A man who caught the bubonic plague from his pet cat and nearly suffered an agonising death has revealed what it was like to lose all fingers and toes to the deadly disease.

Paul Gaylord, who lives in a remote part of Oregon, spoke about the horrific symptoms he suffered as the Black Death threatened his life – and even turned his hands black.

Paul, in his sixties, who lives 12 miles from the tiny town of Prineville, was infected back in June 2012, when his choking cat bit his finger as he tried to prize a trapped mouse from its jaws.

His dangerous condition saw him go on a life support machine for 27 days, as the Black Death slowly consumed his organs and resulted in his heart stopping beating and a lung to collapse.

The family of the welder released shocking images of Paul’s withered hands decaying from the deadly cell-killing infection in hospital.

The hospital’s chaplain even came for a “blessing” and baptised the unconscious Paul, and Paul’s son Jake flew from Texas to say goodbye to his dying dad.

Miraculously, the day before doctors were scheduled to switch off his life machine, Paul escaped death and stirred from his coma.

His life-threatening ordeal had begun when he experienced flu-like symptoms, a fever, grey skin that felt sore and glands swollen to the “size of lemons” under his arms.

The frightening change occurred two days after he tried (unsuccessfully) to dislodge a dead mouse that was caught in the back of his plague-stricken cat’s throat.

Try as they might, Paul and his friend could not remove the rodent, and the distressed cat bit him in the process.

He later shot the cat to put him out of his suffering, and buried him in the back garden, and it was only a few days later that he realised something was worryingly wrong.

Paul spoke to the Guardian about his experience when he woke up after contracting the plague, and said: “My doctor told me I had developed all three stages of the plague: bubonic (the least lethal form, which infects the lymphatic system), pneumonic (which infects the lungs) and septicaemic (the bloodstream).

“The doctor said I'd probably lose my feet and hands, but all I could think about was how thirsty I was. Eventually I understood the seriousness of what had happened: the day before I woke up from my coma, doctors had been talking about turning off my life support. My recovery shocked everybody.”

Doctors also removed his fingers, leaving the main part of his hands and part of his thumbs.

After his recovery, the welder retired from work, but keeps busy making hunting knives as a hobby.