustained to his face, but thankfully there were no fractures. There was an injury to his right upper eyelid that needed to be sutured though. We sutured his eyelid, treated him with antibiotics, cleaned his wounds, warm compressed his bruised body and later on placed a nasogastric feeding tube as he wasn’t eating.

When Mango’s owners were finally able to see him, they were surprised by how well he was doing! They didn’t expect to see him alive after being attacked by coyotes. Mango spent a week in our intensive care unit before he was able to go home. While he was here, our staff really grew attached to Mango. He was so sweet to everyone even though he had gone through so much. As he continued to heal, we wanted to make sure his stay with us was as pleasant as possible. So, we provided him with videos of birds for entertainment. He really seemed to like that.

We are happy to report that Mango is doing well, healing at home with his wonderful family!