E. coli and MRSA and amputation... oh my!!

*waves
I haven't been here in quite sometime but wanted to drop in for some encouragement/support.

I rescued a 10 month old cat from a high kill shelter in Los Angeles on April 1. I had not yet met her - just saw a photo posted by a rescue group and was able to have another rescue pull her.

She is just sweet as can be and God knows what the poor little girl has gone through in her short life! She has a 6" healed scar on her right stifle. She came into the shelter with sores that healed and when I got her, had an open wound on her left hock. The shelter had been treating the wound for a month and my vet has been aggressively treating it for another month without success.

We did a culture last week and it ends up she has E. coli and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). No wonder it hasn't healed. So this is just one of her two issues - albeit the most urgent to treat right now. The other, is that they did xrays and there is damage to the left rear leg also - the cap on the end of the tarsus has evulsed and there is damage to the achiles tendon and the bone. My vet is good friends with an orthopedic surgeon and he agreed to see her for free today!!

He said he could try and repair the leg but that it would be 2-3 months of confinement, that her leg would always be lame anyways, arthritis issues later, etc. Plus the MRSA is a huge concern. So we decided to amputate her leg tomorrow (Thursday). I understand that tripods adapt very well and this will take care of both the damage to the leg and the MRSA.

I feel bad - I wish we could save it - but I understand this is going to be the best thing for her. I was holding her on my chest tonight, letting her groom without her e-collar, and I was just stroking her little paw, knowing it will be gone tomorrow (later today). It's just so sad.

I'm not sure what I am looking for - my head knows this is the right thing, but my heart still hurts. Has anyone else had to deal with anything like this?

Thanks everyone!!

It helps to see other cats on videos. Interesting about the stitches not holding, Marina, cuz that is exaclt what happened when they put tried stitching it and putting her in a cast for a week!

The vet just called and Wilma made it thru surgery just fine! She is going to stay in the incubator for the next 48 hrs so they can watch her closely. He is still concerned about the MRSA traveling up the leg so they are going to keep her longer then they would normally so they can give her the MRSA antibiotics in the IV. I just pray that the infection is under control now!!

Steelymark - you may want to start your own thread - I don't want your post to get lost in mine and I know you will get great feedback from everyone here. It is a very personal decision as to the surgery and it depends on the health of your cat. If she is otherwise healthy and the prognosis is good if you amputate, I might go for it. Whatever you do, I would probably get a second opinion just to be sure. Good luck!
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Now for Wilma.......
I got to go see her tonight and she is doing great! She got up on all threes to greet me! The incision is pretty amazing to look at. She is swollen and bruised but she was all loving and the techs said she was all sweet to them too this afternoon. It must feel soooo good to be rid of that leg.

She keeps ripping out her IV catheter so they gave up on that and are giving her subQ fluids and antibiotic injections - not ideal but what can you do? She is eating well and she may actually be able to come home tomorrow (which I am both excited and scared about!)

Here is a not so good photo, but the others I took might be a little too graphic for here.

Finally have a chance to give an update on Wilma.

She has been doing really well - each day she seems more bright and alert and the incision site has been looking great.

She saw the vet yesterday and he said everything look good but noticed some fluid accumulation and said to get her moving and start decreasing her pain meds to every 12 hrs vs every 8.

I let her out for about 40 min when we got home and she was moving around just great, then gave her the pain meds, put her back in her cage and left for a couple of hours. When I got home she was walking backwards, could barely stand on her good leg and kept falling all over the place and crying. And her amputation site was even more swollen than earlier with a big golfball size lump on it. >:-o I called the vet and he said that it is a seroma (fluid filled pocket), and to keep her quiet and bring her in in the morning.

I dropped her off this morning and am waiting to hear - I hope she is ok!!!! Worried....

Thanks Farley.

Not particularly pleased with the vet at the very second but it is probably that I am just tired and frustrated. He never called me yesterday to even tell me what they did and then when he called this AM he seemed annoyed I was even asking. Maybe I am just being neurotic.

So I guess he sedated her and tried to drain the seroma with a syringe - just got out a bit of clear fluid - no blood, no pus or infection, so he said it's healing and to just leave it alone and it will go away. He said he does not know why she is having trouble with her other leg now and that we do not know what happened to her and if there is damage to that leg too. I'm like, well you're the vet, shouldn't you look at it?? He said it's going to take 4 months to completely heal - first I had heard of that length of time.

He said to get her out and walking and the fluid in the seroma will reabsorb. Wilma will be happy to hear that but it's going to kill me to watch her hurting. I had knee surgery a couple of years ago, so you'd think this would all make sense to me.

Wilma's been doing pretty good, walking around on all threes, eating great and playing with my other cats. I have her in a large crate in the living room and let her out when I am home so I can keep an eye on her. Tuesday her incision seemed a little red and smelled kind of "chemically". Called the vet and she said no worries as long as it wasn't oozing or anything and to just keep my appt for today. So I dropped her off at the vet this AM so they could put her under anesthesia to remove her sutures and staples.

I just called to check in and they said she had "a reaction to the sutures" so they want to keep her there for a few days to let it drain and keep an eye on it. Not sure what that all means but I'll go visit her after work and talk to the vet and get more info. Poor thing - this just never ends!

I hope she is going to be ok!!!! I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the MRSA!! Does anyone know anything about suture reaction?

Thought you'd like updated pics - she loves her "brother" Jack, who is a feral.
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Thank you from me and Wilma!!

Marina, they used both internal and external stitches and staples.

The vet ended up letting her come home instead of keeping her. They removed the sutures/staples and there was a small area where the external stitches had not closed up and when the tech squeezed the swollen area they had said was a seroma and "nothing to worry about", all this green puss came out - and they said there was lots!

So they did a culture and hopefully it is not the MRSA again - won't have the results until Tuesday. So for now she is on Clavamox and pain meds and they left the area open to drain. They put gauze in it and told me to pull it out Friday and flush it daily. Thursday night I was totally freaking out thinking, OMG what have I done to this poor cat!! Well there was no way I was going to pull it out the gauze - I had no idea how much there was, it was going to hurt her and I had no one to help me. I work with cats and do lots of meds but no way with this, so I took her back Friday and had them do it and had them show me how to flush it.

Here is something that is interesting..... I had mentioned to the vet tech (male) when I dropped her off that I thought her incision smelled a little - not foul, just different. He smelled it and said it was fine. Well the other vet tech tech (female) smelled it right away when he brought her in the room. One vet (male) did not smell anything but the other vet (female) did. So three females, we all smelled it and two males and neither did. I guess women DO have a better sense of smell!

She is still eating great and playing a little. Because it could be MRSA I can't have her oozing all over (for the sake of me, the cats, and her so she doesn't get reinfected). So I borrowed a wire exercise pen and put it around her cage and laid down a large blanket and she is happy with that.

Another major concern is that she had been walking great up until Wednesday and it is worse now - she will try and walk forward and lifts her left hip (amputation side) high in the air so she ends up falling over backwards and sideways. If I help her and push down on her left hip, she can move forward. It seems worse when she first gets up from a nap. I took a video of it tonight and am going to see if the vet can forward to the orthoped to see what might be the problem.

I have to keep reminding myself of all the positive things right now, or else I start freaking out again. :-/ Thanks again for all the prayers and support!!