Exposed bone

[swampmonster]

I am a new member and I have some concerns about my cat, I was hoping that someone on this forum may share a similar experience. I am the proud owner of a rescue cat. I rescued him from the countryside when he was six weeks old. He is now a two year old male, and is a carrier of FLV (despite this fact he is very healthy). We were playing together a few weeks ago and I noticed that he had started to bleed from one of his front paws. He didn't seem bothered by it; he was as playful as ever. I wrapped his paw in a bandage and let him rest for the afternoon, upon checking the paw later I realized something was sticking out. I thought it was a piece of litter, but upon closer inspection I was positive it was a piece of bone. You see, my cat is declawed, so I am certain that it could not be a claw (it would be the dew claw if he still had them). We declawed him over a year ago.

***Please do not preach to me about how bad declawing cats can be, I get it. I was not aware exactly HOW bad declawing could be at the time we had the operation done. I could only keep the cat on the condition that he was declawed due to a living situation, and I knew if I surrendered him to the shelter they would have had him put down because of the FLV (yes, they're pretty atrocious here). ***

I believe the bone to be a piece of the ungual crest, although I am not a veterinarian, so don't quote me on that. It looks to be the right shape, and is in the correct location. I have taken him to the vet (not our usual vet, because we've moved), and after spending $300 he is doing better. He has had antibiotics, pain killers, and topical treatment. There is no swelling, but there is a scab that is still healing. His healing is slower than most cats, due to the FLV. I had asked the vet about the piece of bone sticking out, and she didn't seem too fazed by it. She sort of agreed with me that it did appear to be bone, but dismissed it as though it would eventually heal over. Well, he has healed, but the bone is sticking out, and the skin has healed around it. It doesn't cause him any obvious pain or discomfort when I touch it and he seems fine, but regardless, a bone sticking out just doesn't seem right. I've heard of complications from declawing, and I'm certain that this is probably what has happened to my cat. I figure a piece of bone that shouldn't have been left in there has abscessed and burst. The problem I face now is where to go from here. I am returning to my former veterinarian for the remainder of his treatment, because I'm clearly not getting anywhere with the other vet. If this abscess is the result of a botched declawing operation, is that veterinarian responsible? Is it too late now that's it's been a year? Has anyone experienced something similar? 

Thank you in advance

...and again, no preachers please!

Kind regards,

SwampMonster.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

OK, I won't preach, but I've no experience with declawing since I've never had it done, so I have no idea if that's what this is or not. 

Is your former Vet, the one you will be returning to, the one who did the original declawing?  If so, maybe they will take the responsibility for a "botched" job and maybe they won't.  What you need to decide now is, what will you do about it one way or another?  Will you put your cat through another surgery to fix it or, since it doesn't seem to bother him, will you leave it?  You've got a dilemma on your hands, no way around it

.    I realize that it did abscess, but that could have been a fluke and never happen again, or might happen over and over.  This is something that you will definitely  need to discuss with your Vet, and maybe you can work out some kind of a deal for free treatment if it happens again in lieu of a bad press or something (just tossing things out there) 

Let us know what they say

 

[swampmonster]

Hey Mrs Green Jeens!

    Thank you for the response. We took him to the vet last night and he'll be going in for surgery. The vet believes it to be a re-growth of a claw. Unfortunately, they'll have to surgically remove it, but I'd rather that than have my kitty walking around with this thing sticking out and getting caught on things. I have read about potential re-growth when I was searching for possible answers to this problem. I have already decided a while back that I won't ever be declawing another cat, but I hope that this thread can help anyone out who encounters this problem, and that anyone considering declawing their cat should realize the effects it can have. It's possible in the future that his other digits will have regrowth as well, they're taking x-rays to see if this is the case. Although it's not costing us, it's still a very stressful situation for our cat to basically be declawed a second time. I'm looking forward to having him back to his normal, playful self.

Kind regards,

-SwampMonster

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Wow!  It's not costing you anything?  A re-growth is certainly not the Vet's fault and still they are not charging you?  How fortunate for you. 

Well, I hope for your kitty's sake that there is no other re-growth, and that he comes thru this with no ill effect.  Thankfully it's the dew claw so he doesn't have to put pressure on it while walking, in the box, etc.