Our resident kitty, as some may remember, came back 2 weeks ago not bearing weight on front left leg. Vet checked her over, she is not in pain, nothing broken or torn but feels like foreign body in there (there was a healed, scabby area like she had a stick poke into her or something). That was 2 weeks ago. Vet put her on 3 doses of anti-inflammatory over a week... said she really did not want to sedate a 14 yr old cat and to see how she did.

She has been in the shop since... not safe for her outside like she is. Since getting back, it's clear she is now not bearing weight at all, just keeping the leg raised.

The question is, should we have the vet sedate her and explore, despite the risks due to her age or just let her finish our her days in the shop? It's a large building, has windows and we're both in there at least a couple times a day. Otherwise, she is healthy and vigorous.

I hate to see her incapacitated but I don't want to kill her either.

Oh, that's a really rough call - and I'm not the one who has to make it!  
For some reason I think you said the cat objected when the vet was palpitating the area when you took her in before but at 14 Miss Kitty still has the potential for several more years of life and it'd be cruel if she had to spend all of it in the shop.
I think I'd have a set down with the vet again and discuss her (er, the cat's) general health and the trade off between possibilities of immediate intervention and the probabilities of her quality of life long term closed in the shop.
Since Miss Kitty has been an outside cat, she may not take kindly to being shut in, then again since she knows she can't walk (or escape) then she might just accept it placidly.
Like I said, that's a hard call ..... but in either case, putting her down now would be the extreme and I wouldn't want to see that happen now either.

No no no I was not thinking of putting her down at all!!, and, she likes being in the shop (though she would prefer the 2 car garage but she climbs on the convertibles, leaves paw prints on the hood, scratches in the stripes and likes to knead the convertibles tops, hence the shop. Plus the shop has 6 windows so she has natural light... the 2 car has only the man door half window and that has a shade down all the time except when Wayne is working in there. Her favorite spot in the shop is the tractor seat on top of Wayne's work gloves.

If I was sure she would survive the sedation, or that it is something that can definitely be fixed, I think I'd do it on a minute.

She likes being a lap cast but while Wayne is only mildly allergic to dogs, with cats, if he has too much exposure, he runs a fever and his whole head drips. Ditto for DIL and the little boy (weird... they tolerate their cats fine but a few minutes with PC and its red swollen eyes and major head congestion.) If I thought she would stay, I'd find her a home with a dog free household.... She is a terror with dogs... doesn't like them and except for Ami (the first dog she could not intimidate) she taunts them wickedly... status just put of reach and has thembarking madly. Brat, isn't she Plus, I'm eager fond of her.

My bad there, when you said that you didn't want to kill her, I thought you were being as brutally blunt as I can be, you meant kill her, accidentally, in surgery - maybe???

Since she likes the shop then I think I'd play a wait and see game.  According to PetcareRX the average life span of a house cat ranges up to 20 years but most top out at 15ish (so my estimation suggested earlier was wrong). As long as she's content where she is, in the shop, I think I'd leave well enough alone for the nonce.

aljones wrote:

My bad there, when you said that you didn't want to kill her, I thought you were being as brutally blunt as I can be, you meant kill her, accidentally, in surgery - maybe???

That was the meaning - that she wouldn't survive the sedation.

If she is a healthy 14 year old cat then she would probably do fine with sedation. If she has shown loss off weight in the last year or so then I would forgo. I have found that cats can be very content living in a room. Mine lives in a spare bedroom and loves it. Often even when she has run of the house she will still opt to lay in her window.