My Poor Cat - Advice Very Gratefully Received!

[Icequeen01]

Hi All,

This is my first post but I have been lurking for ages as love hearing about all your fur babies. I am officially a mad cat woman and would fill my house with them if I could. Luckily DH keeps me under control and we have never had more than 3. At the moment we have 2 beautiful rescue boys, having lost my beautiful 17 year old rescue girl last year. Can't quite bring myself to fill the gap she left at the moment but we will!

I know how it works here so have duly attached a photo of one of my lovely boys - the boy I am posting about.

Poor Angus came home nearly 2 weeks ago limping terribly. We couldn't see any wound or damage but took him straight to the vet. The vet examined him for a long time and was happy he hadn't been hit by a car and had no broken bones. What she did find was a bite mark on his shoulder so he was treated with a long lasting antibiotic injection and we were given Metacam as he appeared to be in some pain and was off his food.

A week on and Angus was still unable to put any weight on his front leg although strangely I had seen him use it on his scratching post and vet had seen him use it when trying to claw his way out of the cat box! Vet was happy there was no nerve damage. So, I took him back to the vet, seeing a different vet this time. She again examined his leg for some. He shows no sign of pain when either myself or the vet touch his leg. The vet did find another bite (we are pretty sure these have come from his brother - they curl up and wash each other but play soooo roughly at times!). This time the bite, probably done at the same time as the first one, was found in the elbow joint. The vet thinks it could be that he has an infection in the bone and as the other antibiotics would not clear this up she gave me different anti biotics but this time in tablet form. Sadly, 4 days on there is absolutely no change and he is still holding his leg up and will not put any weight on it. It's so sad to see. Do you think I have given the antibiotics long enough to work? I was thinking of taking him back tomorrow but not sure if it's too soon? He was only given 7 days worth of tablets so only 3 more days left. I would be so grateful for your opinions. I guess my fear is that my poor boy will never be able to walk properly again or could lose his leg. Can you tell the panic has set in!

Oh he's lovely! And when I saw that photo I thought you were asking for advice about how to deal with a cat who's head was stuck in the banisters

In answer to your question, I'm not sure if it's too soon but I think I'd be tempted to ring up and ask. The receptionists at our vet are always happy to advise wherever possible. I'm in a similar position with my cat, she's got an infected bite wound and doesn't seem much better 4 days after antibiotics - although isn't any worse either.

Hopefully someone cleverer than me will be along soon to help us both out!

That's so funny - I never thought about that when I picked that photo! He is so nosey that he often sits looking over the bannister watching what is going on. He's such a character. So sorry to hear you have a similar problem to me. I did phone and speak to the receptionist before I went back the second time. Usually they are lovely and helpful and I asked if they thought I had given the antibiotic injection enough time to work. She said ' well it's up to you really' which wasn't very helpful. Just pleased I decided to go back when the vet told me it could be a bone infection!

I do feel I should redress the balance a little with a photo of Angus's brother Archie, the possible culprit in all this! Here he is snuggled up to his gorgeous adopted sister who we had to PTS last year x

I would give the surgery a ring in the morning and see if you can speak to the vet. Joint infections (in humans) can get very nasty and I'm sure the same applies to animals. If not getting better after injection + 4 days of tablets he may need a review sooner rather than later.

He is gorgeous by the way

Well he seemed really uncomfortable last night so took him back this morning and saw our usual vet. She said the joint is still very swollen and has kept him in for an x-Ray and will do a joint tap to check the fluid between the joint. She is also going to do a blood test. She said bone infections can take a long time to clear up and can be very painful. Have to ring them after 2pm. My poor boy x

Well it's good news. Definitely no breaks and nothing sinister. Looks as though it is an infection. They have taken a culture from the fluid taken from his joint to see what sort of infection they are dealing with and to check he is on the right antibiotics. Vet says these sort of infections can take a long time to clear up but seems confident he will eventually be ok. I'm so relieved x

Thank goodness.
Get well soon puss. Xx

That's better news isn't it. I hope he continues to recover.

I hope it doesn't take too long for him to recover. I'm glad it's nothing serious!