Please hope my cat will be ok.

[SciFiScream]

My beautiful black cat has been hit by a car. Please send lots of healing thoughts his way.

We got him to the vet within an hour of his accident. He has a fractured jaw and a dislocated hip. First X-rays show no internal injury around his chest but vet says not out of woods yet.

We've to wait until tomorrow and hope for no other internal injury developing or a head injury developing.

He's young and fit. He was meowing and trying to move. That's good right?

He's on fluids and methadone right now.

We've got insurance. If he doesn't have any further injuries he's likely to need 2 operations.

So - what next? How do I stop him crossing that bloody road in future?

He wears a quick release hi vis collar but that's not enough.

I love that cat. He's my tiny black Panther.

Hoping he will be ok. 🌈

They called us! He's much brighter this morning. He used the litter tray in the night. His breathing is much better.

So the vet thinks he'll be able to have an anaesthetic later and have x-rays to see what's going on.

His back right leg is definitely lame with his dislocated hip and he'll need an operation. They will wire his jaw together. He's going to be in for a few days until the orthopaedic surgeon is back in.

He's more aware and looking around. so much better than my nightmares about him.

Now I need to research how to look after a cat after surgery. I WFH anyway so I'll be here all the time.

That is good news!.

Thank goodness OP.

Cage rest is rotten for everyone - you and the cat - but you will get through it.

Perhaps ask around to borrow a dog crate?

Mine spent 16 weeks in a cage I made from chicken wire sheets.

Not too much room as you don't want them moving about with pins in their leg or jumping.

I had a bed on one side and put water next to it, and the litter tray on the far side.

Popped food in where he was when he needed it, and constantly fed him Dreamies in bed to cheer him up.

I thought he would be stressed being confirmed, but he was oddly completely calm about it all. Just snoozed, ate the Dreamies and meals, snoozed.

I had the cage where he could see the garden so he had things to watch, he seemed to like that.

My friends cat was recently hit and had to undergo surgery

She needed cage rest for a while, so maybe look into that for when they come home

Sending thoughts, OP. Poor little guy. Sounds like the vets are good at least.

Sending love to you and your kitty OP. My 11 year old doof of a cat has been hit by a car twice now. First when he was 2 that left a lot of superficial leg wounds and a dislocated hip, 2nd 3 weeks ago which has just damaged 3 paws and nails (again superficially) Fingers crossed for you! x

Healing vibes for your kitty.

Many years ago I lived with my boyfriend & his mum and 'our' cat came up the driveway dragging his leg. We lived in a fairly quiet street, but couldn't imagine what else, other than a car, could have hurt him so badly. Anyway we took him to the vets and they suggested we PTS as his quality of life would be impacted, but we didn't, They said it was too badly damaged to repair it & they amputated it. It took a wee while to heal, but not that long and within no time he was back to jumping in the furniture AND the dining table (which id always thought was disgusting, but not my house!). He showed no signs of being held back by it at all and lived happily to a ripe old age!

Good luck with your boy.

(As I say, our road was quiet, unless you make him a house cat or build a catio or whatever, I'm not sure there's much you can do. They're not going to close the riad, which is the only cat safe riad there is!)

PS. Your DH sounds absolutely lovely! 😻

I've been in touch with a friend to borrow a cage. What else can I do to make him comfortable when he's home?

My DH has already been in touch with a friend who works for the local council and asked how to improve the safety of the road. So we're going to move ahead with that.

Apparently the council had plans but someone objected to them!!! Sod that. We're going to organise a petition.

Nice large low entry litter tray. He may find it difficult to navigate a deep or hooded tray. Soft cat litter to go in it. (And scoop and bags for you)
Several comfortable blankets/towels as you will need to change his bedding a lot.
Maybe larger feeding bowl/water bowl? (Never had a cat with a broken jaw - just thinking may make it easier for them to eat/drink?)
Maybe a baby gate for later when he can explore one room safely?
From personal experience of a cat in a leg plaster - take the opportunity to clear all your surfaces of Knick knacks etc. And clear lots of floor space as everything went flying when ours tried to walk. Also we put all cat bowls etc on the floor to minimise jumping - not that stopped her from escaping from a small hopper window. She managed four gardens, and three fences before we caught her. This was before crates were a thing.
Good luck and please keep posting.

The objector might not live there anymore.

I’d say zylkene tablets mixed with his wet food to keep him chilled, lots of cat mint & YouTube cat entertainment videos. Always went well down well here.

I managed to drag the cage into the garden on nice days and covered the bed side with a blanket for some shielding from the wind etc.

He seemed to like the fresh air.

Otherwise he was totally sold on Dreamies. A visiting child asked to feed him some,

I said, A few,

then later found they'd tipped the whole bag in. Convalescent perks!

I took him out for cuddles every day, but he was oblivious to the metal frame on his leg and the pins and bolts externally, and would've jumped up and down on things, so the cage was more peaceful as he wasn't being restrained by me from injuring himself more.

Vet just called. Gibbs (my tiny black panther) is doing really well. He’s on IV fluids.

His jaw is now wired together and that will be in for 6-8 weeks. All x-rays done. No other fractures or injuries that they can see. Hip manipulated back into place and feels surprisingly stable just now so he might not need an operation!

They’ll know by Monday. If he doesn’t need an op he’ll be home by Monday but has to be on crate rest for 6-8 weeks!

If he needs an op he’ll be in longer and need crate rest for longer.

Brilliant news. And your cat is called Gibbs

Brilliant news!!

Yes. He's a Gibbs and his sister is Ziva. The rescue named them and even though I had names waiting for them, at 7 months we couldn't change their names.

Gibbs is variously Professor Gibbs, Dr Gibbs and Mr Gibbs. Also Gibbster, Gibbler the Gobbler.

Ziva gets Lady Ziva, Colonel Ziva and Dame Ziva!

That's great news - one of my cats had to have his jaw wired together and it didn't bother him in the slightest.

Good luck with the crate rest - I have to admit our boy hated being confined so after a week we cleared the spare room to give him a room (spent ages making it invalid friendly), he hated it and escaped and ensconced himself on our bed. He was so happy and slept properly for the first time so we let him be. Luckily he seemed to have the sense to regulate himself and apart from food and calls of nature he didn't leave our bed for a couple of weeks.

GIBBS CAN COME HOME TODAY!!!! We can get him at 4pm. Vet says he was like a different cat last night (after getting his jaw wired together). He's prowling around and gobbling up his food and active. His hip is really stable right now and might not need an operation if we can stop him from jumping too much over the next 4-6 weeks.

He's quite a lazy cat when he's at home so I think we just have to stop him going out.

That's not going to be fun. He sits and bangs his paws against the cat flap to be let out if we haven't unlocked it. 🤦🏼‍♀️

That’s such good news. Have you got anything you can put in front of his flap.

We'll need to leave the cat flap open for Ziva.

We plan to get the crate and set him up like a mini flat. I'm off to Pets at Home soon to stock up on cat essentials.

I think a vet needs to invent some sort of compression sock that cats could wear to help their hip/joints and help mitigate any jumping I'm unable to stop him doing.

Someone has used baby grows and a pair of tights to make a compression vest. You can buy cat vest but from my experience they are more for the body than legs- but you can get them from
Amazon

The only problem with limiting movement is muscle wastes very quickly and it’s only soft tissue that holds your joints in place. Cats are tough little animals.

A cage is enough to limit jumping.

YAY! So glad to hear. Bless him. Thanks for the update.