One in 20 of the dogs and cats presented to a large veterinary clinic as emergencies had head injuries, a recent survey revealed.

Of these many were kittens. Most had been crushed, stepped on or had fallen. Jasmine was one of those kittens who just had to play with anything that moved and climb anything that could be climbed. She would happily spend hours chasing and killing an elastic band. She loved to run up and down the chairs and even, if not stopped the curtains.

She was four months old when she had her accident. While her owners were out of the room for a few minutes she climbed up the ironing board. Just as she reached the top the board overbalanced. There was a squeal and a crash and her owners rushed in to find her lying motionless under the board.

Following my instructions by phone they straightened her neck and opened her mouth so that she could breathe more easily, and then lifted her gently on to a warm towel in a box and brought her straight to my hospital. When she arrived she was still unconscious from the bang on the head and was very shocked from the blow to her abdomen. I opened her mouth and pulled her tongue gently forward then slipped an oxygen mask loosely over her head while I examined her.

The most urgent and difficult part of her treatment was to put a plastic tube into a vein in either her leg or neck so that I could give her the drugs and fluids she needed. Within a few minutes I managed to put a large cannula into her neck. Then I gave her a drug which really helps to reduce brain damage if it is given quickly after a brain injury. I also gave her intravenous fluids to keep up the flow of blood to her brain. It was three days before she came round completely.

Meanwhile she needed intensive nursing. We had to maintain her body temperature, turn her every few hours, empty her bladder and feed her through the intravenous drip.

At first the picture looked pretty hopeless but by the third day she was just beginning to lap for herself and after a week she was well enough to go home.

It is lovely to have a kitten in the house but with their capacity for falling into hot water, getting crushed, banged on the head or poisoned by house plants it is a bit like having a real baby.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.