My boy got run over :(

[impostersyndromeorjustshit]

Godawful evening last night when we found our beloved cat at the door unable to move his back legs. Vet suspects altercation with a car (though he generally has very good road sense), and he has a fractured pelvis - he's under supervision there for another 24 hours.

Presuming there are no further issues that come to light, he will need to be in a cage for 6 - 8 weeks while he heals. Which he will hate!

I wondered if anyone on here had ever gone through the same with their pet, and could advise on any tips to make it all a bit more bearable for him? I'm WFH at the moment, so am pretty much able to tend to his every whim (as I already did!).

Thanks very much all.

Oh OP and SwanShaped, I'm so sorry to hear about your cats. Ours has just last week come off of cage rest after being hit by a car on 31st August.
His pelvis was fractured as was his right hip joint. They didn't find it at the time but a few days later his abdomen bloated and they found that his bladder had been punctured too. Once the bladder was fixed they did surgery on the pelvis and hip joint. They were able to pin the pelvis but couldn't do much with the hip as it had been shattered. We tried 8 weeks of cage rest to see if he would recover sufficiently on his own. Unfortunately, his sciatic nerve had been severed at some point so his leg atrophied and he never recovered use of it. He is now 2 weeks into being a Tripod and quite the happy boy.
Re. Cage Rest - we got the biggest cage we could find (1m x 70cm) so that a decent sized soft bed, a small litter tray and feeding bowls could fit. We got feeding bowls that affixed to the cage as he kept knocking over ones just sat on the floor of the cage. We also got a non-slip rubber mat for the bottom of it. They fitted him with a soft collar rather than the horrible plastic thing so he could still eat and use the litter tray. It took him a good week to do a poo but he was peeing ok after his bladder surgery. Once we knew he could defecate we relaxed a bit. He got used to the cage for the most part but every now and then would get a bit agitated and try to climb it. I affixed flat cardboard boxes to the back corner of the cage with cable ties after this. Partly to keep him warm because he was shaved everywhere but also to stop him climbing the cage so much. We made sure to give him Dreamies every night and put them on his bed so he went in willingly. We usually had him on our laps or in a small pet sling during the day though. He loved the sling and my DH would wear him for hours at a time.
We discovered 2 weeks in that he was spraying his pee outside the cage and onto the wall behind rather than in the tray so had to get a high-sided corner litter tray along with a bit of rubber matting pinned around that corner of the cage to make sure everything flowed into the litter. He used to crouch low to pee but now he stands straight up and just lets it rip. We have since bought a high sided litter tray for outside the cage too.
After 9 weeks in the cage it took him a week of the door being open until he stopped retreating to his bed. I think he'd become institutionalised! We actually gave him his freedom in stages and didn't take the cage away until 2 weeks after he was given the all-clear.
Sorry if that was an epically long post. I hope that your guy gets on ok and recovers with rest.

I’m so sorry @SwanShaped. Poor boy.

How is your poor old boy today op?

Hi

Betty did the same thing this year, we had no where warm enough and big enough to keep a large cage.

So we sent her to a wonderful cattery we use, and they had a smaller unit
At a corner up high so she could see everything including the chickens running around

They did her meds and even updated the vets for us as we had a holiday booked to go to the next day, luckily in the UK

She spent 8 weeks there and it was the best decision we made, I was worried she might think she had done something wrong if we kept her caged.
Plus im not very mobile and dh was working away at the time.

She did brilliantly and healed with no need for any surgery

Good luck op hope it goes well for yours

How is your cat, OP? I’ll get an update on mine later.

Thank you all - @FrustratoPotato that's really helpful advice.

@SwanShaped I'm sorry to hear about your cat...

Ours is not doing so well. We thought on Thursday that it was "just" a fractured pelvis, which was bad enough but we could help him get better from...

He's going downhill every day in there, and vets are saying he's a bit of a mystery. His heart has enlarged (possible heart disease), he's having trouble breathing without oxygen, and his lungs how have fluid in them. Plus, he's not seeming to move on from pain relief at all, which they'd expect at this point. Vets aren't sure whether this is reflective of an acute stress reaction, underlying health conditions (he's 12, so not a young boy any more) or other injuries not yet detected.

He's getting great care, and they are now trying him on some cardiac medication and diuretics to get the lung fluid out. They are also going to do some further investigation into his heart.

If he doesn't improve in 24 - 48 hours, we have a tough call to make.

At best, he will suffer for 6 - 8 weeks before his pelvis heals and he is back to 'normal as can be' for his age - though likely not bouncing back to former health.

If heart condition is indicative of something more chronic, and he only has 6 - 12 months left, I'm utterly torn as to whether we keep him propped up in pain for the foreseeable.

Oh no I’m so sorry to hear that. You must be so worried. How will they know what’s going on with his heart? More tests?

My cat now has all his organs in the right place again. He’s also 12. He’s being monitored overnight in intensive care. I just feel sick. His leg will be fixed in a few days if this bit goes well.

@impostersyndromeorjustshit, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope he turns a corner for the better soon. We aren't sure whether we'd have made different choices at the beginning if we had known how much our boy would have to go through. It's just so hard to know and I had quite a few sleepless nights worrying if we were making the right decisions. Hopefully your vets will give you good guidance to make the best choices for impostercat. I'll be thinking of you and your poor guy tonight and wishing him well.

Well, this is a surprise. Got a call a couple of hours ago that he'd responded to medication really well, and could we come and get him...?

He spoke to my DH who said yes straight away, rather than asking how we'd gone from fearing the worst to discharge in less than 24 hours (which I would have asked, and wanted him in another day or so to be on the safe side).

He's on his way home now with cat in tow, apparently...

That is good news.

Excellent! I bet he'll be so pleased to be home!

Oh that’s brilliant! Great news for you.

Ours has got a bit more complicated. Got to decide between reconstruction and amputation. Will start a thread.

Thanks all. He's very happy to be home. We got him a version of this on the grounds that the litter tray could go in one end, and food in the other.

He's currently asleep in the (as yet unused) litter tray.

@SwanShaped, I'm sorry to hear - but sounds like if those are the choices, he's potentially in a position to recover still, if on reduced mobility...?

I don't think ours has really more than a year to go given state of heart, but would prefer he has a sedate final few months with us, catering to his every whim.

@impostersyndromeorjustshit I would see if you can get a large metal dog cage so that he can see out of it. He’ll probably try to chew/scratch through the material one.
Have a look on your local Facebook selling sites, you can pick up XL ones for £20 or so.

(Or if you are in the Cambridgeshire area I often lend my XXL crate out to pet owners that need it temporarily)

Oh bless him op, I'm so glad he's home.

If you think he only has a year or so left then spoil the fuck out of him as much as his injury allows.

My old boys last few months consisted of a lot of specially bought and cooked cod fillets.

I'm really glad he's ok and home. I lost my other boy yesterday, very suddenly. It's nice to read some good news.

Thanks all. He is very docile at the moment. We put one of my OH's recently worn tshirts in, and he's now snuggled up on that.

Glad he’s doing well. The snuggles sound nice. I don’t have time to start my own thread. Gotta go to sleep now. But we have to decide by tomorrow morning whether to amputate or try to fix it. It’s a very bad open break so fixing it may not work. Anyway, glad your boy is back home and doing well. It’s lovely to hear.

I'm so happy to hear he's home with you now. Definitely spoil him rotten and give him endless cuddles.

How's he doing op?

He's doing ok, but very, very subdued. Purrs when you fuss over him still, but not even trying to get out of his cage - or even taking the opportunity when we do try to tempt him out to clean.

The only time he has been animated was when he did a wee and a poo yesterday, when he yowled blood murder. Must have really stung, poor boy.

He's being so obedient in taking his meds. I'm hoping he will start kicking up a fuss soon, so we'll know he's really on the mend.

Bless him, give him a (gentle) nose boop and a cheek rub from me.