Knee problems

My cat Harry came in from outside this weekend and had injured his left rear leg somehow. I didn't see or feel any problems with it, but he didn't want to put any weight on it (he mostly hopped with his right rear leg, or put the left one down briefly if necessary).

I took him to the vet today and apparently his kneecap (patellar) was out of place and x-rays show that it was fractured. There could also be problems with the ligaments in the area. He might need surgery! I have an appointment for a consultation with a surgeon on Wednesday.

Poor little guy!

Anybody have any experience with knee problems?

Poor kitty. he must have had some kind of trauma while outside that caused the fracture?

I know there have been people who've posted on here in the past with regards to cats w/ luxating patellas and other knee issues. Go to the "search" feature on the main page here and type in the box "patella" or "knee" and it should bring up tons of posts that you might find helpful.

What did the Vet suggest you do in the meantime; keep kitty contained in a crate to keep him off the leg? It would sure be good if you could keep him inside, particularly until this is sorted out. If he's injured like this and outside, he might have a hard time protecting himself should he encounter a dog or angry feral cat, etc.

Poor kitty. he must have had some kind of trauma while outside that caused the fracture?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing yes, since it came on so suddenly. The vet mentioned perhaps falling out of a tree or something.

Go to the "search" feature on the main page here and type in the box "patella" or "knee" and it should bring up tons of posts that you might find helpful.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll do that.

What did the Vet suggest you do in the meantime

Click to expand...

She did mention keeping him inside (which I was certainly going to do anyway, since he can't even walk on that leg). The appointment with the specialist is only the day after tomorrow, so we'll see what they say...

Harry had surgery on his knee this morning. It was apparently a some combination of a congenital problem and trauma. Congenitally, he's got the luxating patella and then there was some trauma that happened on top of that because once they shaved the fur off they could see lots of bruising on the outside, and then inside there was lots of tearing.

But the surgery went well and he's resting comfortably now. I'll pick him up tomorrow (probably). I'll have to set up a crate or something so that he can't jump or run for six to eight weeks (he's not going to like that!).

Poor boy, sending a whole heap of smooth recovery his way!

As for what happened - one of my cats has luxating patellas. They were not bad enough for the 2 vets I had look at her to want to do surgery. One did tell me she is a bit more likely to hurt herself than the average cat in the knee area due to her issue. They wouldn't do surgery on her knees until she was an adult (this was discovered when she was about 8-10 months old), and now that she is an adult they are barely noticeable & do not seem to bother her the least.

Update on Harry --

His knee surgery went well and he recovered from that, with a lot of crate rest, etc.

Unfortunately, he has developed an additional problem in the same knee. He has apparently torn his ACL and/or PCL now. The vet surgeon told me that there is a good chance in cats to avoid surgery for this condition, as often (maybe 50% of the time, or up to 80% of the time), the knee will heal on its own with total rest (in the crate, no jumping or running, etc) for perhaps 6 weeks. I guess it is a matter of the knee developing scar tissue around the knee which keeps it stable.

Well, unfortunately, it has been 4 weeks now and his knee isn't looking any better (he's still limping). I see the vet next week. I'm anticipating that he's going to have to have a 2nd surgery on that knee.

Poor boy! He's really sick of the crate by now! I do let him out of the crate several times a day for about 10 minutes at a time, and have to watch him like a hawk to keep him from jumping on stuff or running up the stairs, etc.

Right now, he's hiding under the bed to avoid being put back in his crate. Silly boy! The crate has more room than under the bed!