- Joined
- Mar 18, 2018
- Messages
- 59
- Purraise
- 41
ok foster cat is maybe not entirely not right term as I’m not working with any organization. But I intend to find him a new home.
He showed up on my doorstep a couple of times over the span of half a year, the third time he showed up I managed to put him in a carrier and take him to a vet. He got my attention because: 1 he’s was very friendly, but definitely looked like a stray (very dirty, and a little sick looking). And 2 he was limping.
After taking home to the vet they took an X-ray which showed he has an old fracture to his back leg:
sorry I don’t have better pictures on my phone but they show the fracture at least. As you can see his leg is pretty mangled, but the vet judged it to be at least 1-2 years old. Furthermore, she judged him to be older than 7, maybe 10, he was well fed but dehydrated (in the country I live in its pretty common to leave food for stray cats, but sometimes people forget water, it’s also very hot so not a great combination) and he was also neutered.
she suggested I keep him separate from my own cats for at least a week to make sure he wasn’t sick with anything.
It’s been about a month since I took him in and he’s been vaccinated and thoroughly tested for any feline viruses. And besides the leg is a perfectly healthy cat. But one thing is bothering me, specifically his leg. At the time when I asked the vet if anything should be done she said no but I’m not sure if it was a “not right now” no, or just no he can live like this perfectly fine.
I can’t tell if the leg brings him pain or not but it does disable him quite a bit. He can walk and run and even jump a little bit it’s all very slow. When he sits the leg sticks out at an odd angle, when he walks he only puts down the very tips of his toes and doesn’t put weight on it, and when he runs it just flops awkwardly to the side. From what I can tell he only uses it a little bit to balance himself. And other than that it almost seems as if the leg s just in his way.
I guess what I really want to know is (if you were a vet) and a cat came into your clinic with a leg like this, would you consider amputating it? It seems so drastic but you see al these cats with three legs living as if they have four, running and jumping and you can’t even tell they are missing a limp, and it makes me wonder if it would be better?
Because he’s only just starting to show his playful side (up until now he didn’t show the slightest interest in toys) but he can’t run or pounce properly, and next to my 2 year old cats he’s basically like an old disabled tortoise. He seems to want to run and chase along with my cats but he simply can’t keep up with them.
I really just wanna know if it might improve his quality of life, especially since he’s already at least 7-10 years old, and if I should even bother bringing that up with a vet. Then there would be funds to consider, but luckily vets here don’t tend to be super ridiculously expensive and there is a pretty active community of animal lovers that are usually willing to donate to causes like this.
Anyway, sorry for the long story, but I’m just hoping to hear some other people’s opinions.