Cat Needs Surgery For Luxating Patella and Joint Mouse

My beloved orange tabby Chewy will be undergoing surgery for a luxating patella and joint mouse in the next few weeks. This is the first time I will have a cat undergo a surgical orthopedic procedure. Has anyone else had a cat undergo the same or a similar surgery? The vet is suggesting cage rest for 10-14 days. My husband and I are trying to arrange someone to be with him at all times and can coordinate for about 10 days of continuous care before we would have to leave him alone to go to work. Do you think 10 days is enough time of supervision? Any other tips and personal experiences to share would be appreciated. 

Thank you from Caitlin & Chewy!!

Hi!

I have seen cats and dogs in this situation and what I think your vet is suggesting is that you buy a crate that will confine your cat and keep Chewy from walking excessively during recovery.  When he's in the crate he shouldn't need direct supervision at all times and you should be able to leave him to go to work, provided you give him a litter box, water and food, and a nice soft bed.  Keep the water and food as far away from the litter box as possible, and buy a crate that's comfortably big enough for him and these items.  Some little toys would be nice too.

Under a vet's advice you cab take him out of the crate when you;re home and provided you don't let him exercise/walk more than the vet wants.  No jumping allowed!

If you can schedule the surgery on the day before your days off from work then you can have a day or two at home with him before you return to work.

Hi

Sorry your cat is going through this.

How did it happen? It is not a common thing in cats. Is surgery the only option that was suggested by the vet? Is the vet a Boarded veterinary surgeon or a regular vet? Is your cat on cage rest right now? Strict cage rest?

For the after surgical care: Make sure that pain is going to be addressed. You will need pain medications for kitty beyond any anti-inflammatory they give, If they do give medicam be sure to research it first. How long will they keep kitty after surgery?

Provided that the pain medication is adequate and kitty is not having any issues I don't think you will need someone there 24/7. Is the leg going to be splinted or wrapped?

Suggestions are Buprenex for pain. It is very well accepted by cats in the buccal mucosa (absorbed through the lining of the cheek) and it has a fairly long duration. Just no food 15 minutes before and after giving.

Make a modified litter pan using anything but be sure to cut down one side of it so kitty doesn't have to drag his leg over a the side. Make sure to use regular cat litter or the paper cat littler. The clumping litter will turn kitty into a clay kitty if the litter pan isn't exited quickly.

Use double sticky Velcro to keep the littler pan on the floor of the cage. Use plenty of litter.

Use double stick Velcro to keep the food and water bowl also on the floor of the cage.

Keep the food and water as far away from the litter as possible. I have found it works best to have it in the back of the cage so it doesn't get knocked over with the kitty antics that can carry on at the front of the cage when they realize where the door is.

Make sure there is a nice soft comfy big enough bed for kitty that doesn't have high sides to maneuver around etc.

Sometimes depending on the temp it can be nice to have the cage positioned so kitty can look out of a slider door etc. Provided of course the sun won't get to hot etc. Don't ever leave cat in cage outside as kitty will become a quick lunch for another animal or worse.

You will need a big enough cage to accommodate all the things that kitty will need without totally crowding the kitty.

So, this is a start anyway. Oh, put the entire cage on a large plastic table cloth so the litter and tossed food doesn't get all over your floor. Make sure kitty can't grab the plastic and eat it.

Good luck, Sounds like you really love your kitty. Lucky lucky cat.

CaitlinBrooke, please check out this forum for more info on luxating patellas:
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/218910/the-infamous-rare-luxating-patella

One of our rescues (Holly) underwent surgery for double luxating patellas last year. Recovery time for *each* leg was 6 WEEKS. She was crated (large dog crate) for a total of 12 weeks, then progressed to a room with no furniture for 2 weeks. We then slowly started building up area that she could jump onto.

I would seriously question a vet that says your kitty will be "good as new" after only 10-14 days of rest.

I also agree with Quiet about proper pain medication as this surgery is quite painful, though totally and completely worth it! And, the pain is definitely manageable. Holly was on a combination of Buprenex and Meloxicam. Though, Buprenex was our primary medication.

Holly was on pain meds for 4 months. Prior to surgery, she had severe luxation to the point that she was lame (it progressed VERY quickly in her.)

The forum I linked to should give you a general idea of other's experience (including mine with Holly.)

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful replies. You have given some great advice and raise important questions.

I too have questioned the luxating patella diagnosis, only because I feel it's something I am not overly familiar with. I did quite a bit of reading on it and it seems likely that's what it is. I cannot feel the patella slipping myself, though I imagine it's quite small on a cat and again, I am not sure what I am looking/feeling for. I did watch a few videos other cat owners had made of the way their cats walk with a luxating patella and I have to say that Chewy's is much the same. His other symptom includes a three month or longer history of muscle wasting in his hind legs (most pronounced in his left, the affected side), decreased activity and ability to jump to higher surfaces and pain. I took him to the 24 hour ER the other night as he was sneezing a lot (vet thinks FHV flare up, stress/pain related) so we got some lysine and buprenorphine for pain. Both seem to be helping.

As for the joint mouse, I did see it on the xray, so I am confident they are right about that. The vet did send the films to a veterinary radiologist, who also confirmed the luxating patella, and a surgeon who again confirmed it. We are meeting with the vet this coming Wednesday to discuss the surgery further. I feel I would like to have a second opinion. I am contemplating asking for the records and films and taking them to another vet to see what they say. I have never done this so hopefully it doesn't offend my vet too much! Just being thorough. I am nervous to take him to another vet as I don't want them to pressure us into further/repeat diagnostics... we had to sedate him for the initial xrays and if we could avoid it again, that would be ideal.

The way this all came about was I had noticed he appeared to be losing weight, mainly around his back end. Occasionally he would have difficultly completing jumps on to our bed (king size, quite high) or some higher window ledges. I mistakenly attributed his lack of ability to complete jumps to the slippery floors in our new home, as we moved about three months ago and now have wood floors throughout (feeling very guilty about my misdiagnosis!!). One night after work last week I came home to find him limping. We went straight to the vet first thing in the morning. The xrays ruled out hip dysplasia, arthritis and cancerous growths. It showed his right leg to be normal but found the left had the joint mouse and also what appeared to be a luxating patella. Blood work and urine all came back normal.

Stephen - thank you for the tips. I am a nurse and work shifts so thankfully get stretches of multiple days off. We have scheduled (tentatively) the surgery for my first day off which would leave me four days with him and then two days with my husband and then again another five with me so a total of almost 11 days of continuous care.

Quiet - I'm not sure how exactly it happened. Chewy is 11 but has always been extremely active. He loves to get into all sorts of mischief when we are not home so I wouldn't be surprised if he did something silly and hurt himself (chasing moths, trying to get on narrow windows to meow at the crows or the neighbour's cat)... from what I read if it happens later in life likely it is more related to trauma than genetics. That said, Chewy has always had a funky "bow legged" stance. Chewy is not on cage rest right now. He is making it around OK. Thank you for all your other info and suggestions. My in-laws have a large dog cage that I am hoping we can borrow for a couple of weeks to set him up. The velcro is a great suggestion!

CatPack - thank you for the link to that thread. That very thread is actually what lead me to this site via a Google search about Chewy's condition. I too read about the much longer recovery that you mentioned. The vet didn't say Chewy would be good as new in 10-14 days, only that he would require cage rest this long. My reading seemed to turn up quite a mixed bag of how long the recovery took which is why I was so curious to see what others had to say. I will definitely be discussing this with the vet in greater detail at our appointment this week. They also think there may be a ligament partial or complete tear, which would need to be repaired and I imagine will add time to recovery. Thank you again for sharing your personal experience. It helps a lot.

My boy Munchie has been through bilateral patellar repair surgery one was about 6 weeks after the other.  One went okay, the other he got surgical complications and had a staph infection in his incisoion it was really bad.  He unfortunately got arthritis in his joints, however you can expect that even with a normal surgery.  I kept Munchie confined to a crate and only limited out time for about 6 weeks each time, however he had a bad other knee and he had a bad infection after the 2nd surgery.  Munchies was genetic (he's from a siamese kitten mill).  Make sure you have your kitty on a good joint supplement such as Glucosamine (Cosequin works well).  Munchie's recovery time was long if I recall (it was 6 years ago).  This is the protocol I followed for physical therapy for Munchie: http://www.twincitiesveterinarysurgery.com/docs/PATLUX.WP.pdf  However instead of leash walks I let him out of his crate to walk around and play, he was just 11 months old for his first surgery.  His recovery was harder as he had a bad knee in the other knee so it was hard for him to compensate.  He had grade 4 in both knees so it was pretty severe.  He does pretty good now, considering.  He does have a sitff walk, but he also needs to have hip surgery now for hip dysplasia, we are just stabilizing a heart condition first poor boy.