Semi Feral Limping

Well, a lot has changed in the last month.

I've been spending a lot of time with just one feral these days. Luna, Kira's sister, barely comes by anymore. Her human got hurt severely, and won't be home for several months. Luna's been going somewhere else (I think a few houses down), but she's clearly well fed when I do see her. Kira was painfully lonely, and trying to get any other cat to spend time with her. I felt bad, so I began devoting extra time to our garage bonding sessions. An hour is all I can do before the pain gets overwhelming. But I try to go out again later.

About 4 days ago she started limping. I couldn't tell at first what happened, and she still ate fine and could put weight on all of her paws. However, since then I've seen it's her front right paw (her right, not mine). She holds it up now and then. Surprisingly, instead of avoiding me, she's been trying to keep me with her as much as possible. She even started chatting, and rolling around and presenting her tummy to me. I still can't pet her, and I won't even try while she's hurt, but this level of trust and affection has completely floored me.

So, I'll go out for an hour at a time, and sit in the garage while she grooms and then naps. I'm thinking its likely a sprain, but I'm not sure. As I said, she's eating well and able to get around a bit. And she's comfortable with me around, she's not constantly purring, so I'm assuming it's not too painful. But it breaks my heart to see her hurt. Is there anything I can do? Or do I need to just wait and see? I don't have a trap, so I'm not sure how I could get her to a vet.

I finally have a picture, not a great one. Don't worry, all weights are secured before she's allowed in. That thing is braced in the middle, and the mats has deep grooves. Nothing short of a severe earthquake would move it. That's my leg on the bottom, and that's as close as she sits. Usually she naps a bit further away, but tries to come a little closer for a few minutes every day. 

Thank you so much for helping this dear cat. If she is putting some weight on the paw it is likely a sprain or pulled muscle. Not much a vet can do. You could put some glucosamine and chondroitin in her food ( get the capsule form , sprinkle on wet food). I believe it also comes in a treat form. Any.idea how old she is, could be a touch of arthritis. Same recommendations. I had two semi ferals, one with each condition. Both are fine now.

She's almost 2 now. She was born just a few weeks before Sandy hit. She's still very playful (not quite as much since the injury, of course). Though she mostly prefers to ambush her fellow kitties (which is why it's so sad seeing her without her playmate), and wrestle a bit. She barely ever plays with the laser pointer. Sometimes she'll play with string, if I leave it tied to something. She loves to bat rocks and bugs though. lol

She was the runt, and wasn't allowed in the shelters across the street. So we put up shelters here cause the one male kept causing problems, but he can't be in all of them at the same time. She spends the majority of her time here, almost all of every night. I'll try to get her some of that, sounds like a good idea. She does enjoy high places, and with all the rain, it's easy to imagine a bad landing could have done it. I'd be way more worried if this neighborhood wasn't so welcoming to the cats. They've done a lot of good already. Virtually no more skunk, no sign of the possum, and barely any raccoon vandalism. And no mice or rats. (There's a fast food place literally behind our house, so we worry about that) Everyone loves them and offers some food. Well, at least 4 houses, maybe more. lol

Hopefully if it is a sprain, the glucosamine and chondroitin will help it heal better. I know how bad a sprain can hurt, especially if it's not cared for right. Thank you so much! Feels good to have something to do to help. :-)

I'm glad she is surrounded by loving, caring persons.
The other thought I had was (and you seem to have this covered): make sure you all are providing her with sufficient food so she doesn't have to go hunt (pounce) for food.
An adorable, friendly, fairly young cat (under 1 year of age) suddenly appeared in my colony, limping. I was concerned her injury would prevent her from being able to hunt for food. I was able to trap her (in a cat carrier) to get her medical care. Long story short: the vet could find no reason for the limp despite multiple xrays and the cat eventually grew out of the limp (adopted into a Furever home). Similar situation with another somewhat older cat. Limp came and went. Xrays should some arthritis. He is still in the cat colony and seems fine.
And yes I heard that sprains hurt worse than breaks, go figure!

I had one who cut her foot recently.  She's not a feral but was raised as someone else's outside cat and so she does wander but also eats inside and is perfectly fine being handled.  When I got her in, I checked the foot and found a pretty deep cut on the side of one paw pad.  I washed it with a squirt bottle, put disinfectant in it (Banixx) and after it dried I put triple antibiotic ointment in it since it was kind of between the pads. I also put her on Clavamox because it was pretty deep and nasty looking.  I was able to keep her in for a few days and she was healing, but then she escaped again and came back limping that night, having opened it up again.  After that I managed to keep her inside another week and it healed perfectly.  If you think your feral may have a cut and not a sprain, you could probably put amoxicillin (FishMox can be purchased at feed stores) in her food, if she eats wet food.  It has no taste and it comes in 250 mg. capsules, normal dose for cat under 10 lbs is 1/4 capsule twice a day.  Not cheap, though -- costs about $23 for a bottle of 100.  We keep it around for injured ferals, particularly prevalent during breeding season form bite wounds.

I'll probably pick that up. A new cat moved in and had kittens recently across the street. They're getting trapped this week, and will most likely be fostered and then adopted. The shelter here is excellent with TNR, and they call for fosters frequently.

Kira's barely limping anymore. Knowing her, she probably slipped from a high jump in the rain. She was being extra affectionate yesterday, and actually let me pet her for the first time! I just held out my hand, waiting for her to step back like she usually does, but she bumped her head into my hand, and walked forward so it went down her back. She seemed surprised at herself afterwards. Lol

She wrangled another 20 minutes in the garage with that move (Amazing how much kitty love fights horrible pain). She was rolling all over the place after that. Of course, she had to remove my scent with a thorough cleaning too, :lol3:

I was very relieved to see her walking almost normal again. And playing. She is an excellent bug hunter. (Good girl, get those pesky buggies!) But yeah, it clearly wasn't as bad as I imagined. Seeing her not play, and sleep a lot for a few days had me rather paranoid. Thank you all for the advice, I will make sure to remember in case anything else happens. :bigthumb:

And I'll try to keep the paranoia to a minimum.

Happy update!