Limping kitten

[Ioana379]

Hey!
Omi is a 3 months old Scottish Fold and he hurt his left leg. He immediately started meowing and hissing at us. He didn't let us touch him at all so we went to the vet right away.
He was consulted and we were told that he had nothing, but we still asked for an X-ray because he was limping quite badly. The vet told us again that nothing was noticeable and that he would not recommend anti-inflammatory drugs because he is too small.
Almost 24 hours have passed and the situation does not seem to have improved. I can see that he is sad even though he eats, drinks water or play a little, and I don’t know how to help him.
Here are the X-rays, if you see anything..

 

[Caspers Human]

X-rays don’t image soft tissue very well.

It could be a pulled muscle or strained ligament but it would show up only faintly on an X-ray, if at all.

If there was something bad happening that pulls bones out of alignment, that might show up but a simple sprain probably won’t.

In order to see the kind of detail that would make a sprain be visible, it would take an MRI or a special kind of X-ray that uses substances that enhance the picture but those things are expensive, more difficult to do and they can be risky.

I‘m not an expert at cat anatomy, by any means.
Years (decades) ago, I got to join the “250 Club” in my college biology class. The 250 Club was for people who could identify all 250 bones in a cat skeleton and we got extra credit but that was so long ago that I barely remember 1/10 of it.
From that basis, there isn’t anything that looks out of place to me but I would still defer to one of our esteemed experts on this forum for a better answer.

Cross fingers…your kitten might only have sprained his leg. As you know, even a simple sprain can really hurt. Give Kitty a few days to heal and see what happens.

But, if he doesn’t start getting better soon, call the vet again.

Hope your kitten gets better soon!
Thoughts and prayers be with you!

 

[fionasmom]

Welcome to The Cat Site! Caspers Human has really covered what seems to be going on here. I am not all that swift with reading any film, but I don't see anything that looks like a major bone issue. Doesn't mean I am correct though. What surprises me is that you brought a young, limping, in pain kitten in to the vet and when the xray did not show anything, ostensibly, he did not go further. He may think that he is saving you money in the case that this is a sprain or injury that would require other imaging; however, he did not seem to offer that explanation or to suggest some alternatives so that you could at least go home and watch to see if you thought it might be a soft tissue injury. Poor little guy is in pain and, while this may be a simple sprain, if things don't seem right to you call the vet again. If there is no improvement and the vet stonewalls you, ask for a referral to a specialist. Hopefully, it won't come to that.