Bionic Kitty

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:39 pm

Our youngest cat, 1 1/2 year old Sam (Samantha), and my wife's favorite, disappeared 6 days ago. We'd pretty much given up on her but she showed up after 4 days later with a broken rear leg. Best we can tell from the bruising is that a horse kicked her (probably one on my neighbor's horses because I don't think she ever leaves the property). No road rash so the docs and I don't think it was a car. Only other possibility is she had a bad fall.

Wife has been an emotional wreck - our cats are our children and this one was her favorite.

Anyway, she was operated on yesterday - good orthapedic vet surgeon in Orlando. The vet here didn't feel she could do anything but amputate because the leg was broken in 3 places so she referred us to them.

So now we've got a bionic kitty. Indoor kitty from now on though.

d_b · Post by **d_b** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:05 pm

That's an admirable thing you and your wife did. Poor little kitty.

Can we see a picture of the cat?

Here's to a quick recovery, Samantha!

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:35 pm

Dang, That's awesome! Glad she's going to be OK! Am I just seeing things, or are there still chunks of broken bone in there?

eGo

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:12 pm

Yeah there's some floating fragments. They didn't want to remove them because the surgery could have damaged nerves or compromised blood flow. They say that the fragments will eventually stabilize or be re-absorbed by the body.

The suture job impressed the hell out of me. Her stitches are much neater than the ones on my father's hip after his hip replacement surgery. This guy is an artist.

Before the accident:

After surgery:

Here you can see the remnants of the bruising from whatever the original impact was. No sign of road-rash at all so it's really doubtful it was a car strike. Plus she never goes anywhere near the road. However my neighbor's horses do come right up to the fence sometimes and there's a couple of very skittish males over there.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:24 pm

phew! He got one heck of a shave! I bet that'll itch growing back in! But those stitches are very well done!

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:31 pm

Yeah, those are good stitches.

Glad the cat survived, if humiliated.

d_b · Post by **d_b** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:24 pm

I bet that will be a very pampered cat!

DoPeY5007 · Post by **DoPeY5007** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:17 am

Good to see she is OK

How much did that run you?

Lmandrake · Post by **Lmandrake** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:45 am

Poor kitty. I really hope the procedure works and there is a full recovery.

I hope the penguin wallet eventually recovers too.

Good Luck.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:04 am

You don't want to know, although I will say it was less than I feared. It did slightly exceed the amount of money we spent keeping that darn Turkey alive a few years ago.

Oh well, they're our children. Those of you with actual children may not understand, but they're the center of our lives.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:59 am

Glad the cat is ok. my cat was hit last year and had hip dislocated and some other stuff, cost some $$ and she was in a crate for a about a week, but is good to go now. Cat's are very resilient. Mine is around 13 years old.

darcy · Post by **darcy** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:10 pm

i am so*** glad samantha returned and that surgery was able to save her leg. poor baby { hugs to sam }, ~ 'n' hubby and i know how much we have spent in trying to save our 2 babies until nothing more could be done,, ~ they are our "children", too. not judging, ~ but i just do not comprehend letting them roam free { my brother lets his kitties roam free, too }, ~ outdoor cats have a much shorter life span because u never know what will cross their path,, just glad it worked out

bw, ~ i am surprised she does not have to wear 1 of those cone things to prevent her from pulling @ the stitches once the healing begins and the itching starts.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 6:03 pm

Oh yeah, she has an "Elizabethan" collar to keep her from licking the stitches, but when she's cuddling with the wife, we leave it off. Easy enough to control the licking. She has to stay pretty immobile for the next 10 days so she's either cuddling with us, or in the pet carrier wearing the collar.

I don't like leaving a cat outdoors but it's a matter of practicality. We have 5 indoor cats and that's 1 more than I really like to have indoors (now we have 6 with Sam although the oldest is 15 years old or so). All the indoor cats are full-time indoors. They never go out nor do they want to - you could leave the door wide open and they'd just stand there at the threshold (all except the old tom cat who still likes to bolt outside for a roll in the dirt if we don't watch him).

Anything over 4 cats is difficult to maintain - especially in a small house like we live in, and cleanliness starts being an issue, and there's a lot more work. Cats claim a corner of a litter box so to keep them healthy, happy and less stressed you really need one corner per kitty which means we have two litter boxes. A single bigger litter box doesn't work. Been there, done that - it turns (literally!) into a pissing match.

Both the outdoor cats, Sam and Sheba, were strays that just showed up one day and stayed. We have other occasional visitors from the neighboring ranches but we don't feed them. I only start feeding an outdoor cat if it stays and doesn't leave. At that point we have them fixed, keep up their basic vaccinations, and feed them regularly (1/2 cup dry food once a day as recommended by the vet) and they supplement that with an ample supply of field mice.

We understand the risks that an outdoor cat is prone to. More so here since we have Coyote's in the nearby woods. I leave the garage door open just enough that the cats can easily dash inside but a Coyote would have a very hard time getting under it, and the cats have lots of bolt holes in the garage and around the house. They usually sleep in the garage high up on crates. They're smart and they don't stray close to the woods at night. We're on a 20 acre ranch so the two outdoor cats have a lot of room and lots of time to see trouble coming.

They both avoid the road, which is a good 500 feet from the house. Sam was a good climber - she's actually brought down squirrels - so it's possible she took a bad fall or got kicked by a horse. Hard to tell. The horses pretty much ignore cats, but if a cat decided to get in the way when a horse was running, anything could happen.

darcy · Post by **darcy** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:43 pm

seems like you are doing a good job, FP,,, ~ i did not know sam was originally a stray, and i reckon she is accustomed to the outdoors { and u already know the risks o' that, so 'nuf said,,, }.

same w/the strays that regularly camp on my parents' decks for food. when 1 disappears for weeks @ a time, they reckon a coyote or bear got them,, sometimes they come back, sometimes they do not. they still worry 'bout them, tho.
only 1 stray will stay inside overnite during the winter months, ~ 'n' it took yrs to gain the cat's trust.

here are 7 o' the 12 cats my folks reguarly feed, ~

and here is 1 o' them standing on the bench lookin' in { they know that once my mom operns the curtains in the morning, it is feeding time : ), ~

anyway,, ~ i hope sam heals quickly 'n' w/o probs

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:01 pm

She's already hell on wheels. She's walking pretty good on that tinker toy leg. We have to keep her from trying to run and jump.