Leg Pain! Help!

Hello,

We recently took our 1 1/2 year old Abyssinian to the vet because she is experiencing periodic acute leg pain. This started in December - we came home one day and she was limping on her left hind leg, but seemed to recover in 4 or 5 hours. Since then, she has injured herself 5 times on the same leg - once she jumped up to play with my boyfriend, once she leapt off the bed, and then tonight she was just running normally when she all of a sudden experiences this pain, starts to cry, and hides under the bed for a few hours. The vet said it was arthritis, and we've been giving her glucosamine, but it just seems like such a severe pain, and she is so young. Has anyone seen something like this before? Please help! She is such a wonderful loving kitty!

Aww, your poor baby! She seems so young for arthritis.
Has her leg been x rayed?

I have never heard of anything like that...there always was a reason for the pain. Were any x-rays done or other tests to determine if anything else could be causing the pain? What about pain meds to make her more comfortable?

No x-rays have been done. The vet wanted to wait and see if the leg pain was more of a chronic condition first. No pain medication was prescribed. She's come out from under the bed tonight now and she's sleeping. I just wish she could talk! I'm thinking of taking her to another vet but it's so expensive. The vet also said that the leg probably wasn't fractured, because she could manipulate it and Zeta (my kitty) wasn't crying in pain. But I've read that cats can mask pain so well.

Originally Posted by Abbykitties

No x-rays have been done. The vet wanted to wait and see if the leg pain was more of a chronic condition first. No pain medication was prescribed. She's come out from under the bed tonight now and she's sleeping. I just wish she could talk! I'm thinking of taking her to another vet but it's so expensive. The vet also said that the leg probably wasn't fractured, because she could manipulate it and Zeta (my kitty) wasn't crying in pain. But I've read that cats can mask pain so well.

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I guess if it were me, I'd be getting a second opinion. I mean, the cat seems like she's in pain, correct? Then why didn't the vet do anything to help alleviate the pain? I know it's expensive, but it will be well worth it if your baby is healthy again.

Both experience and observation prove that you can have all sorts of fractures and still manipulate the joints -- that vet sounds wacky to me. I'd get her in to see a different vet first thing!

Meanwhile, if you can get her to sleep in a carrier without too much stress, it would be good to keep her off the leg. Poor kitty! Give her a snuggle from me...

Thanks for the help. I didn't mention before - once she comes out of hiding from hurting herself, she usually has a little sleep, then she goes right back to being a playful kitty, tearing around the house. It's as if she never hurt herself. I just can't figure it out! Do you think that she could have a fracture with this kind of behaviour?

It could be anything ////

was an xray taken??? if no get one

I strongly advise xrays.
While she may be a bit young for arthritis, there is a possiblity of other bone disease.