March 10, 2016
Lil BUB fundraising effort to expand Purdue’s VTH services
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Mike Bridavsky and Lil BUB pose with Purdue veterinary surgeons Mark Rochat (left) and Sarah Malek. (College of Veterinary Medicine photo) |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —A well-known Indiana cat that was treated at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine is helping an online fundraising effort by the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) to treat other small animals.
The hospital serves as a referral service for both small and large animals as well as providing routine care for all sizes. But Lil BUB – the runt of a feral litter who since has appeared on the ABC television news program “Good Morning America” and has her own website – presented challenges because of her small size when brought in with a broken elbow in the fall of 2015.
Her treatment was a success and, as a result, VTH wants to expand services to other smaller cats and dogs as well as more exotic pets, like chinchillas, and wild animals such as eagles. That led to the establishment of the online effort Lil BUB Surgery Set.
Dr. Mark Rochat, clinical professor of small animal orthopedic surgery, said the new surgical set is a state-of-the-art system. Having an in-house set improves timely treatment for a variety of patients.
“Fractures and other orthopedic conditions in our very smallest of patients have been difficult, if not impossible, to accurately repair because of a lack of properly sized and designed bone plating systems,” Rochat said. “Thanks to Lil BUB, we can, hopefully, not only be able to have this set readily available but make pet owners aware of the services we can offer as veterinary orthopedists.”
The campaign, which ends on April 1, is an effort to raise $7,000 for the purchase of a surgery plate set specifically for smaller pets and other animals. The plates are tiny enough to be dwarfed by a quarter.
The campaign comes as a result of talks between VTH orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Sarah Malek and Rochat, and Lil BUB’s owner, Mike Bridavsky, of Bloomington, Ind., about trying to do something to make subsequent surgeries on special patients like Lil BUB easier.
The decision was made to raise funds to acquire the special surgical plate set that was used on Lil BUB.
The small cat came to Purdue in 2015 after falling off a couch. The fall – usually not a problem for other cats – resulted in injury because of a very rare bone disease in felines, called osteopetrosis, which makes bones abnormally dense and prone to fracture. Lil BUB is a toothless dwarf with an extra toe on each paw that also suffers from a multitude of genetic anomalies.
Writer: Brian L. Huchel, 765-494-2084, bhuchel@purdue.edu
Sources: Mark Rochat, 765-494-0579, mrochat@purdue.edu
