I noticed one of my cats limping around Friday morning, not wanting to put weight on her right front leg. So I took her to the vet. He found no signs of a dislocation or broken bone. He figured it's a soft tissue injury like a sprain, and didn't think it warranted an x-ray unless it doesn't improve in a week or so.

Note: she's an indoor cat so it's not an injury from a fight with another cat or a cactus (Tucson). She's only 4 years old so it's not likely to be arthritis. Nor is she overweight.

Anybody have a similar experience? I guess she coulda landed wrong jumping off her cat condo.

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She might have slipped just as she was jumping down from a counter or such. Or went sliding when cornering on a smooth floor.

Our cats have done this a few times while playing, were OK after a day or so.

Yup... cats can injure themselves just like people...
You ever wake up and realize your (insert joint here) hurts.. and you can't for the life of you figure out what you DID to hurt it?


And, cats fall off stuff or miss the mark when jumping too..

My cat jumped down off "his" dresser where he sleeps, missed his landing, and plowed head first into the wall... he looked very embarassed as he shook his head (little figurative birds and stars flying around his head....).

Hope your kitty gets better quick!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

Pretty funny, paul.
I love the way they develop this "well, I meant to do that" expression whenever they slip up.

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And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

Hopefully the vet did this... but check the paw to see if there is any soreness on the pad. She might have picked up a glass sliver or something. Cats are so over-engineered, it's hard to believe an indoor cat would get a sprain that would induce a limp.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

Give her a week. If it's not better you might want to check further. But at 4 yrs old it's probably soft tissue and it will heal with time/rest.

Just had the same issue with my dog's rear leg. But she's 11.5 yrs old. Couldn't see anything on examination but after x rays it turned out that she's got some arthritis in the paws and hocks. Also found out thru the xrays that one of her discs is pretty worn away.

After starting her on Cosequan, Hills prescription Diet j/d and now Anaquan injections for 6 weeks she is back to flying around like a crazy lady.

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JoeM

For the record, since a kitty is involved, I will not invoke my universal HUMAN cure... of amputation.

However, if any of the rest of you should "fall down go boom," then I suggest amputation.

That's some state-of-the-art 19th century medicine there Jimmypoo...

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

The tradition of medicine from the original Hypocrates through the Luddite era must continue.

You are lucky you have bullets to bite down upon.

I'd have to use someone elses hand.

I wouldn't wait the whole week to get an x-ray if say, 3-4 days go by w/out real improvement. Animals heal fast from minor injury; my very active dog hurt a paw pretty badly last year, and the vet didn't think an x-ray was needed after examining it. After I brought her back the next week and said I wanted an xray now, she was found to have broken a toe. There wasn't much to be done differently after the diagnosis, but knowing it was going to require a good month to properly heal allowed me to get her healed up Right.

Thanks for the replies. I can tell you she is enjoying all the sympathy. Wouldn't surprise me if she keeps it up as an act for a month.

The vet did check her paw - I thought he was pretty good. No soreness there. He moved her leg around until "she told me it hurts." She'll extend it fine, and starts to walk on it a little bit until she forgets and jumps down on it again....

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My kitty LOVES to put her whole "arm" underneath the bi-fold closet doors so she can pull them open and crawl into the closet. Unfortunately, the doors don't always open so easily and she ends up straining the soft tissue and muscle. She limps around and after a day or two she is back to normal. This has happened 4 times in the 12 years I have had her.

Not sure how she figured out this little trick, but I try to remember to keep the doors open enough for her to climb in without warranting a trip to the vet.

DM

Not to be the voice of doom here, but do keep an eye on her and as others have suggested take her in in a week if she isn't showing signs of improvement. It probably is just something simple but just make sure.

We just had to put or cat L.C. down last night do to a slow working degenerative nerve issue that slowly destroyed her ability to use her muscles over the past several months. Although she was born feline leukemia positive and we knew something would take her sooner rather then later, this issue first manifested itself as a limp in her right rear hip that our first vet kept insisting was a simple bruising of the soft tissues aggravated by her weight.

Anyway, it sound like you are doing the right things, and I wish you and your cats all the best.

I'm now going to go out and bury our "little moose" in the garden while I mumble my good byes to her. We're going to plant a section of catnip and catmint over her. I wish I could bury her with a little army of cat headed terra cotta soldiers to protect her for eternity.


outcast

Again, the vet would've seen this, but I'll post it just for thread completeness...

Cat skin is pretty weird compared to human skin. And cats are biologically pretty dirty. So it's not unusual for a wound to seal over with a lot of nasties inside. This can then abcess. If you see a raised bump or open raised wound, get her to the vet so that the area can be disinfected and she can get on an antibiotic regime.

One of our cats had a wound on the top of her head which abcessed. The vet cleaned it out and stitched it up... with these two little plastic tubes in place to get air into the wound. One pointed forward, one aft. She looked like that dog on How the Grinch Stole Christmas...

Both of our cats are inside/outside. Our big muscular cat hangs around the house pretty much. The little one thinks she's Rambo. She'd take on a freaking lion.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

My little Chinchilla Persian goddess (see Frappr) used to limp around like
she had just stepped on a land mine after walking through 2 drops of water.

It was humorous to observe, but I agree - watch out for some signs of
an infection in the pads - just in case there is a sliver of something.

Otherwise, it could very well have been an encouter with late night counter snooping,
something that one of the 3 here get caught at only occasionally.... but I'm certain
is done regularly.

<I wish I could bury her with a little army of cat headed terra cotta soldiers to protect her for eternity.

She doesn't need the terra cotta cat soldiers...
Cats are at the very TOP of the food chain in the afterlife, just like they are here..

My sincere fellow-cat-slave condolences on your loss.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

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Eureka, CA

The other thing it could be is she could have snagged a claw on something... That hurts! I've seen cats limp after doing that.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

We have tile at the bottom of our stairs. The cats tear down the hallway, and when they need to take a left and go up the stairs, they hit tile. Beyond that is the TV room with a hardwood floor. We hear yowling and tussling all the time, then there is the thunder of the 900 lb furballs charging down the hall, then the ocassional thud. They either didn't make the turn and hit a wall, or one slid into the other.

We get used to it. If they don't recover in a day, we would take them in. but so far they have been fine (but a bit embarrased)

I have seen a few spin-out from the TV room. It is one of the joys of understanding the co-efficient of friction, and how it applies to directional and velocity changes.

Cats don't do math or physics. However they can visually calculate to the last kibble if they are short changed at feeding time.

Yup..
Max has slid around on hardwood stairs trying to go up 'em at maximum velocity...
He MUST have banged his shins (all four of 'em!) a bunch...
DOWN the stairs is easy.. he just skips most of 'em in one big leap (and spins out on the hardwood floor trying to change directions...


Follks.. a cat and a laser pointer can provide hours of fun.. Just be careful not to run your cat into walls.. that's not nice

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

Cats are pretty much dorks and fall all the time. Ours used to tumble head over paws frequently. It was funny to watch but he would get injured a lot.

Best cat we ever had.

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3GHz - The clock is STILL ticking Steve.

Follks.. a cat and a laser pointer can provide hours of fun.. Just be careful not to run your cat into walls.. that's not nice




But making them run in circle until they fall down dizzy is OK, right? I sometimes have one of our cats chasing the dot and run it up and over his brother......but not when the wife is around.

I am so sorry, outcast! It really hurts to lose a beloved cat-person.
Rest in Peace LC.

outcast - I am sorry about your loss. I lost my Toonces Marie a few years ago after an illness. It is so hard to be without their company.

I'm sorry for your loss too. My wife will be a basket case for weeks (at least) when our guys leave is. Hopefully it won't be for a decade or longer.

Outcast, sorry to hear about poor L.C. You'll know when it's the right time to invite another one to live with you.

Natasha (the limping one) also has a congenital issue with her teeth. She had to have her fangs pulled in December which I found very alarming. She doesn't seem to miss them.

Was L.C.'s nerve disorder related to being positive for feline leukemia?

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outcast- I am so sorry for your loss. You and L.C. were lucky to have each other.
DM

Sorry for the delayed response time on my end, but thank you all for the kind words.

The sun is out today on the Coast and the first thing I did when I came upstairs was to automatically look by the window to see if L.C. was enjoying the sun. It took a second or two for the brain to figure out why she wasn't there. Funny how that all works.

I don't know if you'll come back to this thread Don Kiyoti, but in answer to your question, although we have no definite proof that it was the feline leukemia that triggered her condition, it was assumed amongst all involved that that was the cause. The frustrating thing was that amongst the six vets that we saw through three different offices (including a neurologist), and all the x-rays, blood tests and spinal tap results, no one could ever find the "smoking gun" for her condition. There is certainly no denying that the feline leukemia compromised her immune system, but it will always frustrate us not really knowing what finally caught up with her.

One last thing I have to say for her though was that she really was a fighter in her own little way. In the end it took four times the regular dose to finally stop her heart.

I guess sometimes it's the smallest ones who are the toughest.


outcast