Cruiciate Repair

[Mablethorpe]

Cat limping, vet says he needs a cruciate ligament repair and luxating patella replacement, cost is over £1000.

Anyone else got any experience of this? Cat isn't insured and is 11.

Definitely hold on and wait a while. Cruciate rupture in cats does happen but is relatively infrequent compared to dogs. How has it been diagnosed?
Why does the Vet think he also needs a luxating patella repair? Has he experienced recent trauma to his knee? It's unusual for these two things to occur together otherwise. Has he had X-rays?

Cruciate rupture is a non-painful condition once the initial rupture has occurred (the limping is mechanical) and in animals less than 10kg I.e. Small dogs and cats. Treatment outcomes from medical treatment (rest and anti inflammatories) are similar to surgical outcomes.

Luxating patellas can be painful but I'd want to know more about how the injury occurred and what grade of luxation

Vet we saw yesterday wasn't particularly helpful. She said she didn't think he'd been hit by a car, but more likely to have fallen off something high.

She have some painkillers last night and he has enough for a week but wouldn't discuss x-rays until we agreed to surgery so I have made an appointment for him to see another vet tomorrow for a second opinion.

Glad he's got painkillers and would def go see another Vet. If a traumatic rupture he may we'll need surgery but would probably need to be fully evaluated under sedation/with X-rays first. It's reasonable that if the X-rays show he needs surgery, to want to take him straight to surgery rather than waking him up to anaesthetise him again on a different day. But a good Vet should be able to discuss all this with you and also plan for conservative/medical therapy if the X-rays show it may be an option.