Case
“Lynx”
PVM to Wildcats Every cat that is referred to the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital is special to the faculty, staff and students who work there. But some cases generate more of a stir than others. That definitely was the case in March when the Small Animal Hospital received a very special cat named Rocky, which proved to be a case with real “Lynx” to wildcats. The cat actually is a Lynx, and it was brought by its owner, Diana Johnson, who is a licensed serval breeder from central Indiana. Johnson had officially adopted Rocky in 2007, after he was confiscated from the previous owner by the Department of Natural Resources. He was about six-years-old at the time. “We befriended each other,” Johnson says, “…and we became a mutual admiration society.”
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Veterinary student Rebecca Rider helps prepare “Rocky,” the Lynx, for surgery to heal a fractured tibia.
But Johnson realized in March that something wasn’t right when she detected a limp in Rocky’s walk. Her veterinarian referred Rocky to Purdue for treatment of a fractured tibia. After being sedated and anesthetized, Rocky was radiographed, and his medical team, led by Dr. Nicolaas Lambrechts, clinical associate professor of small animal surgery, performed a bone plating. Dr. Lambrechts says post-operative radiographs looked good and when it was fully awake, the Lynx was released from the hospital. Since then, Dr. Lambrechts says followup radiographs taken by the referring veterinarian show that the bone appears to be healed, and Rocky once again is using the limb normally. The case provided a unique learning opportunity for both the anesthesia and surgery students who were involved, along with an anesthesia resident.