Broken leg

[Notfootball]

Footballcat is at the emergency vet as she came home with a broken leg. I have to collect her and take her to my own vet tomorrow for treatment. I asked the OOH vet if her leg could be repaired and she said that I would have to wait until my own vet has examined her but it may require amputation. Footballcat is a crazy, climbing, side-hopping ball of fur and I’ll be gutted for her if she loses her leg.

Any experience of this? I know none of you can predict whether she will need an amputation or not but just some more information would be great as the emergency vet was busy and couldn’t get me out of there fast enough.

Has your cat worn a cast before? How did they get on? How long did it take to heal? Have they had an amputation?

Bumping for you. Poor girl, how did it happen?

Not quite the same but thought I would share tigercat’s story as no-one else has posted yet. She dislocated a paw at the ankle and had to wear a cast/splint for 6 weeks. Initially the vet said he’d probably operate (pins inserted & external frame) once the specialist had viewed the images - there was a delay & her paw had started healing on its own by the time they re-assessed her. They were quite surprised as they hadn’t expected it to heal on its own. We then had to keep her on cage rest (dog crate) for 6 weeks. She was not amused!! But it did the trick and she healed perfectly without surgery. If you’re not happy with their initial view I would get a second opinion. Good luck with it all. Poor puss ☹️

I have a tripod kitten (missing a hind leg) and she runs around as fast as her four legged brother, climbs to the top of the cat tree like a little monkey and generally gets around great! I do have a cat proofed garden however as it wouldn't be safe for her to wander out there on the streets...

I know lots of other three legged cats and they adjust very well. You do have to make sure they don't get overweight so as to not put extra stress on the remaining legs and spine.

Ernie had a broken femur last summer. They tried pinning it but it didn’t work. In the end they did a femoral head excision (ie took the top of the thigh bone so it no longer joins the hip)
He is fully recovered runs jumps hunts the same as his brother.
There are fab things that vets can do.
We didn’t have a cast we had cage rest and a lampshade.

Thank you all for replying. It’s good to hear some positive stories about your cats. Footballcat’s is definitely a fracture of some sort, the bone was poking out the skin when she came home. Not sure how it happened but I never ever see her in the street so I don’t think she was hit by a car. She went out and didn’t return for ages. When she came back, she was crouched low and dragging her poor foot. I picked up and it was just hanging, it must have been so painful.