Broken Hip

JJ is your special kitty.
You have been so patient with his healing process,
I am so glad that he is doing so well.

Your vet might have some ideas for you to try.
I hope that you find a workable solution before his paw becomes infected.

I'll watch for your updates.

I've been searching on line for permanent orth splints for cats and I think I can make him something comfortable.

I will keep you updated and YES, JJ is my special kitty.. I just want him to comfortable and healthy.

Thanks all for the kind thoughts.

Jenn

Read this post. Glad to see JJ is doing better. It's probably a little late for this, but I would have filed a police report. They may not have been able to press charges/etc.. but it would have let the neighbor know you mean business.

Thoughts and prayers go out to JJ. Hopefully all will be pretty much back to normal soon for you guys!

I don't have any absolute proof. And I am really reluctant to do that because we are renting his house while we fix our own up and we are not prepared to move in our new house as yet...

We have discussed this may times with him. He denies it. However, the other day my husband and I were talking with him in the garage and he brought up the subject of JJ. He asked how he was doing. Juan, my husband looked at me and replied that JJ was crippled and had nerve damage. He also told him we took him to the vet as we could not STAND to see him suffer in pain. My husband said this very very seriously and we watched the mans reaction. He just kinda shook his head and didnt' say anything.

I stilll think he did it. The vet believes it was a vehicle that hit him but I also think a hard kick would have done the same thing. I still 'suspect' he dumped him and either threw him from veh OR kicked him to get him away from his car after leaving him somewhere. OR possibly after he was dumped off, another car hit him. But JJ has always been without a home and lived outside. He is car savey...

And also, there are no animal control laws about dumping animals in our county or even strong laws about animal cruelty.

And example of this happened in Humanville Missouri. I live in Missouri by the way. The OWNER of this young dog, a hound, did not like him. He was about 10 months old so he beat him in the head with a hammer to kill him. That is NOT against the law in Missouri. You can dispose of your own animal as you see fit. But then, he shot him in the head with a nail gun several times. There was another person there who called the police. As it turned out, the dog was only unconsciouness and not dead. The reason they couldn't do anything serious legally to the man was because he thought the dog was dead when shooting him in the head with the nail gun. Therefore, according to the law here, he was not mulitating the dog which is an offense.

He got off with a fine. The town was in an up roar over the judges decision. The dog has since totally recovered and was adopted by a loving family out of state and has a wonderful home.

This is the link...... Missouri animal laws suck. Basically people can do what they want.

This is the newpaper clipping. Read this whole link. It is shocking. The man who did it got 15 days jail time, two years probation and a fine.
http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/4115/MO/US/20/print

And the the CARE unit link who took care of the dog name Trucker cause he kept on trucking no matter what. He has a happy ending... And it is worth reading.

But these are the Missouri laws. What happened to JJ is not proven but he was abused by someone. But it was actually legal. The police would laugh at me for reporting this.

This happened about 30 miles from outside of Springfield Missouri.
http://www.carerescue.org/trucker.html

This is a link to Truckers latest updates and his adoption.
http://www.carerescue.org/truckerupdates.html

It's pitiful the laws in Missouri concerning cruelty to animals. We lived in Arkansas before MIssouri and it is much the same if not worse. Especially in the rural areas.

It is just heartwrenching.

I lost a great job over animals in Missouri. I was a police dispatcher for years and we had a small kennel that the animal control officer kept strays in. He with put them down or took them to the no kill shelter in the area. But he was out of town and the policemen were supposed to feed them. And they weren't. There were 4 tick infested dogs in the kennel. I fed them daily but because of my job and me THINKING others were also feeding them, they went 30 hrs or so with no fresh water and NO food. I went and bought food out of my own pocket for these animals and it make my sgt very angry when I asked him where I needed to file my receipt. He fired me over it and his exact words were "You are trying to burn our asses"... I remeber him throwing me a wad of money asking if that was enough to cover my expenses because he did NOT want me turning in a recipt to the PD. I wouldn't take the money from him and my employment was terminated the next day and I had been there years.

Arkansas and Missouri laws for animals are very nearly non existant. Which should be a crime. The officers also sprayed mace at the dogs in the kennel which drove me nuts. We had arguments over it. They would also do this if they saw an animal in a veh with the window cracked while the owner was in a store and they laughed about it. There was even one incident where some hotel workers caught a raccoon and put it under a trashcan and beat the can with a stick to scare it to death. The officers were called and they picked the little raccoon up "to save him" and took him to the woods alledgedly to turn him loose in his habitat. You would think that was a happy ending but what they did then was use the raccoon for moving target practice. And these are the cops enforcing the animals laws????

It makes me sick.. Absolutly sick and nothing can be done about it.. The cops who did this actually laughed about it in my presence becuase they knew it bothered me and made me sick and loved getting a rise out of me.

Just pretty pitiful and says alot of the quality of people we depend on in this area for law. There is no one to complain to about this either.

I probably shouldn't have said all that but it is absolutely true and it has bothered me to this day. That's why I rescue and help who I can. Because you never know who is down the road in this area.. You just never know.

I am going to get JJ some sterile gauze tomorrow and try to figure something else out for his little toes to keep him protected. His laying on his feeding table now and I am thinking about taking it off while he sleeps. I might wait till tomorrow however. And if I can figure out something else to use, I'll try that. My husband has a different type of brace at the new place that I will pick up tomorrow until I can get him some sort of open molded brace that fastens with velcro. I just want him comfortable..

I just put a different type of bandage on JJ's foot. It is light and it can be his sleeping bandage.

I put fresh antibiotic ointment on it and took the finger brace off. After putting the new antibiotic on it, I wrapped it in the brown tape for medical stuff. It does not pull hair and is very very flexible and breaths.

After doing that, I got a little piece of folded cardboard and two tiny strips of duct tape and placed the cardboard under his face and taped it. The cardboard is not regular cardboard. It is from a box my asthma medicine comes in. It is thin and lightweight. I folded it over to give it just the right amount of support for him. If this doesn't look better in a couple day, he is off to the vet. You can tell in the photo how thing the cardboard is. It is justa support factor. It is not broken and I felt the finger brace was just too much. And also, even thought it was light, he did not lift his leg as high when he walked. I don't want him hampered. He is doing much better with this one. He is even laying in the corner grooming him self. That's a good sign.

I think it is more comfortable and it is absolutely non-binding. It might or might not keep his foot straight but it will keep the wound clean. And he can sleep in it easier and it doesn't click when he walks. I left the toe area open as well.

I like it better. I am going to buy him some paper tape tomorrow.

This is his new bandage. Even if he turns his toes under, it will be covered but I thik the cardboard will keep it reasonably straight so the top portion will be free of any pressure.

And I don't have to worry about the brace rubbing his little leg at all. The brace was scooting around and I felt like it would rub his leg and I don't want that.



Now I can go to bed and rest in peace tonight. Hopefully JJ will too., The other cats know my husband and I are doctoring JJ. They are just sitting watching him witih his little cardboard foot. They know something is wrong. And JJ does not like being doctored but I can tell he knows we are helping him. It doesn not appear to hurt but that is a deceptive statement since his foot is numb or I think it is. I am going to keep a close eye on it.

Jenn

p.s I have been watching JJ. He is having an easier time with the new bandage. It is much better with the finger brace off.. Even thought the finger brace appears light to me and my husband, it might not have felt the same to a freshly healed pelvic bone. It stays in place now. Every now and then he drags is foot a little but he then straightens it back out. The little cardboard brace is working for now. I think the other one made him tired or made his hip tired, but now he is doing good again. He needs one that actually makes him stand on the ball of his foot in a regular position. I wil figure out a way with husbands help..

Wow, he is actually walking correctly with it on. Praise the lord........

Thanks for the update, I have been following JJ's story annd think you are doing a wonderful job with him. hope he continues to do well.
Anne

Just look at how beautiful JJ's stripes are on his other hind leg.

I keep thinking that if that foot was amputated....
it would be easier for everyone...including JJ.
Avoiding serious infection long term might prove to be a real problem.

In California, we have organizations that sometimes help when financial resources for a surgery are limited.

Have you tried to find financial help for JJ's care?

You are so loving...
JJ is very lucky you took him in.

I will do a search on financial help for animal surgery and see what I can find out. And you are right. The thought has crossed my mind that his quality of life would be better with a partial amputation. My cat Yellow is lucky. He has a malformed broken/healed leg but no nerve damage. Just arthritis in the joint from the break. I wish JJ were that fortunate.

My husband brought home some sterile gauze and paper tape. We washed, doctored and re-bandaged his foot tonight. It looked better but I even told my husband that this is a forever thing we have to do. It will not end and he will need daily dressings the rest of his life or some type of covering to avoid future infections. I have been reading about dogs like this and they call it the curled toe syndrome or something like that and it is due to nerve damage.

Tomorrow when I change his bandage I will get a picture of his foot.

It happened so fast. I knew he was dragging it and walking on top of the toes and it "appeared" he was getting a callous which at the time I didn't feel was a bad thing. You know?

When I washed it and saw it was a scab I was horrified. It made me feel so damn guilty. I told my husband tonight it made me feel like I had injured him and been neglectful in some way. Hubby said that was ridiculous but it still made me feel that way.

Possibly in the Springfield area they might have an organization that help offset surgery costs. I know there is nothing where I live. Springfield Missouri is the closest large town to me and it is 30-40 miles away. Not too far.

But tonight he has a new bandage of a different sort AGAIN. A sterile gauze pad with antibiotic ointment on it. Then it is wrapped in gauze with paper tape and then I put the carboard underneath the foot and put paper tape around that in two places... The toe portion is open for air.

I have a lot to pray about tonight and a lot of soul searching to do about what is in JJ's best interest...

I know right now he is as well as he will ever get... Long term infection and prevention of that can be a serious thing to contemplate. Tough decisions.

Jenn

OH my gosh, I have found a place called IMOM.org that helps animals who need surgery. As soon as I can get JJ to the vet and get the estimate, I can start the application process. They will help me pay for surgery if he needs amputation.

Thank you god....... I have been so afraid of what JJ's life would be like.

There are two vets in my area that I would trust to do this type of surgery. The one I took JJ to and the one I take the other cats to.

The vet has to agree to give me an estimate of the cost and agree to treat and release JJ to me and then send them the bill which they would pay.

I hope so much this works out.

Thanks you xocats. Your idea was fanstastic

They have a forum that posted a little about JJ's situation on and I got a quick response from the committee members telling me what to do. I told them it would be a week or so until I can get JJ to the vet for the estimate and they are going to be watching for my emails on his situation. They said to apply for the general fund emergency help.

They said 'tripod kitties' do real well and that sometimes it is better to remove the leg instead of just the foot. But we will see what the vet says.

I will keep this thread informed of JJ and his progress.

This is the link the the site.
www.imom.org/fa

....... Jenn

Oh my goodness Jenn, that's fantastic news for you and JJ. You might be right about the amputation being just what JJ needs. There was a thread on this forum about a cat named Pebbles and how well she rebounded from her amputation.

I'll be waiting to hear all the news on JJ!!!

Hi renny. It's nice to hear from you! How are your babies?

I just woke up here in MIssouri and am still having my morning coffee. I woke up and was having trouble breathing this morning. I cracked my eyes and JJ was standing on my chest... along with Angie. Jeez..... That's a lot of weight... hehe

And yes, I am very very excited about JJ's news. If the vet feels he can keep his leg, I have found a company in Ireland that I received an email reply from that will custom make him a PAIR of boots for 32.00

The vet just has to make the decision about what is best for JJ.

I am calling the vet this morning and making his appointment..

The imom org will also pay for the price of his needed "fixing" and his shots. It is unbelievable that someone is this gererous. They told me to have the vet make them an entire estimate of what JJ needs done in order to fix his leg either through amputation or whatever.

I just told my husband...

I'll keep this updated as to JJ's progress.

I'm fixing to do a search for Pebbles.

Jenn

I just finished reading the amputation link on Pebbles. That was pretty amazing.

I will check out the link you sent because the thread I read did not have her background.

I am so glad she is doing well. I am making JJ's apointment with the vet as we speak.

This is exciting.
I am so glad that you have found resources to help.
There is now hope that JJ will live a happy life in your fantastic new enclosure.

Please continue adding pictures, links etc. to your JJ thread.
Your journey with JJ will help other members in the future.

I will be following JJ closely with prayers and healing vibes.

JJ's vet appointment is Monday the 27th at 9am. Husband just got home and I am going to change his bandage.

OH lordy....... I am feeling very stressed.

I am fixing to change his dressing and I will post a pic of his foot.

I want to add one more thing. The vet, Dr Henry, at the Kimberling Animal Hospital is the one I am going to. This is NOT the one I took JJ to initially. This is the one I took my little babies to when I got them fixed. He was so sweet when I made the appointment. He is the one who answered the phone and made my appointment and he said he will be more than willing to work with Imom.

JJ is one lucky dude cat. I hope his luck continues..

As soon as hubby finishes making his sausage I am giving JJ another bath to soak his foot and then I'll take his foot picture so you can see what he is dealing with.

Two cats on the chest can definitely cause some breathing problems. I am so excited about all the good that is coming around for JJ. He deserves it!!!

Update on my kitties...my foster kittens went up for adoption a few weekends ago and were both snatched up (i miss them though). Their feral momma went with the rescue director to be spayed and I ended up with 3-8month olds to hold onto between adoption fairs, but 2 of them came down with URI's so I still have them. Their names are Albert and Annie. I'm supposed to be getting a litter of 4 week old kittens that have been trapped (but they've been unable to get the momma). So we shall see. Other then that...my Rambo came down with a UTI and ended up having to get a needle in his bladder (i felt like i was living at the vet taht week!). But now seems to be happily on the mend!!

Now i'm just trying to take a breath before I start job hunting...my contract runs out in a few weeks.

I just finished giving JJ his bath. Here are somr additional pictures. This looks bad I know but this happened so fast.. Bath/foot saok before this one, the hair just fell off and this was what was underneath and that was day before yesterday. I had no idea and I look at him and hold him daily and take care of him. I showed my husband the callus last week because that is what it looked like. It did not look like a sore at that time. In fact I was happy he was getting a callus because I thought it would be easier on him. I feel so horrible about this like I have done something wrong and it is driving me nuts worrying me about it. I have him in the crate now so I can take his bandage off and let it air dry. He is asleep now in the crate. This was his third bath in his life and it is trumatic for him.

And as you can see, he has gained quiet a few pounds since his injury. He eats good and poops good. His hair is healthy again.

This picture is right after I toweled him dry. He feels pretty happy to have the bath over but he is sticking his tongue out at me which I think is cute.


Here is my beautiful lame baby asleep.


And here is the foot right after I soaked it and bathed him. This first one is a closeup and shows the depth of the hole.






It is heart breaking that this has happened to little JJ. He has no more worries but he just doesn't know it...

Jenn

Oh the poor soul! Healing vibes for poor JJ. Jenn I'm sure he knows he's living the good life now, why do you think he sought you out. This is just a small hurdle he needs to overcome, he overcame the hardest one getting to your house.