Balance issue in 3 legged cat

[physicsgal981]

Trinity is my newest foster kitty.  She is an approximately 8 month old, female kitten.  She had a family who left her outside where she was hit by a car about 2 weeks ago.  They couldn't afford the surgery to save her so they signed her over the shelter.  Our vet removed her left, rear leg and she has been with me to recuperate. 

She is a very sweet little girl and handled the surgery well.  Her healing went fine and she's recently had her stiches removed.  She does still seem sore / bruised in that area but an X-ray showed nothing of concern and the vet believes that it is just injury related to the accident. 

I've had other 3 legged fosters before but she seems to be having more trouble adjusting than most which surprised me because of her age (the other tri-pods I've had were several years old, but they both lost a front leg).  Any suggestions to help her get used to having only 3 legs?  The shelter is being very nice and allowing me to allow her the time to adjust before we put her up for adoption.

 

[physicsgal981]

80525 Trinity 2.jpg

• physicsgal981
• Nov 15, 2012

80525 Trinity 5.jpg

• physicsgal981
• Nov 15, 2012

80525 Trinity 3.jpg

• physicsgal981
• Nov 15, 2012

 

[kat013]

One of my cats came from my dad's house out in the country, I found her at ~5 weeks old with a broken hind leg with the bone sticking out.  Paks pulled through the amputation beautifully and is 5.5 years old now.  It took her awhile to be able to walk effectively.  If you could describe the balance issues I could tell you whether that's normal adjustment behavior or not, compared to my cat.

I provided a ramp up to a nearly-full litter box (imagine a 6-week old kitten toddling around on 3 legs trying to negotiate a litter box!) and made sure that she had things to play in that she didn't have to climb in to / out of, cardboard boxes, cat tree tilted on its side, ramps or 'steps' of boxes or whatever to get up to high places like window sills, etc.  Other than that I didn't really have to do anything.  Paks figured out pretty quickly (within a couple of months) that in order to jump up onto something, she had to orient herself sideways to it, because jumping with one back leg means they twist about 90 degrees towards the side of the missing leg.  To begin with, she would try a lot to use her missing back leg - if I saw her doing this I'd just pick her up and put her wherever she was trying to go, to pop her brain out of the "trying to take a step, no signals that I've taken the step, try again to take the step" cycle.

Whoever adopts this cat, make sure to tell them:

When she gets up on something you don't want her on, like the kitchen counter (for missing a back leg, the only way this can happen is if someone leaves something close to the counter that she can use as a halfway step), just pick her up and set her on the ground, and remove whatever she used to get up there in the first place - do NOT push or toss her off the high place - she cannot effectively land and injury is a risk if she lands wrong.
My housemate told me once that he had pushed Paks off the kitchen counter, and that she landed on her side, and that he figured he ought not to do that again.  Fortunately Paks didn't sustain any injury from that, but I wince every time I remember it.

 

[threepawma]

I also have a tripod who lost her right hindleg. I adopted her that way so unfortunately I am not personally aware of how she coped in the very beginning. However, before adopting her I did a lot of research and talked extensively with the staff of the humane society who rescued her and the vet who performed her surgery...as well as my wonderful vet!

It is my understanding that a rear leg is actually the easiest amputation to recover from, in both cats and dogs. The majority of the animal's weight is carried on their front legs and when a front leg is lost they have a great deal more trouble with landings, balance, grooming and the recovery is usually slower. Like I said this is from Internet research and talking with the humane society people. They are really experts at this though, unfortunately this particular shelter averages an amputation a week! Of course every cat is different.

Adele was two years old when she lost her leg so she was definitely very used to having four legs. Amputations in kittens usually go best. I adopted her two months post surgery and frankly she was already more mobile and agile than the vast majority of the other cats in her cat room. She even climbed the 7ft tall seperation cage and played king of the castle! After being with me for almost 5 months now I would say she is even more confident and active then she was then. I can't say that this is always a good thing.

I do think the idea of providing ramps, steps and other alternate means to access areas of interest is a good idea. Another thing is to get some active play sessions in there. Adele adores her Neko Flies and that has really, really helped her to be more confident and build muscle. You pull that sucker out and you have no idea she is a tripod AND I really think she completely forgets as well. Another really important thing is to keep her on the lean side. With a three legger extra weight is a huge liability, not only in the short term, but long term as well. Because anatomical changes actually take place my vet and I have also decided that keeping Adele on a high quality glucosamine and condroitin supplement is prudent.

I guess the only advice I can give is give her time, let her figure things out at her own pace and get her active. The only way she is going to figure it out is if she is doing something that requires her to compensate. I don't think you should make the play too strenuous (like having her leap into the air) , but swishing a toy along the ground and having her chase it like that might get her used to relying on only three, while building muscle and strengthening tendons and ligaments. Eventually, her rear leg will kind of migrate more toward the middle, but that means her spine, hips and all those muscles are being stretched and having to work a little differently.

By the way, she is really beautiful! I have always enjoyed orange (red) classic tabbies.