Kitten survives 25ft fall: Wolfy’s astonishing recovery after plunge from scaffolding at Downfield property

A daredevil kitten has made an amazing recovery after falling from the top of scaffolding and rupturing her diaphragm.

Poor Wolfy was close to death after suffering serious injuries in the 25ft fall, having been left barely able to breathe or stand.

But after surgery at Vets Now’s pet emergency clinic on King’s Cross Road, she has made a full recovery.

Wolfy managed to scale the scaffolding outside her owner Lorraine Pattie’s home in Downfield, Dundee, while her back was turned.

The scaffolding was only there because work on repairing the building had been halted due to the coronavirus restrictions.

But eight-month-old Wolfy somehow managed to slip at the top before hurtling all the way to the ground.

Grandmother Lorraine realised what had happened when stricken Wolfy crawled back inside barely able to move and panting heavily.

She rushed Wolfy to the Vets Now clinic where the emergency team in Dundee carried out a series of X-rays and diagnostic tests.

They diagnosed a diaphragmatic rupture in which the layer of muscle which separates the abdomen and the chest becomes torn.

Lorraine said: “The vets were very honest and open with me – they told me that without surgery to correct the tear Wolfy would die – and that even with surgery there was a good chance she wouldn’t recover.

“But Wolfy is part of our family and even if there was only a 1 in 1,000 chance of success, we would have still gone ahead with it.”

The complicated surgical procedure Wolfy underwent is so rare that it’s only the third time in 12 years as a vet nurse that Leanne Walker, the Vets Now principal nurse manager in Dundee, has experienced it.

Lorraine said there is no one more pleased about the happy ending than her eight-year-old grandson, Andrew, who lives with her.

She said: “Wolfy is pretty much his cat. He’s just devoted to her — he would have been so distraught if she hadn’t made it.”