Hi all,
I'm new to this site, and haven't been able to figure out the search tools. So, I figured I'd start a new thread.
I have a cat that got a stress fracture of her femur. The vet tried to fix it with an external fixator. Long story short, not only did my cat bend the pins, they got severely infected. The vet ended up pulling the pins before the femur healed, and wanted to cut off her leg. I'm not opposed to amputating her leg. I just was concerned about timing. She was running a temp of 104 and the infection was really bad. I told the vet that I would really rather wait and try to heal up the infection and see what happened with the leg. She was not eating much and lost alot of weight on top of everything else. I was afraid that in her weakened condition, with the amount of infection, she would not make it through surgery.
She quit eating totally, and I had to tube feed her and give her sub Q fluids for a while. She is now eating and drinking on her own, and starting to gain a little weight. HOWEVER, the abcesses do not seem to be resolving. Am I beating a dead horse, trying to clear up this infection, when in the end, I'm going to have to have the leg amputated anyway??? Has anyone ever dealt with a amputation associated with osteomyelitus (bone infection)???
Any help or comments would be appreciated. I've been dealing with this for over 2 months now, and I'm just at a loss. Everytime I think the leg is finally healing and looking better, it gets hot and swollen, and an abcess opens up. She is still on antibiotics!!! She was on Clavamox for 18 days before I switched her to antirobe. She has been on that for 20 days now.
I'm starting to think I made the wrong decision and should have just gone ahead with the amputation.
Any ideas???
I'm new to this site, and haven't been able to figure out the search tools. So, I figured I'd start a new thread.
I have a cat that got a stress fracture of her femur. The vet tried to fix it with an external fixator. Long story short, not only did my cat bend the pins, they got severely infected. The vet ended up pulling the pins before the femur healed, and wanted to cut off her leg. I'm not opposed to amputating her leg. I just was concerned about timing. She was running a temp of 104 and the infection was really bad. I told the vet that I would really rather wait and try to heal up the infection and see what happened with the leg. She was not eating much and lost alot of weight on top of everything else. I was afraid that in her weakened condition, with the amount of infection, she would not make it through surgery.
She quit eating totally, and I had to tube feed her and give her sub Q fluids for a while. She is now eating and drinking on her own, and starting to gain a little weight. HOWEVER, the abcesses do not seem to be resolving. Am I beating a dead horse, trying to clear up this infection, when in the end, I'm going to have to have the leg amputated anyway??? Has anyone ever dealt with a amputation associated with osteomyelitus (bone infection)???
Any help or comments would be appreciated. I've been dealing with this for over 2 months now, and I'm just at a loss. Everytime I think the leg is finally healing and looking better, it gets hot and swollen, and an abcess opens up. She is still on antibiotics!!! She was on Clavamox for 18 days before I switched her to antirobe. She has been on that for 20 days now.
I'm starting to think I made the wrong decision and should have just gone ahead with the amputation.
Any ideas???