Hi all,
It's been a while since I've posted. My cat Seamus is approx. 3 y/o indoor male. I have no other animals. On Friday night I noticed he seemed a little "off". He's usually in my face all the time, but instead he was sleeping a lot and keeping to himself. Anyway, on Saturday I noticed he was limping so I took him to the vet. He seemed to have some inflammation and pain in his rear hind leg. The vet said it could be a sprain or possibly a small fracture. I can only assume the injury occurred while I was at work on Friday. He does like to jump up on the high armoire in my bedroom. I have a feeling he may have stumbled or fallen while trying to make the leap as I have seen him land awkwardly in the past. The vet also took his temp and determined that it was 104.5 which is high. She could not find any puncture wounds on the leg that could be infected so she felt he probably spiked the fever in response to the pain. She gave him an injection of meloxicam and sent me home with a prescription for metacam to give him once a day for a week. She said to watch him for few days and if he didn't improve we'd probably have to do some blood work. He did perk up after the visit and he is getting around a bit better although he does walk a little stiffly and he doesn't seem to want to move around too much. He is eating although not as much or as enthusiastically as usual and prefers me to bring the food to him rather than come to his normal feeding spot in the kitchen. He is urinating regularly and his water intake seems to be normal. The one thing that was bothering me was that he didn't have a bowel movement for a couple of days and when he finally had one on Sunday it was just a few small dry "nuggets". I know this is typically a sign of constipation. I gave him some hairball remedy and last night he had slightly more normal looking stool but not as much as usual and it was still dried out looking. I tried giving him some canned pumpkin, but he doesn't seem interested. Does anyone have any other ideas? I've heard olive oil and butter can also be used to help get things moving.
I was also wondering about people's experiences with metacam? I gave him a dose on Sunday and I think it made him more lethargic but he seemed to be resting comfortably. I started reading about it and saw that some cats have serious problems with it. I was nervous to give him a dose yesterday and decided to wait and see how he was doing. Since he seemed relatively comfortable I didn't end up giving him the 2nd dose. However, this morning his leg seemed to be bothering him again, so now I'm thinking i'll have to give him the metacam when I get home from work.
Since I have never had a cat with this type of injury, I'm not sure what is normal behavior. I know that he is uncomfortable and probably won't be quite "himself" as a result, but I guess I would just like advice from anyone who may have had a similar situation. Obviously I'd prefer not to take him to the vet again if I can help it, especially if this is normal considering his injury, but I don't want to let anything slide either.
Thanks for your thoughts on this!
It's been a while since I've posted. My cat Seamus is approx. 3 y/o indoor male. I have no other animals. On Friday night I noticed he seemed a little "off". He's usually in my face all the time, but instead he was sleeping a lot and keeping to himself. Anyway, on Saturday I noticed he was limping so I took him to the vet. He seemed to have some inflammation and pain in his rear hind leg. The vet said it could be a sprain or possibly a small fracture. I can only assume the injury occurred while I was at work on Friday. He does like to jump up on the high armoire in my bedroom. I have a feeling he may have stumbled or fallen while trying to make the leap as I have seen him land awkwardly in the past. The vet also took his temp and determined that it was 104.5 which is high. She could not find any puncture wounds on the leg that could be infected so she felt he probably spiked the fever in response to the pain. She gave him an injection of meloxicam and sent me home with a prescription for metacam to give him once a day for a week. She said to watch him for few days and if he didn't improve we'd probably have to do some blood work. He did perk up after the visit and he is getting around a bit better although he does walk a little stiffly and he doesn't seem to want to move around too much. He is eating although not as much or as enthusiastically as usual and prefers me to bring the food to him rather than come to his normal feeding spot in the kitchen. He is urinating regularly and his water intake seems to be normal. The one thing that was bothering me was that he didn't have a bowel movement for a couple of days and when he finally had one on Sunday it was just a few small dry "nuggets". I know this is typically a sign of constipation. I gave him some hairball remedy and last night he had slightly more normal looking stool but not as much as usual and it was still dried out looking. I tried giving him some canned pumpkin, but he doesn't seem interested. Does anyone have any other ideas? I've heard olive oil and butter can also be used to help get things moving.
I was also wondering about people's experiences with metacam? I gave him a dose on Sunday and I think it made him more lethargic but he seemed to be resting comfortably. I started reading about it and saw that some cats have serious problems with it. I was nervous to give him a dose yesterday and decided to wait and see how he was doing. Since he seemed relatively comfortable I didn't end up giving him the 2nd dose. However, this morning his leg seemed to be bothering him again, so now I'm thinking i'll have to give him the metacam when I get home from work.
Since I have never had a cat with this type of injury, I'm not sure what is normal behavior. I know that he is uncomfortable and probably won't be quite "himself" as a result, but I guess I would just like advice from anyone who may have had a similar situation. Obviously I'd prefer not to take him to the vet again if I can help it, especially if this is normal considering his injury, but I don't want to let anything slide either.
Thanks for your thoughts on this!
