Old broken leg in kitten... what do i do??

[krazyaboutkatz]

Welcome to PT!!! Your kitten sure is a cutie pie but I'm sorry to hear about his broken leg. A friend of mine has a cat that broke her front leg and she had surgery. They put some kind of a pin in it and it took a long time for it to heal. She had to keep going in for x-rays to see if it had healed properly. When I saw her, the leg was very stiff but she could still get around very well. I'm not sure about her jumping ability.

Some vets also offer Care Credit so then you can make payments. I also think that they're interest free. Good luck.

[Catlady711]

I agree with Freedom that a second opinion would be a good idea.

What really bothers me is this....

The x-ray showed he has a broken leg, and it was broken months ago and has now healed incorrectly but its still very broken.

That completely doesn't make sense to me because either it has healed incorrectly or it's broken. I just don't see how it could be both. Even with fragments in there if it's healed it's healed, if it's broke it's broke.

The only possible scenario I can come up with to explain what your vet said is that the surgery isn't to actually fix the leg it's simply to pick out the fragments in which case the leg itself would not change to account for lack of jumping ability even after the surgery. If they'd planned on rebreaking the leg to set it correctly I'd think that the leg would function properly with only a slight limp.

I guess there will be pins in there, so the joint won't be as flexible?

I don't think they can pin the leg if it has multiple loose fragments inside. At work the only pinning I've seen done had no fragments that I recall. The legs were simply broke not smashed with splintered fragments. Just a thought.

[Grace]

I don't think they can pin the leg if it has multiple loose fragments inside. At work the only pinning I've seen done had no fragments that I recall. The legs were simply broke not smashed with splintered fragments. Just a thought.

Our Grady had a comminuted mid-diaphyseal spiral fracture of his left femur back in March 2005. Up at MSU Vet School they did a reduction and placement of an interlocking nail.

For the non-medical people, a comminuted fracture is defined as one in which the bone is broken, splintered or crushed into a number of pieces.

The other option offered to us, by our own Vet, was amputation.

Grady has a bunch of bone fragments in his leg, and many of them simply fused to each other during the healing process. He was only 2 when the fracture happened, and the young heal so much better.

[Catlady711]

Our Grady had a comminuted mid-diaphyseal spiral fracture of his left femur back in March 2005. Up at MSU Vet School they did a reduction and placement of an interlocking nail.

For the non-medical people, a comminuted fracture is defined as one in which the bone is broken, splintered or crushed into a number of pieces.

The other option offered to us, by our own Vet, was amputation.

Grady has a bunch of bone fragments in his leg, and many of them simply fused to each other during the healing process. He was only 2 when the fracture happened, and the young heal so much better.

Ok the vet school part explains it. They have access to the latest technology and techniques of anything available, and more heads to scratch in search of solutions than the average vet has at their disposal. Where I work we don't have any orthepedic (sp?) specialists so I'm guessing that's why they don't pin really splintered up legs then. We tend to refer out to specialists for really banged up stuff if the owner wants to pursue it further than we can provide.

[Grace]

Yes, our Vet said it was beyond their area of expertise. We could choose between the specialists in Southfield, or go up to Michigan State. We chose State. It was 49 miles, door-to-door, and was a wonderful experience - considering the severity of the injury. Grady was there for just 48 hours, and during that time they called us about 6 times with updates. Better communication than at a people hospital!!

The cost was just under $1300 - about half of what the specialists in Southfield would have charged. That's because MSU is taxpayer supported. They also had a pay plan for those who could not pay the total cost at one time.

[critters]

http://handicappedpet.net/help/viewtopic.php?t=8162

Hmm. I don't know that I'd do anything at the moment; I'd be extremely reluctant to put him through all that. TK had a pin in a shattered femur, and I wouldn't do that again. Tripodding him is always a possibility, as is removing the ball of his femur so he can make a false joint. If he's doing that well, despite all, I think I'd leave him alone.