Maine Coon suffered a badly broken leg in road traffic accident in Scotland

NEWS AND COMMENT- SKIRZA, FRESWICK, SCOTLAND: Janet Aykroyd and a husband Tim are cat people. They live with seven cats near an exceptionally quiet rural road according to Janet in the far north of Scotland near John O'Groats.

They have a Maine Coon male cat called Baxter. On April 19, 2022 their one-year-old Maine Coon was knocked off his feet by a car on that quiet road. He was lucky to survive Janet feels although he suffered a broken femur (hind leg).

Baxter. Photos by Janet and Jim.

It is a bad break. It was broken in three places with shards of bone displaced. They took Baxter in a six-hour journey to Fife where the veterinarians at Neuk Vets carried out orthopaedic surgery to save his leg.

Janet tells us that he has a stainless-steel rod, plate and screws in his leg. The cost of the surgery is projected to be around £4,000. I decided that because they have a Go Fund Me fundraising page with a target of £3,500. The cost so far for the metal rod and steel plate et cetera is £500 as I understand it.

Link to the fundraising page.

He was at the veterinarians for a few days and he now needs to have two months' rest with intermittent walks on his harness and thereafter a subsequent x-ray to check on his progress. His veterinarian believes that he will make a good recovery.

Janet says that they used to have pet insurance but eventually decided against it because it simply wasn't worth it in their opinion. They paid a lot of money into insurance but discovered that the policies prohibited payments and therefore over the years they received almost nothing back when a companion animal reaches the ages of 8-10. It seems to me that beyond that date the policies are so prohibitive that you don't get much out of them. And I'm sure that the premiums are higher for a pet of that age.

There have been lots of costs in Baxter's treatment which included a stay in a bed-and-breakfast while he was being treated at the vets and the cost of the journey there and back.

And they've changed their mind about allowing their cats to go outside to roam freely. They are now going to create a cat enclosure for their back garden as I understand it. This will also be quite expensive.

They had believed that they were far enough away from a major road, NC500, for their cats to be safe from an accident. And they are living in a very quiet area of Scotland. 

Janet said: "Our road is usually the most peaceful place for any animals and has been for the last eight years we’ve lived here – there have been rabbits, a deer and another cat found much further down the road where there are more vehicles, but our bit is exceptionally quiet. I suppose that’s what’s so upsetting for us – our peaceful little idyll has been spoilt. What were the odds? Almost none but it happened anyway."

Janet has retired and her husband Tim who is 74-years-of-age works part-time at a local supermarket to bring in a bit of income.