Cat Fell

I was making my morning coffee and heard a dust up between two of my cats.

Found one laying on the stairs with the other peeking his head through the balusters.  Took me a minute to realize that the one on the stairs was just sitting there.  I suspect he was walking the railing  around and he fell off it and onto the stairs.  From how high up I don't know.  Eventually he limped up the stairs and then went under the bed.  After a bit he came out and managed to jump/pull himself up on the bed and now is laying in his and has gone from one cat bed to the other a few times (there are two on the end of the bed).  Clearly he has injured one of his back legs.  He has difficulty pulling it, but can do so.  It is not dragging as though it is broken, but he clearly injured it.  

It's Sunday (figures) - opinions on whether I should take him to the e-clinic or can I wait until tomorrow?  He just tried to put weight on the leg and can't put very much on it.

I would take him to a e- clinic today. It may be broken and he may be in pain.

Agree with the emergency clinic. He is in a lot of pain and you don't know the extent of his injuries.

Definitely, to the ER Vet...this is an emergency....poor baby

I took him in and just got back. They didn't think anything was broken and gave him some Tramadol for the pain. I just got him home and gave him some, but now I notice one of his eyes is tearing. Not horribly. Don't know what to make of that.

Update:  I did figure out what happened finally.  One of the other cats in our family had him cornered and he backed up  through the ballisters and fell about 8 feet into the stairwell. Unfortunately the handrail is on that side so he may have hit that on the way down.  I blocked the lower half of the ballisters so that doesn't happen again. 

He was better on Monday, not a lot, I took him to the regular vet.  She didn't think it was broken so we still didn't x-ray.  She thinks he may have banged his knee and it should heal on it's own. 

He seemed a bit better yesterday morning, but seemed very uncomfortable by nighttime and not any better today.  He just wants to lay on the hardwood floor and not on his bed.  He is eating and using the litter box fine and I am giving him his pain meds.  I tried turning on the heated mattress pad and putting him on it, but he didn't stay up on the bed.  He's a young cat and I was hoping he'd improve quickly each day.  He still can barely put weight on it, but he does get around, but only takes a few steps before lying down.  I can see that he can stretch the leg out and rolls back and forth from one side to the other. 

I feel so bad for him.

PS - Just as an aside, when I took him to the e-clinic I mentioned that he could be difficult at the vet - I waited almost three hours, even with triage they were taking in less serious cases.  That never happens, I always get in within an hour.   Lesson there:  it's probably a bad idea telling the e-vet your cat is a handful, it might buy you a longer weight.  I was PO'd "difficult" meant you need to scruff him not that they need to get out the gloves and restraints.  Jeeze.

Honestly, in my opinion I would insist on an x-ray of that leg. That is the only way you will know for sure what you are dealing with. How is the "tearing" eye today? That's the way I see it, No more guessing if you insist on the x-ray.

I'll keep updating this just for anecdotal evidence if nothing else. 

Today I took him in for an xray as he is still so very lame.  It's funny he can scratch with the left leg (and does) and rolls back and forth on his back when petting. 

Vets initial view of xray no broken bones.  She will send them out to a radiologist and an orthopedic surgeon they use as she thinks he may have torn his ACL (or whatever the official equivalent is in cats.)  This confirmed what the other vet in the practice suspected on Monday - that the main injury is probably to his knee. 

Cat's knees are in a wierd spot:

http://www.omgfacts.com/animals/120...wards-because-those-are-actually-their-ankles

How is your boy? Hoping to hear he's no longer limping.

I know from experience that in dogs and humans an ACL injury does take a long time to heal. They're a pain because you want to move the leg all the time and have to keep it still (try telling that to a one year old golden retriever!). I hope your boy continues to heal OK.

Hard to believe it's been over two weeks and he's still limping pretty badly. He moves around but lays down after taking a few steps sometimes. Can jump up on the bed but I would say he drags the leg a bit. He seems to be able to move it ok when he stretches his legs out when lying down. He makes me nuts because I'll think he's in so much pain and then I'll find him sitting at the bottom of the stairs which he has ventured down for no discernible reason. Not sure if his tummy is ok. He has ibd and is on a limited ingredient diet but the past month I have been letting him eat 1/2 lid and 1/2 purina pro plan because he was getting so finicky after 6 mouths of restricted diet food. Wondering if I should restrict him to one room.