Anitafrnhamer
Member Since 2013
About 3 months ago, I came across a severely injured cat. I thought his leg was broken as he was holding it up and hobbling. I snatched him up and brought him in. I had noticed for most of the summer that he had been a stray hanging around (I had taken in another injured stray in June who turned out to be FIV+). I rushed him to the nearest vet (it was the weekend and my regular vet had closed), his temp was 106 and he was mangled pretty bad. He had a gaping wound behind his right ear, his left front leg horribly infected and appeared that skin was missing, his right rear leg was also missing flesh. That vet cleaned, bandaged, and gave antibiotics. This vet said it was the result of a cat fight, radiographed the leg and said no bones were broken.
I didn't much care for the treatment but it was a start. When my vet opened on Monday I took the cat there. They had to sedate him to remove the bandages, found a huge pocket of infection on his right side behind the shoulder; it was decided to put in drainage ports. So my vet said that it appeared he had either been mangled by a large dog or dragged by a car. So, multiple vet visits that week. Late on the weekend, he tore out the stitches over the port on the left leg. Off to the ER Vet. His temp was up to 106.3 so he spent 24 hours on an IV drip with antibiotics and the ports were removed. The wounds were left "open" but he was bandaged again. I then had to take him every couple of days to my regular vet to have them changed. After a couple of bandage changes, he was stitched up a second time.
Over the course of the next 2 weeks, I took him to my vet twice a week for laser treatments on the wounds. He has continued to limp even after the stitches were taken out. He doesn't limp all the time but now that the cool/damp weather has set in he will limp when it rains, he will limps when he gets up after napping.
My belief is that the first vet I took him to either missed a broken bone or he has developed inflammation in the joint or internal scar tissue. I don't think it is arthritis as he is about 2 years old, and he is limping on the left front leg, the one that was injured the most. There are other times he will walk, run, and jump normally. He does seem to be rather weak in muscle tone as he is a very large frame cat and was very malnourished when I brought him in-----he only weighted 7.9 pounds.
Any suggestions of a supplement I can give or something I can do to help relieve the discomfort?
I didn't much care for the treatment but it was a start. When my vet opened on Monday I took the cat there. They had to sedate him to remove the bandages, found a huge pocket of infection on his right side behind the shoulder; it was decided to put in drainage ports. So my vet said that it appeared he had either been mangled by a large dog or dragged by a car. So, multiple vet visits that week. Late on the weekend, he tore out the stitches over the port on the left leg. Off to the ER Vet. His temp was up to 106.3 so he spent 24 hours on an IV drip with antibiotics and the ports were removed. The wounds were left "open" but he was bandaged again. I then had to take him every couple of days to my regular vet to have them changed. After a couple of bandage changes, he was stitched up a second time.
Over the course of the next 2 weeks, I took him to my vet twice a week for laser treatments on the wounds. He has continued to limp even after the stitches were taken out. He doesn't limp all the time but now that the cool/damp weather has set in he will limp when it rains, he will limps when he gets up after napping.
My belief is that the first vet I took him to either missed a broken bone or he has developed inflammation in the joint or internal scar tissue. I don't think it is arthritis as he is about 2 years old, and he is limping on the left front leg, the one that was injured the most. There are other times he will walk, run, and jump normally. He does seem to be rather weak in muscle tone as he is a very large frame cat and was very malnourished when I brought him in-----he only weighted 7.9 pounds.
Any suggestions of a supplement I can give or something I can do to help relieve the discomfort?
