I haven’t been able to find a single thread or comment on the forum about this.
My male cat was neutered late, at 5 years old. (Many reasons why, please do not judge, it’s better that he is now rather than not)
Before this, he was an indoor/outdoor cat, until recently he kept getting into too many fights or possibly suffered a traumatic injury(s), I’m not sure what happened exactly. He was recovering from a previous injury and doing really well, it was about a month post injury and as he was unneutered it was difficult to keep him indoors so eventually he was let out, only for him to come back home limping. The next day I took him to the vet and they said he had a luxating patella, so his knee cap dislocates on/off. If it gets worse he will need surgery, which they said is likely. They also neutered him for me on that day.
I don’t want to get to the stage of him needing surgery, it’s already been difficult throughout this recovery period.
He’s been on gabapentin for two weeks now, which they’re extending for a little longer as there’s some improvement, he is able to put weight on it but the limp is still there. I fear the limp will never really go away.
obviously the advice I was given was make sure he gets lots of rest, no jumping or running or playing, which has been difficult and he loves to jump up to my bed even though I have places items to create “stairs” for him.Keeping him in my room most of the time, occasionally I let him roam around the rest of the house. However, he has been wanting to go to the garden more and more lately. I’m wondering when or if I should ever let him out again? Of course I won’t whilst he has a limp, but I do live with my family who seem to be persistent on letting him out and guilt tripping me for keeping him in, even though I know it’s the right thing to do as advised by the vet. Without delving too much into my family problems, if I was to never let him out again, I’d have to be at home 24/7 for the rest of my life to ensure that doesn’t happen. My parents are always in and out of the garden, so even if it wasn’t intentional, he could get out accidentally. I fear one more injury and he will not make it back alive.
also, me staying at home for the rest of my life is just unrealistic. For the times I’ve had to leave for groceries etc., I’ve FaceTimed my laptop at home as a camera to watch him for the hour that I’m out. But this isn’t a long term solution and I’m unsure how to go about this moving forward.
Has anyone had experience with their cat having patella luxation?
Any advice on how to help my cat recover, other than what was said? Cat food recommendations? Cat supplements? As the gabapentin he’s on seems to be only for pain relief but I’m not sure he’ll be able to walk and run like normal.
Any ideas on what to do with the letting him out situation? It sounds simple enough to just say “keep him inside” but that’s extremely difficult given my family situation, who are extremely stubborn btw and even if the vet themselves came to our house and said not to let them out, they’d still persist or carelessly leave outside doors open. I also would feel like I can’t really go out anywhere as the anxiety of not knowing would eat me alive. He’s also a 5 year old male cat who loved outdoors and only got neutered now, so that adds to the difficulty of trying to turn him from what he was, to fully and strictly indoors for the rest of his life.
Sorry for the long essay.
My male cat was neutered late, at 5 years old. (Many reasons why, please do not judge, it’s better that he is now rather than not)
Before this, he was an indoor/outdoor cat, until recently he kept getting into too many fights or possibly suffered a traumatic injury(s), I’m not sure what happened exactly. He was recovering from a previous injury and doing really well, it was about a month post injury and as he was unneutered it was difficult to keep him indoors so eventually he was let out, only for him to come back home limping. The next day I took him to the vet and they said he had a luxating patella, so his knee cap dislocates on/off. If it gets worse he will need surgery, which they said is likely. They also neutered him for me on that day.
I don’t want to get to the stage of him needing surgery, it’s already been difficult throughout this recovery period.
He’s been on gabapentin for two weeks now, which they’re extending for a little longer as there’s some improvement, he is able to put weight on it but the limp is still there. I fear the limp will never really go away.
obviously the advice I was given was make sure he gets lots of rest, no jumping or running or playing, which has been difficult and he loves to jump up to my bed even though I have places items to create “stairs” for him.Keeping him in my room most of the time, occasionally I let him roam around the rest of the house. However, he has been wanting to go to the garden more and more lately. I’m wondering when or if I should ever let him out again? Of course I won’t whilst he has a limp, but I do live with my family who seem to be persistent on letting him out and guilt tripping me for keeping him in, even though I know it’s the right thing to do as advised by the vet. Without delving too much into my family problems, if I was to never let him out again, I’d have to be at home 24/7 for the rest of my life to ensure that doesn’t happen. My parents are always in and out of the garden, so even if it wasn’t intentional, he could get out accidentally. I fear one more injury and he will not make it back alive.
also, me staying at home for the rest of my life is just unrealistic. For the times I’ve had to leave for groceries etc., I’ve FaceTimed my laptop at home as a camera to watch him for the hour that I’m out. But this isn’t a long term solution and I’m unsure how to go about this moving forward.
Has anyone had experience with their cat having patella luxation?
Any advice on how to help my cat recover, other than what was said? Cat food recommendations? Cat supplements? As the gabapentin he’s on seems to be only for pain relief but I’m not sure he’ll be able to walk and run like normal.
Any ideas on what to do with the letting him out situation? It sounds simple enough to just say “keep him inside” but that’s extremely difficult given my family situation, who are extremely stubborn btw and even if the vet themselves came to our house and said not to let them out, they’d still persist or carelessly leave outside doors open. I also would feel like I can’t really go out anywhere as the anxiety of not knowing would eat me alive. He’s also a 5 year old male cat who loved outdoors and only got neutered now, so that adds to the difficulty of trying to turn him from what he was, to fully and strictly indoors for the rest of his life.
Sorry for the long essay.
. I’m keeping him confined in my room for now as I have been for the last 2 weeks but I just don’t know how I’m going to convince my family to be more cautious as time goes on and when I’ll need to start going back to uni… they seem extremely careless and they don’t really care if he goes out seeing as he did already for 5 years of his life. They seem to think he’s absolutely fine as if he’s a human baby who will hurt and scrape their knee but be able to get back up again, when it’s not like that.. (ethnic uneducated parents) 
