Leg injury

Peanut just jumped off the top of his cat tower straight to the floor. The tower is about 5 ft tall. He injured his leg doing so. He started limping right away and when he sat he holds his right front paw in the air.

He is laying on our couch in the basement. I know he's uncomfortable, but he actually let me pick up his leg and feel it. He does not like his feet touched when he's healthy, so that is strange.

It's not swollen and it doesn't seem broken but his leg seems to be curved. If it was a weekday I'd bring him right to the vet. The emergency vet is VERY expensive. Is an immediate vet visit needed or should I see how he's doing tomorrow. (He did just come upstairs to see the Christmas tree. )

Tomorrow is soon enough, I'd say.

mrblanche said:

Tomorrow is soon enough, I'd say.

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Yes, while ideally you'd go today I think this can wait till tomorrow if it has to.  Try to minimize his activity until then if you can to avoid his aggrivating the injury/making it worse.

I'm sorry to hear this happened to your little guy.

Thanks. I will call first thing in the morning. He's not too interested in being active normally so that shouldn't be too hard. I think the hardest thing is going to be digging in the litterbox.

Definitely get it checked out, it could be something as simple as a sprain, but it could be like a hairline fracture or something too.

As hard as it is to see Peanut so sore; it's sweet to watch Angel try to take care of him. Especially since this time last year she was constantly attacking him. He has the cleanest little leg right now. She's a great little nurse.

He's on Onsior for 6 days. He's supposed to be confined but I'm not sure how to do that so I just closed off the basement and took away his cat tree.

petcrazy76 said:

He's on Onsior for 6 days....

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Hi petcrazy76 !

An urgent caution for you.......Onsior is licensed by the FDA to be given  FOR A MAXIMUM OF 3 DAYS.............

Onsior is a Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug - NSAID - and cats are almost unique in their inability to metabolize NSAIDs - their livers do not have the enzymes needed to process them.

As a result, the drug goes directly into the bloodstream....and is filtered by the kidneys.....and damages/destroys kidney cells.....kidney cells do not regenerate.

There are safe alternatives for pain control in cats: buprenorphine, Tramadol and the "pain patch".....all prescription opiate drugs, all pose no danger to cats.

I would urge you to stop giving the Onsior immediately, contact this Vet and arrange for an alternate pain med.

The easiest, no-fuss, no-muss option is the pain patch, second easiest buprenorphine (a few drops into the side of the mouth, not swallowed). Tramadol is in tablet form.

References:

Onsior: http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=64788

NSAIDs and cats: http://felinecrf.org/treatments_antibiotics_painkillers.htm#nsaids

Kidneys: http://felinecrf.org/what_happens_in_ckd.htm#hard_detect_early

Opiate painkillers: http://felinecrf.org/treatments_antibiotics_painkillers.htm#opiates

Onsior's effect on kidneys - an example: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262848/alternative-to-metacam-after-spay#post_3389254 (note quoted passage)

 He's supposed to be confined but I'm not sure how to do that........

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"Confinement" for him now simply means providing him with a safe, secure, quiet, private space where he won't be stimulated by all the usual goings-on of the household.....could you keep him isolated in a small room? Some people use a large dog crate and a quiet room. Food and litter need to be included.

Thank you for the information. I will definitely call his vet this morning about his meds.

petcrazy76 -

I'm glad you picked this up.....you may need to be very firm with this Vet...polite, but firm.

I also thought afterwards that I'd suggest it might be time to find a competent cat-only Vet (I know I would be doing that)....the very fact that s/he prescribed an overdosing of a class of drug which has a very narrow margin of safety in cats would have me extremely concerned.

A cat-only clinic might be the easiest place to start with......the American Association of Feline Practitioners also provides a search feature on their site: http://www.catvets.com/cat-owners/find-vets-and-practices Use the Search by Location, but don't check the red box "Show me only Cat Friendly Practices".

AAFP membership is no guarantee of competency.....but, it's sometimes a good starting point.

Some people rely on online Vet "reviews".......personally, I think that method's a crock, for many reasons........

How's Peanut doing today?

Peanut seems much better already. Not his normal self but he seems to be walking better. Probably is just a pulled muscle. Hope he keeps getting better. He's been a trooper so far.