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

[Catty1]

OH wow, nasty break...so the 'small pieces' could cause him trouble later on, I guess?

Maybe a better question is - what WILL kitty be able to do after surgery? (and sometimes they surprise everyone!)

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

I wonder how this little guy got hurt?

Give him a hug and scritchie for me!

[tellykitteh]

the vet thinks he was stepped on by a cow..... he said he has "barncat" characteristics and he had "cat scratch fever" when i first got him and the worst ear mites and giant fleas... he was not in a good way when i got him.... he cant really jump very high right now - i think it's not a matter of "mobility' but more of a pain thing later on when he gets bigger - he's only 4lbs right now so he doesnt have much to support - it's his left back leg... not a front leg.

[Catty1]

A horrible accident...I would be LIVID if I thought a person had done this to the wee little guy!

How wonderful that he has you to care for him!

I notice your screen name is 'tellykitteh'. Do you by any chance frequent icanhascheezburger.com?

[tellykitteh]

i am not sure? lol - the site is blocked at work here lol

[Medusa]

If nothing else, get a second opinion and even a third. My Puddy was born w/a bad leg; now I can't recall the technical term for it. But the vet wanted to first put her to sleep, then he reconsidered and wanted to amputate. I took her from another family and had my vet check her out. That was 13 1/2 years ago, no amputation. I know that their situations are not similar but my point is that a second opinion changed Puddy's future. I feel really bad for your little guy and I hope this gets resolved soon. Thank you for taking such good care of him.

[Catty1]

Here's a few icanhascheezburger shots in a 'phone' category...because your furbaby is Telly! http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/phone/

You can always try the main site at home. Or check this thread in Cat General: http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=137297

[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.