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| Title: | Meower Power - Where Differing Opinions are Respected |
| Notice: | purrrrr... |
| Moderator: | JULIET::CORDES_JA |
|
| Created: | Wed Nov 13 1991 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1079 |
| Total number of notes: | 28858 |
1066.0. "Achilles tendon injury" by POWDML::CHILTON (Sacred cows make the best hamburger) Mon Mar 17 1997 05:46
I probably should've entered this a couple of weeks ago, but you
know how it is with work and everything :-)
I came home on March 1 to find Daisy, my 12 yr old Calico, cowering
in the corner and unable to walk. She'd never been hurt before, is
an indoor cat, and needless to say, I was worried, but couldn't feel
anything broken. A trip to Tufts emergency room (on this particular
Saturday night it was a zoo...no pun intended!!) and X-rays revealed
no broken bones, but they recommended that she see their orthopedic
surgeon to determine if she'd torn anything.
Monday morning I called her vet in Lancaster, and asked if he could
see her, only because I didn't want to rush into any expensive consults
with specialists or surgery, if her own vet (who obviously knows her)
thought it might only be a sprain.
By Monday she was a little better, and has been getting better each
day. Her own vet has seen her twice to check progress, and I'd like to
wait longer to see if she does recover completely. The only thing I
was a bit concerned about is last week at her last visit, her vet and
his partner expressed the thought that at 12, she may not recover 100%
but fairly close to it. And "how much" did I think was enough for a
12 yr old indoor cat vs am I at the point where I want to think of
surgery.
I know this is purely subjective, but what do you folks think? Would
you subject a middle-aged indoor cat who doesn't need a "perfect" Achilles
tendon, to surgery and the long, probably painful recovery? She is
back to jumping up on the bed and climbing stairs, although not as
sprightly as before, and there is still a noticeable limp. I'm
thinking I'll wait a little longer to see how she progresses. The
only thing she hasn't tried to do yet is jump up into the windowsill.
What do you think...wait? Or look into the surgery? You know how
painful & troublesome Achilles tendon injuries are in human, well, this
is my baby limping around....
Thanks for any input...
Sue
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1066.1 | | KERNEL::COFFEYJ | La Feline Flooz - a unix cat | Mon Mar 17 1997 06:19 | 22 |
| Only you can tell, which of course you know...
but I'd be looking at whether she appears to be in pain.
If yes seriously consider an operation so long as the
vet thinks he can help make sure her recovery from that
isn't worse than the current state.
if no to the pain I'd be loath to put her through
a trauma like that when age may start limiting her
adventures around the house anyway.
but then maybe I'm biased having just gone home to
groom Belle in my lunch hour. Poor mite is still a
mess after her op on her knee on Friday - she haemmoraged
all over the place and had a leg, tail and side coated in
blood when I went to see her (she wouldn't let them
wash it off). She's still not walking on it and
the only thing that makes this worthwhile is
knowing they said she'd have serious problems as she
got older without the op, and having seen them start in
the form of her falling over half the time.
|
| 1066.2 | Judgement Call | LJSRV1::MARX | | Tue Mar 18 1997 13:16 | 17 |
| I can understand your predicament. I have a 16+ year old cat who is
being kept alive with Tapazol for her hyperactive thyroid. She also
has a heart murmur and to top it all off, has become quite crippled in
her hind quarters. I am giving her baby aspirin every 72 hours for
that. I brought her in to my vet last week to see if I could get a
feeling for whether or not she's in pain. I've decided that since
she's not in pain, eats well and uses the litter box (even though it's
hard for her), I'll just put "bandaids" on her. At this point in her
life, it doesn't make sense to put her through anything traumatic.
If your cat is getting around OK and seems to be getting better, I
would not get into anything complicated. Time may even heal the tendon
more. That's just my feeling. Of course, no one knows your cat better
than you do, and I think it would be a judgement call.
Donna
|
| 1066.3 | | PADC::KOLLING | Karen | Tue Mar 18 1997 13:57 | 4 |
| Donna, I removed the top shield from my litterboxes when Sweetie
was recuperating from an operation and having problems getting
in. Maybe you could substitute a lower sided pan for your litterboxes?
|
| 1066.4 | | LJSRV1::MARX | | Thu Mar 20 1997 10:41 | 8 |
| Hi Karen,
I do have a litter box with low sides for her. She manages to get in
and out OK but sometime she falls out. Her back legs must just give
out from time to time. It's awful to get old 8^)!
Donna
|
| 1066.5 | | POWDML::CHILTON | Sacred cows make the best hamburger | Fri Mar 21 1997 05:27 | 10 |
| Oh, the poor thing :-(
Thanks Donna and Jo(?) for your thoughts. Actually, in the last
2 or 3 days, Daisy seems *much* better and this morning, was hardly
limping at all. Hopefully, she'll be fine soon.
And, no, she never once cried out in pain, nor did she seem to be
suffering because she favored the leg as much as she needed to.
Sue
|