You may have seen my post on today's hijack. When the kids and I got home around 4:00 today our inside/outside cat walked up to the door limping pretty badly. I decided that even though she came in and ate a few nibbles, I did not see any blood and we were able to hold her, I would still take her to the vet today.

The vet seemed to believe that there was a clean break right below her "elbow" joint and before her paw. I was excited to know that it was not in the hip. The vet did not see evidence of contusion as a result of being hit by a car or caught by a dog. The x-ray, however, showed the break to actually be in the paw area. All of her metatarsals are broken right before the "wrist" joint!

Poor girl is splinted and we are $318 poorer. We have to monitor the splint tonight, looking for swelling and such, and then our vet will be talking to another vet for a second opinion on Monday. Hopefully all the bones will heal decently. It's evidently hard to immobilize all 4 (is it only 4?) metatarsals.

She looks pitiful...

Awe, poor Kitty! I hope she heals soon!

Poor baby :c

Aww, poor Smokey! I hope the bones heal quickly (and yes cats have 4, humans 5) and she doesn't have any long term effects.

BTW, Smokey is absolutely gorgeous!

Bob put a rubber glove over the splint because she slides on the laminate floors in the basement. He first tried some sticky foam, but that wasn't working well. The utility room is still concrete and there is carpet in the hall but the laminate in the office is very slick for her. Any other ideas? I guess the rubber glove is working...

We had to buy her a new, shorter litter box. I hope she can use it with that cast! She can't use the cat door to go in and out of her "haven" in the utility room. She also has to stay inside for 6-8 weeks. The dog is now banned from the basement.

Aww, poor Smokey. Hoping for a fast recovery. She does look pitiful but still oh so pretty.

Poor Smoky

Poor girl Hope she feels better soon! Is she a Maine Coon?

I have 2 Maine Coons, they are awesome cats

Ah poor baby I hope she get well fast..



take care of her give her hugs from us.

As you might imagine, she is quite ticked off this morning! She wanted to jump and pounce. She figured out how to stick it out of her bed, but she just can't get the litter box to work. She's such a crazy digger that she had a high-walled litter box. We got her a short one yesterday but it's not wide enough. Today we're trying a cardboard pizza delivery box. That won't last. I might have to give her a cookie sheet....

Any other ideas...

Kelly, she was a stray kitty that adopted us. She just showed up one evening about 5 years ago. She was pregnant and gave birth to 4 kittens. It was hard enough to find good homes for the kittens that we just decided to keep her. I am highly allergic to her, so she has a few areas in the basement where she can hang out when not outside. Keeping her inside kills her! Maine Coons are large cats, right? She's only 7-8 pounds!

Here she is all healthy:

Awww poor girl. I hope that she heals up quickly. She's so cute!!!

Sorry to hear about that, hope she turns out ok!

How is she doing? I'm allergic to cats too but she's beautiful!

She's doing well! The vet has been wonderful! We changed cat vets a little over a year ago because of a recommendation for a vet closer to us. Our old vet's office had a vet just for the cats and another for dogs, so Sabaka could not have gone to Smoky's vet anyway. We have talked to the vet 2-3 times since last Friday. Yesterday I took her in just to have the splint re-checked. There was a concern for swelling and circulation issues. The splint has not slipped and it seems to be doing its job.

I can't imagine having a splint on the poor girl as long as the vet recommends. She's talking 6-8 weeks with this cast and then another x-ray and a smaller splint for another 6-8 weeks! I think the poor girl will go crazy! She wants to go out SO badly! She sits at the door yelling her head off. If she sees one of us she comes running (well, hobbling, actually) and "fussing" at us all the while. I think she is just bored. I told a friend that I felt so bad for her that I bought her some special food and stuff while at the pet store; however, I think I should have bought her a lame rat to chase around!

This is what we see now:

Lol poor smoky! Maybe you should go get her that rat!

Dexter says get better soon Smoky!

Today is the big day for Smoky's re-check!

We are hoping to get the splint off and keep her inside for "Kitty rehab" a few more weeks. However....(there's always a "however"...) it is likely that she will get another splint and 6 more weeks inside. She hates it in here!

Mended bone vibes, please

I had to leave her there...

Waiting to hear the results of multiple x-rays and multiple dollars spent...

Fingers crossed for good news from today's visit. Hope you get to bring her back home soon.

Fingers and paws crossed!! Hope all news is great new.

I love my vet!

We got good news and bad news...

She did two more x-rays. The bones are healing... YAY! ...but not HEALED.

The other good news is that the split is still in good shape and is doing its job, so she didn't have to replace it. Evidently that can sometimes cause the bones to shift and set back the healing process a little.

Three more weeks of stir-crazy kitty...
....but only $100 for today's visit.

Did I say "I love my vet!"?

That's good news. I hope she continues to heal up nicely. Poor kitty!

Yay! Great news!

After 3 months in this cast, Smoky will be freed this Thursday!

I'm REALLY hoping that the vet sees some serious build up of calcium (or whatever makes hard bones) at the breaks! There was some mending last month, but it was not hard at all yet. If there is no significant change at this visit, the vet will try using Light Therapy to speed up the healing process. I think that will mean another cast

Please send good kitty vibes for the foot to be mended and that she will be cast-free on Thursday!!

Final Smoky Update:

My 7.5 pound killer kitty is BACK! This week she has killed both a chipmunk and a small squirrel. I think this is the first time I have really felt that the break will not leave her debilitated in some way! I always thought that she would probably be slower after this crazy ordeal and never again be able to do one of her favorite things: hunt. But she is looking good and back to her same old annoying self! (As a matter of fact, she squeaked past us into the basement carrying a dead squirrel in her mouth! I screamed like a little girl )

After the cast came off, the leg was not fully mended so we took her weekly for a month of Laser Light Therapy to help speed the healing. I think we really only took her about 3 times and then medically released her ourselves but made her stay inside for another month or so just to feel better about the healing.

Whew...I'm ready for 100% healthy pets for awhile!