My cat Gizmo hurt his leg. How do I know if it is serious?

I woke up this morning, with my cat, Gizmo, following me up the stairs, limping and whining a little. I got him to walk a little to get a better look. It is his back right leg, his foot is slightly swollen, and when he tries to step on it, his, I guess knee, bends outward. When he lies on his side he can still twist his foot a bit, so i don't think it is broken, but I am not sure if its just a sprain. How his knee bends out worries me. Does anyone have any ideas if it is just a sprain or not? I also have some pain medicine left over from when i got him fixed, would it be bad to give him some if I keep him from jumping around? All advice will be greatly appreciated.

boogirl25 said:

 
I woke up this morning, with my cat, Gizmo, following me up the stairs, limping and whining a little. I got him to walk a little to get a better look. It is his back right leg, his foot is slightly swollen, and when he tries to step on it, his, I guess knee, bends outward. When he lies on his side he can still twist his foot a bit, so i don't think it is broken, but I am not sure if its just a sprain. How his knee bends out worries me. Does anyone have any ideas if it is just a sprain or not? I also have some pain medicine left over from when i got him fixed, would it be bad to give him some if I keep him from jumping around? All advice will be greatly appreciated.

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I would suggest taking him to the vet . It sounds like he is in pain .  Only your vet can tell you what is wrong . 

I hope it is nothing serious ..

The knee bending worries me , that does not sound normal at all. Pain medicine would not hurt at all, it would help him cope. I guess the main thing to do is to watch carefully and see if there is any improvement at all in the next 24 hours, if not then definitely the vet. My cat had a swollen foot from an abccess and couldn't walk on it, so watch for any discharge that may suddenly occur, but that would mean your cat got bit by another, is that possible? Good luck and keep us posted!

It is possible that he was bit, but I am guessing what happened was he fell wrong, because he is not a very good jumper, he only climbs, like a lizard lol. But because of that, he doesn't know how to land well, and he is very heavy from so much muscle that he wouldn't land lightly. I definitely am worried about him though. I have him locked in my office with me so he wont run around with his sisters kittens. He is sleeping on a soft chair right now. It has been three hours now since I woke up and saw him limping. So, waiting 24 hours to see if he gets better, then taking him to the vet is what I should do? How much improvement should he show by 24 hours if it is just a sprain? Does the knee bending sound like his knee is sprained? And thanks for the response

He rolled over on his back with his legs in the air, so I was able to get a good look at his foot and leg, and I didn't see any bites or cuts or even discoloring.

You won't see a bite, they are usually very deep and close immediately, keeping in the blood(and toxins). Any improvement, such as is he bearing any weight on it once in a while, is there any difference in that 'bending'., which by the way doesn't sound good I hate to tell you. You might want to call your vet and see what they think, or what you should look for. But I got a feeling they are going to want to x-ray it. You might want to call around and get estimates, it's never good to be surprised with a huge bill. My Burt was x-rayed the last time we were in and it was very inexpensive compared to the lab costs! Good luck, and bless you for caring so much!